Introducing Guest Blogger Bruce Diggs: Walking the Walk on Paper
DZJ Editor’s Note: Bruce Diggs worked in human resources with KBR in Iraq, and Fluor in Afghanistan. As a guest blogger, Bruce will share with DZJ readers some of the common mistakes he saw from job applicants and offer advice on how to have better success in the job search process. His website is LOGCAP4JOBS.com, where he helps contractors craft resumes that get noticed.
To start this discussion, I would like to go into more detail about preparing and submitting a resume designed to gain the attention of the LOGCAP recruiters. While opinions vary regarding the length of a resume – some say one to two pages max – there are exceptions to this corporate America de facto standard.
Sometimes the depth and breadth of a candidate’s experience requires three, and on occasion four or more pages to adequately reflect KSA’s (Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities), accumulated during the course of their on-going career.
In particular, exceptionally well qualified executive level professionals, as well as technical pro’s sometimes require this longer format. Their challenge is to sufficiently present the business acumen Multi National Corporations are always looking for in those they are considering trusting with the core knowledge of their business.
Senior management and inner-sanctum stakeholders expect, require and demand bottom-line oriented leaders who are innovative and can achieve high global standards not easily reached by the competition. The challenge is to present on paper that you are the person to do so.
Talent management and hiring plays a crucial role in a company’s overall strategy to attract and keep the type of Top Gun performers required to maintain a competitive edge on a global scale. ECPM (Engineering, Construction, Procurement, and Management) corporations depend on highly diversified talent of an exceptional caliber.
This level of candidate doesn’t present a generic bulleted list detailing a job description which any HR manager can look-up. They possess sterling qualities not easily found, including the ability to set a new standard not easily duplicated or attained by the competition.
Highly sought-after Core Competencies must include much more than “soft-skills” (i.e. communication skills, customer service skills, team player blah, blah, blah ad infinitum skills), which are acquired in almost any given job situation where employee’s interact with one another or the client.
Hard Skills are what top employers are looking for in a candidate. They want to know what you actually know. They are interested in what you know how to do and accomplish – and of course if a person lists KSA’s on a resume, they had best be able to back up what they say they can do.
In other words, you better know what you say you know. Talking the talk is one thing – walking the walk is quite another. And walking the walk on paper is the hardest part of the your job search.
Comments, questions, opinions or alibis welcome. Your thoughts?
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8 Responses to “Introducing Guest Blogger Bruce Diggs: Walking the Walk on Paper”
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How is Dyncorp doing in Afghanistan? I have been offered a position and trying to make a decision on whether to take the position.
Doug – how DYN is doing depends on one’s perspective. I, like everyone else, have heard accounts of payroll issues for some of their employee’s, but everything has to be looked at within context of the bigger picture.
When I was HR with KBR, there were payroll issues that came up all the time where people weren’t getting their paycheck on time and in the correct amount. These issues had to be worked through systematically and methodically until a resolution was obtained, and sometimes it took a while – sometimes for an inordinately long while.
I tend to be a cooler though when it comes to issues like this rather than a flamer and an instigator, as I have seen how a computer glitch can wreak absolute havoc, through no-fault of the Data Cell.
In regard to the job offer you have received from DYN, everything I read in the press indicates their involvement in LOGCAP and particularly in police training will continue to remain strong for the foreseeable future.
Talented operators will always be in high demand. PSC’s will never go away.
Committing to an employment agreement is not a decision to be made lightly as I am sure you know, and my best recommendation is to conduct research into any company you may be considering partnering with to your satisfaction.
Bruce-Glad to see you are expanding your network to help people secure LOGCAP jobs. Well done! From what my readers tell you your services are well worth it.
Ms Sparky
Much appreciated Ms Sparky. It appears your site, DZJ, and mine all seem to dove-tail quite nicely, bringing our shared readership a wealth of information to the niche LOGCAP industry.
For the most part I can honestly say I have seen very few people get hired that fit the picture of fully qualified for the job. Some jobs have education requirments and I have seen personnel in HR hired that were former waitress’s. I have seen personnel hired with little understanding of English in areas like service desk dealing with clients. I have also seen many times those arrive without the skills instead of sending them home and getting a quailified person in return they are moved to a department or you are left to train a person that was hired for his standing ability to do the job, not to go through a training course.
Also as stated with another comment it is more of contacts within the companies that get you the paying positions instead of your work. Now getting your foot in the door is one thing, after that its a political game of as in politics of getting to know who can do what for you. So in a nutshell I don’t know of any lost jobs because of lack of quailifications. Get in the door and you are assured a ride.
I blame this on recruiters. Like alot of other people and tradecrafts they have unquailified people hiring people that are supposed to be quailified. How is that determined? It’s like this: if the QAQC isn’t a qualified plumber, electrician, carpenter, how does he know what is what when it comes to determining what is sound and safe etc.? I believe in advancement I have seen PL’s from luandry that did very well was he misplaced from the first when he was placed in laundry or vise versa .
Good point Bob. Back in the day, I also have witnessed events you mention which seemed to create a paradox that defied rational elucidation – a veritable riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.
Over the years though, things have seemed to change – however slowly – for the better, in that enough people (including myself), raged against the machine – in an articulate manner of course, so as not to put the powers that be off – presenting an argument based on logic which was difficult to dispute.
I have told countless people that if you disagree with something, or don’t like the way something works, don’t just stand on the outside trying to tear it down by griping and complaining all the time. I tell people that if you see something that needs to change, (such as the hiring or advancement process), get involved and become an agent for change – bring constructive suggestions for improvement to the system rather than just *issin and moaning all day about it!
This of course requires developing a sense of discernment of knowing when to press, when to step back, knowing when to speak, and knowing when to keep one’s comments to themselves. Some call that politics. I call it employing the four elements of a good strategy – formulate, develop, implement, and evaluate. Sometimes it’s two steps forward, one step back, and sometimes’ it’s just a matter of timing and being in the right place at the right time, but I maintain that all other considerations being equal, chance favors the prepared mind.
I knew a guy who came onto the project as a lowly laborer putting port-a-lets together in Kandahar, without even the benefit of a single tool other than his personal Leatherman. He put them together to the best of his ability, and did so without complaining. So, the bosses kept giving him one challenge after another, and the fellow would consistently rise to the occasion giving it all he had. This scenario kept repeating itself, he continued in positions of increasing responsibility until eventually, the man who started out as a lowly laborer putting plastic outhouses together, rose to Project Manager.
Without exception, I have seen this same scenario repeated in every department on LOGCAP, which gives credence to the old adage that cream always rises to the top. In other words, you can’t keep a good man (or woman), down.
Everybody be sure to check out my site, www. logCap4Jobs.com, and STAY SAFE.
Just wanted to say that the resume service that Bruce offers is well worth the money. I have submitted it on three different jobs and had two hits I would say the odds are in my favor now thanks Bruce.
Good to hear Richard. I hear from a lot of people who take advantage of my service telling me they’re getting hits and receiving job offers. That tells me I must be doing something right. A well written resume opens the door to opportunity and advancement and I encourage anyone who has not been getting the response they had hoped for when applying to forward your resume to me so I can “put an eyeball on it”. No charge and no harm in having it looked over, that’s for sure. A person can have mad skills, but unless those skills are presented in the right way, you run the risk of getting passed over for a job you may be perfectly qualified for, so don’t sell yourself short.
Check-out my site http://www.logcap4jobs.com
Hit me @ info@logcap4jobs.com.
Out here.