Free Birds United

My recent trek to central Mexico and the monarch butterfly’s winter roosting/migration grounds was simply magical.  Virtual snowstorms of hundreds of millions fluttering jewels.

What these amazing little creatures endure to travel to their ancestral home is nothing short of miraculous.  Especially given the fact that they had never set a single delicate leg in Central America prior to their landing.  You just have to admire that fierce drive and determination.

Even without this migration miracle, the monarch’s life cycle is awe-inspiring.  From its initial stage as an eating-machine caterpillar to the strangely beautiful chrysalis, the monarch emerges as nature’s iconic beauty.

The concept of metamorphosis, the act of transforming oneself into something new, came up at the last meeting of the Free Birds.  Armed with enthusiasm and a marketing plan, one member of our flock shared her vision of a totally new career for herself that would take her from the confines of her office and out into the street.  Another chick is considering repackaging her experience and knowledge into a new identity and business model.  What is old is new again.

In both cases, the need for market research, competitive analysis and planning is mandatory when contemplating a career shift; some deep soul-searching won’t hurt either.  The Small Business Administration website offers some tools for new business ventures, especially their Write a Business Plan outline complete with sample business plans.  And the site even has a section called Getting Out should your venture go south with the monarchs.

Happy New Year, now back to business.

At the last productive meeting of the Free Birds, we reviewed the flock’s assorted biographies and résumés.  This is what we liked:

• Testimonials

• Indentations, bullets and clean organization

• Brevity

• Third-person narrative rather than first-person voice

• Chronological ordering starting with most recent entries

• White space

Of course, unique paper stocks, distinctive imagery and beautiful typography and graphic design were also appreciated.  Like a crow with a shiny object, we creative birds may have been caught up in the pretty things a bit.  But each of us left with a specific to-do list for improving the content of her résumé.

Some references to consider that I borrowed from the local library, yes, LIBRARY:

“Perfect Phrases for Résumés” by Michael Betrus – came in handy when I ran out of ways to say “Experienced”.   Some favorites:

•  Instrumental in….

•  Extensive involvement in….

•  Personally responsible for….

•  Consistently….

•  Expert in developing…..

“101 Great Résumés” by Ron Fry -  As a graphic designer, visual organization is second-nature to me, so it was interesting to see the array of organizational approaches and visual styles that the birds presented at our meeting.  This book lists 19 tips to a “great looking résumé” including:

1.  Limit your résumé to one or two pages.

7.  Don’t mix typefaces.

11.  Use generous margins.

18.  Shorten your line length.

As with everything, there are no absolutes and a grain of salt may be taken with any of these “perfect tips”.