So what is it that helps us get through these difficult and stressful times?

One area of my research is Career Resilience. It’s looking at how some people are able to keep going when they face rejection and difficulties. If you’ve recently experienced a restructure or redundancy at work, and are now job hunting, the feelings of having to keep going might even be harder. Career and job change, like all change is a tough thing to face. But we all know of people who do manage these difficult times. They didn’t get killed and they do seem to have got a bit stronger. We may even have done similar ourselves in the past.

My research, which I will occasionally blog about, is looking at Career Resilience and how that affects our employment success. A sneaky peak at Wikipedia says that psychological resilience is an individual’s tendency to cope with stress and adversity. This coping may result in the individual “bouncing back” to a previous state of normal functioning, or simply not showing negative effects. It’s the ‘bounce-back’ ability I will return to and look at influences, causes and techniques.

To start off then, how do you keep going and bounce back from job rejections? The initial findings of the research talks about having high self-efficacy; part of this means staying goal focussed. It also uncovered stuff about having a higher level of internal locus of control; which means thinking about what else can you do to improve your chances – taking on responsibility for your career development (too much internal locus of control isn’t too good either by the way – you’ll just think everything is your fault. Its isn’t). But if you’re getting rejection after rejection, it’s horrible – no doubt, and yes it’s the economy, but maybe it’s worth talking to a careers consultant and getting some expert feedback on what you can do to improve your chances. Maybe you might need to think about getting new skills, qualifications, experience, contacts, better quality applications…..
Let me know your thoughts.

If you’re thinking if moving out of academia it’s worth checking the ‘norm cv’ for your chosen industry with a careers consultant. Quite a few non-academic jobs do favour a shorter resume style. If you’re applying to a job in say, investment banking, a one page resume is really your best approach.

There’s also the question of grabbing attention quickly. So if you’re applying speculatively, again a one page resume is a good idea. An unsolicited CV landing on a desk is more likely to get attention if the person reading it can access the information easily. If its long and complicated looking, it might end up in the ‘I’ll get back to this later…’ pile. It really is a case of less is more. The one page forces you to be brief and focussed. So if you go with it and want to hit the right note with your prospective employer, your one page resume needs to really show them how you’d fit in and make a contribution.

You’d need to strip out all the stuff that doesn’t match up – no matter how interesting you think it is – will they, is the question to always have in your mind. It can be hard to prioritise, and I’ve seen one page resumes still try to fit it all in. They’re written in a tiny font and just looked busy and crammed. It’s not a good look and doesn’t really show your ‘highly effective written communication skills’ you’ve mentioned. But a well crafted one page resume can really market you well.

Most employers want to see what you’re all about in the shortest amount of time. If you’re thinking of a résumé approach for academic jobs then think about all the good stuff you want to say about yourself, see if you can reduce this to a page. Then list all your research publications on a second page if need be.

Either way; CV or resume – think of your market and how best you can showcase and target your skills and experience to that.