The Voice of Job Seekers

Mark Anthony Dyson ★ Career Writer ★ Speaker ★ Thinker ★ Award-winning Blog & Podcast! ★ "The Job Scam Report" on Substack! ★ I hack and reimagine the modern job search!

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by Mark Anthony Dyson

Wave Goodbye to Resume Clichés

Wave Goodbye to Resume Clichés

Resume Clichés and Vagueness Are Red Flags That Wave Goodbye

Have you noticed the chasm between your proven track record and excellent communication skills that your résumé proudly touts yet does not stand out? Since your responsibilities do not include measurable, identifiable, or understandable skills, your résumé says everything, but “Hire Me!”

Sure you possess outstanding oral communication and writing skills. People may have told you that you can write, but you spelled communication with one “m!” The potential employer that is screening hundreds of potential candidates can attempt to talk to everyone that says you can write. Then again, the proof is right in front of him. Don’t worry, UPS is hiring for Christmas.

Perhaps you provide exceptional customer service, and everyone loves you so much that they don’t write you letters of appreciation, and never tell your boss how impressive your service was. How would an employer know other than to take you at your word?

A résumé that has typos like everyone else among 1000 resumes for 1, 2, or 3 positions would just be a lottery pick. Great for the state lottery, and the NBA draft, and for a job, right? Of course, the HR manager would rather file through lame resumes than circle the Bermuda Triangle or remain entangled between the Scylla and Charybdis.

Just to pick anyone who is generally qualified, your possible, potential, and dream employer will pick the résumé that had a clear focus combined with begging, pleading, and whining. The mixture of nonchalant-desperado-attitude-kind-of-employee would be a perfect fit.

I am impressed that you are the boss when the boss is gone! Tell me, how hard is it to decide to pass all difficult customers to…your boss. Or your boss’s boss? Or your boss’s, boss’s, boss? After all, all the those calls are appropriately transferred to upper management, and we can only guess they were 10, 100, 1000 a day.

All of this sounds good.  Will employers pay you enough money since you can change water to wine? That is gleaned, guessed, and extracted from the vagueness provided from your document.

No other words on a resume fit better than provide, manage, handle, ensure. How many keywords can really fit for the career that you want?

Don’t worry, numbers don’t matter. Quantity, quality, cost/time results or measures are only for those CEO positions. When you write on your résumé you were a leader, or a manager, and neglect to mention who you led or how many, a hiring manager see that you have done the job already. If you were a little more misleading and vague, applying for Czar, Pope, or King of the Jungle would be a great idea.

Resumes that trigger more questions than answers will get you that interview. Hiring managers supposedly have a high tolerance for ambiguity. That’s how they earn the enormous bucks, by their proven track record of circular filing your excellently communicated resume.

Got an opinion? Comment below.

Filed Under: Resume Tagged With: Job, Resume

by Mark Anthony Dyson

Make Career Defining Choices Like a 17-Year-Old

Make Career Defining Choices Like a 17-Year-Old

Make Career Defining Choices Like a 17-Year-OldAdults make career defining decisions often think about benefits, and salary, but  rarely happiness. Everyone does things that they don’t want to do in their career. Would you do something that was considered horrible?

My son, “Boy Wonder” is 17 years old, is pretty level-headed for his age. We have lots of conversations about college, his future, and women (although mostly theory at this point). He works at the world’s most famous food chain, and has sustained employment for a year.

To digress momentarily, working teens stimulate the economy, and the household. He has to work because it builds character and responsibility. Most of all, working for “Boy Wonder” provides training opportunities for him that my wife and I offer.

The one lesson that we did not teach him  is to make assessments in understanding the breadth of his current job.

He is 17 years old. He still plays jokes on friends and coworkers, wants to spend his money frivolously, and would rather eat candy and oatmeal  raisin cookies. The eyes are on the prize, and he understands that the 2016 Escalade will not be paid by his parents.

However, he thinks the way beyond his dream car. He wants to be a nurse.

He understands the sacrifice, and the intensity of the work that is ahead to get into nursing school. However, he is trying to understand how this experience will compare to his experience as a nurse.

Last week, a homeless man vomited in the bathroom, and left a rainbow (use your imagination here). He had  to clean it all up. It was awful for him. It was good for him, as it is hard for him to put trash in the garbage can at home.

Character. Responsibility. The irony.

  1. He has to remain temperate no matter how unstable the social culture changes. Customers his age want to challenge authority and be served appropriately.
  2. His bosses rarely gave  him the schedule he desired. He had to learn to approach one time to see if it could be change with respect and tact. After that, successful or not, let it go.
  3. Although he has impressed the owner repeatedly, he is still just an employee. No benefits, vacation time, or sick days to reward him for missing one day of work out of a year.
  4. A nurse will make much more money, will always have a job, and retain benefits. However, the transferable issues remain the same. Undesired responsibility is painful no matter how old, or professional you have become.
  5. Jobseekers wait too long to as the question, “What is  the worse that could happen to me?” In some way, “Boy Wonder” understands that he will do nasty and dirty tasks, be hot and sweaty, maintain self-control, be patient, and be content with undesirable circumstances. All in the name of saving people’s lives.

As adults, we can ask those questions in interviews, networking situations, or find online information. The average job seeker can research jobs before pressing the apply button.

You can find out, without prior notice, that you are cleaning a rainbow in the bathroom.

Filed Under: Career Tagged With: Career, Employment, Teen

by Mark Anthony Dyson

Is Your Job Search the Best Drama Not On TV?

Is Your Job Search the Best Drama Not On TV?

Is Your Job Search the Best Drama Not On TV?

Potential employers do not want your drama you bring during your job search. They want nothing to do with the stories, the characters, nor the ending. They want to know, are you an asset to the team.

Bringing drama does not add value, nor does it make anyone an attractive candidate. Nor does it make for an effective job search.

Your adventure in job search is compelling drama for all of the  wrong reasons:

1. It’s like Law and Order

There is a story for everything. Instead of calling my boss to meet you, I want to call the police. The “my-brush-with-the-cop” stories are funny to your friends, not to potential employers. You do not have to mention “cop” or “police” in your little ditty for anyone to know that you were arrested a few times.

2. CSI (Can’t Stand Idiots) New York, Miami, or Where You Are

Mark was making small talk about exquisite dining and the research he conducted online about all of the restaurants he has visited. The interviewer asked, “So what did you find out about our company as a result of your research?” The morrow: Talking too much could be the beginning of an implosion. Oh yeah, the interview lasted 10 minutes.

3. The Mentalist

Don’t act like you know everything. Networking works when you are in learning mode. Button your expertise, but wear your perpetual learning suit in a job pursuit conversation.

4. Burn Notice

Telling stories of being treated unfairly, or how unrewarded you have been is career suicide. Nothing worse than burning yourself during the job hunt process.

5. Brothers and Sisters

Leave family drama out of any part of the job search process. It is never positive to talk about family problems at a networking event, interview, or just meeting a potential contact for the first time. Even if the story is funny, it could be perceived as negative.

The most engaging conversations anyone could have when the focus is on skill, contributions, and solutions. Familiarity and small talk is great if its your strength. Otherwise, leave the drama to television, movies, and your friends.

Filed Under: Career, Life Tagged With: Employers, Job, Job Search

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I moderated a panel on Wealth Management for executives by Black Enterprise Magazine in October 2023 in Miami.

I was interviewed on Scripps News show, “The Why!” 4/13/2023

I talked with John Tarnoff and Kerry Hannon of “The Second Act” podcast about job searching after 50 in October 2022.

I was on “The Career Confidante” podcast to talk about “boomerang employees” and “job fishing” in June 2022.

Making Job Search a Lifestyle With “Dr. Dawn Graham on Careers,” SiriusXM Ch. 132, Wharton School of Business May 2021

In May 2020, I talked with LinkedIn’s Senior News Editor Andrew Seaman on “#GetHired” Live.”

Beverly Jones, host of the NPR podcast “Jazzed About Work,” invited me back to talk job scams, job search trends, and AI tools in April 2024

WOUB Digital · Episode 183 : Job search expert Mark Dyson says beware of scams, know AI & keep learning

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