Steve Van Vreede's Page

We’ve heard so much lately about the importance of the online image of job seekers and why it is imperative for them to clean up their reputations before any potential employer searches them out. Niche businesses have even cropped up to help with this process and to turn a negative image into a more positive one.

Many companies are also spending significant resources to monitor and “fix” their online image, overcoming negative customer reviews and competitor backstabbing.
Nevertheless, although… Continue

Just when I think perhaps I have heard everything, particularly when it comes to resume advice, someone has to go and put something out there that seems to come from left field. The flavor of the moment now seems to be: human-ness, making your resume sound more “human.”

And the wisdom that seems to go along with this concept is that you should incorporate “I” into your resume more often so that it seems less like a robot wrote it and more like a person, i.e., a human, wrote it.

On the surface,… Continue

For those of you who are familiar with the work that I do (career coaching, resume writing, and promoter of the group job hunting concept), my title probably seems a bit surprising. After all, how can one of the biggest fans of group job hunting claim that there are times when it doesn’t work?

Well, most great concepts require more than just theory to make them beneficial. You can talk all day about how wonderful something is, but without true application, it will fall flat. The same is true fo… Continue

Spend about 30 seconds (or less) perusing the latest job search advice, and you will no doubt come across statements like the following:

“A job search is nothing more than a marketing campaign with you being the product.”

“An effective job seeker in today’s market understands the power of personal branding.”

“A job seeker is a sales professional; the more nuanced the pitch, the more effective the result.”

As a career pro who has participated in establishing this line of thinking, I certainly… Continue

Maybe you have heard of the “elevator speech,” that 2-minute or less prepared (but not too stiff) speech that job seekers are supposed to have at the ready when conducting face-to-face or over-the-phone networking? You know, that moment when someone goes, “so tell us what you’re looking for”? It usually goes something like this:

“I’m Joe Schmoe, a PMP with 10 years of management experience in the financial services arena, etc., etc., etc., and I am now looking for a new opportunity in the north… Continue