Faith and Jobshopping

This morning I had the opportunity to reply to a question on LinkedIn about adding references to one's faith in their resume. Was it a good or bad idea?

I wrote back that I thought it was wrong, inappropriate and dangerous to mix religion and jobshopping (unless the jobs are faith-based jobs or for faith-based employers). My reasons were:

1. There are so many different regions and faiths out there that you risk offending a potential employers by presenting your religious beliefs that could conflict with their personal followings.
2. It is illegal for employers to discriminate against a jobshopper or employee because of religion, but it can happen anyway.
3. In the workplace, it's having faith in the enterprise and your crew that matters most--not your faith in (or lack of faith) in a higher being and purpose that counts. Keep your faith in your heart and off your resume and work products.

I know I risk offending the person asking the original question on LinkedIn, those other LinkedIn members who may read my answer--and I may be offending you or other readers of my blog--but this is how I feel about jobshopping, job-getting and job-doing. This is about my working world faith. And this is the bigger problem with mixing religion and work. It's just too easy to make folks angry.

I think the three biggest causes of conflict throughout history have been sex, politics and religion. I could have added greed and money, but we sometimes need to deal with those two in the workplace. We don't need to add sex, politics or religion to our workplace mix.

Career Inventory

This morning I coined a new phrase--Career Inventory--when answering a question on LinkedIn about writing a winning resume. The idea is to present things about you that are most relevant to the employer and the job.

I won't bore you with the details about my answer. You can read that on the Career Jujitsu LinkedIn page or see my answers in the Q&A section under Resume Writing. No. Instead I want to focus on this Career Inventory concept.

The idea is to take all your education, job training and working experiences. List them. Add the dates, locations and providers (schools, employers, etc.). You can organize and store this information in a spreadsheet or use a word processing table. Update your career inventory as new experiences are added.

Then every time you go after a new job, do some research to determine which items from your career inventory are most relevant to the employer and the job. Take those items and build a winning resume. Highlight those items in your cover letters. And be sure to discuss them during your interviews.

By keeping your job-getting campaign sharply focused on the items about you that are most relevant to the employer and the job, you greatly increase your odds of catching the gatekeepers' attentions and staying ahead of your competition for the jobs you want.

April Fools

I can't think of a worse day to go jobshopping than today. April fools day.

How do you what to believe?

Are interviews confirmed? If they say--"You're hired!" can you believe them? If they you aren't should you believe them?

I'm having fun with this today because it's April Fools Day!

Should you take this blog seriously?

I wouldn't.

;-)