New Book: 30-Day Job Promotion

Susan Britton Whitcomb has just released a new book, "30 Day Job Promotion: Build a Powerful Promotion Plan in a Month." You can read a sample chapter here.

The book covers:

• Top 10 characteristics of promotable people
• 3 common reasons people want to get promoted—money, ego, and “itch”
• 6 secrets of a Master F.I.T. so the new position fits like a glove
• 5 A's of a winning game plan
• 12 dumb mistakes to avoid when going for a promotion
• Quiz to predict your client's "promotability factor"
• 10 commandments of career success
• Scripts and tips for to help your clients have “crucial career conversations” with their manager
• A winning T.A.L.K. formula—timing, agenda, languaging, keep it going
• 15 common roadblocks to promotion, along with tips for overcoming them
• 10 steps to salary negotiation to help clients get paid for the work they really do
• 10 inspiring success stories of real-life people who have earned promotions

Buy the book on Tuesday, Sept. 18 and help Susan climb the Amazon best-seller charts!

New Subcontracting Opportunity

When you think of subcontracting, you might think that only pertains to actually writing the resume. But other subcontracting opportunities exist for professional resume writers.

One of these opportunities is being offered by Peter Newfield, of Career-Resumes.com. He is looking for resume writers with strong technical knowledge (of effective resume strategies), good sales ability, and solid organizational capabilities for a Resume Sales Position (multiple positions available).

Perform written resume critiques, providing resume development quotes and converting leads into sales. Receive a commission on inquiries which result in a paid order -- earn an average of $60 per conversion. Set your own schedule.

For more information, e-mail Bridget at RWDigest@aol.com (subject: Resume Sales Position). I'll send you the details and application information.

Ideas + Action = Prosperity

One of the best things about publishing Resume Writers' Digest, I think, is the opportunity to bring the "best practices" of our industry's best and brightest to light, so that we can all share in the rewards.

But sometimes you may be thinking to yourself as you read the newsletter, "That would never work for me."

Author Mark H. McCormack gives a tip for how to put some of those seemingly unworkable ideas into practice in his book, "Never Wrestle With a Pig":

"An "idea" has to be more than a suggestion that someone else can pick up and run with. At the minimum in business, an idea must be a clever recombination of two seemingly disparate concepts into a larger concept that no one else has considered before."

If you can't make that idea into something "no one else has considered before" -- you can certainly think of a way to implement it to your advantage and have it work for YOU in a way YOU had never considered before.

Take a look at this six-page special section on the 2001 PARW Conference in St. Petersburg, Florida. Then find ONE idea you can adapt and put into practice for yourself -- and DO IT!

Conferences are great inspiration. It's not too late to register for the Career Directors International Conference next month (Oct. 18-20) in San Antonio, Texas.

Recruiters: "Competition" for Resume Writers?

I wrote the following in 2002:

There was a comment made in the Recruiter's Panel at the CMI Conference (now the Career Management Alliance) in San Diego in 2002 that sometime in the future, recruiters may get into the résumé-writing business. I would argue, some already have.

For the sake of argument, permit me to comment on this.

POSITIVES:
• Most recruiters already make 100K and don't need the income from resume writing to make a living. Therefore, they probably won't troll in the same "waters" we do for clients. (However, they might employ staff for this role, as it might not be a task they want to offer THEMSELVES but want to offer as a firm.)
• Two can play that game. What keeps resume writers from taking on recruitment roles? (There are already several resume writers who are excellent role models for this within the industry.)
• There might be an opportunity for resume writers to more closely affiliate with recruiters who want to offer this service, but don't want to take on staff or do it themselves.
• Recruiters might increase their appreciation of resume writers as they see how difficult our part of the job is. (I certainly have a respect for how difficult THEIR job can be.)

NEGATIVES:
• It's easier for recruiters to find the prospects -- people are always sending resumes to recruiters; if they're bad, they're in a perfect position to recommend that their resume needs to be redone.
• Recruiters don't need to make money off the resumes they do; their primary profit centers are the fees paid to them by employers. Ergo, they can/will underprice most resume writers.
• Unlike most resume writers, recruiters know the target EXACTLY. (Resume writers can usually get it about 98% right *grin*). When they create the resume, they also know what to emphasize to get that particular job. Almost every time.

Keep an eye on this topic -- it's going to be hot in the next couple of years.

All right, it's five years later. What's the reality?

I know of several resume writers who subcontract write for recruiting firms. I know of a few resume writers who also do recruiting. For the most part, the status quo has reigned. But that's not to say that things won't change in the next five years. Stay tuned. I'll have more for you on this topic.