Job-Hunting? Writers, List Additional Skills!

One of the things that happens in a tight economy, is that employers want to get more for their money. It makes sense, right? Not only are there are number of people out of work, but employers are looking for that value-add so they save money in the longer-term. In my experiences, this has meant that employers are willing to sacrifice the quality of writing for those “extra” qualifications that they might be looking for.

Unfortunately, those “extra” qualifications might not be easily apparent when you’re applying for a job. Give too much information up front, and you may qualify yourself out of a job. Don’t reveal enough about your skills, and you might find yourself overlooked.

Now more than ever, you’ll have to show not only why writing as a specialty is so important for effective communication, but you’ll also have to list your other skills. Whether you’re technologically-savvy or not, writers often incorporate other skills that are important to list. For your convenience, I’ve come up with a sample list of skills other than writing that may help you promote yourself.

  • analytical – Do you know how to analyze small details and glean insight from them? Are you familiar with web analytics?
  • proofreading – Can you spot punctuation and know grammar rules?
  • content editing – Are you a natural editor? Can you look at the bigger picture and restructure content?
  • web copywriting – Do you know the basics of web copywriting? Or how about search engine optimization?
  • social media-savvy – Are you on Twitter? Facebook? MySpace? It’s not a bad idea to mention that you know how to use the tools.
  • community-builder – Do you know how to generate great discussion and get people to interact with one another?
  • reviewer or critic – Do you write reviews of books, CDs or movies? You never know when someone might be interested in that skill.
  • presenter – Have you written speeches or presented at a conference?
  • style-format editor – Are you a master at word processing and know how to format reports quickly and easily?
  • indexing – Do you know how to index automatically or manually?
  • coding HTML, XML, etc. – Familiar with the ins and outs of coding? Even on a basic level this can be a real plus?
  • blogging – Different from web copywriting, pointing out to clients where you blog can help them glean a little insight about your personality
  • technologically-savvy – What kinds of tools do you know? While a long list of everything that you’re familiar with might not be the best, definitely let your clients know you’re not afraid of tech.
  • photographer or video creator – Do you know how to take a great picture? How about creating short videos?
  • coaching or advising – Have you ever offered other professionals advice? What about non-professionals?
  • bookkeeping – Do you keep excellent books for your freelancing business? Have you thought about expanding that skillset?
  • project management – Have you ever managed a project that you were working on?
  • photo or image editing – Do you know how to edit a photo to make it look great?
  • graphic or web design – Artistic? Know how to design flyers or websites?

Another thing to think about when you’re putting together your skillset, is that the skills you share will also help break down some of the common stereotypes that non-writers have about us. Blast those misperceptions of writers being anti-social and snobbish right out of the water and let your personality shine. The easier you appear to work with, the better your chances will be.

Good luck!

February 18, 2009
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Resume Writing and the Resume Book Essential for Writers

Every day I not only read headlines about layoffs, but hear from peers, friends and people I greatly admire how they had just lost their job. Having been through some of these experiences myself, I’ve often turned to resume writing books, professional agencies and other resources to learn how to market myself on paper, which is not as easy as it sounds.

The challenge with writing resumes and cover letters, is that it’s easy to make a mistake. Unless you get a callback for an interview, typically prospective employers won’t communicate with you if your resume is written poorly. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of receiving resumes for different jobs you’ve hired for in the past, you probably have a lot of stories to share. Some of the more ironic stories I’ve encountered are the resumes I received for editing positions, only to find out their name was misspelled.

Writers often encounter another stumbling block, because writing is often perceived as a “skill” rather than a “career.” Often, we have to be versatile to navigate different industries both online and off in order to stay in business. Because of that, if we don’t handle that type of experience effectively we can appear very unfocused or too detail-oriented.

After reading several resume writing books throughout the year, there is one that stands out in my mind. This book is absolutely essential to writing effective resumes and cover letters, in my opinion.

Best Resume and Cover Letter Book Available

This resume writing book, entitled “The Quick Resume & Cover Letter Book” is one of the best books I’ve ever read. This best-selling resource not only offers you different examples of resumes and cover letters, it provides solutions for specific job-hunting situations and critiques of resumes that could be improved. Before you get to all of that, the book asks you to think critically so that you find the job you want before you submit your resume.

Here are some of the items I’ve used in the book that have helped me:

  • Collection of well-written resumes and cover letters for Career Changers
  • Comprehensive resume writing worksheet
  • Sample cover letters
  • Sample Thank-You notes

The last revision of The Quick Resume & Cover Letter Book was published in 2007. The revised editions ensure that the content is up-to-date with current trends and technology.

With an easy-to-reference format, this is a resume writing and cover letter book that’s perfect for writers, because it encourages the reader to think strategically about format, keywords, etc. and provides excellent critiques of the resume samples. The critiques are exceptionally helpful because it teaches you how to write an effective resume, rather than just following the format.

For those of you that are job hunting, you could probably also check this book out from your local library, too. Otherwise you can find The Quick Resume & Cover Letter Book on Amazon.com for less than ten dollars.

My heart goes out to those of you who are job hunting out there. Hope you find this recommendation helpful. For more job hunting tips, be sure to check out my tip about the job hunting search engine Indeed.com.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a great day!

February 2, 2009
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Guest Post about Goal Setting Success: Magic Checkmarks on Your Goal List

Today’s guest post about is brought to you by Elliott Kosmicki, the founder of Good Plum. Today, Elliott sits down and talks with us about how we can achieve the goals that we set down in writing.

Setting goals has been widely promoted for centuries as one of the most powerful methods to become successful. You’ve probably heard it, you probably have even tried it, and if you’re like most others, you’ve probably “failed” trying.

That’s a good thing.

Setting goals does not alone bring success, even though that’s the primary way it’s taught. The idea that simply writing a goal down will somehow make it come true later on sounds like wishful thinking. Impossible, right?

The question we need to ask ourselves then is “Why do some people think goal setting works at all?”

The answer lies in the examination of two separate groups of people. In one group, there are the self-help “gurus” who believe everything they’re taught and then simply pass that information along to you – with no real knowledge of WHY it works or doesn’t work. The other group consists of people who have found that setting goals DOES work for them. They know it, too, but very few of them actually know WHY it works for them. Even if they do know, they can’t figure out how to teach it because they don’t really know how to translate that mysterious process into something that works for you! Follow me so far?
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January 21, 2009
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The One Skill Every Writer Needs to Learn (and it’s not about writing!)

When was the last time you addressed a crowd of people? Or, for that matter, when was the last time you were in the middle of a crowd at a sporting event, concert or a rally?

If your answer is not that often then read on my fellow writer, because the one skill we need to develop is our ability to present ourselves visually and audibly. By the end of January, I will have conducted my third podcast interview and/or panel and well? Third time’s a charm?

The first podcast interview I did was to talk about a setting and game I had been designing at the time. When I say that I could have put your grandmother to sleep I’m being kind. You see, I wasn’t really sure what the best thing was to communicate, so I threw everything out there. Writing promotional material is one thousand times different than speaking it, because you have the chance to read, review and edit what you’re working on. In an interview, you may not have the questions beforehand so it’s even more difficult to think off-the-cuff.
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January 11, 2009
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Pros and Cons of Writing Movie Reviews

Since Fridays usually end up being movie night in our neck of the woods, I thought I’d focus on the pros and cons of writing movie reviews and how–especially if you’ve never written one–they can help your writing.

When you sit down and write any sort of a review–be it a movie, book or even a website review–it helps take you outside of your normal element to just “observe” the good, bad and the ugly in a product. Thinking critically, as every writer knows, is something that doesn’t always come naturally to us. If you write creatively and for businesses, sometimes different brain cells feel like they’re kicking in to give you a shift in perspective. With reviews, you can do a little bit of both.
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August 8, 2008
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