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The one time Seth Godin got it wrong

How to identify, attract and keep talent via resumes.
Last week, serial entrepreneur and marketing wiz Seth Godin announced on his blog that he is looking for talent.
In particular, Seth is seeking people who are skilled, passionate and open to making change happen. The reason why he is embarking on this journey is simple: he wants to maintain a file of talented individuals, suited for the execution of the many projects Seth’s involved in.
Yet, the way he is searching for talent has some room for improvement. This article will explain why the strategy Seth has employed to unearth human capital can be enhanced.
But first, a bit about who Seth Godin is. For those who aren’t quite sure. Seth helped invent commercial e-mail (that’s not spam) as we know it today. That’s right. For every time your favorite newsletter finds its way to your inbox you have Seth to thank. In addition, he pretty much invented educational computer games for children. And he published 18 best-selling books. And founded Yoyodyne. And Squidoo. Impressed? So are we.
Seth knows the nooks and crannies of digital marketing. He crafts each one of his blog posts as if it were his last. He also runs the world’s most selective MBA program – the altMBA. The guy could use an extra pair of hands, okay?

We Enhancers couldn’t agree more with Seth’s idea for a treasure hunt. Even when they are not actively hiring, smart companies have to maintain a file of talented potential employees/contributors. Yet, what is the clever way to do this? Is there an optimal way to spot talent? To get to know the candidate as a professional and an individual?
These were the questions that were running through the minds of Enhancv founders Volen, Georgi and Dimitar some three years ago. Helping people showcase their life’s work is Enhancv’s mission. Finding clever and efficient ways to do it is the company’s present.
Yet, Seth appears to have missed the Enhancv revolution. In 2009, he wrote a blog entry titled ‘Why bother having a resume?’. In it, Seth argues that remarkable people should refrain from having resumes at all. Well, Seth. We beg to differ.
We know that most resumes are boring and ineffective. That they only get 6 seconds of the reader’s attention and often take the form of a dull, 2-page list of job responsibilities. This is why we exist – to breathe life into resumes. We add the extra dose of sparkle and magic dust. How you may ask?
First, Enhancv resumes are crafted to showcase the tangible summary of your work. Start with a verb, measure your accomplishments numerically, detail the skills you acquired on the job, provide a baseline for the measurement of your personal growth. These are just some of the recommendations provided by the automated Enhancv resume builder. No way to get it wrong.
Second, Enhancv stimulates you to provide a prognosis of what you will do for your future employer, rather than a mere account of what you have done for your previous one.
Third, having an online platform where you can store your resumes enables you to make each one contextual, concise and targeted. We discourage the spray and pray technique.
Fourth and most important, Enhancv enables you to design an authentic personal brand. We trigger introspection. When you sit down to write your resume, you don’t usually think of the books, which have influenced your thinking; the strengths and talents, which make you a capable professional; or how a pie-chart of one day in your life would look like. The Enhancv resume nudges you to ask yourself the self-examining questions that make a good resume great.
The traditional resume is dead, people. Long live the Enhancv kind. So here’s a quest for you, cherished reader. Help us convince Seth of the value behind meaningful, well-thought over resumes. Send him your Enhancv creation, showing you are neither average nor destined to wither in a corporate behemoth. In the meantime, you can draw some inspiration from the one we created on Seth’s behalf. Cheeky us.
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Looking for more inspiration? Check out our resume examples section that got people hired at their dream jobs.







Photo of Seth Godin by: MIMA Photos under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

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500 Irish Created A Resume For Saint Patrick. Here It Is!

This post was updated on 17th March
It’s here! The best day of the year for anyone who has at least a little bit of Irish blood running through their veins. Everything and everyone turns green and you meet all the friends you haven’t seen in donkey’s ears! And hey, you can have that pint of Guinness at 10:30 am and nobody will give you the judgy eye! The best part for many is finally getting lucky with the girl who wears ‘’Kiss me, I’m Irish’’ T-shirt!
To celebrate this joyful tradition in a non-traditional way, around two weeks ago we gave you a chance to join the process of crafting Saint Patrick’s resume. Why did we need your help? Well, nobody knows Saint Patrick better than you – the Irish!


How did it end up?
First of all, do you celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day? If yes, you’re smack-dab in the right place to see how others prep themselves!
We announced the campaign 2 weeks ago. We wanted to give all the Irish the opportunity to contribute and create the very first community-generated resume for their patron saint. After the announcement, comments and suggestions started rolling in instantly.
People were leaving their suggestions by clicking on sections they thought needed to be changed. After leaving a comment, everyone could share the resume with their friends via Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter or Messenger.
We reviewed the comments and made the proposed changes on a daily basis. Here is the final version of Saint Patrick’s resume! Let me repeat myself here – it was created by more than 500 Irish!

Thank you for your feedback!
Now gather ‘round ye lads and lasses, set ye for a while! And tell us your own mournful tale about the Emerald Isle!
We want to thank you for your input! Finally, Saint Patrick has a resume created by over 500 Irish. It really shows the world why the history behind this man binds your nation.
Sláinte!



Previous popular resumes created by EnhancvMarissa Mayer’s featured in Business InsiderBarack Obama’s featured in The Hill

Hero of the Russian Federation, the resume of Valery Legasov

A mixed bag, the resume of Anatoly Dyatlov

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The Resumes of Chernobyl

HBO has been on a roll lately and the team at Enhancv has been enjoying every minute of it. Two years ago, we geeked out on Game of Thrones and now we’re indulging in our collective Chernobyl fandom.
Why?
Well, because it’s fun.
But also because we love telling stories. We’re not as good at it as HBO but hey, a software company can dream right?
Creating the resumes for Anatoly Dyatlov and Valery Legasov let us explore how to condense the lives of two consequential and (until recently) obscure people into single pages which still managed to tell their stories.
We think both have plen﻿ty to teach both about the people and about how resumes can (and should) tell compelling stories in general.
Hero of the Russian Federation, the resume of Valery Legasov

Frankly, we wanted to put together a resume that was a fitting tribute for Legasov. The challenge was to compress his achievements and experience into something that would be interesting for someone familiar with his story and informative for anyone who knows nothing about it.
Funnily enough, that’s the challenge most resume writers face. You don’t always know whether the person reading it is going to be steeped in your field or just a random HR person.
For Legasov, this meant acknowledging his work in physics and chemistry prior to the Chernobyl disaster, while putting the focus there. It reflects his voice as well as his achievements.
A mixed bag, the resume of Anatoly Dyatlov

Spoiler alert for anyone who hasn’t seen the show yet but Dyatlov is… not the hero. 
His resume balances his confidence, his genuine accomplishments, and has a little fun along the way. 
References to his “secret supervision room” aside, it’s a nice reminder that his failures during the Chernobyl disaster shouldn’t overshadow the fact that he had a real experience. He’d even experienced a small scale nuclear accident before!
What do these resumes have to teach us?
We hope this is a reminder that the history of your work is more than just a list of what you did, it’s your story.
How you tell that story makes all the difference.
In the meantime, enjoy the show and stay away from those REMs. Otherwise, it’s the end of the world as we know it.


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What Casey’s Coaching Resume Example Taught Us

Sport coaching employs over 270,000 people in the US and has been steadily growing each year. While the industry itself has been on an uptrend, it is somewhat dominated by men and areas such as basketball are lacking in coaches. With this in mind, Casey’s coaching resume could not have come sooner. 
Casey has been working as a basketball coach for the last four years and has done so across three countries: Ireland, Northern Ireland and The United States. Her passion for the industry knows no bounds and has seen her involved in some of the most inspiring basketball organisations in the world – PeacePlayers International for one. For her, a coaching resume is used for securing coaching opportunities and as a record of her experience. Here’s what we’ve learned about coaching resumes from Casey’s example. 
Get involvedThe best way to bolster your coaching resume is to get involved everywhere you can. From local teams to international organisations, Casey has been a coach in a variety of settings. You can find relevant experience just about anywhere. As we see in her resume, whether its high-school or an international organisation, the skills remain the same. Research to see if there’s a local team in your area, or volunteer with a youth club. The more experience you can show, the easier it will be to secure a more lucrative coaching job. 
2. Opportunity not locality 
One thing that makes Casey’s resume stand out is her history is global. Speaking to her, she says that some of her coaching experience was offered to her while she was living elsewhere. This shows us that like with most jobs, you can broaden your coaching horizons by looking outside of your local area. Remote working as a coach is possible, too. Perhaps you could volunteer as a consultant or host one-on-one meetings with teammates to help strategize. 
3. Action is key
Coaching is a hands-on activity. Casey brings her action-oriented sensibility across by including a photo from a former coaching gig. The same can be said for any coaching project. You should demonstrate your action in any way you can. This can be linking to your website that has videos of your coaching, or even including an action-photo like Casey did. 
4. Bring your personality
For coaches to be effective, they need to mesh well with a team. This means recruiters of coaches need to see who you are to determine if you’ll fit with the team’s culture. Casey ensures that her personal side is shown by including her life philosophy in her resume. There are other ways that your personality can be brought in your resume: detail your favourite books, provide a personal summary, include a Most Proud Of section and more. 

Overall, the key learning from Casey’s resume is that we can learn from an example and apply it to our own situation.


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A surprising lesson from Maisie Williams about career change

Reading that another celebrity has tried to become a politician, entrepreneur, or different kind of celebrity has always provoked eye-rolls for me. I was always certain a bunch of celebrities couldn’t teach me something about changing careers (something I’ve experienced and written about plenty).
I was wrong.
It turns out there are universal lessons on making a career change, even for someone . Case and point: Maisie Williams. If you read the headlines, you’d think she had just woken up one day and decided to co-found Daisie, a tech company (specifically, an app for young creative people to build their careers). But it turns out a huge portion of the skills, knowledge, and relationships she’s developed as an actor apply directly to her new role as a co-founder.
Actor → Tech Co-Founder
It all starts with an exercise we developed to think about how people change careers. The idea is to get you thinking in concrete terms about what each role actually involves. So instead of considering a software engineer job in the abstract, you think about the day to day coding, fixing bugs, debating features to add, etc.
Then, you compare the skills, knowledge, and relationships at your current role and your new role. This is where things get interesting. In Williams’ case, many of the skills she developed as an actor apply directly to co-founding a technology company. Her PR training taught her how to handle media as the co-founder of a company, her lessons on choosing the right roles to advance her career has lent her some basis in strategic thinking, etc.
Her knowledge of the kinds of challenges young people in creative industries face is also critical for her new role. Luckily, being just one of those people means she has a good understanding of those challenges. Finally, with a devoted fan base and connections in the entertainment industry, Williams has the kinds of relationships that can help her succeed.
It’s also worth mentioning what doesn’t show up here: knowledge of technology. Williams doesn’t know how to code, but her transition is a great example of how non-tech people can still bring vital knowledge to tech companies: understanding people, PR, presentation skills, etc.
But what are the broader lessons to take away?
Old Role → New Role
As I learned when I made the transition from academia into marketing, a lot more skills, knowledge, and relationships transfer than you would think. I found research skills, writing abilities, and an understanding of quantitative methods were invaluable. Sure I was studying early 20th century radical agrarian movements, but I had a good understanding of statistical significance and how to write on a deadline.
But I learned those lessons organically. It would have been more helpful to realize how much of my skills, knowledge, and relationships would transfer from the beginning. I could have been more confident and leveraged that information to perform better. I hope Williams’ story and my own can inspire you to try this for yourself.
You → New You
So give it a try, imagine a new role you’d like to have alongside what you do now and see how ready you really are. Whether you’re looking at moving into the tech world like Maisie Williams or myself, or just want to try something new, there’s a lot to learn. It’s just 4 easy steps, so what have you got to lose?

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Job and date searching have something in common…

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Sick of dating apps? See how the dating resume might change the game

The cures for modern singlehood are many and familiar: Tinder, Okcupid, Bumble, The League, Grindr, Match.com, speed dating, and underwater dating. Okay, we made the last one up. Point is, the serious dater is always on the lookout for the next best thing. But what if the next best thing was actually there all along?
Job and date searching have something in common…When job searching, a resume is a tool that we rely on. The best resumes represent who we are as both a professional and an individual. When done right, they can make us feel proud and boost our confidence. It’s no surprise that most people looking for a date could use some of that same confidence. That’s why crafting a dating resume could be your secret weapon this year.
The idea came from just one innovator, a college kid named Joey, who showed the world a new way to kill it in the dating game with a dating resume created with our platform that went viral.
Being resume experts and having dabbled in dating ourselves, we thought about crafting the perfect dating resume template, for anyone to use.

Our perfect dating resume sections: 
1. About me:
Are you a stable, healthy human being who happens to know how to listen, make life-changing blueberry pancakes, and make people laugh? Toot your horn – but keep in mind that you should also consider why your qualifications might matter to a perfect mate. 
2. Ideal qualities in a partner or what you’re looking for: 
Here, describe what exactly you’re looking for. Do you need a partner that can travel on short notice? That wants kids ASAP? Someone you can bring home to your parents? Ask and, hopefully, ye shall receive. 
3. Deal-breakers or red flags: 
Best to get these out of the way early. But they should be serious issues that would prevent you from moving forward with someone who might otherwise be great. Bites their fingernails? Eh, they can probably unlearn that habit. Doesn’t share your opinion about having children? Probably better to be straightforward about that. 
4. Ingredients for a perfect relationship:
Using the Enhancv platform, you can add a section called “MyTime”, which can be renamed and adjusted to suit any topic. Use it to identify your top 5-8 characteristics for a perfect relationship and adjust the chart to show how much importance each has. Add things like spending time at home, being active, cooking, visiting relatives, or anything else that matters to you.
5. Activities you’d love to do together: 
What kind of experiences and adventures do you want to share with a partner? This can often be a great insight into shared interests and common ground. 
Next steps… 

If you’re on a lookout for “the one” at the moment, give a dating resume a go. Answering the right questions about yourself and the perfect partner can not only give you clarity on what you want, but it can also boost your confidence. Create an account on Enhancv and be your own Cupid this year. 
Happy Valentine’s Day and may Cupid be with you! 
 


The Resume Bulletin

A collection of 21 posts