Where Will You Be in Five Years? (Harvard Business Review)

...You need to be prepared to do some serious introspection and consider parts of your life that you may not regularly think about. "It starts with a reflection on what you are good at and what you are not good at," says Weintraub. Far too many people spend time doing things they are not suited for or enjoy. Weintraub suggests you ask yourself three questions:

What are my values?
What are my goals?
What am I willing to do to get there?

The angle of this article is mostly about how to answer this question when it comes up in interviews or within a job setting. While that's important and certainly relevant, I actually think we could all benefit from thinking about our five-year-plans - there's no rule they have to be set in stone or inflexible, or even just about your career. Just mulling it over in your head for a little while will bring up questions and ideas that can help you better plan - and better enjoy - your life in big and small ways. You might be surprised where your future takes you.

Read the full article here.

How to Write a Résumé That Doesn't Annoy People (Harvard Business Review)

But in our fear to avoid saying anything that might get our résumé tossed out of the pile, we end up saying nothing at all. As a result, the hiring manager feels like she's reading tea leaves, not CVs. One feels forced to come up with arbitrary rules to narrow the field. Nobody with an objective statement, no résumés longer than three pages, no serif fonts.

It would be nice if the above was a joke, but it's probably not. With so many résumés to sort through, even the tiniest thing can land yours in the "Toss" pile instead of the "Keep" pile. The author's list of suggestions (with additional comments in the article) are as follows:

1. Get the formatting right.
2. Insert dates for everything
3. Fill up on the buzzwords.
4. Choose verbs that mean something.
5. Rewrite your résumé for each job application.
6. State career objectives or outside interests - but be very careful.
7. The further into your past, the less detail you should have.
8. Keep it short.
9. No typos.

Back in the day, I had to look through literally hundreds of résumés when we were replacing an assistant at my company, which prompted me to put together a little list of my own. You can check that out in the next post (above). And as always, please share your thoughts.

Read the full HBR article here.