I just found out that I should be earning $138,095 a year. Sweet!
Yup, it’s true. Kind of. The (seemingly generous) folk at Salary.com valued the ‘mom job’ for working and stay-at-home moms. Based on a survey of more than 40,000 mothers, Salary.com determined that mums work an average of 92 hours per week performing approximately 10 or more job functions, including housekeeper, teacher, cook, janitor, CEO and psychologist.
That means the 10-pronged ‘mom job’ would equate to an annual salary of $138,095 for stay-at-home mums. For working mums, the salary equivalent is $85,939 in addition to the salary they earn in the workplace.
I guess technically I’m a workplace mum, even though my workplace is about 10 metres from where I sleep, shower and watch ‘The Colbert Report’ on cable (not all at once!)
That should make mums everywhere feel a little more valuable - at least to the tune of $138K, shouldn’t it?
Maybe. But to me it also highlights the fact that ‘work’ done at home - raising a family, managing finances, coordinating schedules - can be just as valuable to your resume as a high-falutin’ job in an office block. The trick? Translate your break into business-world experience.
You weren’t just sitting at home with your 2 kids: you were managing accounts receivable and payable for a ‘company’ with an income of $XX; acting as PA for 3 individuals, coordinating their schedules and managing their workload; or even coordinating small events such as dinners, meetings and celebrations for guests from 10 to 100. Or you may have been doing any number of things that can be directly translated to the working world.
Remember, for employers, experience - no matter where it derives from - is king. So if you’ve had a break from work - to travel, start a family, care for an ill relative, watch every single episode of Seinfeld - you can make it work for your resume!
Happy job hunting!
> Kristin
September 5th, 2007
I was just talking to Leonie about not knowing what to blog today. It’s rainy, cold and grey and I just couldn’t get motivated to move my fingers off my toasty-warm tea mug to the keyboard…that is, until I received a concerned email from a friend.
You may have gotten this one or one like it. The forwarded email is all about how microwaving food in plastics can cause cancer. (If there’s anything that’ll cheer a gal up, it’s learning just one more way you can/will get cancer!) Researchers from Johns Hopkins are cited, jpegs of molecular compounds are attached and it all looks very impressive and legitimate.
Thing is, I nuke stuff in all sorts of containers - glass, plastic, ceramic. I was worried. The last thing I want to do is add more poisons to my system - and my daughter’s, and my husband’s - because I couldn’t be bothered to put our leftover Chinese into a proper bowl.
So I decided to turn to my good friend Google to do an online search to find out if this was indeed true. Interestingly, I found a plethora of websites featuring this information…debunking it as false and/or a hoax. I checked out several of them, including the Johns Hopkins site itself, which deconstructed the email’s assertions quite thoroughly.
By the time I’d finished reading, I went straight to my fridge, took out my plastic container of leftover risotto and put in the microwave on ‘high’ with nary a shred of guilt or fear. Whew!
What’s this got to do with resumes?
Searching and researching. We live in an era like no other, where information both true and stunningly false is available, 24-7 with a few clicks of the mouse. Unlike days of yore, when information-gathering was complex, costly and lengthy, these days it’s easy to source, gather and verify information.
For the resume-writer: if you don’t have one at home, use an online dictionary to check spellings. Use an online thesaurus to come up with different words if you’re stuck. You can even locate area codes, zip codes and post codes online for your references.
For the job-hunter: see an ad for a job you’d like? Check out the company online. See if they’re legitimate, if they’re solid…or if the CEO’s being investigated by the tax department for embezzlement. Or you can check out companies you’d like to work for, find the right person and send a resume BEFORE they advertise.
For everyone else: dig. Check. Verify. Compare stories. Ingest parts, discard parts, morph them together and create what YOU want to believe.
For the first time in history, the power of information is in the hands not of the few, but of the many. You don’t have to just swallow what’s given to you by the hoax emails, the news, the Careers classifieds, ‘the man’. You have the ability to find out for yourself and make up your own mind.
Just grab a keyboard and start digging!
> Kristin
August 23rd, 2007
We at Ready Resumes talk a lot about writing your resume for your audience. But what do prospective employers really want to see? What turns them on…and off?
This month, we chatted to Susan Graystone of Brisbane business Simply Great Ideas about what she likes - and hates - to see on a resume.
RR: So what does your company do?
SG: We provide a one-stop-shop for corproate organisations holding conferences/events to find venues, themes and entertainment that adds WOW to their event.
RR: That’s pretty specialised. How did you get into the business?
SG: After working in a large hotel as Function Sales Manager, I saw the need to provide a service that isn’t limited to one venue, and started SGI!
RR: Cool! What kind of personality does a person need if they’d like to work in the events/planning industry?
SG: You have to be organised and have good attention to detail. Let me see…someone who’s friendly and approachable with the ability to think outside the square. Someone who can generate lots of creative ideas.
RR: What do you look for in a potential employee?
SG: An eagerness to learn and commitment to provide more than what’s expected.
RR: As a business owner, what do you like to see in a potential employee’s resume?
SG: Hmm…that’s tough. Probably something that indicates they can work hard, and a touch of personality.
RR: What’s your resume pet peeve?
SG: A resume must address the criteria of the position or the type of business - not just be a standard list of achievements.
RR: If you could have your dream job, what would it be?
SG: Either a buyer or an events manager in the fashion industry!
Feel free to read up about Susan’s company at www.simplygreatideas.com.au. Till next time, happy job hunting!
> Kristin
August 16th, 2007
Confession time: I once worked for the government.
It was actually a very valuable experience. Yes, yes - the coffee breaks were great. The hours were rockin’. And I did meet a lot of awesome individuals (as well as a lot of governmental seat warming tools). As a copywriter for a government-run educational institution, it was my job to take the garbled, overworded, jargon-thick information provided by various departments and rework it into stuff people could actually comprehend.
See, it was hard for a reason: most of the people I worked with wrote like they’re being paid by the word. When 5 words would do, they’d use 10. When 2 paragraphs would work, they’d write 2 pages. I don’t know if they thought they seemed smarter by using more words, or if they were just trying to fill space (kind of like a high school term-paper). Whatever the reason, it was my job to give their text verbal liposuction.
There were a variety of creative techniques my co-workers used to fatten up their text, but one of the most consistent ways was to write in ‘passive’ voice.
Don’t know what passive voice means? Let me help. Look at these phrases:
The dog took the bone.
The bone was taken by the dog.
Notice how much longer the second one is. Know why? It’s passive. Where active is direct (X does Y), passive is indirect (X has something done to it by Y). Writing in passive voice adds loads of extra words - handy for plumping up government reports and term papers. Not so handy for the poor schlep reading them.
Now, repeat after me: passive is evil. Say it. Say it again.
Now say it while looking at your resume. Have you used a passive voice in your resume? Come on…be honest. Can you find any instances where you added words just to make something seem longer or more important?
If so, ditch it - and quick. Passive language adds words, but reduces the ease of understanding. It’s like forcing your reader to hack his/her way through your overgrown words with a machete: if you make them do it too much, they’ll get tired and give up reading altogether.
Don’t do it. Make it easy for your reader - write in direct, active voice. See if you can trim some of the passive fat from your words. Yes, your resume might look shorter, but in reality it’ll be lean, active and fighting fit. It might even look better in a bikini. 
Happy job hunting!
> Kristin
August 7th, 2007
Yes yes yes, this is now blog #212,694 about the importance of proofing. “We get it!” I hear you shout at the monitor.
Ok, fair enough. But this week I thought I’d give you visual proof, taken from the big Toy Sale catalogue of a major retailer here in Australia (I’ll call them Barget). It made my copy-writin’, proof-readin’, sphincter-squeakin’ butt laugh and laugh and laugh.
My question is this: is Hans, Fritz or Brunhilde included?
::giggle::
Happy job huntin’ (and proof reading!!)
> Kristin
July 19th, 2007
Like just about every other person of my age group in Brisbane, I’m renovating my house. There’s something too tempting about feathering one’s nest, and so with some regularity I find myself at our local Bunnings, poring over paint swatches.
This is my favourite part of the process, for several reasons. Aside from the fact that I like making up new combinations of colours – and that I become far too excited discussing at length the subtle differences between cream, white, arctic, eggshell and ecru – I derive a secret pleasure staring at paint chips for…the names.
Paint names are like the ‘icon’ of the word-world. They’re tiny encapsulations of a colour, a mood, a shade, described in 2 or maybe 3 words max. “Ghost Whisper”. “Slatestone”. “Gunny Sack”. “Noon Moon”. They say so much more than white, black, tan or grey. They say volumes in just 15 letters. They excite, entice, cajole and amuse. Amazing!
I remember looking at paint names with my mom when we were painting my room a ghastly colour of green (my choice - hey, it was the 70s, ok?) - I would call it Radium Green, in fact. My mom and I would laugh over the names and muse what name WE would give them.
I’ve always wanted to write paint names. For me, it would be too cool – sitting at a desk, Frappucino in hand, staring a square of blue and musing at wankerly length: “This is like the Agean Sea just afternoon, when the sun throws sparks across the surface and lights up the bottom….or maybe more like the colour of a robin’s soft underwing feather….”
Ok, yeah - I admit, it’s a little geeky. And I think I was half-devastated when a friend in the industry gently indicated that no, there was no such job as Paint Swatch Namer. My dream job, it seemed, didn’t exist.
But guess what? I had an email today from a client in my design/copywriting business.
This client owns a group of restaurants here in Brisbane - 4 and counting. The food’s rocking, the atmosphere is fantastic. And she’s just asked me to do something totally amazing:
“Would you please name our 4 newest dishes?”
I felt like a kid at Christmas when I read this email. Know why? Because it’s taken me 38 years to realise I *love* words. I like writing them, I like reading them, I like playing with them with my 2-year-old daughter. Anyone who knows me knows I like saying them (and repeating them, especially whilst imbibing….:-)
I started my life as graphic designer, and I’m pretty good at it, but know what? I’m better with words. I always have been, I just never thought of words as a way to make a living (unless your name is Stephen King.) I just wish I’d figured out a way to work with words 25 years ago.
This project will let me indulge my passion: I get to play with words to name FOUR MEALS!! It’s not naming paint colours, but it’s pretty darned close. After 38 years, I finally have my dream project!
My point? Don’t wait decades to figure out what your dream job or project really is. Think long, think hard.
Think now - and do it!
>> Kristin
July 3rd, 2007
I had to look. I couldn’t help it.
“There are 12 grammatic and spelling errors in this ad,” the ad said. The advertising agency who submitted the ad to the Careers section of the paper wanted a receptionist with a perky phone voice, an eye for detail and the fastest dictionary on the east coast who’s not afraid to use it.
Applicants for the job were invited to submit not just a resume, but a marked-up, corrected copy of the imperfect ad to prove their proofing abilities (and sphinctorial tightness, I guess).
I often peruse the Careers section of Brisbane’s newspaper. Nope, still not looking for a job. Just curious about what’s going on in the working world. So when I saw this ad headline, I couldn’t help myself. I had to look through the ad to find the dozen planted ‘grammatic’ (sic) and spelling errors.
Sadly, I found 22 of them. And I was sorely tempted to mark it up and send it in just to point out that their so-called imperfect ad was more flawed than they thought.
It’s kind of the same as your resume, I think. Once someone finds a few mistakes, they might not be able to look past them. Or worse, they’ll start looking for more!
I know, I know…we’re always banging on about checking your resume before you send it out. But reading this ad last weekend brought the point home again. We are constantly getting resumes to lay out with errors in them - missing dates, misspelling, questionable punctuation and non-existent grammar. We do our best to help, but here are a few things you can do to help your resume shine:
> Do a spell check on the computer. And then chuck the checker and read it yourself with your own eyes.
> Read it out loud. You’ll be surprised what turns out to be awkward when you verbalise it!
> Con a friend, family member or hapless victim into reading it. It’s true - fresh eyes see what familiar eyes can’t.
> If you’re at school or university, cajole your guidance counsellor/jobs advisor to read it. Ditto above sentiment, with the added bonus that these people are supposed to know what employers are looking for. It’s like having insider advice. Ask for their advice - then take it.
I’m writing this blog late at night, after a long day with a clever-but-exhausting child and one very sick basset hound. I’ll bet you can find a whole big pile of mistakes in it, grammatical, spelling and otherwise. Tell you what. Send me an email with all the errors in it, and I’ll send you some free icons and fonts.
They say to err is human - to forgive divine. If that’s true, then you might want to check, check and recheck your resume so there’s no err-ors in it…unless, of course, your next boss is God.
Good luck!
> Kristin
June 19th, 2007
A little while back, I thought I’d really put myself in my customers’ shoes. After all, we at Ready Resumes talk about how to write a great resume, how to stand out from the crowd, how to apply for jobs, etc. Is it easy to do? Hard? Scary? What’s it like to take my own advice?
So I did it. I rewrote my own resume….and I started applying for jobs.
Don’t get me wrong - I didn’t want a new job. I love what I do. But I thought that I should see what you, our customers, go through when it comes to the task of preparing a resume.
It took me a while to find and blow the metaphorical dust off of my most recent resume, last updated long before Y2K, iPod and the first season of Desperate Housewives. (Yes, I am a dinosaur 
And that was the easy part. It, quite literally, took me several hours a day for close to a week to come up with something I thought was short, pithy and accurate.
When I felt satisfied that I’d written a 2-page instant classic, I starting scanning the Careers section of the paper, looking for generic jobs I could apply for. I found 4 right away…and then immediately went back to my resume to begin rewriting it all over again - 4 times, to be exact - to address the skills and experience each position might require.
So here’s the first thing I learned: it takes time to write a resume. Plenty of time. And it takes even more time to write a good resume.
Time is one of those things no one ever has enough of (witness how long it’s taken me to write this blog since my last entry!)
Don’t put off writing (or rewriting) your resume till the last minute. Start rewriting it NOW, a little at a time, one section at a time. Begin with the easier sections (education, skills) and work up to the more involved ones (experience). Slow and steady wins the race, baby steps will carry you far, the longest journey starts with a single step - pick your goofy platitude and just start writing.
Of course, when you see your dream job in the paper, you’ll still need to take the time to personalise your resume for the job. But it takes a lot less time to update and tweak than it does to start from scratch. Good luck!
>> Kristin
June 1st, 2007
Ok. Imagine you want to find something online - someone who sells socks, for example. Chances are you go right to a search engine like Google and start typing in key words like ’sock’ + ’store’ or ‘retail’. Maybe you’ll even type in a brand or two, and hit ‘Search’.
Guess what. Searching isn’t just for sock-searching! Many recruiters and large companies regularly search or scan resumes of potential employees, looking to find matches to their key words. The digital revolution means it’s easier than ever to search for specific words and phrases in each resume. Digital resumes saved as PDF and Word documents are easy to search. Even printed resumes can be scanned and searched by special text-reading software.
So what does that mean to you? It means key words are key!
Ok, ok - I won’t lie to you. I’m not crazy about the idea of scanning resumes - seems to me that it’s putting a lot of emphasis on the words on a resume, not the person who wrote them. Let’s face it - not everyone is Tolstoy! Still, it’s just another good reason for you to work hard writing your resume. The better it’s written, the better it will search…and the better your chances of getting that interview.
When you write your resume, think about the kinds of words and phrases a potential employer might be looking for relating to that job - and make sure they’re in your resume.
For example: if you are applying for a job selling pharmaceutical products in New South Wales. A potential employer might search the resumes he/she receives for ’sales’, ’salesperson’, ’selling’, ‘pharmaceutical’, ‘NSW’, ‘New South Wales’, ‘customer’, ‘customer service’ or ’sales target’.
Or they might be looking for ’success’, ’sales manager’, ‘management’ or ‘experienced’.
Be careful not to go overboard, though. Too many key words in your resume and you run the risk of being repetitive.
Key words are especially important if you’re looking to move into a new industry, or an industry where you have only a little experience. Make sure you emphasise the experience you DO have, using the words relevant to the job you’re applying for - including the position you’re applying for (receptionist, sales person, office manager, etc).
Work hard on the key words in your resume, and they’ll work hard for you. Good luck!
>> Kristin
April 19th, 2007
I was asked a few days ago if I thought I was a ‘driven’ person. This was posed immediately after the question of “What do you do Leonie?” – Man, the “What do you do?” question is like red to a bull for me. I charge headlong into a pretty enthusiastic response, endeavouring to offer a brief synopsis of each of the projects (4) which are currently keeping me entertained, busy and motivated (don’t want my listener’s attention to wain… So, the ‘driven’ question perhaps shouldn’t have come as a surprise, but it did. I’d just never been asked before. So I thought about it for a few seconds.
Yes, I’m driven.
I’m driven to be a loving, unconditionally supportive wife and mother.
I’m driven to do the best job I can, whatever job I’m doing.
I’m driven to succeed, in all areas of my life.
At times I know I drive people crazy. At times I’m driven crazy by others. But at all times I’m in the driver’s seat, which means that, given some gentle handling, I can navigate my way around most things.
Sometimes I have to drive around in circles to see the positive rather than the negative side of things. Sometimes I’m driven mad by having such high expectations and ‘drive’. Hey, maybe some people will be driven mad by all these driving metaphors! But, I am in the driver’s seat, that’s intoxicating. And, I think that’s my point this time (again)…. You control whatever wheel you’re behind.
Drive defensively, but with purpose!
:: Leonie
P.S I think even the word ‘intoxicating’ is intoxicating!
April 2nd, 2007
Next Posts
Previous Posts
