Helping Paris Hilton

Paul Freiberger, President of Shimmering Resumes hopes to help Paris Hilton

Shimmering Resumes cares. Paris Hilton just learned that she is not going to receive the multi-billions in inheritance that she may have expected. Instead, her grandfather is leaving his riches to aid the needy.
Poor Paris. In response Shimmering Resumes offered Paris a free resume so that she could quickly find a job and recoup the lost cash.
Here is the press release, which can also be found at PRWeb:

President of Shimmering Resumes Offers Help to Paris Hilton

San Mateo, CA December 28, 2007 – Help her.

That was the response of Shimmering Resumes to Black Wednesday, the day Paris Hilton learned that her grandfather is giving 97% of his fortune to charity.

To ease her distress, Shimmering Resumes has offered to write her a resume absolutely free, for any job she chooses to seek.

“Leaping to the rescue of the world’s best-known heiress is not everyone’s gut response,” said Paul Freiberger, president of Shimmering Resumes, a professional resume-writing service. “I’ve heard a lot of less-than-generous comments.

“This young lady just had over $2 billion snatched from her future. Show a little compassion,” Freiberger added. “It may not be so easy for her to create another perfume line or promote a movie, CD, or line of handbags. Can’t we all relate?”

Freiberger said he is not seeking Hilton’s endorsement for a line of resumes or CVs. Should she offer one, Freiberger has not decided what he would do.

“But if I can help Paris Hilton with career planning and get her a real job, that will be good for society. And for her,” Freiberger said.

If Hilton accepts this offer, Freiberger will treat her like any client, except for background.

“I usually recommend preparing one or two resumes for each client, so they can be ready to apply for jobs with different requirements. I’ll tell Paris she needs a couple of dozen,” Freiberger said, adding that he would point her to the sample resume on his web site. “I’ll tell her quite directly: ‘This is the most important document of your life.’”

“One resume would be a synthesis and cover her whole eventful life. I’ll call it Distinguished Debutante and Heiress. But she also needs a resume for her music. One for her acting. One for her handbag designing. I relish the challenge to help this many-sided girl,” said Freiberger.

What if Paris isn’t quick to look for work?

“If Hilton can’t bring herself to scan the jobs on Craigslist or Indeed.com, I’m sure the rest of us will understand,” said Freiberger. “Getting laid off this time of year is tough.” Freiberger said his firm offers executive coaching and morale boosting to help the recently unemployed cope with the shock.

What about volunteer work for Paris?

“She could bundle her vegetarianism and anti-fur activism in a resume offering assistance to any of the presidential candidates,” he added. “It would certainly spice up the race.”

In October 2007 Shimmering Resumes offered to write a free resume and provide interview tips for Barry Bonds, after the San Francisco Giants cut him. Bonds has not responded, but the offer remains open.

What's Funny About the Job Interview?

What’s funny about a job interview? Usually very little. In fact, the standard advice is to avoid any tempation to tell a joke. Keep your eye on the prize. Save the jokes for after you are hired.
However, every once in a while, some interviewers have actually asked their interviewee to come up with a joke. Apparently it’s a poor excuse for seeing how well you can think on your feet.
In my book, Upshift Now! The Executive's Guide to Winning a Higher Position, I discuss the job interview and provide lots of useful advice. I’m afraid, however, that I neglected to suggest that you be armed with jokes. This column is my attempt to make up for that omission.
There is lots of good stuff in the book, however; you should check it out at my resume writing site, ShimmeringResumes.com.
Do you have a favorite joke?
Ever happy to be of service to the job hunter, here are a few, just for fun:

A ragged piece of string went into a pub and asked for a drink. "Are you over 18?" asked the barman. "No," replied the string, "I'm a frayed knot."



Separately, here’s one to cheer you up, in case you’re fed up with rejection letters.
The next time you get a rejection letter from a hoped-for employer or publisher, just send them the following:

Dear [name of the person who signed the rejection letter],

Thank you for your letter of [date of the rejection letter]. After careful consideration, I regret to inform you that I am unable to accept your refusal to offer me [employment with your firm/a contract to publish my book].

This year I have been particularly fortunate in receiving an unusually large number of rejection letters. With such a varied and promising field of candidates, it is impossible for me to accept all refusals. Despite [name of the co or agency that sent you this letter]'s outstanding qualifications and previous experience in rejecting [applicants/manuscripts], I find that your rejection does not meet with my needs at this time.

Therefore, I will initiate [employment/publishing] with your firm immediately following [graduation/job change, etc. - get creative here]. I look forward to working with you.

Best of luck in rejecting future [candidates/manuscripts].

Sincerely,
[your name]


Reaching the end of a job interview, the Human Resources Person asked a young engineer fresh out of MIT, "What starting salary were you looking for?"

The engineer replied, "In the neighborhood of $125,000 a year, depending on the benefits package."

The interviewer said, "Well, what would you say to a package of 5 weeks vacation, 14 paid holidays, full medical and dental, company matching retirement fund to 50% of salary, and a company car leased every 2 years -- say, a red Corvette?"

The Engineer sat up straight and said, "Wow! Are you kidding?"

The interviewer replied, "Well Yeah, but you started it."

A Manager of a retail clothing store is reviewing a potential employee's application and notices that the man has never worked in retail before. He says to the man, "For a man with no experience, you are certainly asking for a high wage."

"Well Sir," the applicant replies,
"the work is so much harder when you don't know what you're doing!"

SECRETS TO HIGHER CAREER POSITION REVEALED

I try to keep readers of my blog aware of important books, even if I'm the author. Forgive this promotion, then. I think you'll want to check this out. As Mark Twain said, "Honesty is the best policy - when there is money in it."


SECRETS TO ACHIEVING HIGHER CAREER POSITION REVEALED
IN NEW E-BOOK, UPSHIFT NOW

San Mateo, CA November 1, 2007 – Another dorky press release, you’re thinking? Maybe, but this one could improve your life.

Job upshift skills can spell the difference between life fulfillment and frustration. Even talented people often make fatal mistakes when applying for better positions, with no clue about their mis-steps.

That’s why the new Upshift Now: The Executive’s Guide to Winning a Higher Position, by highly acclaimed author Paul Freiberger and Robert Delft, may be the most valuable work you’ll ever own. This eye-opening book lays out the secrets behind the process, secrets that determine who rises and doesn’t in a fiercely competitive process.

Written by the President of Shimmering Resumes, a professional resume-writing and career counseling business, Upshift Now describes:

• The Life-Changing Rewards: A single job upshift can be worth millions over a lifetime, and bestow far more prestige, power, and satisfaction.
• Error One: The funhouse-mirror effect can dangerously warp goals, so you must identify your true inner objectives.
• The Bull’s-Eye Mirage: If you think you’re aiming reasonably, you probably aren’t.
• The Space-Out Threat: A single moment of resume carelessness can destroy your whole effort.
• The Meaning of Job Quest Results. Almost everyone misconstrues it, with stunting lifetime consequences.

“You only live once,” said Mr. Freiberger, who is a highly respected Silicon Valley writer and former journalist and is now a resume writer. “You can’t do your career over again. And yet I’ve seen brilliant, effective people stymied again and again by errors in job upshift. It shouldn’t happen. That’s why we wrote this book.”

Freiberger has won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and his books include: Fire in the Valley: The Making of the Personal Computer (McGraw-Hill) and Fuzzy Logic: The Revolutionary Computer Technology That is Changing Our World (Simon & Schuster). These days he is writing high quality, professional resumes for clients seeking to achieve a major upshift.

“This has been terra incognita. It’s amazing how few executives grasp these potent secrets,” said Freiberger, who is also a veteran of the renowned management consultants McKinsey & Co. “The stairway to a higher position is right there, yet most people are blind to it and try to climb a cliff.”

Upshift Now is available for $25.00 at Shimmeringresumes.com. “A bargain?” Mr. Freiberger says. “It’s not just a bargain. It’s virtually free. A top executive earns $25 in five minutes or less. Yet this book can add $2 million or more to lifetime income. That’s like paying $1 for a share of stock that goes up to $80,000.”

Customers of Shimmering Resumes receive a free copy of Upshift Now when they order a resume or any other service.

Though aimed at executives and professionals, the book and its secrets can benefit almost anyone. Mr. Freiberger has done extensive media appearances as a professional resume writer, and is available for interviews to further discuss Upshift Now.

About Shimmering Resumes
Shimmering Resumes is a nationwide resume writing and career counseling business, a member of Career Masters Institute, with its website at www.ShimmeringResumes.com. “All resumes are written by a certified, professional resume writer.”

Contact:
Paul Freiberger
President, Shimmering Resumes
(650) 464-0085
Paul@ShimmeringResumes.com

Your Resume is No Joke

Reaching the end of a job interview, the Human Resources person asked a young applicant fresh out of Business School, "And what starting salary are you looking for?"
The applicant said, "In the neighborhood of $125,000 a year, depending on the benefits package."
The interviewer said, "Well, what would you say to a package of 5-weeks vacation, 14 paid holidays, full medical and dental, company matching retirement fund to 50% of salary, and a company car leased every two years - say, a red Corvette?"
The applicant sat up straight and said, "Wow! Are you kidding?"
And the interviewer replied, "Yeah, but you started it."

People do say the darndest things. It isn’t hard to find lists of error-filled resumes and cover letter bloopers. For example:

I demand a salary commiserate with my extensive experience.

I have lurnt Word Perfect 6.0 computor and spreadsheet progroms.

Received a plague for Salesperson of the Year.

Reason for leaving last job: maturity leave.

Wholly responsible for two (2) failed financial institutions.

Seriously, we’re all capable of making a mistake of syntax, spelling, punctuation or grammar. It’s ok.

OK, that is, except on your resume.

When an applicant submits a resume or cover letter with an error, it clearly makes the wrong impression.

Amazingly, some applicants for executive positions pay scant attention to their resumes, and get little resume help. Perhaps they believe that employers will deduce their merits anyway, or think the competition will be weak, or just dislike the effort of creating one. Almost always, they haven’t thought the process out, for they are moving into heavy weather on a rowboat.

An executive resume is important even if you think you don’t need it and can get interviews through your connections. Why? You can’t be sure when you might require one, and you don’t want to toss it together overnight. A resume also helps you organize yourself and see the full picture of your accomplishments and abilities. Most people take them for granted and may not have them uppermost in their mind at an interview. A resume crystallizes them.

It’s essentially a marketing device. It’s a biography too, but a very special one: brief and almost all highlights.

Think of a professional resume as an argument. Your thesis is: I am the person to hire. I’ll give you the best payoff. The entire nature of the resume flows from that. And you want to get it right. If that means hiring a professional to help you, then don’t hesitate.

Spoken like a true resume writer? Perhaps. I am a resume writer. And I care about these documents, which are among the most important of our lives. After all, first impressions are crucial. Opening with a joke is not the best approach in a resume or cover letter. Save it for after you get the job.

Job Search Company Extends Helping Hand to Barry Bonds

A clever firm is offering Barry Bonds the chance to juice his job search. Poor guy is unemployed. Shimmering Resumes promises to teach him all about the career search process, keep his morale high and develop a premier resume, which will be the best performance enhancer he can get.

read more | digg story

Shimmering Resumes Offers Free Resume and Job Counseling to Barry Bonds

I wanted readers of my blog to get a preview of the release going out on the Wire tomorrow.

Job Search Company Extends Helping Hand to Barry Bonds

San Mateo, CA October 18, 2007 – A leading professional resume writer and career counselor has offered to write a free resume for Barry Bonds.

Shimmering Resumes, which develops resumes for executives and professionals, is concerned about Bonds’s looming idleness and wants to help him end it.

“Even if you are the best in your field, you can still lose your job,” said Paul Freiberger, president of Shimmering Resumes. “Sometimes management and personnel simply part ways. And when that happens, a good resume is the best performance enhancer you can get.

“Why did the Giants cut their fabled star loose?” Mr. Freiberger asked. “Other team executives will wonder, so his resume must quiet these concerns. That’s one reason he needs a professional resume writer. It is simply Career Planning 101.”

Bonds’s very success raises a problem for him, career coach Freiberger said. He can hit a baseball, but he probably doesn’t know much about a resume. He needs a professional resume writer more than a trainer.

The president of Shimmering Resumes said he hopes to meet with Bonds in person and
explain rules of an effective resume to him, such as:

• Leave the employer wanting to know more about him.
• Strip away clutter such as age and health.
• Showcase successes rather than responsibilities. He shouldn’t simply list employers and positions held, such as: “Outfielder, San Francisco Giants, 1993 – 2007.” Instead, he should say, “Significantly improved revenues by hitting home runs. Perennial All-Star.”

In addition to a professional resume, Bonds also needs job interview tips, Mr. Freiberger said. Though experienced and sometimes nimble in the media interview, Bonds risks confusing it with the job interview. Mr. Freiberger offered to take Bonds through the job interview process, revealing classic “curveball” questions and teaching him to hit them into McCovey Cove.

The job search is often dispiriting and Mr. Freiberger also offered his morale-boosting services. A proud performer accustomed to adulation, Bonds may find rejection letters depressing, and Shimmering Resumes will provide the insightful support he needs to keep his spirits high and carry out his normal affairs. This is help he can’t get in the clubhouse or the pharmacy.

Bonds can examine sample resumes and cover letters at ShimmeringResume.com where he will discover much other valuable guidance.

Shimmering Resumes periodically offers its services free to noteworthy public figures facing career challenges. If you are such a person, send a note to info@shimmeringresumes.com.

About Shimmering Resumes
Shimmering Resumes is a nationwide resume writing and career counseling business, a member of Career Masters Institute, with its website at www.ShimmeringResumes.com.

Contact:
Paul Freiberger
President, Shimmering Resumes
(650) 464-0085
Paul@ShimmeringResumes.com

Write Yourself

Most people think about goals casually, turning them over in the mind. That’s not enough. Do this analysis in writing.

Why? The reason is simple: It leads to insight.

First, writing clarifies your thoughts. The very act of externalizing them, bringing them into the light, forces you to focus them. You’ll often find that the idea which seemed complete in your mind has a blurry spot when you try to express it in a sentence, and that spot can be crucial. In fact, that’s why it was blurred. You didn’t know how to fill it.

Writing compels you to support your thoughts so they seem reasonable. The idea that glowed in your mind may look bare on the page, and you may have to provide backing for it. This exercise can save you from dreamy error.

Writing lets you develop your thoughts. The idea on the page is a memory saved, and it frees you to move on to the next one, and the next. You wind up thinking about implications, filled out uncharted territory, seeing and answering questions that may simply have lurked in the semidarkness before. Writing enables elaboration.

And writing lets you return again and again to the process. You rarely divine all your good ideas at one sitting. For instance, scientists have recently found that sleep improves our comprehension of context and problems, validating the wisdom of “sleeping on” an important decision. Moreover, you’ll want to discuss aspects of your career with your spouse and perhaps with good friends, and these ideas can enrich the document as well.

Maybe you’re still reluctant. If so, ask yourself: What is the cost? A little time and the toil of thought. That’s all. Now compare it to the potential upside: A more rewarding, purposeful life, bestowed by greater understanding of yourself and your options. It’s the kind of bet they don’t offer in casinos, because they’d go broke fast.

So answer the following questions and be utterly, even painfully, honest with yourself. Respond fully, with answers you’d never consider showing others. And keep working on it.

Bill Clinton's Job Search Exhortation

As important as a resume is, it will be far more useful if you have done your networking. Spend your time searching for jobs on websites and in newspapers and you miss 70 percent of available opportunities, according to Forbes. Most jobs are available to networkers if you uncover them. Why? Studies show repeatedly that it is because people do the hiring and people are less comfortable with strangers. Get an introduction to a company and you will start out the job search process with a greater comfort level than you could by entering the process as a total stranger.

Networking also informs you of jobs before thousands of others learn about them. Networking, then, is simply the best way to find a job. Logically, then, it’s worth taking the time to learn how to network and how to take advantage of your networking. How? Keep records. In his book, Never Eat Alone, author Keith Ferrazzi described one of the great networkers of our time:

“In 1968, when President Bill Clinton was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, he met a graduate student named Jeffrey Stamps at a party. Clinton promptly pulled out a black address book. ‘What are you doing here at Oxford, Jeff?’ he asked.

“‘I’m at Pembroke on a Fulbright,’ Jeff replied. Clinton penned ‘Pembroke’ into his book, then asked about Stamp’s undergraduate school and his major. ‘Bill, why are you writing this down?’ asked Stamps.

“‘I’m going into politics and plan to run for governor of Arkansas, and I’m keeping track of everyone I meet,’ said Clinton.”

Networking won’t get you elected president but it can surely help you get a better job. Be sure to write down your contacts. Organize a database. You’ll be glad you did. It will be a lynchpin in your job search.

CNN, Super-Sized Salaries and Your Resume

Your resume does impact your eventual salary. In fact, every facet of the job search process can make a big difference in compensation as well as other benefits throughout your career. CNN.com recently ran a helpful article that talked about salary ranges for top executive jobs. The piece discussed expected compensation for positions such as CFO, Director of Finance, Chief Compliance Officer, Chief Information Officer, and Chief Security Officer. It’s reasonable to anticipate six-figure salaries for many of these jobs, according to the CareerBuilder article that CNN.com posted. (CareerBuilder.com is one of the more respected job search websites.) It’s important to add that your eventual salary will depend on a variety of factors, including geography (San Francisco and New York jobs will typically pay more than jobs in more remote locations), and your presentation. For these senior level jobs, companies often have a wide range in salary they are willing to pay. They will look for the right person and then they will offer a salary that they think the candidate will accept. This number is partly determined by your presentation on your resume and during interviews. Therefore, you want to learn to describe your job experience on your resume in a way that identifies yourself as top-tier. Take the time to do this right. The rewards will be great. To read the CNN article, go to: http://www.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/worklife/08/14/cb.super.salary/index.html

Key Points to Guide You

I own a business called Shimmering Resumes that offers resume services and career guidance. I hope you'll also check out http://www.shimmeringresumes.com. I believe this blog will explore a great deal of territory that my business cannot do on a daily basis. However, an executive whose resume I consulted on a few weeks ago, suggested I offer some basic guidance here for those who are struggling with a resume. I'm happy to do so.
To have impact, your resume must vividly state your accomplishments, not just restate your job description. Here are a few tips:

• Stress achievements that increased revenues or saved money or time.

• Underscore your most vital tasks, even if they weren't your main ones.

• Think in terms of larger meaning. State a problem, your solution, and the results.

• If you enhanced processes or products, show how your contributions improved the company.

• Quantify. “Supervised 50-person department” is better than “Supervised a large department.”

• Don’t offer negative information.

• Drop phrases like “responsible for.”

• Check job performance reviews for comments on your value.

Use these points as a checklist for your current resume, or as a guide for developing a new one. I think you'll get better results.

The Starting Gate

Your resume is one of the most important documents of your life. It matters in many ways. It can help you or hurt you. It can open doors to a brighter future. It is the documentation for the answer you give to the first question strangers ask each other: "What do you do?"
A resume can help you take steps toward improving your life. It is the vehicle that can take you from one job to another. It can advance you from a disappointing career to fulfillment in your job. In short, a resume matters.
Yet many of us ignore it until we face a crisis. Even then, we fail to treat it as the vital paper that it is. I urge you to take it seriously. Your resume can change your life.