New Year, New You: The Resume Edition

It’s almost a tradition that we kick off the New Year, New You webinar series with a resume review session with Benét Wilson, an aviation journalist and NABJ’s immediate past VP-Digital. She’s done hundreds of resume reviews for everyone from students to executives and has her own business for those who need help.

Benét has partnered with NABJ Student Board Representative Kyra Azore to do a resume webinar. In this session, she will offer her top 10 tips to use to craft a resume that won’t get thrown away. She will also do live resume reviews and answer your questions. This session is for students, but anyone is welcome to join us on Wednesday, Jan. 10 at 7:00 p.m. EST. Click here to register.  Hope to “see” you there!

Recording & Tips from New Year, New You 3.0: The Resume Edition Webinar

Thanks to everyone who joined me tonight for the resume webinar. I hope you found it helpful.  If you missed it, click HERE for the webinar recording.

Below are links to articles that can help you craft a great resume.

• Monster.com: Top 10 resume mistakes to avoid
• TheBalance.com: Resume Writing Guide – Tips and Examples
• Forbes: 8 Critical Ways To Improve Your Resume

If you’re looking for a list of journalism organizations to join, Arizona State University has created this great list.

For those who want to brush up on their skills, I recommend the following training sites:

• Udemy
• Lynda (now owned by LinkedIn)
• Skillshare
• Coursera
• Skillcrush (try the free 10-day boot camp)

Finally, if you’re looking for inspiration, check out “12 of the Most Creative (and Effective) Resumes in the World,” courtesy of The Atlantic. And check out Canva, which has a whole section of resume templates that are easy to use.

Please feel free to email me with any further questions. The next New Year, New You webinar — Do the #SideHustle — will be held on Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2017, at 9:00 p.m. EST. You can get more details and register for it HERE.

3 DJTF Webinars To Prepare You For The 2014 NABJ Convention

It’s amazing, but the 39th Annual NABJ Convention and Career Fair, this year in Boston, is a little more than two months away.  This gives you plenty of time to start getting ready now.

You need to have a resume that’s on point, and you need to have an online portfolio to point potential employers to.  Also, it wouldn’t hurt to start either working on or sharpening up your personal journalism brand.

Lucky for you, the Digital Journalism Task Force did two great hour-long webinars in January on these very topics.  So now is the time to review these webinars so that you’re ready to shine in Boston.

• Developing an Online Portfolio, with Michelle Johnson
• Building Your Brand, with  Dr. Sybril Bennett
• The Do’s and Don’ts of Resumes, with Benet Wilson

You need to submit an email address, but the webinars are free.  I hope they help, and I look forward to seeing you in Boston!

Benét J. Wilson is the vice president of education for the NABJ Digital Journalism Task Force.  She also serves on the board of the Online News Association. She is  the social media/eNewsletters editor for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association and  a freelance aviation journalist and blogger.

The Recording: Top 10 Dos and Don’ts for Resumes

By Benét J. Wilson, chair, NABJ Digital Journalism Task Force & social media/eNewsletters editor, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association

Last night, Denise Clay and I hosted an hour-long webinar with tips on building the perfect resume, just in time for the 38th Annual Convention and Career Fair next week in Orlando.  In case you missed it, click here to listen and watch.

 

 

Pressfolios Offers Updated Features

By Benét J. Wilson, chair, NABJ Digital Journalism Task Force & social media/eNewsletters editor, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association

Back on May 10, DJTF did a webinar with Pressfolios co-founder Marc Samson. Pressfolios is a pretty simple platform created to help journalists, writers, reporters, bloggers, public relations and other media professionals to back up their news stories, design a beautiful online portfolio website, and showcase their personal brand.

During the webinar, Samson said new features were coming, and now they have arrived.  Among the updates:

• Pocket/Instapaper-Style Story Backups — We’re incredibly excited to announce that Pocket/Instapaper-style PDF backups have now been activated for all Pressfolios users.  From here on out, every story added to Pressfolios now comes with two copies backed up on our servers, safely stored and always close at hand. All stories previously added to your Pressfolios account are in the process of generating full-text backups right now. Read more >>
• Bye-bye “Featured” Tab, Hello Fully Customized Story Ordering — By and far the single-most requested feature since launching the all-new Pressfolios, Custom Story Ordering is now here. This means you can now fully customize the order of ALL stories appearing on your Pressfolio, courtesy of our newly released drag and drop interface. Read more >>
• Your Shiny New Pressfolio Designer — The next time you log into your Pressfolios account, you’ll notice some major changes to the Design Manager (aka the “Customize” tab). First and foremost is a switch from the old tab-based layout to a new streamlined interface pulling all elements of the Pressfolio design workflow onto a single page. Read more >>
• Upload Your Resume & Link to Your Blog — You asked – you got it: Thanks to popular demand (and a few snippets of code) you can now upload and display your resume/CV on Pressfolios, as well as a link to your blog. Read more >>
• Photo Editing Software Aviary Now Integrated into Pressfolios — If you had any trouble with image cropping and positioning in the early days of Pressfolios beta, take heart – your troubles are gone now. The powerful image editing software of Aviary has been integrated into Pressfolios. Read more >>

Pressfolios is still in private beta, but use the code NABJ to bypass the wait for an invitation.  Are you using Pressfolios?  Please send us a link to share with our readers!

Managing Your Presence Online

By Alexis M. Davis, a junior public relations major in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Back in high school we were all warned to clean up our Facebook profiles when the time came to apply to institutes of higher education. We did not want admissions counselors deciding our fate before recognizing our promising test scores, many extracurricular activities and, most importantly, our high grades. As students who successfully made it to the next level, we must recognize the need to continue to keep an eye on our online presence, especially at this crucial time for the summer 2012 internship hunt.

In the past few years we have seen an increase in the number of social media platforms available for use and must now ensure all of our pages and profiles are clean and properly updated. Here are a few tips for handling your online reputation:

Begin by branding yourself

No matter if you are interested in broadcast journalism, public relations or general newspaper reporting, it is always a great idea to have a portfolio to display your work and make a name for yourself online. Start slow by making a blog on WordPress, Blogger or even Tumblr to get your ideas out there. Also be sure you have a LinkedIn profile and that it is updated every time you update your résumé. Finally, consider setting up a website to display your writing samples or television clips in one place. Wix and Weebly are free tools anyone can use to get a site up and running.

Personal vs. professional feeds

If you are having trouble separating your private and public life on Twitter, consider having one for friends and peers and another for family, professors and when seeking jobs and internships. Let’s face it, potential employers do not want to see students using outrageous hashtags and tweeting about how crazy the weekend was with friends even though you have an exam on Monday that you have not studied for. If this sounds like you, try changing your image by making your personal page private and leaving your professional page public. To make things simple, use your first and last name for your professional Twitter and list any titles you have in the description area.

Check your profiles with Socioclean

If you want another set of eyes to check your social media sites, try using Socioclean. The site will scan your pages, point out potentially damaging comments on your wall and photo albums and also check your tweets for foul language. The program will then give you a grade based on your professional online presence. Check and see if your school’s career services department has offered this tool.

Use common sense

Remember that anything you put on the Internet is there forever. If you are preparing to post something and think an employer, your mother, or even your future children would be ashamed at its existence, hit delete immediately! Nothing is worse than having the past come back to haunt you, so it is best to assume everyone is always watching.

LinkedIn Unveils Most-used Profile Buzz Words in 2011

By Benét J. Wilson, DJTF chair & freelance aviation journalist/blogger

In those rare hours where I have some time to myself, I do free resume reviews for students and young journalists.  I had people help me with this and other things when I started in the business, and I feel an obligation to return the favor.

Professional social media platform LinkedIn recently came out with its list of the top 10 most-used buzz words in members’ profiles during 2011.  You can see the list here.  But there are words that just drive me (and potential employers) nuts when they come up in a resume.  I list them below, and why they drive us crazy.

• Communication skills:  If you’re a journalist, this should be a given, so you don’t need to actually spell it out on the resume;
  
• Objective: I hate this word, because the resume itself tells an employer that your objective is to get a job.  Get rid of this word and the chatter that usually follows it and use that valuable resume space to show how you can actually help an employer with your skills;
• Organized/organizational: journalists by their very nature have to be organized, so there’s no need to state the obvious. Instead, highlight things you’ve done that show off your organizational skills;
• Track record: the first thing that pops into my head when I see this is “track and field star?” Instead of saying you have a track record, illustrate it with your body of work;
• Motivated: if you’re looking for a job, it’s obvious that you’re motivated to get hired.  Otherwise, why would you send the resume in the first place? Instead, highlight projects and skills that show initiative and/or creative thinking;
• Out-of-the-box/innovative: One, these phrases are way overused. Two, people use bad examples to illustrate this.  So show, don’t tell about how your skills are out-of-the-box or innovative; and
• Effective: No one will describe themselves as ineffective, especially on a resume.  Again, show, don’t tell, how you and your skills would be effective in the workplace.

 

Another Journalist Layoff: My Own Story, The Update

By Benét J. Wilson, DJTF chair

First, I must apologize for how I’ve let this blog go.  I really thought that during my unemployment, I’d have much more time to devote to it.  But that wasn’t the case.  In some ways, I worked harder while unemployed that the regular day-to-day operations of a regular job.

The good news is that I did find another job. My first day was Monday.  In my original post on Oct. 7, I offered tips on how those of you in my old situation could jumpstart — or start — your job search efforts.  They work.

I moved away — quickly — from the mourning of the job loss.  I kept hearing how well I was taking the layoff, but I really didn’t have time to look back.  Having that resume ready was very helpful, because I could literally send it at a moment’s notice. Even if you have a job and are comfortable in it (like I was), have the resume ready to send out tomorrow if need be.

One of the three jobs that were offered to me came as a direct result of my 100% updated LinkedIn profile.  My network and groups were great resources for job and freelance leads.  And the recommendations were mentioned in all of my job interviews.

I was a BIG fan of social media (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+) before my layoff, and I’m an even bigger fan now.  I received 2 other job leads (that resulted in offers) from Facebook and Twitter.  And Twitter and Google+ led to a nice pile of freelance work that continues to this day.  I’ve managed to build two great networks — aviation and journalism — using my social media outlets.  And they were my salvation after the layoff.

In the end, I was offered a journalism job, a communications job and an editorial job for an association.  I did struggle, because I thought I wanted to stay in journalism.  But I ended up becoming the director of media relations for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.  This job offered the perfect blend, allowing me to use my communications/PR, community manager, social media consultant and aviation media/marketing skills.  And did I mention that one of the perks is free flying lessons?

So that’s my story.  I want to say thanks to all of you who sent me words of encouragement.  I want to thank my freelance folks for giving me all kinds of great advice for getting set up and what to charge.  I want to thank all my Aviation Week colleagues for their support and personal recommendations.  And thanks to my fellow aviation journalists and the aviation community for the job leads and freelance work.

And for those of you out there still searching — don’t give up.  Work your network and think outside the box — that next job is around the corner!

Another Journalist Layoff: My Own Story

By Benét J. Wilson, DJTF chair

It was just another Tuesday. I was judging an airports concession contest, then was going back to the office at 1 p.m. for what I thought was a group meeting. I briefly thought it was odd that most of my colleagues were still sitting at their desks, but shook it off. I was called to a conference room where I saw two company leaders, and I knew.

The whole process was very cordial and professional. I listened to the talk, took the packet and thanked them for a great five-year run. Who else do you know that gets paid to do their hobby, their passion? My last day is October 21. One would think that I would be devastated, but really, I’ve been amazingly optimistic. I chatted with a few of my co-workers (actually consoling them), then I went home.

On the train ride home, I started tapping into the network I’ve amassed after almost 20 years in the aviation business.  I’ve also tapped my rapidly growing new/digital media network for leads.  And the response has been wonderful. I’ve picked up some freelance work, and I already have two job interviews scheduled.  Thanks to Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and Twitter, I have hundreds of folks (and their own contacts) on the lookout for any opportunities for me.  And dear readers, if you hear of anything, you can let me know at benet@aviationqueen.com!

So below are five tips from me to you to use if you get laid off — or if you’re already laid off and looking.

1. Give yourself no more than a day to mourn (I took all of 15 minutes). The deed is done, and you need to focus your energies on looking for your next opportunity.
2. Have a resume ready.  I spent a happy five years at my soon-to-be former employer, but I always kept it ready.  I have it on a thumb drive on my key ring, along with a copy on my iPhone, so I can send it from anywhere at any time.  I was able to send my resume to three friends on my train ride home Tuesday.
3. Create/update your LinkedIn profile. One of my job interviews came from this network.  My profile was 95% complete, but I needed recommendations.  I tapped my network again, asking for recommendations on my listed jobs. This brings you to the attention of potential employers.
4. Don’t be afraid to use social media.  One thing you DON’T want to do is bash your former employer. Tell people you’re out and ask them to pass along any opportunities they may hear of.  I already have 4 leads from a Facebook post coming from others contacts.
5. Think outside the box.  People are asking me what I want to do next.  I want to stay in journalism, but I’m not going to limit myself to that.  So I’m looking at communications/PR, community manager, social media consultant, aviation media/marketing efforts and anything else I think will fit my unique skills.

So here’s to finding that next adventure!!