Be Your Own Boss: Blog Two

Some people might think all teenaged "cart jockeys" are flighty, unfocused clock-watchers with a 'zine in one hand, a snack in the other and the radio blaring—kids whose goals and plans barely push beyond scoring pizza for dinner and tracking down the next gotta-have-it CD. But those people are wrong. Jon Scheerz is proof.

Seven years ago, Scheerz was just 17 and working a retail job. But unlike the so-called slacker teen, Jon had aspirations, and more. He had the willingness to invest the time and hard work it takes to forge a long-term career in specialty retail—a career that started, ironically enough, with typical teenage trials and tribulations.

Jon began his career selling golf equipment and specialty items part-time at an in-line golf store in Burnsville, MN. One Saturday during the Christmas season, the owner of Retail Ventures dropped by after lunch and found a large group of potential customers peering angrily into the store through the metal gate. Obviously the store was closed.

"The owner thought I had just decided to close up shop and grab lunch or go shopping," Scheerz says. "But I told him we were having a record day—more than $3,000 by noon—and I had to get more change for the register." So the owner stayed and worked alongside Scheerz for the rest of the day.

Within a month (and still just 17), Scheerz was promoted to store manager. As such, he also started traveling with the owner to the company's 40 direct retail stores and pushcarts, as well as supplying more than 20 owner-operators at the same time. Scheerz stayed with Retail Ventures and helped the company grow into a diversified corporation that specializes in, as he puts it, "making specialty retail marriages."

Some background: When Retail Ventures started in 1994, the cart industry had taken off and was expanding. At the time, specialty retailers believed their particular cart program/product, whatever it was, would last forever. Contradicting that belief was a prominent mall developer who said that cart owners who think this is an ongoing career "couldn't be more wrong." The contrarian was right: The specialty retail industry and the mood and tastes of the buying public move too fast for anyone to sell exactly the same product year after year. And so the industry and the retailers have to evolve.

Retail Ventures found that evolving—and therefore surviving—meant that they had to find new products, sign on more owner-operators, and help malls establish more cart programs. At the same time, malls were growing at enormous rates without enough product diversity to support their growth. They needed and wanted help finding new concepts for their owner-operators. As a result, a great demand rose for someone to develop and market new lines for manufacturers who were new to specialty retail and didn't know how to distribute their products to the increasing number of cart owners.

Retail Ventures saw their opportunity. They could rely not only on their expertise in manufacturing products in the past, but on the experience gleaned from the mistakes of their corporate and owner-operator locations throughout 15 states. They did the research. And Scheerz was there.

Today, the company offers turnkey opportunities in which entrepreneurs can inexpensively and conveniently open their own business. More than that, they are involved in a program in which the product concept is proven through different malls and other test markets—a way to avoid the risky "stock and rock" approach.

"You really only have a few weeks to learn your product line," Scheerz says. "A lot of operators, mall developers and manufacturers still don't understand how difficult it is to physically go out to the merchandise and trade markets—to find, source out and create their own line of products for a cart operation. And then be successful with that product line within a 60-day window during the Christmas season."

Retail Ventures knew how to package a product line so that an owner-operator could run the business successfully, without having to worry about testing the product and the market first. They took away the guesswork, and catapulted themselves into the business.

Being the first representative company in the specialty retail industry as well as the largest has meant years of work for Scheerz and the Retail Ventures staff. "The reason we have been able to locate new products and open successful owner-operator programs is that we understand the industry," he says. "We're retailers ourselves. This allows us to focus on and understand the operator's needs more than anybody else in the industry."

Within the past six years, Scheerz and Retail Ventures have represented 30 different product lines, and brought more than $1.5 million in wholesale to more than one manufacturer during the first year of representation. Scheerz says they focus on between just nine or twelve a year so that they don't lose sight of the best product lines. "[This] allows us to offer the owner-operators and malls a chance to rotate in and out of product lines through the year," he says.

Retail Ventures has opened more than 800 owner-operator programs, with the majority of owner-operators active within the specialty retail industry. The company employs six people in the office, and will hire as many as 30 seasonal workers to manage their direct retail programs.

Today, at age 25, Scheerz has an impressive resume with considerable retail experience, including visual merchandising and retail manager of Merry-Go-Round Enterprises, as well as district and regional manager of other large retail chains throughout the country.

In addition to operating some of his own retail carts, he recently purchased the company that generates more than $2 million a year for their manufacturers, and projects more than $3.5 million this year. On the direct retail side, he projects more than $250,000 in sales during Christmas, and more than $500,000 in 2001.

Keys to being successful, he says, include choosing the right products and maximizing efficiency. "We have always been a big supporter of operating multiple units within one mall, versus operating one cart in ten different malls at the same time," he says. He finds that it's much easier for owner-operators to expand within the same mall with different product lines, due to their knowledge of the mall, mall procedures, sales figures, demographics, and past product successes. And placing a second cart next to a proven one can significantly cut some expenses in payroll, rent, shipping, storage, telephone and more. "It's much more productive to buy for two than just one," he says. "And as most operators know, on a Monday morning the mall's not the busiest place in town, so it's very easy... to operate two carts side by side."

Retail Ventures is in the business of growing specialty retail businesses. The company's key strategy, Scheerz says, is to stay in the forefront and make sure they assist in bringing the industry to the next level by finding new products... working with malls to locate qualified owner-operators... and helping those owner-operators succeed. And Scheerz, retail's Whiz Kid, is leading the way.

Tom R. Arterburn is Executive Director of The Resume Institute.

Be Your Own Boss: Blog One

"Swiping" saloon souvenirs—surreptitiously helping oneself to coasters, napkins, and even those nifty lighted beer signs—is almost de rigueur among college bar-hoppers.

Tom Wenger first caught the bug while traveling in Britain a number of years ago. Unlike American bars, British pubs featured bar towels sporting logos from unique breweries around the world. He won't say how he came by a supply of the towels—whether he and his friends spilled a lot of lager overseas or just managed to charm a number of generous servers—but one way or another, Wenger came home with enough of them to mop up after the rowdiest of keggers.

Wenger the college kid thought the towels, like most promotional items, were cool. But instead of haphazardly thumb-tacking them on the walls of his room, as a less inspired collegian might have done, he asked his mother to sew the towels together into a sort of beer banner or, as he prefers, beach towel. Whatever, it became a one-of-a-kind, must-have item among his fellow sudsers. "Everyone wanted to buy it, or wanted me to get them one," he says.

The old college try

But he had things to do after college, such as making a living. So for the next ten years, he toiled in the field of commercial real estate sales. In November of 1998, after tiring of a world he felt confining, Wenger decided to pursue a more free-flowing career. He looked to trends—particularly social drinking, the resurgent interest in fine wines, and the revival of the Martini and cocktails in general.

Then he remembered his British bar-towel creation and its popularity. Putting the pieces together, he decided to put his entrepreneurial efforts into his favorite college pastime. And he revived many of his college survival strategies to do it.

Friends: Wenger enlisted friends to help him load his car with a $1,000 worth of modular shelving, stained wood and track lighting, all of which was fashioned into a U-shaped kiosk at the Harrisburg (PA) East Mall.

Mom: Wenger's mother designed and sewed the black skirting around the kiosk, and then assisted with merchandising and customer service.

Haggling: Creative bargaining got him down to a $40,000 initial investment for rent and merchandise.

Spontaneity: High energy and decisiveness meant foregoing a costly period of unpaid research and preparation. In one month, he was up and running on the road to financial independence.
While that sounds freewheeling and easy—he calls it his "stock and rock" philosophy—his advice to profit-minded college kids or any would-be entrepreneur is rock-solid: "Do your homework. But definitely get into it."

Wenger's homework led him to a company that manufactures what turned out to be popular British pub wear. So he had product to sell.

He found that cart negotiation and placement was a complex process, one he learned through trial and error. "I had been in commercial real estate, so I knew something about negotiating rent. But it really ended up focusing on what was available... We jumped in with both feet." The center-court location he thought would be an excellent spot for convergent traffic turned out to be the proverbial half-full/half-empty beer mug: the Mixology kiosk was directly across from a giant sand castle, the talk of the town that drew considerable interest and lots of traffic. But much of that traffic would get to his kiosk and then turn away from it to look at the castle.

As for traffic counts, he expected more during weekdays in November. Despite busy weekends, it was the last two weeks of December that were his real money-making period. "You hear stories about how half your money is made before December 15th, and the other half is made after December 15th. It really did seem to be true in my case."

Adding to the mix

Despite ups and downs, and within just two months, his first season generated enough revenue—and weight with creditors—to help finance an in-line location in Camp Hill. And last year he expanded into Camp Hill's Capital City Mall with RMUs featuring Yuengling Beer glassware, T-shirts, sweatshirts and collectibles. "[These items] were popular offerings from my first cart and were marketed at each mall." He also operated an RMU at both malls, featuring Christmas ornaments and hand-made jigsaw puzzles from England. These in addition to his anchor, the Mixology cart at Capital City Mall.

Through the pilot expansion, he found he could locate two RMUs close together and have one employee operate both of them. "It definitely saved me a lot of money in labor, and allowed me to use the same credit-card terminal and the same phone line," he says.

At the height of business, he now employs 12 people. And after two years, he finds little direct competition. "There's still no one here doing quite the same thing."

Wenger credits a great deal of his success to the kiosk concept, which provided an admitted rookie entrepreneur an opportunity for manageable forecasting, start-up and risk. "I was never really interested in traditional retail—more mail order and the Internet," he says. "But now, as a result of starting the kiosk, I've found myself growing a successful retail business. Even if the business had failed, it would not have been as devastating as if I had started right off the bat with a store."

As for hot products, he says cocktail shakers are popular right now, "but we carry it all—everything from bottle stoppers on up," he says. "We'll even build a full wine rack in someone's house." Not that Wenger is unaware of the dangers of drinking and driving, nor is he promoting it. He feels people are drinking more responsibly, and that his products encourage that. "More people are drinking at home and want products for in-home use," he says. "It's made it the right time for this business."

While he admits to always having enjoyed a good drink or two, Wenger insists that Mom and Dad's money didn't go to waste. He did graduate (with a bachelor's degree in Business Management from Juniata College)... and has since advanced to "master of Mixology."

As for the future, his long-term strategy for the business includes the Mixology website and maybe franchising, as well. "Once you're in business other doors will open up for you," he says. Although his former boss extended an open invitation to return to real estate, Wenger took a shot at success, and never looked back.

Tom R. Arterburn is Executive Director of The Resume Institute.

NAVIGATING THE RESUMAZE

At one time, turning to a secretarial service, or local print shop for assistance in preparing an effective résumé was an innovative approach to getting a leg up on the job-search competition.

But today, high quality print technology can be found in many households, personal computers are abundant, desktop publishing has become a household word and computer software can do everything but seal the envelopes for a job-seeker wishing to conduct their own direct-mail campaign from the kitchen table. In order to stack up on top, a candidate's résumé must reflect originality, professionalism, capability, intuition and above all sincerity.

Although desktop publishing systems, word processors, professional résumé writers and even some secretarial services should be able to assist in preparing a professional-looking document, only candidates, themselves, can demonstrate sincerity.

Whether you choose to write your own résumé or hire a professional, the following myths and misconceptions along with the facts about résumés will help you make more informed decisions regarding how best to present your qualifications and abilities to a potential employer.

Fiction: Plagiarizing the content of a successful colleagues résumé, or a sample from a résumé guide is a convenient, economical and productive technique.

Fact: Job-seeking is a demanding competition not a leisurely activity. In today's ultra-competitive job market, in which hundreds of candidates vie for a single position, job-seekers who strive to be "as good as" anyone else, will surely be defeated by the “competitor” who can prove they are the best.

Myth: Résumé content should be generic so that it appeals to a variety of employment markets.

Fact: The relationship between a résumé reader and a résumé writer is much like that of a couple planning a future together. Who would you consider as a partner? The person interested in you or anyone else? Or the person specifically and sincerely interested in you?

"Of the résumés we receive, a high percentage are generic. If you leave it to my imagination as to what position you're applying for or where you best fit in our organization, it's not going to get the consideration as if you applied for a specific position," says Beth Marguardt, staff personnel manager at Southland Corporation in Dallas, Texas.

Another corporate personnel manager, who wished to remain anonymous, spoke candidly about her take.

"When I give people advice, I tell them not to send a generic résumé to 'personnel' ," the manager says. "I tell them to send a specific résumé to the manager of the position that they would like to have. [Department] managers don't get 10,000 résumés per year, in response to 100 positions that are available." She added that at her company, less than 5 percent of all jobs are filled by way of unsolicited résumé submissions.

A corporate staffing manager with Honeywell, Inc. in Minneapolis, Minn., views résumés differently, however. The paper, how it's folded, how it's printed, even the formatting and language makes very little difference to him. "What matters to me most is that I can get to the meat of the content quickly, and make a decision on it."

If you pay a high price to have your résumé prepared, make certain that cost includes disk storage, and updating, which will allow you to tailor your résumé to specific companies and their specific needs, or at least a particular field.

Beware of printing and secretarial firms, as well as professional résumé writing services which try to sell you hundreds of copies of your résumé' If you get a job after sending out one résumé, you will have wasted your money on 99 copies.

Hype: If the résumé gets you the job it's worth the high price tag.

Hypothesis: With more and more articles about guarding against false information on résumés turning up in human resource and personnel journals, it's obvious no candidate will ever be hired on the sole basis of their résumé. ­"It's only the initial screening tool," says Ms. Marquardt.

'There are a lot of other factors that enter into the hiring process; personal interviews, other candidates..."

Antiquated Advice: Résumés should consist of no more than one page of information.

Contemporary Conclusion: Robert Schramm and R. Neil Dortch of the University of Wisconsin in Whitewater, Wis. polled 142 corporate recruiters for a research paper published in The Bulletin for the Association of Business Communication and found that two thirds preferred a maximum résumé length of two pages while 60 percent thought they should only accept one page of information.

Before you switch your typewriter or word processor from "pica" to "elite" type in order to get all your information on one page, remember like Scheulen and Aron Heirnbnrg - every individual has their own biases.

"Most of the research on résumé appearance has been conducted using questionnaire or survey research asking personnel managers about their opinions," says Mr. Bird. "From a psychological standpoint, what people believe is affecting their decisions and what they are actually reacting to is not always the same thing.

What this means is that you can read every résumé survey, study every guide, send a handwritten, three-page résumé to a person who hasn't read the same material as you and still get called for an interview.

Conjecture: You need a professional résumé writer to make you sound good on paper.

Rebuttal: Like political speech writers and corporate communications specialists, a good résumé writer might be able to spin your qualifications into an irresistible job query, but like most good journalists, corporate interviewers are relentless pursuers of honesty.

"A lot of people today choose professional résumé writers and that's all well and good, but the information has to be truthful." says Stephanie sancino of IBM in Armonk, Ny.

"I've received résumés that will knock your socks off, and after calling the person in, realized they had a professional write their résumé, because they couldn't back up the verbiage in the interview." If you're worried about translating your "PR man's" magic into tangible and demonstrated capabilities, remember: there are no teleprompters in job interviews.

Concoction: A good résumé is all it takes to get a good job.

Truth: Again, job hunting is a competition. The best résumé in the world will barely get you out of the starting block, while those who've prepared themselves with self-evaluations, strong interviewing skills, targeted cover letters and extensive corporate research wilt easily lead the pack to the finish

line.

Delusion: Sending résumés is a good way to test the job rnarket... "to see what's out there for you."

week,! says von Heimburg.

"And our department is one of 20 staffing areas for Honeywell."

With the "outplaced" pool growing more and more each day, very few employers are offering jobs; they are merely auctioning them to the best bidder. If a position exists, with a little research, along with a specific résumé of qualifications related to the criteria of the position you are applying for, you

should easily be able to outbid your competitors. And with assertive follow-up and a sincere interest in the position as a career, you should be an unbeatable candidate.

Tom R. Arterburn is Executive Director of The Resume Institute.

SCAMMING THE RESUME SCANNER: Developing a Scanner-Friendly Resume

Having difficulty navigating the "resumaze"? Pulling your hair out trying to figure out what kinds of information to include, how to format the document, what type of paper to print it on, and how to send it to employers? Well, if your favorite places file is bulging with bookmarks on resume preparation, you better check the dates on the material, because the rules have changed.

Now, more and more companies are turning to resume scanning equipment and software to weed through their stacks of resumes, and if you thought impressing finicky personnel people was difficult, wait till your resume passes under the eye of their computer counterparts. These cold, calculating cartons of automated components pick through your carefully prepared qualifications like computerized cats, sifting out all the garbage, and going right to the "meat." So beating this system requires some cunning and quite a bit of in-depth research to match a hiring manager's specific criteria for an available job.

After hearing about this latest high-tech threat to humanity, some are already scheming ways to "beat the system." "Andy," a communications specialist with the government, who wishes to remain anonymous, divulged his comical, yet surprisingly practical technique for scamming the scanner. "It searches for key words and phrases in the document, right?" he said with a giggle. "Why not just list:"

EDUCATION

"Plan to pursue doctoral degree at Harvard University."

EXPERIENCE

"Never promoted to higher level positions."

"Too stupid to master programming in C language."

"Rarely receive awards or honors for outstanding work performance."

Andy's cynical strategy is obviously absurd given the fact that the human element will certainly enter into the hiring process at some point. Consequently his creative prank may get a few laughs around the HR water cooler, but it certainly won't get him any phone calls from serious hiring managers who busted the departmental bank investing in optical character recognition technology. However, his strategy does have some merit.

Because the scanning process is based on key words or phrases that the user asks the software to scan for, employment candidates can hypothesize as to the hiring criteria for the job they are interested in, and then "pad" their resume with those terms. If the job-seeker's actual experience lacks relevant skills, they can rely on the "spin doctoring" approach used by politicians who are adept at being all things to all people. For instance, using a resume subhead such as "ABILITIES" will allow you to list not only those things you have done, but also those things you are confident you can do based on education or other life experiences. Use this strategy with caution, though. You'll obviously be expected to backup your claims in a personal interview, where too much embellishment might have you sweatin' like a con at a parole board hearing. They can't slap you in jail for resume fraud before you're hired, but be warned, outright resume lies can come back to haunt you.

A savvy candidate ready to go toe to toe with an electronic screener will also want to consider document aesthetics. In their book, Electronic Resume Revolution, J.L. Kennedy and T.J. Morrow, offer the following Tips for Writing a Scannable" Resume:

- Use simple fonts, such as Helvetica, Universe and Optima at point sizes of between 10 and 14.

- Avoid italics, script, and underlining of words.

- Use bold face type sparingly.

- Use an ink jet or laser printer for optimal printing quality.

- Avoid abbreviations.

- Always use white paper.

- Do not fold your resume in order to send it. Use a 9 x 12 envelope.

If you have a Kaczynskiesque philosophy, however, and the thought of catering to a box of high tech bells and whistles unnerves you, take heed. You have sympathizers in the hiring world. "I resent any program that pinpoints phrases not the overall person, says Harriet Cohen, a human resources consultant and President of Cohen Training Solutions in Agoura Hills, Calif. "[Scanning] is easier than actually reading the resume, but there are a lot of issues to consider when hiring: resumes only tell a minor part of the picture. They tell what the person has done and how well they can match the advertisement or scanning criteria, but what they don't tell is the person's capabilities. I have worked with head hunters in my own job-search who would say 'you were perfect for a job, but you didn't get past round one because you were missing the magic phrase.' Unfortunately, no one would tell me what it was."

Whether it's a grinning personnel manager or a stoic computer system suggesting you don't measure up, rejection can be hell. But fight fire with fire, and keep shooting those sincere, focused resumes to carefully targeted companies, and you'll eventually find someone or "something" that will recognize your ability and worth. Remember: developing employment leads is a lot like cultivating personal relationships. You have to kiss a lot of frogs before your marry a prince or princess. In employment, I guess it's stroke a lot of Pentiums before you press flesh with the personnel manager.

Tom R. Arterburn is an award-winning job-search journalist and director of The Resume Institute.

Research: The Key to Interview Success

Leading the competition—that’s what it takes to succeed in a capitalistic society, as well as a competitive job market.

People in business do it through marketing research. High-tech industrialists (and politicians) go as far as corporate espionage to stay one step ahead of the competition. Unfortunately, many graduating students and entry-level job-seekers call it quits when it comes to preparing for employment interviews.

What’s more, according to corporate recruiters, some candidates not only quit, they never even reach the competitive stage.

In order to be a strong career opportunity competitor, start by focusing on the position you’re sincerely interested in, and the organizations that are offering them.

In order to prove to the interviewer that you are the right person for the job (the right fit), you have to know what the job is. Many people make the mistake of waiting until the interview (if they get that far at all) to start thinking about the job, and whether they can really do it or not. This makes them totally unprepared to expound on their capabilities, feelings, questions, achievements, etc. related to the position and organization.

It’s important to realize why many times the first question an interviewer will ask a candidate is either: “Why did you choose our organization?” or “What type of position are you interested in?” They do this to get a handle on how serious you are about the company. If you recognize that an answer such as “I don’t know… the ad looked good in the paper,” or worse, is telling the interviewer nothing, you’re only half right.

To a skilled and sophisticated interviewer, an inappropriate or insincere response can mean a lot: “She’s only interested in the money.” “He’ll leave us in a moment’s notice, if another offer comes along,” etc.

Researching an employment position or a company can be fairly easy work. However, the more effort you put into your work, the more recognition you are apt to receive from the interviewer.

There should be a variety of books regarding careers in the library, and these should give you a basic description of the position you are interested in. But again, to get ahead of the competition, take the research process as far as you can. For example, to gain inside information about specific jobs, as the librarian for the Gale Directory of Publications and Broadcast Media. This cross-reference directory (usually available to librarians only) will contain entries for almost every magazine and trade journal published in the United States and Canada. Once you have found several periodicals dealing with your field, ask the librarian if they are on hand. If they are not, don’t be discouraged—be excited—this means the possibility of competitors accessing the same publications will be slight. Some hints on how to acquire the trade journals would be to call or write the publisher (the address and phone number) will be listed in the Gale Directory).

Another source for job or industry information in the St. Louis area is Sorkin’s Directory of Business and Government (found in most libraries). This four-volume cross-reference guide describes most St. Louis businesses, what they do, who runs them, how to contact them, etc.

When you know who you want to contact, then it’s time to learn how your specific qualifications and capabilities meet their needs. These questions can be answered by reading the company’s annual report.

The annual report is an excellent research source. It will usually include information about the philosophy of the company, all the products and services that they provide, as well as financial data. The reports can be acquired at many campus and public libraries, or by writing to the company and requesting one.

Because most of the information is statistical, and targeted towards stock holders, it won’t be an easy read, but interviewers don’t expect you to be a statistical guru, just a dedicated and resourceful employee. Most of the information you will need should be included in the firs few pages of the annual report in a section titled “Letter to Shareholders.” This letter, usually written by the company’s CEO will concisely describe many of the most current highlights of the company, such as new products, innovative programs, future goals, etc.

If you sincere goal is gaining employment with a reputable corporation, use your research in order to:

1. Know your field and your capabilities related to it.

2. Be prepared to demonstrate your knowledge of the company.

3. Ask specific and meaningful questions about the available position, as well as the company.

4. Make the research process fun and innovative. Try to come up with a piece of information related to your field.

You may think company research is demanding, time consuming and takes a lot of effort. If you do, you’re right. And that’s why employers usually hire the hard-working candidates willing to do it.

Tom R. Arterburn is an award-winning job-search journalist and director of The Resume Institute.

FIGHTING AGE DISCRIMINATION

By Tom R. Arterburn Copyright 2010

Okay, maybe you're not "a high-tech whiz kid" any more. Maybe you're not the "techno-guru" you once were. And now upper management is suggesting you may not be "the right fit" for the company's future projects.

Sound familiar? You may be "a prime candidate" for an age discrimination suit under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. But before you pursue a claim, prepare for a legal system that can at times be as discriminatory as any public or private sector organization, as one former government employee in St. Louis, Missouri found out.

Armed with a three-ring binder, a few sheets of poster board scrawled with makeshift diagrams, and a couple of well-wishers, accounting technician Albert Blicharski tried to do what many attorneys refuse to do: take on a government agency in an age discrimination case.

As a result, Blicharski, a 58-year-old Polish immigrant and retired USAF Master Sergeant, once again ended up in foreign territory the hearing room of the Merit Systems Protection Board in St. Louis, Missouri, where he encountered a language (legalese) he couldn't interpret, a culture he wasn't comfortable with, and a group of people that considered him an adversary. These opponents were the same supervisors and co-workers he had worked with for many years at the Farmers Home Administration in St. Louis, before they proposed to remove him from his job because of an inability to meet a higher productivity standard instituted two years ago. Blicharski was forced into the hearing unrepresented after calling 15 attorneys in the St. Louis area, all of whom refused to take his case.

Blicharski's story exemplifies how difficult it is for government employees in particular to fight age-discrimination in the current public-sector court system, due to the red tape and continuously changing regulations.

Cathy Ventrell-Monsees, manager of worker equity with the American Association of Retired Persons in Washington, D.C., said similar dilemmas confront anyone claiming wrongful discharge due to age.

"That's a tough claim," said Monsees, a former Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) representative, "because you have to show that the motivation for the discharge was to get rid of older employees, and that's a tough motivation to show."

Christine Godsil Cooper, professor of law at Loyola Law School in Chicago, advises her students to look at four areas before deciding to take an age-discrimination case. According to Cooper, to increase your chances of attracting a lawyer to take your case, make sure your claim includes the following components:

1.Make sure the plaintiff (you) is a credible and articulate person who can foster sympathy from a jury.

2.Ensure that you have enough evidence to prove that what happened was due to age.

3.Back up claims with documentation.

4.Look for discriminatory policies on the part of the employer.

Monsees added these situations:

5.A sudden or dramatic change in an employment evaluation.

6.Supervisors threatening older employees with Reduction In Force (RIF) actions or downsizing. According to Monsees, if an RIF or downsizing was under consideration, you should ask the agency to produce documentation pertaining to it and ask which employees were covered by it, etc.

7.Discriminatory hiring processes. "Applicants being told they're 'over-qualified' is now considered a buzz-word for age discrimination." Albert Blicharski was lucky enough to get old, but was not lucky enough to have a salary high enough to attract a lawyer's attention. As a result, and as expected, his administrative hearing was anything but smooth sailing. The proceedings were riddled with relevancy objections from the agency representative, many of which were sustained by the judge. "It's always a mistake to represent yourself," said Cooper. "Judges never treat [self-represented] litigants as well as those with attorneys." This fact is evidenced in the decision against Blicharski, who is a pro se ("lawyerless") litigant. Now he's convinced more than ever that although old dogs can indeed hunt, there's no guarantee they'll catch their prey. "I've called three more attorneys since I received the decision and haven't even received their opinion on my case," Blicharski said.

Tom R. Arterburn is an independent investigative journalist and Director of the Resume Institute www.resumeinstitute.org. He has contributed articles to the Wall Street Journal National Business Employment Weekly, the American Bar Association's Student Lawyer magazine, and regional newspapers.

CURRICULUM VITAE AND RESUME: WHY SOME NEED BOTH

By Tom R. Arterburn

cur·ric·u·lum vi·tae: A short account of one's career and qualifications prepared typically by an applicant for a position. Etymology: Latin, course of (one's) life.

ré·su·mé: A brief account of one's professional or work experience and qualifications, often submitted with an employment application. Etymology: French résumé, from past participle of résumer to resume, summarize, from Middle French resumer.

Do you know the difference between a curriculum vitae (CV) and a resume? And why it’s important to have both up-to-date and readily available?

For some, a resume, by definition, is a “summary” – a synopsis of your CV, let’s say. If you’ve ever tried to copy and paste your CV into a job board field with a 500 word limit, or watched a recruiter’s cold stare as he/she lifted your professional opus up and down mockingly as if curling a dumbbell, you get the idea.

For others, a resume is the lengthy narrative and the CV is the summarized version. So if you’re confused, obviously, you’re not alone.

While there are no universal standards regarding exactly what to list in a resume and what to include in a CV, the following is a guide to the basics:

A curriculum vitae often includes a summary of one’s educational and academic backgrounds, as well as teaching and research experience, grants, publications, presentations, awards, honors, affiliations and other details. A document that’s length is only limited by the endeavors of the professional it refers to. It’s the document of choice for a physician recruiter with Cedars Sinai Medical Center, which employs over 2,000 physicians and recruits up to 30 each year. Because it is a research and teaching hospital, says the recruiter, who wishes to remain anonymous, we don’t want to see a two-page resume. We prefer to look at a full CV to see if a person has had any research grants, what kinds of studies they’ve worked on… something much more in-depth. You’ll probably find the same preference among speakers bureaus, organizations recruiting for higher-level positions and journal editors. “We prefer CVs to resumes,” confirms Pam Miller, Assistant to the Editor - Special Projects, New England Journal of Medicine, Boston, Mass. “They provide much more detail and if we are using the CV for any type of evaluation, it usually provides all the details necessary to determine the person's body of work.”

It’s the gold standard for traditional clinical roles, says Ivo Drury, MD MBA, President of Career Consulting for Physicians in Ann Arbor, Mich, who also serves as Adjunct Professor of Neurology, University of Michigan Medical School. “But résumés are of increasing importance given that more physicians consider pursuing non-clinical careers.”

While a CV is likely to be a lengthy and comprehensive chronology of a person’s career, he says a résumé should be weighted to more recent professional activities and to one's accomplishments in the role most relevant to the position they seek. “The résumé, not the CV, gives a dynamic picture of a candidate’s activities in a particular role.”

As for content, the resume should always include a brief biographical summary, work history and educational background. Let the position requirements dictate the rest. “We don’t need to see all the articles you’ve written,” adds Dennis Settles, primary care manager with Kendall-Davis in St. Louis, Mo. “We’re looking for certifications, schooling and work history. That’s it.”

Karen Zeller, president of the National Association of Physician Recruiters has a more traditional take. “I believe there is a difference [between a resume and a CV]. I see a resume as being more of a narrative of objectives and experience. And in ten years, I don’t think I’ve seen more than two or three resumes. They tend to be used more for medical director or administrative positions. I think the standard in the industry is a CV with concise statements about educational background, work history, publications and that sort of thing. If it’s a graduating resident, I tend to receive two-page CVs. If it’s a practicing physician, who has spent some time in an academic setting, that physician will typically have two CVs—one that is abbreviated and shows his/her primary focus… maybe six pages. And then his/her full CV that may be 25 pages.”

When asked about tailoring the CV to one’s career objective, Zeller says she prefers a cover letter “that lists their objective, outlines their strengths and highlights whatever they think makes them a good fit for a particular opportunity.”

Because hiring professionals seem to lack consensus when it comes to CVs and resumes, do as much as you can to discover your target’s preference. When the U.S. Government hires, for instance, it provides a very specific job announcement, which details the required submission materials. Send more and it will be disregarded. Send less and you will probably be looked over. “Here [at the Department of Veterans Affairs, Birmingham, Ala.], the terms resume and CV are used interchangeably. We really don’t make an issue of it,” says Carolyn Watts, resource specialist. Semantics aside, she adds that the most common problem for candidates applying to the VA is failing to provide enough information, which suggests a job seeker with a meticulous CV will fare better than one who submits a terse resume.

The final caveat? No person has ever been hired based solely on their CV or resume. In the ultra-competitive world of hiring, the aforementioned documents are primarily used for screening candidates out. So take advice from recruiters and hiring professionals with a grain of salt, don’t let your resume do all the talking and follow-up on every application in order to identify necessary changes in content, style and format.

Tom R. Arterburn is an award-winning job-search journalist and Executive Director of the Resume Institute www.resumeinstitute.org