This week’s podcast addresses a topic that many of you might be surprised about: your resume. Your resume, regardless of the baggage associated with it, is probably your most critical career management document. While it’s not something you ought to leave laying around on your desk (or on monster.com, for that matter), that doesn’t mean you ought to treat it like something you dust off only when you really need it. It needs to be reviewed quarterly, believe it or not.

So, in this cast we’ll teach you how to prepare it, and how to maintain it. We won’t talk about cover letters, or how resumes are used in the job search, because job search is only one use of your resume.

The Sample Resume we refer to on the show is here.

Rites of Passage at $100,000 to $1 Million+: Your Insider’s Lifetime Guide to Executive Job-Changing and Faster Career Progress in the 21st Century by John Lucht

Why We Like This Book:

The ONLY book on changing jobs you will ever need. As detailed and well-documented and -researched book as we know of. It is the equivalent of Effective Executive for job searches. May not be 100% applicable for college graduates, but is for everyone else. He says you should do your resume like we do, and no one else recommends this. Buy this book.

I recently “promoted” to the main blog a question about interviewing attire. I made the point that even in a business casual environment, a suit was really the only smart and acceptable way to go to an interview (ladies too).

Because sometimes our approach tends to be a little more formal - or at least, we tend to deliver it with a tone that brooks less discussion - I try to provide reinforcement from other sources.

Recently, CareerJournal, the excellent careers site run by the Wall Street Journal, ran an article on What Not To Wear in Interviews.

In case you don’t want to go read it (it’s short and quite good, and there’s more than what’s here), I will excerpt one quote from Patrick Dailey, a Nokia HR manager, with whom I am familiar. His advice is routinely quite good.

The dress-code rule of thumb for men interviewing at most U.S. companies remains a dark suit, a light or white shirt and a bright-colored but sophisticated tie, says Patrick Dailey, a Dallas-based director of business human resources for Nokia Corp., a Finnish telecommunications company. He notes that since there are so many uncontrollable things that can work against you during job interviews, it’s wise to control what you can.

“Go by your mom’s rule,” says Mr. Dailey. “You can never be overdressed. Even if they say to wear business casual, it’s appropriate for you to be in a suit and tie.”

Most folks just don’t realize HOW important resumes are, and not just as pieces of paper.

In our Resume Cast, we talked about the PURPOSE of resumes: to create an interview. Now just imagine…wouldn’t it be great if its value didn’t end there? It doesn’t! yes, the resume itself gets you the chance to sell yourself, but buried in the resume are the PERFECT seeds of success, if you’ve followed our guidance.

Listen in to an interesting cast about how your resume and your interviews can be perfectly connected.

Well, once again, we’re barely getting this out in time to call it an October cast. But, I think you’ll find it worth the wait. This month, Mark and I want to share a cast from our upcoming Interviewing techniques product. This particular cast is one out of 14 casts on Interviewing.

In this cast, you’ll learn how to handle the crucial first five to ten minutes of any interview - Introductions. It is absolutely true that this is a critical part of the interview - first impressions are being formed, and I’d bet 75% of interviewers have a strong indication of how it’s going to go by the time this portion is done. That translates into our gut feeling that this is where 75% of technical interviewees fail. It’s THAT important.

There are essentially four parts to the Introduction:

• Immediate Preparation
• Entering the Room
• Your Greeting
• The Introductory Conversation

Mark recently blogged about the crazy advice being given - by the Wall Street Journal! - about how to handle the perennial interviewing question, “Tell me about a weakness.” He was stunned by how wrong some of the suggestions were, as well as the implication that a clever interviewee could trick the interviewing manager into accepting a non-responsive answer. We think it’s funny how many folks think that “they” can fool “their” interviewer, but of course, if “they” were the one “interviewing”, why, “that would be different”.

Yeah right.

In this cast, we share one of the best interviewing answer templates you’ll ever hear. It’s simple, elegant, easy to deliver, and surprise, surprise: it directly answers the question.

We’ve talked about thank you notes hundreds of times. They are fast becoming a nearly lost art. That’s too bad, because they are always appreciated. We know too many managers and professionals who keep them for years! Mark often talks about the basket under his desk full of cards, which he reads when he’s having a bad day. It reminds him things are not so bad.

“Many a friendship — long, loyal, and self-sacrificing — rested at first upon no thicker a foundation than a kind word.”

Frederick W. Faber

We consider thank you notes a part of every manager’s career and management toolkit. Here’s how to write them.

Additional Note: For those of you not close to a stationer or prefer the web, we recommend Crane’s, Dempsey & Carroll, and Mrs. John L. Strong. Crane’s is the classic American stationary provider, famous for their paper quality. Further, a quick suggestion: a higher rag or cotton content in your nicer stationery makes all the difference.

This cast explains a simple way to make a job offer to a candidate.

If you’re a manager, you’ve got people working for you. If you have people working for you, you’re going to either lose some, or your team is going to grow. That creates an opening, which, if you’re lucky, you’ll get to fill. And that means interviewing, and hiring someone.

While we think it’s funny (and sad) that so many managers don’t like the hiring process, it seems silly to punish ourselves by not knowing how to do it. Look, even if you hate the process, why mess it up and increase your chances of having to do it again right at the very end? It’s like being in the lead of a mile long race, only to fall down and then have to run an extra mile.

Interviewing candidates for your organization is one of the most important things managers do. And yet, somehow, it’s one of those things that doesn’t seem to get taught anywhere. What this means is very few managers know how, or at least, they just do it “their way”. That’s not a very effective approach for an organization to have regarding the key talent screening process that it has, but the data are overwhelming:

Your interviews stink!

Most managers simply don’t have a good way to always ensure that they are conducting an effective interview. Some managers routinely create false positives with shallow questions, little probing, and a lack of understanding about the role. Other managers routinely create false negatives…and usually, for the very same reasons on the surface.

Conducting Effective Interviews is too big a topic to cover all at once..unless you wanted a 30 hour cast! So, in this cast, we’ll talk about the steps effective managers take to get ready for an interview.

I thought you all might enjoy another clip of Mark on Interviewing …

This video is a brief 2 minute excerpt of Mark’s Interviewing Presentation, covering Horstman’s 2nd Law of Interviewing - “You Are Not As Good As You Think You Are:You’re As Good As The Recruiter Thinks You Are.”