Your resume in 140 characters

Growing up, we were taught that our résumés needed to follow a strict format and could be no longer than two pages. We were taught that a good résumé included all our work experience and our education and everything we could cram into two pages while retaining the standard format and (Microsoft Word template-inspired) style.

Luckily, it didn’t take me long to realize that a résumé was not supposed to be formulaic: it was, instead, a reflection of not only your experiences and accomplishments, but a reflection of you as a person.

I’ve written about résumés before, and while I still believe that they are a necessary evil to getting your foot into the door of certain organizations, I have been looking at alternate ways that are people are using to pitch themselves.

Recently, I found a fun little thread on BusinessWeek that asked people to write their résumé in 140 characters — a type of Twitter elevator pitch. Inspired by the really good resuwitters in the comments (I particularly like the one by Jon Garfunkel), I came up with my own:

Hullo, I’m Vasta, and I tell stories. I help organizations use the web to get their stories heard by the people that need to hear them most.

Not too detailed, not too humorous, but it explains what I do effectively.

Of course, this 140-character blurb will never replace my résumé, which in turn will never replace any kind of portfolio or even face-to-face interaction, but it did make me realize that brevity, apart from being the soul of wit, is also key to communication.

If you can’t describe your work in 140 characters or less, maybe it’s time to reevaluate your activities and discover what it is that you actually do.

What do you do for a living? Can you get it down to 140 characters or less? (Photo by John Watson.)

Thank you for being my friend (and referral)

This short note is my small way of saying thank you to all my friends. Or more specifically, to all my friends that have helped me stay employed over the past three years.

See, when you’re working as a freelance consultant, your next paycheck is never guaranteed. Most freelancers I know spend almost as much time looking for new gigs as they do working for their current clients. The benefits of self-employment are great, but you’ve got to go in expecting that you’re going to be working for many more hours than you’re actually billing out to your clients.

Me? I’ve been lucky.

Most of my clients have come to me through referrals. When you’ve got other people speaking on your behalf, it drastically reduces the time you spend looking for new work.

To all of you that have been Sameer Vasta evangelists over the past three years, thank you for saving my sanity — and my social life.

The peer referral is often as, if not more, important than the client referral — particularly when the person referring you is in the same industry. It says a lot when a peer can turn around and tell a client, “I can’t do that for you right now, but I know someone that can.”

In a recent article on peer referrals on Web Worker Daily, Jenneth Orantia writes:

Peers aren’t going to risk tarnishing their reputation by recommending someone whose work they’re not familiar with.

Giving a peer referral implies a large amount of trust, and I really appreciate everyone that has trusted me enough to sing my praises from time to time.

I’m trying to return the favor in any way possible. One way is by spreading the good word in person, but another is by recommending people and services on GigPark. (If you’re not using GigPark yet, go sign up now, I’ll wait here until you get back.) If I’m already your biggest fan and I haven’t recommended you just yet, let me know and I’ll fix that oversight.

Thank you again to everyone that has been my friend and my referral all rolled into one. I owe you dinner.

Special thanks to the always-awesome Connie Crosby who was influential in helping me score my most recent gig.

Head of Magic is an awesome job title

My current gig as a policy analyst with the government aside, my job title in my freelance consulting career is ‘storyteller’ or some variant of the storytelling theme.

So when I read this quote on Put Things Off today (yes, I know it is an old post), I was, well, extremely put off:

Your job title isn’t the place to be creative. If you craft beautiful logos, kern type all day and your best friend is a certain lady called Helvetica, you’re most likely a Graphic Designer. If you design for the web, you are a Web Designer. If you code for the web, you are a Web Developer. If you craft crisp, concise, colourful copy, you are a Writer. If you run a commercial blog, you are a Blogger. If you sell photographs, you are a Photographer.

I couldn’t disagree more.

Now, I’ll admit that there are too many freelancers that use non-descriptive canned titles like “creative” and “director,” but I’d argue that there is a lot of room for creativity in a job title when it aptly describes what you do.

On being Head of Magic

One of my favorite people in Toronto — and one of the best marketers I have ever met — currently works at Freshbooks. His name is Saul Colt, and his title at Freshbooks is Head of Magic.

It might sound odd to you, but his job title is perfect. Saul’s job is really magical: he turns everyday product users into fans, evangelists, and spokespeople. By reaching out to every customer in the manner that that touches them most dearly, he facilitates transformations among Freshbooks users.

On top of all that, like a true magician, Saul Colt is a true showman. He doesn’t just talk about his product — instead, he engages his audience and makes them believe like they’re a part of the magic as well. Unlike most magicians, however, Saul does not keep his tricks a secret. Instead, he shares his wisdom and ideas on his blog so that we can all learn from him. Which, I guess, is why he’s the Head of Magic instead of just a magician.

If Saul had any other title than Head of Magic, I’m sure he’d do his job equally well. If Nick Cernis had his way, Saul would probably be called Marketing Lead or something mundane like that. But a title of Marketing Lead doesn’t really describe what Saul does; he’s not just a marketer, but instead is truly magical in the way he makes every single user feel like they’re the most important person in the world.

On being a Storyteller

As the example above demonstrates, your job title doesn’t have to be boring, but it has to be descriptive.

A few years ago, when I decided to get into content consulting, I struggled with finding a title that would adequately describe what I do. A lot of my work involved writing, but I wasn’t a writer. A lot of my work involved strategy, but I wasn’t really a strategist. A ton of my work involved coming up with ideas, but innovator didn’t really do the trick either.

What I realized very quickly though, is that whether I was coming up with ideas, strategy, or words, in the end I was helping people accomplish one important goal: to tell their story in the best possible way to the right people. I was, in fact, a storyteller. (I’ve since realized that storyteller not only serves as a great job title, but also describes what I do in my personal life as well.)

I tell stories. I’m a storyteller. According to Nick Cernis, my chosen job title would probably be considered frivolous and detrimental to my reputation. On the contrary, I think it describes me perfectly.

On sharing the love

Oh, and one more tidbit: I’ve been writing for blogTO for a few years now, and most of what I do for the blog is share my love for the city of Toronto. Someone once told me that every single time I speak about my city, it’s like I’m giving it a big hug.

I guess it’s not surprising that on my blogTO business card, my title is “Hugger Extraordinaire.” If nothing else, it provides a great way to get conversation going. Plus, everyone that reads it inevitably asks for a hug, and I’m always looking to share the love.

What is your job title? Does it adequately describe what you do? If you could create your own job title, what would it be?

Seth Godin, I have and use a resume

For a span of two or three years, I didn’t update my resume once. All the employment opportunities that came my way were filtered through word-of-mouth and potential employers were able to review my work and credentials through my blog and web presence.

So when Seth Godin recently wrote his post entitled Why bother having a resume? and claimed that remarkable people don’t need resumes, I was ready to wholeheartedly agree. After all, as Seth says:

A resume is an excuse to reject you. Once you send me your resume, I can say, “oh, they’re missing this or they’re missing that,” and boom, you’re out.

Recently, however, I’ve learned that a resume is not only a good thing to have, but still almost necessary when searching for a job.

There are still several companies and organizations that require a resume in order to apply for certain positions. To people like Seth, those “average jobs” in the “corporate behemoth” might be worthy of derision, but to many of us still starting out in our respective industries they are learning opportunities and chances to build experience that makes us all the more remarkable.

I won’t argue that having a resume is the best way to be recruited: truly spectacular people will have projects, blogs, and portfolios that accentuate their talents. Having a resume, however, is a good way to get those projects, blogs, and portfolios noticed by people who aren’t usually in the habit of looking at those things.

Because of that, I have and use a resume. It’s not the only tool in my employability arsenal, but it’s a good first move when necessary.