Professional affiliations do make a difference

By Carol Kleiman
Chicago Tribune

Professional professionals: If you've ever for one moment thought that joining a professional association in your field would not help increase your chances of finding a job, consider this:

A whopping 79 percent of 1,300 hiring managers and executive recruiters nationwide believe that "applicants who belong to professional organizations are higher-quality candidates. Those who belong to such groups tend to have more experience and education."

That's the finding of a recent study by the American Marketing Association, based in Chicago. And the membership of the marketing association itself encourages the supposition that such networks attract top performers:

Eighty-five percent of the organization's 40,000 members worldwide have at least five years' experience and 59 percent have a graduate degree, according to Lynette Rowlands, the association's interactive marketing manager.

For its own membership, and other marketing and public relations professionals, the association has introduced the Marketing Career Network, an online hiring job board.

For more information, go to www.marketingpower.com/postjobs. Or call the association at (800) 262-1150.

Deadly resumes: Too many resumes read like obituaries, and "that's why they get buried," observes Irv Orenstein, president of Orenstein Advertising, which gives job hunting guidance to job seekers worldwide.

Orenstein, whose offices are in Huntingdon Valley, Pa., has been giving advice on resumes for more than 30 years — and he says the deadly resumes he has seen could fill a giant trash bin.

"An obituary is merely a recounting of past accomplishments, which might be quite wonderful, but a resume, much like an advertisement, should point up what you can do for the company," Orenstein explained. "That's a significant difference."

So if you don't want your resume buried in a pile of other dull resumes, make it proactive, positive and geared to what the hiring company needs.

In other words, advertise yourself.