THE COMPLETE BIOBLOG STORY, VOL. 1

It's now complete, the web site you've all been waiting for, the COMPLETE BIOBLOG STORY VOLUME 1. Just go to bioblogging.com and you will find out everything to know about bioblogs, the resumes for the 21st century . . . and for those who wish to stand a head above the crowd.

DEB DIB'S FIT

The so-called "trend watcher of branded resumes" Deb Dib says there is a "lot of movement" towards 1-page resumes. This is but half the story because what she doesn't know is that we've already been there and 1-pagers need a lot more now than then to make an impact. She suggests leading off with a "brand statement" that portrays your "personal chemistry" and "how you would fit", or in other words, who you are.

As I said in 1975 in The Resume Writer's Handbook and its various editions, and in Bioblogs: Resumes for the 21st Century (2006): employers hire character, not skills. Thank you Deb for making a good argument for using a bioblog to paint a picture of your personal chemistry, how you would fit, and the kind of creative character at work you are promoting.

If anything implies a brand and makes a statement in the world of resumes (chronological job obits, functional job descriptive lists, combo mumbo), it's the powerful, graphic-driven, street-savvy bioblog, the one in a million document that transcends the limits of data dumped under dates.

Fit: how you work, how you relate, how you emote, how you think, how you create, how you will be in the future.

THE BIO IN A BIOBLOG

Bernadette Martin's synopsis of a good bio is that it "sets the stage." Hold that thought. She also summarizes the essence of a bio with "It's your story." [She should trademark that.] Beyond the "straight bio," which is the sort of thing you skim over on BoD reports and such things, there is the "narrative bio," wherein lies all the good and tasty bits and bytes of a person's vision, purpose and passion—those "personal touchpoints that resonate" [her words] and which (I presume) are the components that "inject personal branding" into the paragraphs (the necessary zeitgeist). It is the story of your vision, the telling of your purpose, the rendering visible of your passions that makes the whole shebang believable . . . and desirable to another, whether looking for a blind date or blindly looking for a better job. The fact of the matter of bios is that they are not just about the past and present you that may or may not be profiled in LinkedIn or Facebook or a hundred other public purviews, but the present-becoming-the-future You that brings all this baggage to the station, ticket in hand, ready to take on new challenges and to grow. It's this becoming-You that will make the vision, purpose and passion come alive. And that stage? It's the workplace where your creative character at work is the public persona that you yourself direct from backstage, behind the curtains, a socially acceptable workplace avatar (a titled Doppelganger) who has successfully separate him- or her-self from his or her chronological chains to the job obituary of traditional resumes.

All the good stuff of a bio fall naturally into the first part of a bioblog, with the graphic component carrying the load in a vacuum of competitive words. Whether you are heading upstage or downstage, your bio should be established in your own character's mind first; then dress it up in your costume of choice.

It's not just your story, of old: It's your story, of becoming. (Remember, that's what the other guy pays for, and that's why you want to create as much curiosity in your story as he/she has in his/her own story.)

Nice synopsis, Bernadette.

RESUMES ARE SO OLD HAT

Thursday's "Brand You World" teleconference was interestig to tune into, which I did for the "Resume Branding" segment with Deb Dib, Bernadette Martin and Megan Fitzgerald providing their insights and experience in the (now shadowy) field of personal branding, which can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. I suppose we could all agree, however, on the basic premise that we are talking about 'personal' as equivalent to individually differentiated from the crowd (of competitors) and 'branded' as essentially our creative character at work--as what else could it be if titles, responsibilities, achievements and status are basically undistinguishable?

The terms value and impact and infused with passion and what you can do and who you are were bandied about in the circling around a descriptive essence of "personal branding," especially by Dib, who warns against common resume mistakes of becoming a generic document, nothing more than a jobs list [resume as job obituary] or merely another bland and faceless sales piece. Another word I found awkwardly tossed into the mix was "courage," especially when it was defined in terms of "having the courage to trim your resume to one page." Please forgive me, but since in 1975! I was the one in New York City who started selling high-priced, Fifth Avenue-style 1-page resumes rather than 3+ page "executive resumes" I might consider this "courage" bit a dollar short and a day late. It was radical, yes, 32 years ago.

I'll tell you what I think courage would look like in today's job market/job strategy: using a powerful bioblog to show your passion, your potential, your value, your impact. Here's a chance to do a performance breakout on a mini-scale, and to set yourself apart from the crowd: what you can do. This will show not only your creative character at work, but will voice your "brand statement" loudly, clearly and with a sense of curiosity.

One word the panel failed (not accidentally) to mention was bait, that unsophisticated kernel of truth about all resumes no matter how fancy or unfrilled. Those certified-this and certified-that folks who sell their consulting services don't want to admit to it, but that's what they are selling: bait . . . good, better, or best . . . it's still the wiggle of the worm that gets the attention of the fish.

Ms. Martin rubbed up against it with her comment that the components of a good bio are "used to set the stage" (which I construe as meaning a stage upon which your creative character can speak your part and make your case); and Ms. Fitzgerald laid it out right on the table: all you are doing is trying to prequalify for an interview (with a fish, I'd add).

All in all, these personal branding experts (Certified Personal Branding specialists, no less) were pretty vague about what the core of branding is, other than "passion" and "impact" and "value."

I wish they would have mentioned bioblogs, which are all about your potential and future value, or in other words, the personal brand of your creative character at work: the sum of all your personal parts plus work and experience and education, all aimed forward into the slippery workstreams of worklife.

And by the way, Ms. Dib, going to 1-page resumes is not the biggest thing happening in resumes today. Bioblogging is, but I don't expect you to endorse them because you are not certified to create them.