I don’t want your resume

My linkedin profile says “I have met face to face with 90% of my connections”.
And I have almost 600 connections.

Yes that’s a lot of meetings.
3 a week minimum, I really shoot for five. 7am, 5:30pm or lunch when possible.
Yes that’s a lot of meetings,
no I don’t sleep a lot,
yes I make time for my family.

I do it because I’m seeking three things:
1) To meet the best and brightest coming up and coming into in my profession
2) To help only the proactive and kind to get ahead in work and life
3) To learn from the wisdom of incredible people

It is September, all the job seekers who took the summer off are looking and plenty of networking meetings are taking place.

But it’s time I made public a dark statement I want to say every single day.

I DON’T WANT YOUR RESUME.

When people show up to a coffee meeting with a stack of crumpled paper with reams of information on it I want to ask
“what am I to do with this”?

But I’m a constructive criticism kind of guy and I’ve never had anything constructive to offer.

UNTIL NOW.

A special thanks to network Elisa McFarlane (more about her later) for sharing this format with me. She claims she did not create it, I don’t care, she’s the first one to bring something crisp, useful and interesting to one of these meetings.

I call it, the networking meeting biography. Something you can use to provide a snapshot and if the contact wants, they can take it and use it to refer you.

On this topic, no one seems to know about “the informational interview” or the “exploratory networking meeting”. Google it if you’re job searching.

In the mean time I have created a handy dandy template for this document. Download and share with anyone you know it can be of help to.

I will be forever grateful to Elisa for sharing this and for a truly fascinating meeting, it’s not often someone strikes me silent, enraptured with stories and ideas.

A key resource that Elisa mentioned has helped her and she uses to help others is an incredible organization called “The Junior League“. It’s a networking organization for women and I can’t figure out why more intelligent women in my network aren’t members.

There are so many special things designed to keep women down in this world, how many are designed to empower?
How often do you feel like this?

Some of the training and networking they do is of incredible value, we had a conversation about the teaching of governance, something leaders pay to learn so often, is a mainstay of this group’s understanding of volunteer service.

Check them out. If you want more information, talk to Elisa.

In the mean time. Please.
If you want to give me your resume.

Email it.

Ps. An update. A career coach named Curt Skene sent me his site that has what I agree is the perfected version of the “one page bio”. www.resumebriefcase.com