Competing Above the Rim Like LeBron and Griffin

Basketball is one of my favorite past times. I grew up watching Clyde”The Glide” Drexler, Bernard King, Dominique Wilkins and Julius “The Doctor” Erving performing magic on the courts. Etched in my mind are Dr. J’s endless hang-time and foul-line dunk shots.

So when Miami Heat’s LeBron James scored a one-handed, alley-oop style dunk on Chicago Bulls, John Lucas III, I almost lost it. LeBron scored by jumping over the standing 5’11 Lucas. Sweet!

24 hours later….Los Angeles Clippers, Blake Griffin took it to another level by catching a perfect pass by Chris Paul and posterizing Oklahoma City Thunder, Kendrick Perkins with a monster dunk. You had to cover your mouth and holler “OHHH Man” after seeing the replay.

Griffin’s powerful dunk was graciously dubbed “Dunk of the Year” in a LeBron James tweet,” (Dunk of the Year!! @blakegriffin just dunked on Kendrick Perkins so hard!! Wow!! I guess I’m #2 now. Move over #6.”

Adding Value to the Fundamentals

If we think about it for a minute, what I’m talking about is how basketball greats score 2 points. With the help of well-timed assists, the shots were easily made in transition. However, a layup garners the same result; both earned a basket just as if they caught an inbound pass. What’s the difference? One adds spontaneous creativity and the later follows the rules to the letter.

Each player has a brand of play which standouts above all the other athletes who can dunk. Job seekers need to start competing above the rim just like LeBron and Griffin.

Templates Don’t Work

Too many people are in the job search game making easy layups with cookie-cutter resumes. Once they find a job opportunity, they rush to fill in the Professional Experience section with boilerplate information snatched from a template. Sprinkled bullets and copied keywords from job descriptions dictate the resume direction. Some are still struggling on what to keep because their playing by the old “One Page” resume rule. So they are jamming 10 years of work history into a fact sheet type document, clicking the “Apply or Upload” button and begin praying for the best.

Change Your Mindset

It’s time to add finesse and most importantly a personal brand to your resume. LeBron and Griffin made a statement. If you dig up your resume, what will you see a monster dunk or a nightmare?

Instead of treating your resume like an application requirement, start seeing it as an invitation for employers to hire you. Illustrate how you perform above and beyond what you’re hired to do. Begin by looking at your previous accomplishments and listing why they were impactful. Would you get a “Wow this person’s got a lot of solid experience.”? Or “This one qualifies for the position… Layup

Take Your Brand to New Heights

It’s not enough to qualify for a job. You have to prove that you’re the best at what you do. A resume seems like a simple document. But it is not. The biggest challenge is highlighting your marketable skill sets. You want to invest in defining your personal brand so you can move from qualifying for a position to becoming the top candidate.

How Can You Elevate Your Resume?

Get rid of the contrived resume templates and start showing personality in your accomplishments and employment choices.

Add immediate value to your job search with Resume Branding. Your credentials will jump off the page in 10 seconds or less. Resume Branding is designed to prove you know the fundamentals while showcasing your unique quantitative and qualitative ability. Most importantly market research and years of hiring expertise drives the Resume Branding process which creates an “employer friendly” resume.

From the beginning companies want to make sure they draft the right team players. If you cannot hit the replay button on your resume and get excited every time, then how can you expect the employer to feel?

Get assistance before your dream job comes along. Don’t get caught flat-footed like Lucas and Perkins.

“Success always comes when preparation meets opportunity” ~ Henry Hartman

What George Lucas Can Teach Us about Rejection and Landing on Top

My family and I went to see the revolutionary movie Red Tails during opening weekend. It was a riveting story about the World War II contributions and flying acrobatics of segregated Negro Fighter pilots (Tuskegee Airmen) discriminated against because of their color.

I’m familiar with the Tuskegee Airmen’s struggle for equality in the Army Air Corps. However I did not know the background story behind the making of Red Tails. George Lucas a critically acclaimed film maker was the executive director. He also created American Graffiti and the Star Wars Saga which holds the record for the #1 PG Movie.

Lucas had spent the last 23 years working on a film that would highlight the valor and victory of the Tuskegee Airmen who successfully escorted US bombers during the war. Despite Lucas’ world renowned success, all the major studios rejected his proposal to distribute Red Tails.

Now let’s take into consideration that Lucas is the same director who generated over 4 billion dollars in Star Wars ticket sales…he was told NO. The studios felt the black leading cast did not align with their formula for projecting international success.

Your past does not define you it refines you.
Guess what…This was not the first time George Lucas had to fight to get a movie made. Earlier in his career he experienced the same financial hardships. It did not prevent him from achieving his goals. Lucas knew he had to make a new way out of no way.

Now many of you are experiencing rejection during your job search. Despite your years of experience and extensive network, you are getting more No’s than Yes’s. If a proven director who generated billions in sales cannot get the job, then it’s not surprising why others are having the same problem today. But guess what…as executive director Lucas stepped up and front loaded the movie with over 83 million dollars.

Adjusting your message to reach your target
Let’s scale it down for some of you who are thinking, “Well I definitely do not have that type of cash sitting at my disposal.”Okay well let’s look at what he did before shelling out his investment. Lucas reworked the script, over and over again until it focused on the brand story he wanted the audience to walk away with. Lucas used the rejection to redirect his focus on the product and not the process.

How does this relate to your current job search? Well how many of you are still working with the same resume. You’re using the cookie cutter Microsoft template from the 80’s. Tons of bullets riddled over your document. Or you may cram paragraphs of information together in hopes that someone would read it. You may still be trying to fit it into a one page document, or have a dreaded Objective statement. Well I have stopped doing all of those things 18 years ago.

It’s time to have a resume that tells your brand story. It must resonate with today’s hiring process. You have to keep working on it, tweaking it just like Lucas had to do with the Red Tails script. He knew he could not keep submitting the same story. Lucas has to create a new angle and a new way of getting his message out.

You may need more than time and effort
Despite his wealth, Lucas did not have the luxury of quitting. The story needed to become a big screen movie. Well the same goes for you. You cannot afford to quit looking for a job. Lucas’ 23 years can equate to 23 months of not being able to find a job as fast as you did in the past, same principle.

Invest in branding your resume. Resume Branding is a Persona Affairs philosophy that infuses branding elements into the resume. There is a difference between branding a document and branding in the document. Persona Affairs does the latter, by merging traditional resume writing practices from a matrix of resume types into a document that is scanned in 10 seconds or less.

Lucas’ investment was aligned with what today’s expectation of a well-directed and marketed movie. Same goes with your resume. If you pay the cheapest price to have it updated, then you get a cheap boilerplate document that anyone can slap their name on.

I cannot tell you how many times a client has come to me after spending a bottom basement price for an updated resume. They could not identify with the product. They’d say”I do not know what they did”. “All they did was ask a few questions and sent me this”. Or worse yet, “I did not do what they put on it.”

As the saying goes, you get what you pay for. Resume templates make you fit in the crowd and not stand out of it.

Resume Branding works because we ask detailed questions for you to rediscover your work contributions and uncover jewels of expertise. We understand that most people go to work, do a great job, hope for that promotion and start all over again. Resume Branding puts your promotability out front.

Your resume should scream your value within the first few seconds. Resume Branding also makes it easier to negotiate your salary, because it showcases your employment value and lands you the job.

I take rejection as someone blowing a bugle in my ear to wake me up and get going, rather than retreat.” ~ Sylvester Stallone