Make it Work and other good advice

I realized the other day that I had not updated my resume to include my end date of my job to May, 2008 but instead it says I’m at that job through the present day. This was hardly intentional and speaks to my incredible attention to detail. In fact, I once applied to a job and my cover letter read “I have an incredible attention to detail. Attention to detail”. I am NOT kidding. Not surprisingly, I did not get the job.
It made me think though. Was I better off leaving my resume as is? Is having two months of no job bad for my resume? I am clearly not alone in wondering this because Google the subject and you find no less than 660,000 pages offering some sort of advice about the subject. The best advice that I did find in some of the hundreds of thousands of pages, was “make it work for you”. Isn’t that true about everything?

Time between jobs, time between relationships, time since you left school…there are so many points in your life where you can stop and realize you have “gaps” in what you have been doing. Ask people and their responses could be -- I haven’t read a new book in months. I haven’t gone out with my friends in weeks. I haven’t called my grandmother in a year. When you realize something is missing from your life, you almost immediately begin thinking “I had no idea it had been so long. I should do something to fix that.” (As a note, the words “being” and “begin” actually are the same word just the letters are changed…interesting huh?) Really though, recognizing a gap in your life gives you an opportunity to start something anew, or something completely new. How long has it been since you started something new, or took a risk? Back to “make it work for you”.

Since I’ve been out of work, I have begun writing – a lot and that was something I hadn’t done in probably 13 years! I’ve been doing this blog which has been surprisingly fun. I have also begun being more creative about earning money and I have been trying to take over the world $1 at a time with my writing currently posted at ehow.com (aiming for $1.05/day this month), associatedcontent.com, and now at daytipper.com (2 tips published at $1/each and 12 more pending). My surveys are still going but I’m really shooting for some focus groups this month as they pay good cash and I like to talk for two hours about how I feel about EddieBauer.com’s website, or how Safeway labels their salad dressings. I wish there were most social opportunities where I only had to talk to strangers for an hour and walked away with an envelope full of cash. That doesn’t sound good does it? It’s legal and clean, I promise!

The other question is, how do I want to spin this time when I meet employers. Writing is good. Researching and reading about business trends is good too. I’m also thinking that they won’t necessarily notice if I am honest about the layoff and then say “finding a job that presents as much of an opportunity for me to dive in and contribute like the opportunity you have at your company takes a good amount of looking”. I’ll work on it. But really, the few employers I have spoken with haven’t acted like it’s so awful. In fact, most of them understand.

Until then, I don’t think two months since I worked last is a deal-breaker. It has been a few weeks since I went to the beach, four days since I read my new book, and three days since I had ice cream. All of those may need more immediate attention. Good thing I have got the time.