Quickies

I enjoy Wednesdays. They have always been a good catch-up day for me. I like the idea of looking back at Monday and Tuesday to see what I didn't finish, and looking ahead at Thursday and Friday to see what I still have time to complete. Wednesday gives me a chance to make up for time that got away from me lately, and it also gives me hope of carving out some time to do what's important to me in the coming days. That is all good.

If you like this idea for your Wednesdays, please take it and put it to good use, starting now. You don't have to relegate this to just this one specific day of the week as I tend to. Maybe twice-weekly, biweekly or monthly catch up makes more sense for you. But an occasional day for review, planning and checking off a bunch of quickies can be a very good thing. Clears the head and the calendar, so I do recommend. Some of my Wednesday Odds & Ends:

• There was a bill being passed around Congress today, and an effort to stop it, regarding censorship and protection of rights to creative material on the internet. It was nicknamed SOPA and I didn't learn much about it, except it seemed to be written all wrong and many of my favorite and most-used websites were against it, so I felt after a little reading, I was against it too. That was an unexpected To Do for Today--usually I don't plan to research a bill or petition against it. But, check, got that done.
• Actually came to the SOPA info by first visiting craigslist.org. On craigslist I found out that job searches there are much easier than the larger sites I've been spending my time at. Only a couple of possibilities for me this week. Hey, that's plenty: just the right one will do the trick. So, check, learned something important and now I'll visit there more often.
• One of the job postings on craigslist sounded really neat, so I pulled together a cover letter with linked samples to send with my resume, within an hour, which brings up another bonus to local job listings. They are often posted by actual people, requesting a resume sent in direct response, and as such, are easier to apply for than most of what I'm finding on larger online sites like indeed.com, linkedin.com and careerbuilder.com. Check, cool-sounding gig applied for.
• Made sure I saved time for a little yoga practice. Wrote it down for Monday and Tuesday, never did it. Boooo. It's important to me. No excuses for that, I'm in charge of my own time now!
• Made sure I save time for a little personal/hobby writing. Wrote it down for Monday and Tuesday, never did it. Boooo. It's important to me.... --you get the idea.
• Called in a prescription and am now going to pick it up. Tomorrow it will be 0 degrees around here, so why not enjoy the luxury of choosing to get it a day early, when it's a balmy 20 something?
• Started some split pea soup in a big pot. Stock is stewing with veg and herbs and that bay leaf smells fantastic. Good day for soup....brrr.
• Set aside time on Thursday and Friday for more craigslist, yoga and personal/hobby writing. Will surely enjoy leftover soup and my warm home. I'm grateful for it. I know many jobless people aren't as lucky as I am, with a home, and a heat bill they can pay, and spouse's income that will help them survive for long with this measure of comfort. So, I also set aside time to reflect on, and write about, that.

How He Bot the Job, Part I

Case Study
Our man is Johnson, middle senior level manager of something not too technical. Let's say he's was a Senior Project Manager, Channel Partners Development.

He perused job listings in his category online at sites like LinkedIn, Career Builder and Indeed.com. Perhaps he should have expanded his searching, for more opportunities. Or not. Was he casting too large of a net and missing all the tasty local fish? Then again, what about government work? What about work-at-home or freelance jobs? Johnson felt the more he looked, in some ways, the less he found. He started not to know, exactly, what he was looking for anymore.

Johnson probably wasted a little too much time when he could have honed in his search approach right from the start. Here is a nice article on the topic with just enough actionable advice, so you don't end up like Johnson. I recommend you bookmark two or three of your favorite job search links, and save a couple of search terms on the sites that give you the best results. That way, you can search again the next time with a couple quick keystrokes. Also, follow a few companies you really like that list openings close to what you're interested in, but not quite. In Johnson's case, Sr. VP Marketing, Business Channels and Partners. That would be his boss, eventually. Check back on those companies for new postings each week.

Whenever Johnson found a position he wanted to apply for, he would inevitably run into the direction to click on a button that said either, "Apply Here" or "Apply on Website." Applying Here usually meant Johnson was on a site that allowed resumes to be posted, reviewed and submitted via that site. On LinkedIn, he had his entire profile, business connections, work history and more. On Career Builder and Indeed.com, his resume was posted and could be viewed by potential employers.

When Johnson would Apply on Website, he'd be transported to an employment application, which was sometimes housed on that company's website, and sometimes run by a robot program designed specifically for the purpose of reviewing and sorting applications and ranking the potential interest in the job candidates attached to them.  Here are a couple reads you might find useful as you approach the task of Applying on Website.

Don't Get Lost in a Database ... fpcnational.com

Resume, Meet Technology ...The Ladders.com

Make Your Resume Stand Out ... techrepublic.com 

Your to do for today might be to assemble good reading material on a useful topic. See above. And/or to give some serious focus on learning about something that will help move your purpose forward. Also see above. You have time for this now. Still, I'll whet your appetite for information with a brief overview of some things you should know about submitting an online resume, per the experts:

• Don't provide a complex document for uploading purposes. Even if you're a creative genius.
• Do use bullet points and put the most important results-oriented information up front.
• Do research the company you are applying to work for. Send a resume that has been tweaked to include keywords for them, and the position you are seeking.

More on Johnson and how he changed his resume to make the bots that scanned it happy, tomorrow!