“In the garden…” is a series for A Gardener’s Notebook highlighting what is happening in my garden, my friend’s gardens and California gardens throughout the seasons.
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about making your resume into a blog (See Your resume a blog, January 5, 2007) and today I want to go a little deeper into what information you might want to place there. Whether you are creating your new resume blog, or using the more traditional resume and cover letter, you should be specific about your career story. It is these details that will provoke interest in you and your work.
Read any book on good writing and nearly all of them will preach the gospel of specific and unique detail. If you want your writing to have power and emotional impact, you need highly detailed sections of description. Where a beginning writer might write, “The bird sat in the tree,” a more experienced writer would write, “The bright red cardinal, with its black mask and pointed cap, sat high in the tall, leafless, maple tree and sang its purdy-purdy-purdy song with gusto.” While this might be a bit of purple prose, it is certainly more engaging than, ‘The bird sat in the tree.” Details in the story make the reader want to know more about the cardinal and his story — details in your resume make the potential employer want to know more about you and your career.
Clearly, the same rules apply for your resumes and cover letter writing. Don’t say the career equivalent of “The bird sat in the tree.” Of course, you don’t simply want to create a laundry list of hardware and software you managed, either. The details need to be wrapped up within a complete story. This is the difference between a telephone book and a novel. One is just information, the other is an engaging tale that can sometimes change the world.
For example, instead of simply saying, “I worked with Windows,” say “One major project included a national rollout (3 sites/1000+ systems) of Windows XP SP2 and MS Office in which I managed 18 staff members of all levels and developed solutions to software issues that prevented employees from accessing a critical, legacy, AS/400 system. These issues were caused by conflicts between our client software (X), network hardware (Y) and connectivity issues using AT&T leased lines. I created a task force with members from all these vendors, and internal staff to resolve the issues while still maintaining the project timeline.”
I am sure your own career stories are much better than this made-up example, but the concept should be clear. Again, as most writing books will tell you, every good story addresses who, what, when, where, why and how. Make sure you get all that information into your career story. Of all of these items, though, I think the most important aspects are the why and the how. Too often, we don’t do enough to expose our thought processes and methods to those around us. Concentrating on “why” shows prospective employers what you think and how you go about the process of setting up a project, while the “how” gives them specific information on how you implemented that project and the hurdles you crossed to complete it.
Pick and choose
Just as you don’t want to overwhelm your reader with laundry lists of hardware and software, you don’t want to try and tell all your stories in one novel-length resume. The traditional 1-page resume form means you have to pick and choose which stories are most important to each employer and which tell the specific story you want to relate to that particular employer. Again, just as a writer considers their audience, so should you. If you are applying for a position as a network manager, you should choose stories that reflect that experience. A different position will naturally require a different set of stories. Overall, I would recommend that you present no more than three individual stories in any resume. More than that could overwhelm the reader. Less than that might not provide enough information. Of course, your resume blog can contain as many stories as you like, since it is being accessed in different fashion. Your end goal, in any situation, is to be invited in for a face-to-face interview. Make sure your resume interests the reader so much that they simply have to meet you in person.
Even though you might not be a writer by trade, you can use the writer’s tools to craft resumes and cover letters that are filled with the specific detailed stories necessary to tell your career story in the best way possible.
Want a great way to find cool books to read? Visit your local library. That’s right, your library. Then locate the “Sorting Shelves.” Ask the librarian, if you can’t find themselves. Sorting shelves contain books which have recently been returned by other patrons and are being sorted by subject, so they can be reshelved in their proper locations.
You are almost sure to find something interesting here via pure serendipity. It only makes sense that those books which have circulated recently might be of interest to you, too. These shelves will be a great mixture of every genre, from cookbooks to philosophy, as well a collection of both new books and old.
Next time you are looking for something interesting to read, check out the sorting shelves at your local library. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Music: “Mining by Moonlight”, Kevin MacLeod, Incompetech.com, Creative Commons License
Time to repair an older, but still serviceable, garden hose with some parts from the home improvement store and a little time. So easy anyone — yes even I — can do it! (LAUGH)
“In the garden…” is a series for A Gardener’s Notebook highlighting what is happening in my garden, my friend’s gardens and California gardens throughout the seasons.
It’s time for another WordPress Wednesday. Take the time this week to backup your WordPress Databases, Update your Plugins and Load the latest, greatest version of WordPress, 3.6. “Oscar”
“The latest and greatest WordPress, version 3.6, is now live to the world and includes a beautiful new blog-centric theme, bullet-proof autosave and post locking, a revamped revision browser, native support for audio and video embeds, and improved integrations with Spotify, Rdio, and SoundCloud.”
I really like panoramic pictures and in this video I take about 8 of them and turn them into an interesting video. This is just another example, for the Dog Days of Podcasting, how many different types of media can be used to create your podcasts. Your show, your audio, your video doesn’t need to be like anyone else’s — and especially like traditional radio or television. Experiment with whatever you have. Re-use media, arrange it differently, mash it up with something else.
You can see the quality differences here between panorama done with my iPhone and those taken — in multiple slices — with my traditional digital camera. The higher quality the photos that come in, the higher quality the video out, so you may want to take some time to shoot and stitch the panorama before using it in your video editor.
I rebuild one of the containers, removing some basil plants into other pots, remixing the soil with worm castings and some organic fertilizer and planting it up with carrots and radish seeds.
“In the garden…” is a series for A Gardener’s Notebook highlighting what is happening in my garden, my friend’s gardens and California gardens throughout the seasons.
“In the garden…” is a series for A Gardener’s Notebook highlighting what is happening in my garden, my friend’s gardens and California gardens throughout the seasons.
Here is my kick-off video for the Dog Days of Podcasting event. I am going to use this event as a showcase for all the different ways and methods of podcasting available. You’ll see video shot with camcorders, iPhones and more, audio recorded with my iPhone and high-end audio recorders and even some photo montages and slide shows. There will be interviews, environmental videos (showing a particular location) and all my regular podcasts, too.
“Essentially, it is a challenge to do a podcast for 30 days in a row.
In 2012 Kreg Steppe was looking to give himself a little push in regards to recording his own personal podcast since he wasn’t recording it very often. That turned into a challenge for himself to record a show everyday for 30 days believing that after 30 days it would turn into a habit. Once it was mentioned to Chuck Tomasi he took the challenge too and they decided it would be a great idea to record starting 30 days before Dragon*Con, culminating with the last episode where they would record it together when they saw each other there.
Turns out there were some of our friends that also wanted to get in on the action and took the challenge too. So it grew into a challenge 7 of us took.
This year we are inviting more podcasters to get in on the action. Keep in mind, it’s a fun challenge, and you will not be shamed (too much) if you don’t record every 30 day. It is kind of like the way Drew Carey describes “Whose line is it anyway?”. A fun game were we earn points, but the points don’t matter.
What matters is that we all have fun recording and listening to each other.
Start Date: July 30th, 2013
End Date: August 30th, 2013
Rules: Podcast Once a day for 30 days. Show length is up to you. Most vary from 3 – 5 Min.”
New Media Gear 21: Fancierstudio 3000 Watt Digital Video Continuous Softbox Lighting Kit
A few months ago we had need to purchase some equipment for a testimonial project and a series of interviews. First on our list was a basic set of video lights that would provide nice, basic illumination and still be easy to transport, as we would be shooting the interviews at the client sites. As we are just starting to move into the video production business (beyond my own personal productions) and not exactly knowing how far this line of work will take us, I didn’t want to invest thousands of dollars only to have to sell the equipment later for a loss.
I did quite a bit of searching online and came across this kit on Amazon.com. I made a point of reading nearly every review available, both positive and negative to see how this kit might fit our needs. Overall the kit has a 4 star rating over 77 reviews. The one item I kept seeing in the reviews was the fact that this was, indeed, a “cheap” kit. That didn’t mean it didn’t work well, only that you had to be careful when setting up and tearing down and you couldn’t necessarily toss it around. Knobs are plastic, although the screws themselves are metal, the nylon bags holding the diffusion boxes are poorly stitched and things like that. Almost all the review said, though, that if you are looking for a good, entry-level kit, this could be it.
Based on these reviews, I ordered the kit and crossed my fingers that it would work out well. Once it arrived, we did a test setup here in the office so we understood how everything went together before we tried to do this under the time constraints of an actual shoot. It took a little time to learn exactly how to best put the lights together, but now that we have down 6 setups and tear downs, we are pretty good and can set up two lights in about 15 minutes.
Since we had the warnings from the reviews, we have been very careful to treat the kit with a light hand and try to keep the abuse to a minimum. These seems to have served us well, as nothing has broken or been damaged over the course of the last 2 months of transport and shoot.
Everything — stands, light bulbs, fixtures, diffusion boxes and screens — fits back into the original carrying case and allows us to move around quite easily from car to location to car. The kit is small enough that it easily fits in the trunk or back seat of all but the smallest vehicles.
Overall, we have been very satisfied in our purchase and while we may move up to more expensive (and expansive) equipment in the future, it has served us well as we grow. Go into this purchase with the full knowledge that is “cheap” and may require a little gentler care than most, but we have found it quite functional for, albeit limited, needs.
Fellow Friends in Tech member, Kreg Steppe started the first Dog Days of Podcasting Challenge in 2012, as a way to kickstart his own podcasting efforts. I missed that announcement, but I am jumping on board for this years challenge and you should too! What a great way to try out new styles, new shows, new ideas and generally get your podcasting feet moving!
Essentially, it is a challenge to do a podcast for 30 days in a row.
In 2012 Kreg Steppe was looking to give himself a little push in regards to recording his own personal podcast since he wasn’t recording it very often. That turned into a challenge for himself to record a show everyday for 30 days believing that after 30 days it would turn into a habit. Once it was mentioned to Chuck Tomasi he took the challenge too and they decided it would be a great idea to record starting 30 days before Dragon*Con, culminating with the last episode where they would record it together when they saw each other there.
Turns out there were some of our friends that also wanted to get in on the action and took the challenge too. So it grew into a challenge 7 of us took.
This year we are inviting more podcasters to get in on the action. Keep in mind, it’s a fun challenge, and you will not be shamed (too much) if you don’t record every 30 day. It is kind of like the way Drew Carey describes “Whose line is it anyway?”. A fun game were we earn points, but the points don’t matter.
What matters is that we all have fun recording and listening to each other.
Start Date: July 30th, 2013
End Date: August 30th, 2013
Rules: Podcast Once a day for 30 days. Show length is up to you. Most vary from 3 – 5 Min.
I’ll be posting my daily shows here during the challenge, but I will also be including my usual podcast selection as part of the 30 days, so you should see podcasts on careers, new media, gardening, technology and more!
I just saw notice in my WordPress dashboard that their latest update is now available. It resolves a number of security issues in the software. As usual, it is best to install updates soon after they are released to prevent any hacking attacks that might arise from these known bugs. Click on the “Please Update Now” banner in your WordPress Dashboard to install the update automatically.
From the WordPress 3.5.2 release notes:
The security fixes included:
Blocking server-side request forgery attacks, which could potentially enable an attacker to gain access to a site.
Disallow contributors from improperly publishing posts, reported by Konstantin Kovshenin, or reassigning the post’s authorship, reported by Luke Bryan.
An update to the SWFUpload external library to fix cross-site scripting vulnerabilities. Reported by mala and Szymon Gruszecki.
Prevention of a denial of service attack, affecting sites using password-protected posts.
An update to an external TinyMCE library to fix a cross-site scripting vulnerability. Reported by Wan Ikram. Multiple fixes for cross-site scripting. Reported by Andrea Santese and Rodrigo. Avoid disclosing a full file path when a upload fails. Reported by Jakub Galczyk.
My old — and rather inexpensive — set of headphones are on their last legs, and since I am moving into more on-location video production I decided I needed at least one new pair. I put out the call for headphone recommendations on both the Podcast Community Group on Facebook and the Podcasters list on Yahoo. As usual, I received a host of great recommendations.
For the time begin, I picked up a rather inexpensive pair of headphones at the local Radio Shack store as I had a discount coupon available and they are nearby. These will get me by for a while and I will continue checking out all the further recommendations for a more expensive set for the future.
From this list, I am leaning towards the Sony headphones. I have used them professional environment before and liked both their sounds and their fit. It was great to be reminded of them as a possibility.
This week’s Subscribed entry is a bit of a departure as it isn’t a podcast, YouTube Channel or blog, but rather a Facebook community dedicate to Podcasting. The Podcast Community has nearly 800 members and a depth of new media information not found in many other places.
The Podcast Community is a place for questions and discussions, not just announcements of upcoming shows and guests. If you have a new media question, this is one of the best places to get it answered. You’ll find a wide variety of advice, guidance and support in this community.
What are some of your favorite Subscriptions? Share them here in the comments!
Subscribed is a Careers in New Media series highlighting the Podcasts, YouTube Channels and Blogs that I follow on a daily basis. Check out this entry, and past entries, for some great New Media Content — Douglas
New Media Gear 19: Premium microphone power supply with 9v power
Last week I posted a call for recommendations/answers for connecting my existing set of laveliere mics to my new camcorder (mentioned in last week’s New Media Gear post). While my Zoom H2 has a Plug-In Power mode, which boosts the signal from these mics, the camcorder does not provide this power and the mics did not work. Since I had purchased this camcorder specially because it had an external mic input, I needed to find the proper way to boost this signal without adding any noise.
My audio expert friend, Michael, led me to this microphone power supply/pre-amp and it appears to work very well. Connecting this between the mics and the camcorder powers the mic and posts the signal properly and with very little noise.
This will now allow me to record lav mic audio directly to the camera, removing the need to record on an external recorder and sync the audio during the editing process. This sync isn’t really difficult, but it does make for extra work if it really isn’t necessary for the project.
from Shawn Thorpe
