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Section 1.10.32 of “de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum”, written by Cicero in 45 BC

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Linke Linke

“Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt. Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit qui in ea voluptate velit esse quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum qui dolorem eum fugiat quo voluptas nulla pariatur?”

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.”

Section 1.10.32 of “de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum”, written by Cicero in 45 BC

Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt. Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit qui in ea voluptate velit esse quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum qui dolorem eum fugiat quo voluptas nulla pariatur?

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.”

Section 1.10.32 of “de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum”, written by Cicero in 45 BC

• Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis
• iste natus error sit voluptate
• accusantium doloremque laudantium

totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt. Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit qui in ea voluptate velit esse quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum qui dolorem eum fugiat quo voluptas nulla pariatur?

Salarytutor.com Privacy Policy

This privacy policy has been compiled to better serve those who are concerned with how their ‘Personally identifiable information’ (PII) is being used online. PII, as used in US privacy law and information security, is information that can be used on its own or with other information to identify, contact, or locate a single person, or to identify an individual in context. Please read our privacy policy carefully to get a clear understanding of how we collect, use, protect or otherwise handle your Personally Identifiable Information in accordance with our website.

What personal information do we collect from the people that visit our blog, website or app?

When ordering or registering on our site, as appropriate, you may be asked to enter your name, email address or other details to help you with your experience.

When do we collect information?

We collect information from you when you register on our site, subscribe to a newsletter or enter information on our site.

How do we use your information?

We may use the information we collect from you when you register, make a purchase, sign up for our newsletter, respond to a survey or marketing communication, surf the website, or use certain other site features in the following ways:

• To personalize user’s experience and to allow us to deliver the type of content and product offerings in which you are most interested.
• To quickly process your transactions.
• To send periodic emails regarding your order or other products and services.

How do we protect visitor information?

We regularly use Malware Scanning on all company computers. Personal information is stored via Aweber.com an email database list company that has has been awarded TRUSTe’s Privacy Seal signifying that the privacy policy and practices have been reviewed by TRUSTe for compliance with TRUSTe’s Program Requirements and the TRUSTed Cloud Program Requirements including transparency, accountability and choice regarding the collection and use of your personal information. Aweber Privacy Policy.

Third Party Disclosure

We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside parties your personally identifiable information unless we provide you with advance notice. This does not include website hosting partners and other parties who assist us in operating our website, conducting our business, or servicing you, so long as those parties agree to keep this information confidential. We may also release your information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with the law, enforce our site policies, or protect ours or others’ rights, property, or safety.

However, non-personally identifiable visitor information may be provided to other parties for marketing, advertising, or other uses.

Third party links

Occasionally, at our discretion, we may include or offer third party products or services on our website. These third party sites have separate and independent privacy policies. We therefore have no responsibility or liability for the content and activities of these linked sites. Nonetheless, we seek to protect the integrity of our site and welcome any feedback about these sites.

Google

Google’s advertising requirements can be summed up by Google’s Advertising Principles. They are put in place to provide a positive experience for users. https://support.google.com/adwordspolicy/answer/1316548?hl=en

We along with third-party vendors, such as Google use first-party cookies (such as the Google Analytics cookies) and third-party cookies (such as the DoubleClick cookie) or other third-party identifiers together to compile data regarding user interactions with ad impressions, and other ad service functions as they relate to our website.

Opting out:
Users can set preferences for how Google advertises to you using the Google Ad Settings page. Alternatively, you can opt out by visiting the Network Advertising initiative opt out page or permanently using the Google Analytics Opt Out Browser add on.

California Online Privacy Protection Act

CalOPPA is the first state law in the nation to require commercial websites and online services to post a privacy policy. The law’s reach stretches well beyond California to require a person or company in the United States (and conceivably the world) that operates websites collecting personally identifiable information from California consumers to post a conspicuous privacy policy on its website stating exactly the information being collected and those individuals with whom it is being shared, and to comply with this policy. – See more at: http://consumercal.org/california-online-privacy-protection-act-caloppa/#sthash.0FdRbT51.dpuf

According to CalOPPA we agree to the following:
Users can visit our site anonymously
Once this privacy policy is created, we will add a link to it on our home page, or as a minimum on the first significant page after entering our website.
Our Privacy Policy link includes the word ‘Privacy’, and can be easily be found on the page specified above.

Users will be notified of any privacy policy changes:
• On our Privacy Policy Page
Users are able to change their personal information:
• By logging in to their account

COPPA (Children Online Privacy Protection Act)

When it comes to the collection of personal information from children under 13, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) puts parents in control. The Federal Trade Commission, the nation’s consumer protection agency, enforces the COPPA Rule, which spells out what operators of websites and online services must do to protect children’s privacy and safety online.

We do not specifically market to children under 13.

Fair Information Practices

The Fair Information Practices Principles form the backbone of privacy law in the United States and the concepts they include have played a significant role in the development of data protection laws around the globe. Understanding the Fair Information Practice Principles and how they should be implemented is critical to comply with the various privacy laws that protect personal information.

In order to be in line with Fair Information Practices we will take the following responsive action, should a data breach occur:
We will notify the users via email
• Within 7 business days

CAN SPAM Act

The CAN-SPAM Act is a law that sets the rules for commercial email, establishes requirements for commercial messages, gives recipients the right to have emails stopped from being sent to them, and spells out tough penalties for violations.

We collect your email address in order to:
• Send information, respond to inquiries, and/or other requests or questions.
• Process orders and to send information and updates pertaining to orders
• Market to our mailing list or continue to send emails to our clients after the original transaction has occurred

To be in accordance with CANSPAM we agree to the following:
• NOT use false, or misleading subjects or email addresses
• Identify the message as an advertisement in some reasonable way
• Include the physical address of our business or site headquarters
• Monitor third party email marketing services for compliance, if one is used.
• Honor opt-out/unsubscribe requests quickly
• Allow users to unsubscribe by using the link at the bottom of each email

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from receiving future emails, you can
• Follow the instructions at the bottom of each email.
and we will promptly remove you from ALL correspondence.

Financial and Negotiation Advice Disclaimer

Jim Hopkinson, Salary Tutor, and Hopkinson Creative Media (The Company) is not a Registered Investment Advisor, Financial Analyst, or Financial Planner. The advice provided on this website is general advice only. It has been prepared without taking into account your specific objectives, financial situation or needs. Before acting on this advice you should consider the appropriateness of the advice, having regard to your own objectives, financial situation and needs. Where quoted, past performance is not indicative of future performance.

Hopkinson Creative Media, LLC disclaim all and any guarantees, undertakings and warranties, expressed or implied, and shall not be liable for any loss or damage whatsoever (including human or computer error, negligent or otherwise, or incidental or consequential loss or damage) arising out of or in connection with any use or reliance on the information or advice on this site, including loss of job opportunities, demotion, loss of income, denied job offers, and loss of employment. The user must accept sole responsibility associated with the use of the material on this site, irrespective of the purpose for which such use or results are applied.

Contacting Us

If there are any questions regarding this privacy policy you may contact us using the information below.

Salarytutor.com
Attn: Jim Hopkinson
234 E. 14th Street, Suite 1C
New York, NY USA 10003
jim@sandbox.salarytutor.com

Last Edited on 2015-01-31

[Editors note: Nearly all of my articles on Salary Tutor are genuinely written to truly help people with kindness and empathy. This one? Not exactly. Well, it IS truly meant to help people, but in this case, the tone is of a tongue-in-cheek “Jim Rant” of someone that was frustrated with the number of bad resumes he was seeing (think Larry David describing the job search). Thanks to a reader that pointed out that this comes off as obnoxious … I agree with him. But it’s all in good fun and the core advice is still important. Enjoy.]

You’ve had it up to here. Your boss is a jerk. You work way too many hours. You just got passed up for a promotion. You know you should be making more money. It’s time to find a new job. Maybe you got laid off.

Or maybe you’re a 19-year-old college sophomore looking for a summer internship. One day you’re surfing the job listings and there it is… the proverbial dream job. You want this job so badly you can taste it. They want a cover letter and resume. You can’t screw this up.  What do you need to do?

Flash back to the mid 1990s, where I’m the third employee at a tech startup. Unfortunately, this was back when you still had the long hours and low pay of a new company, but before they handed out magical stock options that made you a millionaire in 14 months.

We were growing like crazy, and during that time I was the de facto HR department. I sorted through hundreds of resumes and conducted dozens of interviews. Back then, it was just you and your paper resume.

Flash forward to today, where, as a marketing director at Wired.com in New York, I’ve conducted 5 searches for an intern with both marketing and tech skills over the last few years. My how the rules have changed.

Now of course, you send your digital resume via email, attach your cover letter as a nicely formatted PDF, and there are a host of sites, from online portfolios and blogs, to social networking sites and Google searches, that can both help – or kill – your chances of getting that dream job.

How are things different in the digital age? Here’s what I recommend:

Lets start with your opening email, which serves as a cover letter. Remember, like a good company, you’re trying to brand yourself and paint a picture that the interviewer can relate to:

• Are you an entrepreneurial self-starter?
• A whiz kid with stats and technology?
• A creative wordsmith and copywriter?

Here’s what to do:

Adapt your tone and style to that of the job posting. The first email I received did an excellent job of doing just that, responding to the fun, conversational tone of the job posting, with a similar style cover letter.  So I responded and let her know.

To use a pop culture reference, I felt like an American Idol judge telling her… “You took a risk by going outside the traditional formal business approach, but you made it your own and you nailed it.”

Here is what NOT to do:

1) For the love of Pete, get a normal email address. I don’t care if your name is Yazmin Suchetti, but like, everyone you know, like totally calls you Yaz. The “from” name on your email address should not be simply Yaz. Do you know who Yaz is? I’ll give you two choices.

Yaz is Carl Yastrzemski, one of the greatest players in baseball history, the Boston Red Sox’ all-time leader in career RBIs, runs, hits, singles, doubles, total bases, and games played, and the last man to hit for the triple crown.

or

Yaz is an 80’s synthpop duo from Britain who made the platinum selling album Upstairs at Eric’s.

You?  If you’re going for a professional job, you’re Yazmin_Suchetti@gmail or yahoo or hotmail. That’s it. No excuses. It’s FREE!

2) Match the job description.  If I am clearly looking for someone that knows technology and marketing, do not list artwork, poetry, and the choir in the first sentence of your pitch to me.

One person listed data entry, broadband/router setup, and computer maintenance as the first three bullet points of a job. Great. But the next two bullet points were building repairs and custodial duties. Should have quit while you were ahead.

3) Do not make me work and don’t be lazy.  One candidate wrote: “Attached is my resume. If you require a cover letter, please let me know and I will attach it in another email.”

You know what? Don’t worry about it. I’m sure you’re too busy to spend 15 minutes writing an introductory paragraph or two that would separate you from everyone else. Meanwhile, I’ve got plenty of time on my hands to get in a back and forth conversation with you. That’s why I’m looking for an assistant.

4) Spell-check and proofread everything. Twice. If it’s not bad enough that I’m the type of guy that likes to search for typos on restaurant menus, if the job position asks for strong copywriting skills, know that your writing and grammar will be scrutinized more than most.

I am extremely impressed with your resume by the fact that you were Salesperson of the Week twice, Salesperson of the Month once, and have personally raised over $60,000 fundraising.  But when you describe yourself as the “Lead money getter” in your cover letter, that doesn’t cut it.

Now let’s go to your resume.  Listen, this is the digital age. And this is a marketing internship for Wired.com.  So say you’re a college student.  Listen, I understand that you might have switched from political science to computer science three weeks ago, and you’re really not sure what you want to do with your life.

But try to focus on the moment. Why not take THREE MINUTES and change the objective on your resume to say “My objective is to get this internship at Wired”!

I was shocked that not a single applicant took the time to do this.

I know I sound like a grandpa when I say that before high quality laser printers and ubiquitous email, you finalized your resume and then went to Staples and bought a box of ecru-colored, 20-pound weight, nicely textured paper. Then you printed out 50 copies to bring on all your interviews. You had one, maybe 2 versions.

But now, it literally takes seconds to tweak a resume to match a specific job, export it to a PDF, and email it to the hiring manager.

And as long as we’re saving the file… there is only one way to name your resume:

Firstname_Lastname_resume.pdf

Why that way?

1) By saving it as a PDF – which by now is an industry standard that any hiring manager has installed – you ensure that any fonts and formatting will not be thrown out of whack when converting across various versions of Microsoft Word, or from Mac to PC.

2) You need to assume that the hiring manager might be saving all the potential candidates in a single directory with other files, and if you just call it resume.pdf, they won’t be able to distinguish yours from the others.

3) Calling it something that makes sense to YOU, but not to the hiring manager, such as jpfw-version1b_revised-09032010.pdf just looks sloppy and unprofessional.

OK, on to the lightning round of resume ranting:

- Put your name and contact information on your resume. Believe it or not, not one but two people did not have their name on their resume

- Do NOT send your resume as a jpg. Yes, I got a jpg resume.

– Do not put your references on your resume. When I’m ready for them, I’ll ask.

- Do not have a 2-3 page resume for an internship or your first job out of school.  You’re 19 years old!  Fit it on one page!  And I said one page! If it’s 1 ¼ pages long, edit!

- Please… show a little effort. This is the digital age of graphic design, Photoshop, and multimedia. You are going for a tech position. Go crazy and, oh I don’t know… Change the font!  Add a line break!  Add a hint of color. Put something interesting in the “other activities” section to make yourself memorable.  Of course it’s the CONTENT of the resume that I pay attention to, but if you start me out staring at 12pt Times New Roman, chronological order in the MS Word “resume” template, what does that say about your creativity and initiative?

Of course, all this is assuming you actually INCLUDE your resume.

I received an email that said “Please find my attached resume.” There was not one attached.

Now, I easily could have written them off instantly as someone without attention to detail. But I let this one slide. I simply hit reply and said… “I didn’t receive the attachment.”

The next email that came in said “Hi Jim… apologies.  Resume attached.”

Guess what? NO RESUME.

Finally, the email after THAT said “Resume attached,” and it was on there.

Now I’m sorry if I interrupted your 10-hour non-stop Grand Theft Auto videogame marathon, but three strikes and you’re out.

And finally, I’ll leave you with these two doozies.

1) A candidate listed his work at the campus computer lab. Fantastic… I love tech geeks. But I’m guessing Microsoft Word incorrectly auto-corrected the word “Maintained” because what the bullet point said was “Marinating computer lab to ensure it was clean and orderly.” Marinating.

I can see the scenario: “Sir can you help me? My computer seems to be locked up.”

“Aha… I see the problem… you’ve got some Teriyaki sauce in the keyboard.”

2) Although the job said nothing about languages, there were a lot of resumes that boasted “Fluent in Italian,” “Conversational French,” “Read and write Spanish,” and so on. But I guess not everyone has actually finished their finals, because one resume said:

“Almost fluent Spanish”

See to me, “almost” means “NOT.”

Hey John, did you win the lottery? Well, I almost won the lottery.

Did the Yankees win last night? Well, they almost won last night.

I pictured the real-life scenario playing out, as my intern and I meet for lunch with an international ad agency, and the CEO says something in Spanish and I turn to him and ask what he said, and he pauses, thinks, and replies:

“Well, he either said that he’s very impressed with the great hunger with which we pursued this account and our thirst for knowledge, or he highly recommends the Nachos Grande Carne Asada and a pint of Dos Equis.”

And If you’re wondering if that last guy got the job, well, he almost got the job.

Note: This article first appeared in a post for The Hired Guns. Check out TheHiredGuns.com to Get Hired, Find Talent, or Rock Your Career.

Conducting a job search often leads people through a series of highs and lows. You have a great lead, but it falls through. You haven’t had any interviews in a month, and then you get 3 in one week. Even the end of a successful job search can be stressful: the company offers you the job, but you’re unsure how to discuss salary.

Someone wrote to me with the following question:

“Good news. I received this email from the hiring manager and am a finalist for the job. But how should I respond to the salary question?”

“Hi Amy. We finished all our interviews and we will be making a final decision between you and one other candidate. Could you provide two references and also let me know your current salary so that we are in a position to make an offer.”

First of all, the approach this employer takes bugs me a bit. If you read between the lines, you can almost hear them saying “It’s between you and someone else, and since we’re not confident enough to know what this position pays and simply make an offer to the best candidate, we’re going let the two of you fight it out in a low-bidding war.”

Needless to say, I urged her to do the following
1) Respond excitedly, saying how thrilled she was to be considered, that she’s certain it will be a great fit, and reemphasize one of her skills
2) Provide the two references, saying they’d be happy to speak with you, etc
3) Then take on the salary question

In this scenario, should she Ignore or Reveal?

Let’s start with the easy one first:

Reveal?

In order to maximize the highest salary during negotiations, your goal is to never reveal your current salary. What you are making at your current job should have no bearing on the position you are applying for. You want to make sure you are getting paid the fair market value for the skills you are bringing to this new position.

Put it this way, when a graduating college senior with a degree in finance goes on an interview, does a company make an offer based on his “current” job of working the cash register at the university bookstore? No, they’re going to look at his skills and what an entry-level finance person should make.

Therefore, you need to address the issue without giving them your number. More specifically, you need to have the employer respond with their number first.

Ignore?

Let’s look carefully at what I mean by ignore. You definitely do not want to avoid the question completely. If she just responded with the references and didn’t say anything about salary, she might put herself out of the running.

So one option is to ignore the request for current salary and respond as follows:

“In terms of compensation, I’ve done my homework regarding comparable positions in the industry and have a pretty good idea of the market value for someone with my skill set. However, I know that this varies from company to company, so you are probably in the best position to know what [company name] feels is appropriate. If you can give me a range of what you have budgeted for this position, I’m sure we can settle on a number that works for both of us.”

By doing this, she has thrown the ball back in their court and is addressing the question while ignoring their direct request. I think answering this way is appropriate and effective, but it is up to the individual to gauge the relationship they’ve had thus far.

If you want to address why you are ignoring the salary question, you can lead with one of the following responses before going into the paragraph above, depending on your situation:

“In terms of compensation, unfortunately my employment contract at [current company] plays things pretty close to the vest in terms of sharing private company information, so I don’t feel comfortable revealing my current number. However, I totally understand that you want to get to a figure and I’m sure we can settle on a number that works for both of us. I’ve done my homework…”

or

“In regard to compensation, I understand your request in terms of my current salary to help settle on a number. However, when I started at [current job] in 2008, it was right as the economy entered its massive downturn. As you know, during this time many companies had layoffs, hiring freezes, and did not give performance raises, therefore, I don’t feel that my current salary level is a good representation of my current skill set, so I’d like to speak in terms of the [position name] role. I’ve done my homework…”

or

“In regard to compensation, I took the job at [current job] in order to make a career transition into [new field], expand my skill set, and as you’ve seen, I’ve now acquired some amazing experience that I am looking forward to bringing to this new job. So I’m not sure my current salary is a great indicator for this new role. I’ve done my homework…”

By tailoring your response to your individual circumstance, ignoring the question but addressing it head-on, and not revealing your current salary, you put yourself in the best position to respond to the range that they come back with, without getting in a low-bidding war with your competitor.