If you're up on job-search and career-development advice, you've likely been hearing the term "personal brand" used more and more. By all accounts, developing and maintaining a consistent, effective personal brand is as important to the modern worker (in just about industry) as having a great resume and an engaged network of peers.

But the term is sometimes used in a vague way--what is a personal brand, and how does a job seeker begin crafting one? I asked personal-branding expert Chris Perry, of CareerRocketeer, to explain some basics. 

Monster Blog: Why is having a personal brand important--and is it important for all job seekers?

Chris Perry: Everyone has a unique personal brand. You communicate your own brand in everything you do--whether you know it or not. It's important to remember that personal branding is so much more than what you put on your social networks or what you write on a blog. It's who you are inside and out, online and offline. Your personal brand is your reputation.

Effective personal branding is essential for all job seekers, as it not only makes you stand out from the crowd to employers and recruiters, but also can increase your job security during your career--by communicating your value as a leader and team player to your organization.

Monster Blog: How can a person decide what his or her personal brand is?

Chris Perry: Your personal brand is the unique and differentiating value that you can bring to an organization, a team, and/or a project, [communicated] in a professionally memorable and consistent manner in all of your actions and outputs, both online and offline, to all current and prospective stakeholders in your career.

Here are a several steps to help you create your personal brand:

    1. Write down your differentiating strengths (those you feel make you stand out from the rest).

    2. Ask your friends, family, colleagues, and managers to do the same.

    3. Identify the top three to five strengths that you feel will support the career direction you want to pursue.

    4. Create or find a word or phrase that can become your personal brand and that represents these strengths. (Note that you should ensure that your word or phrase is versatile and can change with your career direction.)

    5. Develop a short pitch [what some experts call an "elevator speech"] that builds on your brand, describing your strengths in more detail.

Monster Blog: Then how does someone use that brand in a job search?

Chris Perry: Here are a few of the ways that you can build and communicate your personal brand both online and in-person:

•     Create a LinkedIn profile and follow the suggested steps to complete your profile, making sure you include your personal brand and pitch in your subtitle and summary sections.
•     Consider creating a personal website or blog where you can house all of your information, including your brand, experience, education, skills, honors, entrepreneurial efforts, and more.
•     Include your personal brand on your resume, cover letter, business cards, email signature, and voicemail message, as well as across your other social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook.
•     Conduct informational interviews with target network contacts (whether or not you're seeking a job) and share your personal brand with them in your introductions.
•     Join associations or networking groups within your industry and try attending their events to meet new contacts and build your target network.  Be sure to share your personal brand with those new contacts you meet.

-- Check back next week for more tips from Chris Perry, on how to maintain your personal brand over time. If you have more questions on creating a personal brand, let us know in the comments section, and we will try to include answers in next week's blog post.

Chris Perry, MBA, is a Gen-Y brand and marketing generator, an ambitious entrepreneur, and a career-search and personal-branding expert. Perry is the founder of Career Rocketeer; its partner efforts, including Launchpad; and other online career services and communities, such as MBA Highway.

For last week's Monster+HotJobs poll, I asked people, "Do you think that you can be yourself at work?" And although most of the 3,660 respondents said that they changed their behavior or personality at least slightly on the job, 27 percent said they were "exactly the same at home and at work."

Here are the rest of the results:

• 26 percent said, "Mostly: I change my behavior slightly at work."
• 18 percent said, "Somewhat: The 'work me' is still recognizably me."
• 12 percent said, "A little: I rarely let the real me show at work."
• 17 percent said, "Not at all: I'm an entirely different person at work."

Of course, the ability to "be yourself" depends a lot on the job you have. Many jobs require uniforms or at least have a dress code--which can certainly cramp personal style. Many jobs require speaking in a different way--and have their own industry-specific jargon. And I've always felt that giving presentations (a part of many jobs) requires a little bit of "acting." I am definitely not entirely myself when I'm presenting to a large group of people.

Also, an ability to be yourself depends on who you are. If you're an outspoken pessimist, if you're very shy, if you have a colorful (ahem) vocabulary, or if you have a quick temper, modifying your behavior at work is likely a good idea.

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with the aforementioned traits--I think we're all trying to find a balance between personal and professional in our work lives, and doing so can be tricky. On one hand, we want to be genuine and authentic. On the other, we also have to woo clients, appease bosses, and earn respect from peers.

Are you yourself at work? How do you do it--or what parts of your personality do you change? Do you think the numbers in this poll seem about right? Share your comments, or find me on Twitter to discuss this poll or anything related to the workplace.

* With thanks to the band The Fixx for this week's post title.

But a recently published cover letter Thompson sent, in 1958, to the Vancouver Sun provides a good example of what not to do in a cover letter—because in it, he makes mistakes that many young, creative people make when applying for jobs. 

Although Thompson went on to great success and did some unforgettable writing in his estimable career, he didn't get this job, and here—perhaps—is why:

1. Arrogance: In the letter, Thompson flatters himself. He flatters his potential employer, too—but only as someone who might appreciate Thompson's greatness. He never gets around to identifying how he might solve any of the particular problems the employer has.

2. Lack of specificity: In a cover letter or resume, it's usually wise to identify your relevant key strengths—not to promise an ability to do "everything."

3. Bad-mouthing former employers: This is always a no-no, even if it's true. You'll come across as difficult to work with (as Thompson surely does in this letter).

4. Over-reliance on humor: This cover letter is funny—but most hiring managers don't want "funny." They want results. Of course, a cover letter should have personality, and you should be yourself. (Being too stilted is another way to turn off hiring managers.) But beware of overweening cleverness.

5. Unfamiliarity with the employer: Saying you don't know anything about an employer is never a good idea. 

So Thompson wasn't good at cover letters, it seems. You know who was good at cover letters? Leonardo da Vinci. Seriously. Read "The da Vinci Cover Letter."

In honor of National Punctuation Day, I invite you to proofread your resume! That sounds fun, right? Keep an eye out for these five common punctuation errors:

Misplaced apostrophes: I suspect that this error is the most common one--and it's an error that some persnickety types find especially irritating. Take a look at your resume now, and find the apostrophes. Each should indicate possession or a contraction. Here are some examples:

• Increased profits [this is just a plural word, so no apostrophe is needed] by 70% in six months.
• Led the company's [this is a possessive word, so the apostrophe is needed] first green initiative, which brought a 40% reduction in use of paper.
• "It's" is short for "it is"; "its" isn't. "You're" is short for "You are"; "your" isn't.

Misused quotation marks: Quotation marks are often used to indicate irony--a writer will put a word inside quotation marks to indicate that he or she means the word's opposite or is merely repeating someone. (Think of how people use so-called "air quotes" when they're talking with their hands.) So don't use quotation marks for emphasis. Doing so can give a sentence an unintended comic effect:

• Increased profits by "70%" [hmmm--what accounting tricks might be involved here?] in six months.

Improper comma use: The punctuation rules governing proper comma use are complex. For a full but succinct primer, check out this guide from Purdue University.

Exclamation points: They should be used sparingly (if at all) on a resume. (And unless you're confident that you know the proper way to use semicolons, they, too, should probably be avoided.)

Special characters: Because the first reader of your resume will often be a resume-reading software program, it's likely a good idea to keep dashes (hyphens are OK), symbols for foreign currency, indentations, italic or bold type, and even formatted bullets out of your resume--some programs turn those characters into a garbled mess. If you're copying and pasting your resume into an online form, save a copy of your resume as a plain-text file and make any adjustments in that file before you paste the text into the form (plain text is offered as an option when you save a file in almost all word processing programs).

Happy National Punctuation Day! If you have any grammar tips for resume writers, share them in the comments section.

If you perused resume advice when writing your resume, you learned the basics such as the importance of including accomplishments, creating a qualifications summary, customizing the resume to your goal and proofreading to make sure it's perfect. But now that your resume is done, do you recognize yourself? If your resume doesn't reflect the real you, chances are that employers will pick up on that and you will lose job opportunities.

Stay true to yourself by avoiding these resume traps:

1. Don't Copy: Avoid the temptation to adapt your resume from a sample, a template or a friend's resume. I've published hundreds of resume samples, and quite often I see some version of a resume I've written -- sometimes more than 10 years ago -- come across my desk. If your resume looks like all of the other resumes based on a template or a sample, you are not going to stand out from the crowd.

2. Don't Use "Resume-Speak": In the resume writing industry, we refer to overuse of clichés and pompous words as resume-speak. It's better to write as if you were speaking in a professional setting and use words that sound genuine to you. Remove tired phrases that lack substance and are just wasting space. For example, instead of saying that you are a "results-driven, top-performing team player with excellent communication and organizational skills,” cite specific examples of accomplishments that relate to these skills.

3. Don't Lie: The tight labor market has left many people unemployed or underemployed and wondering how best to explain job changes and long gaps. It's tempting to lie or exaggerate to get an edge, and many job seekers do go down that road. However, misrepresenting yourself has consequences, including guilt, constant worrying and even job termination if the lie is discovered. The truth is that hiccups in your work history are never as bad as you think, and can be overcome by a carefully thought-out resume strategy combined with an aggressive job search campaign.

Check out these articles for more tips:

·   Three Ways to Fill Your Resume Gaps

·   Let Sample Resumes Inspire You, Not Define You

·   Understand Smart Resume Packaging vs. Exaggeration

What strategies have helped you create a resume that reflects who you are? Please share in the comments below!

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Kim Isaacs is the Monster Resume Expert and director of ResumePower.com.

Could the job market be heating up? I’m hearing from more recruiters, and many of my unemployed friends are reporting the same news. While the number of contacts by recruiters is encouraging, it is more important to work with a few recruiters that have a reputation for quality placement practices. Once you are in contact with a recruiter, how do you decide which recruiters are worth your time and energy?

Recruiters work for a finder’s fee -- the hiring firm pays the recruiter for filling the open position. But by managing your relationship with the recruiter, you can get in front of more quality employers, making it more likely you’ll get a job and the recruiter will get paid. Here are 4 tips for making sure your relationship with a recruiter will work out for the best for both of you:

Missed the Recruiter’s Call? That Could Cost You

I know this seems basic, but always try to answer your primary job search phone. During my recent personal technology crisis, I was unable to connect with 2 recruiters about 2 different jobs. Neither recruiter called my home number, as they probably figured I was best reached via a mobile device. By the time I retrieved my messages and returned their calls, the recruiters had already found enough candidates to fill the available positions.

Does the Recruiter Know the Employer?

During initial conversations with a recruiter, try to learn about his relationship with the hiring manager and the firm itself. A few diligent recruiters will know a company’s key players and their hiring needs and will possess a solid understanding of the overall business. Other recruiters focus on a single relationship within the company, limiting their value, reach and flexibility. A recruiter with depth can tell you a good deal about the people you will meet with, what matters to them and what it will take to click with them during the interview.

Make Sure the Recruiter Is Your Advocate

Look for a recruiter who will collaborate with you to fine-tune your resume before presenting you to the target company. If the recruiter is willing to invest time in you, explain the position’s “back story” and why you need to modify or showcase certain parts of your resume, it’s a good sign. If a recruiter just forwards on your resume, there isn’t much advocacy happening.

Build a Proactive Relationship

Even if a recruiter doesn’t succeed in placing you the first time, a responsible and proactive recruiter will keep you up to date on opportunities. It is also a good idea to keep the pipeline full. So as long as you’re not competing for the same positions, introduce quality recruiters to other quality candidates -- people you know and would recommend.

How do you perceive the value of recruiters in the job search process?

As the economy has worsened and millions of job seekers are chasing after fewer and fewer jobs, what you put on your resume has become more important than ever.  Before you send your resume anywhere, run it through this quick Five-Point Checklist to determine if it needs a tune-up or a complete overhaul.

1. Clear Objective

There has been a lot of debate lately among the resume writing "chattering classes" about whether today's resumes even need an objective.  After 15 years of reading resumes for my clients, my answer is definitely, "Yes". However, I should clarify.  By "objective", I'm not referring to the fluff that most job seekers concoct.  The objective should be your targeted job title and nothing more.  This focuses the resume and necessitates that you use the rest of the resume to support why you're the best candidate to fill this particular job title. It also leaves no doubt in your reader's mind about who you are.

2. Opening Statement

Does your resume open with a long paragraph titled, "Summary of Qualifications"?  Problem: Of the thousands that I've read over the years, most are nothing more than fiction.  Long laundry lists of skills and assorted keywords.  Two of the biggest offenders are "Results-Driven" and that ever popular, "Proven Track Record". 

If your resume looks like this, you might want to rethink your approach.  Don't bore your reader by emphasizing keywords and hackneyed clichés.  Employers want to know how you can solve their problem right now.  Don't annoy them by failing to answer this urgent question.

Instead, include a simple, concise opening statement.  This one sentence is usually called a Unique Selling Proposition.  It should define who you are, your single biggest strength and end with a benefit that you offer.  Ideally it should be something measurable, since everything boils down to dollars.  This strips away the fluff and quickly answers that critical question in their mind.  Do this and you make it easy for them to call you.

3. Measurable Results

OK, now you have a great opening statement.  For Act Two, you must back that up with added proof.  Don't rely on tired clichés.  Tantalize them with a bulleted list of specific achievements.  By achievements, I mean an end result that reaped some benefit for either your employer or the client you've worked for.

This may require that you think outside your box or cubicle. Regardless of your role, you have a bottom line impact on your employer.  Your job is to communicate your true value clearly and specifically to your next employer.  It may take a bit of effort to develop these bullets.  And that's all they should be.  No more than a one-sentence brief description of the benefit or result and how you accomplished it.

If you can put together a concise list of 5 to 7 good achievements that are Return-on-Investment (ROI)-oriented, you'll score a lot quicker than relying on those unexciting clichés. 

4. One Job Title, One Resume

Resume readers are very focused and they're looking for specific items.  They have very short attention spans and can be easily distracted.  When they get distracted, they start getting confused, and when that happens, they screen you out and reach for the next resume.

So, if you are looking for a position as a project manager, tell them why you're a great project manager.  That's all they want to know. Don't tell them about how you used to work as a carpenter or how you managed and ran your own consulting business. They don't want or need to know about your other unrelated careers or positions. Even if you were great at them.

Use one resume to sell one job title.  If the resume doesn't clearly explain why you're the best project manager in your city, then either drop the information or minimize it because it doesn't belong there.

Stick with one career on one resume and you'll have less chance of getting screened out.

5. "Above the Fold"

Place all of your most important selling information at the very top half of page one.  Most resume readers spend about 20 seconds of actual eyeball time before they decide to move to the next resume.  They are not going to waste their time looking through your resume to find critical information, such as how you "increased revenues $350K", or you "decreased labor costs by 12%".  This information should be polished like gemstones and presented on a silver platter at the very top of the first page.  Do this, and they'll be spending a lot longer than 20 seconds on your resume.

Hi, Joe,

Any hints for someone who has been out of work for the second time in 2008?

I was laid-off May 16th and have been on a roller coaster ever since. I am down to buying food and TP. I have two young adult children to provide for and an ex who says he cannot help them.

Thanks,

Kerri

You’re in a tough situation. You need to do some crisis planning at this point. You don’t mention the age of your two young adult children, but if they’re sixteen or older, they’re old enough to find  part-time jobs to contribute toward the bills. If they’re out of high school and not going to college, they need to work full-time to help you pay the bills.

In terms of your own employment situation, some additional crisis planning is in order here. You need to develop income to stay in your home and to put food on the table. If you have no income now, make a list of your strongest skills. Then make a list of jobs that you can find that would solve your immediate financial problems.

If necessary, contact a credit counselor to help you to see your situation more objectively and to identify resources and solutions, both short and long term, to your financial crisis.  They'll also describe the rights you have and present you with some options that will allow you to keep your credit rating intact.

Once you have a short-term job that’ll meet your immediate needs, take a deep breath, and start planning for the longer term. You’re in the same boat as a lot of other people out there seeking jobs. Your challenge is to rise above your competitors. To do this, frame your work history in terms that employers want to hear.

The operative term is “Return on Investment”. Forget trying to sell your skills and cite “results” instead. Sit down with a legal pad and go through your work history. Start to ask the “so what?” question after each role, project or task that you performed for your employers.

Track each role, project or task back to its relationship to money. We all touch money as employees. We do this by helping employers to either save money or make money. Make a list of examples of how you were effective in one of these two roles.

This is a way to start differentiating yourself from your competitors. It will help you to overcome the stigma of two layoffs this year. One part of your challenge with finding a new job is the economy. The other part involves your own perceived limitations. We feel we’re not worthy or that something is wrong with us, or we’re failures or “rejects”. The challenge is to stay positive and to always sell our achievements in the real world, a world that seems to be losing its head while our own clock is ticking.

This is no easy feat, but when you start to realize that you are an important part of the profit and loss picture, you can begin to articulate your value to the employer. You’ll start to gain the attention of potential employers.

Why? Because they don’t have job opportunities, they have “problems”. That open position means the company is losing money that they can’t afford to lose. When you can talk in these new terms (ROI, Save $$, Make $$, etc.) you become a Problem Solver, not just a job applicant.

Check out my free resume teleseminar workshop. I offer more detail about these points to help you to build a more effective resume to sell yourself in today’s economy.

Joe