Important Lesson Learned about importing your resume into career search engines

Don’t use the header feature in Word to list your contact information. Many of the search engines that allow you to import your resume do not recognize headers and footer. This was a lesson I learned the hard way, after receiving feedback from recruiters and hiring managers that my contact information was missing from my resume. Not a very good first impression.

Next Topic: Cover Letter

Revise your resume around your passions

Based on my earlier analysis I modified my career search from a leadership position back to an individual contributor leveraging my industry knowledge and technical experience working in support of clinical trial operations.

• Most hiring managers – including myself – never make it past the first page, that is why it is important to relay what you want to get across right up front on your resume


• Your resume should not exceed 3 pages and if possible limit it to 1 page. This will require you to consolidate your experience and if you have been in the work force for many years, early experience right out of college may no longer be relevant. This is not an easy task and it is always good to review your resume with other friends and colleagues


• Recruiters are an excellent source for advice on constructing resumes and provided me with the above format recommendation


• I originally had a 6 page resume which I needed to condense to no more than 3 pages. The first page is the most critical page


• Create a table below you Qualification Summary that lists the 10-12 skills and experiences that best relates to the position you are applying for
  
  

Next Topic: Important Lesson Learned about importing your resume into career search engines

Analysis: When was I the happiest at work?

On Day 1 of being laid off I thought I needed to pursue an IT Management position responsible for strategy, budgets, and people. After completing the previous exercise and considerable time soul searching for what I was truly passionate about. I realized those things that I have done for 10 or more years still excites me today as they did when I first started developing these skills. I still love the Pharmaceutical / Biotech industry and their mission to discover new treatments and medicines to combat disease. As an IT professional with a biology background, I love diving in and understanding the science and business processes of moving a drug through its lifecycle from discovery through regulatory approval and ultimately into the hands of physicians to help patients. I care about understanding our customers business and looking for ways that automation and proper technology can assist in their day-to-day work. I love working with others and coaching and mentoring colleagues through the challenges we all face in the work place. I also realized that being hands-on understanding the data and being able to manipulate it to meet regulatory reporting needs is my small way of contributing to the overall drug development mission.

Next Topic: Revise your resume around your passions

Breathe

This was my first mistake; my impulse was to quickly find employment opportunities similar to what I had been doing over recent years. What I should have done is to assess what I needed in a job and what was important to me. What do I enjoy doing and level of proficiency that would be truly marketable within our new challenging job market?

My first concern was ensuring that I could find a position that would provide medical benefits for me and my family

• This narrowed my search to full time positions with benefits
• The need for medical benefits conflicted with my desire to not have to relocate or be away from home every week

Could I find a job that would allow me to work from home?

• Knowing that travel would be necessary to stay close to colleagues and customers

I then listed my talents and passions along with time spent on tasks and skills

Role (Time) - Experience / Skills

Strategic Management (<5>

• Business Strategy
• IT Strategy
• Portfolio and Budget Responsibilities

People Management (5+years)

• Goal Setting
• Performance Reviews
• Annual Ranking
• Coaching / Mentoring / Motivating

Customer Engagement Manager (10+years)

• Deep Domain Knowledge
• Business Process Modeling
• Data Analysis
• Charter/Idea
• Business Requirements
• Change Management
• Project Management
• Risk Mitigation

Technical Team Lead (10+ years)

• Deep Domain Knowledge
• Functional Requirements
• Design
• Task Delegation
• IT Process and Methodologies
• Configuration Management
• Bug Tracking and Mitigation
• Coaching / Mentoring / Motivating

Developer (15+ years)

• Deep Domain Knowledge
• Deep Data and Business Logic Knowledge
• Technical Competencies (Unix, Oracle, SAS)

Next Topic: Analysis: When was I the happiest at work?

First Stop and Breathe

I am very interested in how people survive difficult life and death situations, such as being lost in the wilderness or at sea. The first thing that you learn from survivors in these situations is that they stay calm and stop what they are doing and assess where they are and what supplies and tools they have to help them survive. The bottom line is they use their brain and do not panic.

Of course all of my reading and preparation to survive in the wilderness was thrown out the window when I learned back in February that I was going to lose my job. I immediately panicked, quickly updating my resume and jumped head first into the online job search sites such as Monster, Career Builder, and Dice without first truly assessing my skills, passions, and interests.

There were few jobs available as an IT Manager within my chosen Pharmaceutical and Biotech industry and even fewer willing to match my current base salary. My resume was 6 pages long going back 25 years to my first job out of college. The lack of response to my resume also fueled my anxiety and led to many sleepless nights wondering how I was going to provide for my family. I was also concerned about leaving my home, family, and friends and the impact of uprooting my wife and children to chase after a job that potentially was full of uncertainty.

It is now 4 months later and I have made it through almost all of the change curve phases from denial to anger to depression and now finally on my way out of the hole of despair and beginning to think that this change could actually be a blessing in disguise. Please do not get me wrong, it has taken me months to move through all of these phases with the love and support from my wife, children, family and friends. This has been a hard journey and I know that it isn’t over yet. I have made many mistakes along the way, but I also learned a few tricks that I would like to share with you with hope that it will make your journey a little easier.

Please be aware that my personal journey has been full of mistakes and fraught with obstacles.