As I was explaining the difference between “can I” and “may I” to a rather stubborn granddaughter, her brother announced for all the world that “Grandma is the grammar police.” Alas, I confess that on certain subjects I can be very much the grammar police.

I tell you that to warn you, dear reader, that I am moving into “grammar police” mode for this post.

The pesky little apostrophe serves a dual purpose. First, it combines contractions. A contraction, as you probably already know, is the combination of two words into one, as in “do not” to “don’t” or “can not” to “can’t.” The apostrophe is there to indicate where the missing letters are.

But, just to confuse things, an apostrophe is also used to indicate the possessive form of a noun or a pronoun. And “it” is a pronoun.

The correct form of the contraction “it is” is to use the apostrophe, as in “it’s.”

The correct form of the possessive for the pronoun “it” should also have an apostrophe, but, contrary to all the rules you learned about possessives, it does not. In order to indicate whether the contraction or the possessive is being used, the apostrophe is NOT used when “it” is written in the possessive.

So . . . when writing “it’s” to mean “it is,” use the apostrophe. When writing “its” to indicate possessive, do NOT use the apostrophe, as demonstrated in the following sentences:

“It’s [contraction] beginning to rain, and the chair is going to get wet. Please put its [possessive] cover on quickly.”

In the course of your job search, you will be sending out resumes and cover letters, and you may be tempted to add or remove the “its” apostrophe incorrectly. In addition, you will undoubtedly be composing correspondence and e-mail at some point as part of your job responsibilities. Knowing the correct form is ALWAYS good form.

And please do not complain to me about this. It was determined by grammar police who are far higher on the pecking order than I will ever be. Ours is not to reason why . . .

~ Anne Follis, CPRW

He was a mechanical engineer who had developed any number of creative process improvements over the years, saving his company millions of dollars. And he was proud of his work. In fact, when I first met with him to go over his history and begin the resume development process, he brought me a shoe box full of photographs and diagrams. I was so impressed with his creativity and enthusiasm that I suggested he create a portfolio to use during an interview.

A portfolio? He had no idea what I was talking about.

People in creative fields routinely prepare portfolios: teachers, graphic artists, writers. But portfolios can be used for almost any position, and for people at all levels: new grads to executives. If you do it effectively, a portfolio can give you a unique opportunity to showcase your talents.

It can run the gamut from a single sheet of paper as an adjunct to your resume, with graphics and a list of accomplishments, to a notebook full of original photographs and materials with succinct and creative headings. You might even create a leave-behind DVD of you at work doing what you do best. Below are some strategies for putting together a portfolio, and some suggestions on how to use it in an interview.

How to Create an Effective Portfolio

Keep in mind that your portfolio must present you as a professional. Don’t hurry the process, and don’t skimp. Contrary to the maxim, a book is almost always judged by its cover! Purchase a classy folder and use plastic sleeves to display and protect materials. It should be a nice size, but not so large that it’s awkward to carry or display.

Put the most impressive information at the front of the portfolio, because you don’t know how much time you’ll have once you get to it in an interview (more about that later). In fact, you can re-arrange the information for each interview, depending on the responsibilities of the position for which you’re applying.

Some Information to Include in Your Portfolio

It varies, depending on your areas of expertise and experience, but you may want to include some or all of the following:

* Table of Contents, tabbed for easy access.
* Your resume.
* Your transcript, certifications, awards, and/or licenses.
* Evaluations of your work and/or letters of recommendation (only if they are glowing).
* Newspaper or magazine articles that feature you and/or your work.
* Writing samples.
* Samples of brochures or business forms you’ve developed, or diagrams of some of the process improvements you’ve designed.
* Photos with brief captions, and these should include samples of your work. For the mechanical engineer, it included pictures of his innovations on the plant floor. But they could also be photos of a company picnic or customer appreciation dinner that you coordinated.

Presenting Your Portfolio During an Interview

Bring the portfolio with you to the interview, and when you meet and greet your interviewer say, “I’ve brought along a portfolio with highlights of some of my achievements if you’d like to see it.” Then, at some point, the interviewer is likely to say something like, “Okay, show me what you’ve got.”

Now you are in the spotlight! You have the unique opportunity to give a sales presentation - about you, and what you can do for this company. It’s important to do this right, because you will only get one shot at it, so I recommend you put a lot of thought into your presentation. And try and keep it to about ten minutes.

Go through it page by page and practice your explanations prior to the interview. For example, “Here’s a photograph of the United Way Campaign that I managed for our company. That’s me in the clown suit, and the other executives are wearing costumes, as well. The campaign was the most successful in the company’s history, bringing together people from all levels. The CEO told me later that she’d never seen such a spirit of cooperation throughout her years with the company, and we broke all records for employee donations.”

If you don’t get the opportunity to go through your portfolio during the interview, offer to leave it behind. This serves two purposes: first, the employer may have the time to look over your work more carefully. It also gives you an excuse to drop in on him or her a week or so later to pick it up.

The mechanical engineer took my advice and put together a very impressive portfolio. He called me about a month later and said, “Anne, you won’t believe it. I got the job! The boss told me when he called to make the offer that I was the only one who had a portfolio, and he was very impressed with it. Thanks for the suggestion!”

(Resume writers LOVE getting those calls, by the way. )

Need I say more? In a competitive job market, a creative and attention grabbing portfolio can make the difference.

~ Anne Follis, CPRW

If you have the questions nailed for the interview, more power to you. But the right response won’t do you any good if you aren’t properly dressed. In fact, research has indicated that people form a first impression in about 30 seconds, and once that first impression is formed, it’s very hard to break. So making a good first impression when you walk in that door is of critical importance.

Here’s the rule-of-thumb for how to dress for an interview: find out how people dress on-the-job and dress just a cut above. If it’s casual, wear a nice pair of slacks and a knit shirt (for men and women) or blouse (for women). If it’s formal, break out that suit. And make sure that everything is clean and pressed. (Am I beginning to sound like your mother?)

But how, you ask, do you know how people dress for this employer? Easy: ASK! Call someone you know who works there, check out the photographs on their Website, or call the company’s switchboard operator or HR assistant. Better yet, call and ask to speak with the administrative assistant in the department where you’ll be interviewing and ask her or him. For larger corporations, dress codes can vary from department to department, so it helps to narrow it down. I recommend you be succinct: “Can you tell me what mode of dress is common in the XYZ department?” If, by chance, they ask why you’re inquiring, simply say, “I have an interview and want to make sure I’m dressed appropriately.” Nobody will think less of you for it; in fact, it might even win you some points!

If you are over-dressed, people will fear you won’t fit in with a casual work environment; if you are under-dressed, you may come across as unprofessional. So make the calls, do the research, and dress accordingly.

~ Anne Follis, CPRW

Are you tempted to take the summer off and wait until the fall to ramp up your job search? You could be missing some great opportunities.

Contrary to popular opinion, employers still hire during the summer months, and recruiters are always on the lookout for new talent. Besides, the summer is going to end soon enough, and when it does, all those job seekers who took the summer off are going to hit the proverbial pavement . . . and the job boards. At that point, the competition could get very intense. Why not get the jump on things?

While others are taking the summer off, keep networking, take a course or two to upgrade or expand your skills, research prospective employers, and keep sending out that resume. When it comes to your career, summer doesn’t have to mean time out. In fact, if you are proactive, you could find it very productive.

~ Anne Follis, CPRW

As a guest on a national radio talk show a while back, I got a call from the mother of two young college men. She wanted her boys to avoid the pitfalls of reorganizations and job instability that seem to be rampant in today’s economy. She asked me what they should major in “so they will never lose their jobs or be downsized.” I said, “Tell them to go into nursing.”

I wasn’t being flip. Downsizing, also called “workforce reduction,” “negotiated departure,” “restaffing,” and a host of other euphemisms, is the trend as companies adapt to an increasingly global economy and shrinking profit margins. “Firings used to be done with surgical cleanliness,” according to employment guru Harvey Mackay. “Now they’re called restructurings, and they’re done with a meat cleaver.”

But even in today’s economy, there are areas of job growth. These include healthcare, education, government, and some technology sectors. Hardest hit are manufacturing, transportation, construction, and retail. Mortgage brokers and loan officers aren’t doing so well now either.

The South is the strongest area in the country for job growth right now, while the Midwest is the hardest hit because of its broad manufacturing base.

Yes, there is a screaming need for nurses. In fact, many hospitals and health care organizations are importing nurses from other countries because it’s so difficult to find enough nurses in the U.S. But you don’t need to become a nurse to increase your job security and avoid the “meat cleaver.” Update your skillset and target the growing sectors.

~ Anne Follis, CPRW

Back in 1990, when I first began writing resumes and providing career consulting, I saw a number of retired Fortune 500 corporate executives who were seeking part time consulting positions. The majority of them had no formal education beyond high school, and every one of them said that anyone with just a high school diploma starting out in business today would never be able to climb the corporate ladder the way they did. They were right.

If you are wondering if finishing that bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree will be worth it to you in the long run, the evidence says overwhelmingly that it will. Never in U.S. history has a person’s educational level been linked to earning capacity as it is today, according a 2002 study by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The study, which compared earnings to education levels from 1975 to 1999, found that the gap in earnings for people with different education levels has grown significantly over the years. Back in 1975, for example, full time workers with a bachelor’s degree earned approximately 1.5 times what workers with only a high school diploma earned. And employees with an advanced degree, who earned 1.8 times the earnings of high school graduates in 1975, averaged 2.6 times the earnings of workers with a high school diploma in 1999.

The study indicated that gender and race can also play a part in the earnings gap, but across the board people with higher levels of education earn more than people with less education. According to the study, this growing earnings gap is attributable to the supply of labor and the increasing demand for skilled workers.

Several years ago I met with a prospective client in his early thirties and reviewed his work history of mostly short-term, dead-end jobs. Needless to say, he was very discouraged, and I suggested he begin taking college classes and work toward a degree, no matter how long it might take. He protested that it was not feasible; he just couldn’t afford to go to college. My insistence that he could not afford NOT to pursue his education and that, in fact, there are government grants and other loan options that would more than pay for themselves in the long run, fell on deaf ears. I wish I’d had this study back then to prove my point. A college degree can result in hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional income over a lifetime, and is well worth the time and expense.

In another instance I did some outplacement for a manufacturing subsidiary that was closing its doors due to a reorganization. The company offered tuition reimbursement to its employees, and among the clients I worked with, two stand out. They were both about the same age, they had both been with the company for 20-years, and they were both plant managers. One of these clients took advantage of the tuition reimbursement program and slowly but steadily took classes at night, earning a bachelor’s degree in 15-years. The other had nothing but a high school diploma and never took any classes. He thought his job would last a lifetime. He was wrong. Do I need to tell you which one fared better in the job search?

There are, of course, companies that will consider hiring a person who has industry experience, and if you see a job for which you are well qualified, but the ad says a degree is required and you don’t have one, send a resume anyway. You have nothing to lose, and I have known people who’ve been successful in landing the job because of their skills and experience, in spite of not meeting all of the education requirements.

Nevertheless, you are bound to find limitations everywhere you look if you don’t have that bachelor’s or (increasingly) master’s degree. I have had countless clients tell me how unfair that is, and in many ways they’re right. There are capable, knowledgeable, accomplished job candidates with minimal education who have much more real-world experience than some people with multiple degrees. It doesn’t matter. Fair or not, that’s the way the world is, and it’s not going to change any time soon. In fact, in today’s economy, with unemployment levels growing, unemployment for people with college degrees is just 2%, according to Career News.

So no matter where you are on the education scale, you might want to look into more schooling. The payoff could be considerable.

~Anne Follis, CPRW

Updating Your Job Search Strategy

If you’re like most job seekers, you invest the majority of your time and precious resources in scanning Internet job boards and responding to ads in the newspapers.

Reality check. Estimates vary, but if that’s the strategy you’re using to find a job, indications are that your likelihood of success is around 10 to 13 percent. No wonder people get depressed and quit before they find a job. It can be like pounding your head against a brick wall.

The problem is that there are a lot more people looking for jobs these days than there are jobs available. (I’ll bet you already figured that one out!) Consequently, there are literally millions of resumes posted on the various job boards, giving new meaning to the term “needle in a haystack,” and when an ad hits the newspaper, it’s not uncommon for an employer to to receive hundreds of responses, if not thousands.

So if your primary strategy for finding a job is to surf the Internet boards and respond to newspaper ads, you are competing with dozens, hundreds, thousands, and in some cases millions of other applicants, making the odds against you pretty overwhelming. No wonder you’ve begun to feel as if you’re dropping your resume into a black hole! There’s got to be a better way.

There is, but it’s going to take some hard work and initiative on your part. If you enjoy sales and marketing, it will be right up your alley, because for this little window of time (i.e., while you are trying to find a job), you are in sales, and the product you’re marketing is you. And in case you haven’t figured it out yet, there are lots of other “products” out there. Some of them are cheaper, some of them are smarter, some of them are older, some of them are younger, some of them have more experience, and some of them have less. It would be nice to think that the most qualified applicant will be the one who lands the job, but it frequently does not work that way.

Put yourself in the position of the person doing the hiring. You have an opening you have to fill within two weeks. You have two hundred resumes to review and counting. You would love to shut down the office for the next fourteen days until you’ve settled this matter, but that’s not at all practical. And so you get the awful job of sifting through resumes and calling people to come in for interviews while still performing all the other functions of your position. And you would rather submit to a root canal without an anesthetic.

And then some eager beaver (let’s call him Joe) gets a hold of you on the phone. Actually, he’s been calling for weeks. He’s talked to your assistant and sent you e-mails and dropped off his resume and then dropped off another copy “just in case the first one got lost.” Finally, he calls early one morning before your assistant gets in, just as you are facing the prospect of going through all those resumes. He is pleasant and polite and to the point. He tells you briefly what his skills are, he expresses an interest in your company, and he asks about employment openings.

On the one hand, this call is a little annoying. On the other hand, you look at the growing number of resumes and think, “This guy seems to know a little something about what we do around here, and he’s awfully eager.” And at a subconscious level you’re even thinking, “If he works out, I won’t have to go through all these resumes.”

He presses a little bit. “Would it be possible for me to come in and speak with you? I promise I won’t take up too much of your time, but I would appreciate just a few minutes to introduce myself and present my qualifications in person. Would today be okay or would sometime later in the week be better?”

What would you say? If you’re like the hundreds of hiring managers I’ve talked to who have been through this, you’re likely to say something like, “I’ve got a little time this afternoon if you can be here at 3:00.” So Joe gets a crack at the job, while the 200 applicants who simply submitted resumes and then sat around twiddling their thumbs hoping for the phone to ring may very well be history.

What made Joe stand out? Is he smarter or more qualified? Not necessarily. He was simply the one who called the right person at the right time.

But, you say, how can you possibly know when to call whom?

You can’t. And so what you do is make a volume of phone calls (I recommend 10 to 20 or more a day) and persist through a thousand stalls, rejections, and maybes until you touch base with the right person at the right time who says yes. It’s that simple. And that difficult.

Before you moan and groan and say you can’t do it, it’s not your style, let me reiterate. In the past, the approach to getting jobs was passive. You submitted resumes and waited, hoping for a response. Since back in the good old days there were more jobs than people to fill them, you usually didn’t have to wait very long, and this approach worked most of the time.

But we’ve already established that the world has changed — a lot — and today the onus is on the job seeker. You must take an active, persistent, aggressive approach to finding the job you want. If you don’t do it, no one will. That I can guarantee. And my experience has been that for many people, the process can be exciting and empowering. Rather than submitting helplessly to the whims of the job market, which can be the most depressing experience of a lifetime, you are taking control of the process for yourself.

~ Excerpted and updated from the book Power Pack Your Job Search! by Anne Follis, CPRW. For more information, go to CareerHappy.com and click on “Power Pack Your Job Search”

Since raises are based on current earnings, the salary you accept will determine your salary for the rest of your history with the company. If you accept something that is $5,000 below what you should receive, you’ll be $5,000 or more behind in raises, promotions, and bonuses for your entire tenure with an organization.

If you receive an offer that interests you, don’t be afraid to negotiate. A company invests a lot of time and money selecting a candidate. They don’t want to lose you now, so you have some leverage at this point that you will probably never have again.

You might begin a negotiation by saying, “Thank you for the offer. I’m very interested and would like a day to consider it. Is the salary fixed, or is it negotiable?” If the interviewer indicates that there is room to negotiate, say that you will think about it and call back the following day with an response and possible counter-offer. If they say the offer is not negotiable, I also recommend that you say you’ll think about it and call back later. I’ve known many a job seeker who lived to regret a hasty response, pro or con.

You can also negotiate paid leave, benefits, and other perks. I have a client who is a well-qualified nonprofit executive, and she gladly accepted a very low paying position with an agency that could ill afford to offer her any more money. Fortunately for them, she didn’t care about the money. She wanted more time off, and so she accepted the offer with the caveat that she receive six weeks of paid vacation a year. The company agreed, and everybody was happy.

As every sales representative in the world will tell you, all they can say is no. In fact, many employers expect job applicants to negotiate salary and other benefits, and deliberately make offers a little (and sometimes more than a little) low. I have actually had hiring executives tell me they are disappointed when a candidate accepts a position with no attempt to negotiate a better offer. So keep that in mind, and don’t be afraid to ask for more.

~ Anne Follis, CPRW

No matter how desperate you may feel, don’t rush to accept an offer if it’s not what you want. Accepting a job offer is a little bit like getting married. Once you take the plunge, you determine your course for many years, possibly the rest of your life. If you decide you hate the position, or the company, you can either bail out or hang in there, but neither is good for your long term career — or your emotional well being!

Consider any offer very carefully, and make sure it’s what you want before you accept. In fact, I recommend that you never say yes the day you receive an offer. Tell the employer that you’re interested, but you’d like to think about it and return the call the next morning with your answer. That gives you the chance to consider the job opportunities, decide if this is what you really want, and also about what you would like to negotiate (salary, vacation days, paid leave, benefits, or all of the above) prior to saying “yes.”

~ Anne Follis, CPRW

You may have seen an ad for a job with the notation, “Please send resume and salary requirements” or “Please send resume and salary history.” And you may have wondered . . . how in the world do I respond to that inquiry without shooting myself in the foot?

I used to help clients answer salary questions and prepare salary histories all the time. I rarely do so anymore, because I believe providing salary information prior to an interview is likely to do more harm than good, and it virtually eliminates any negotiation leverage once an offer has been made.

Let’s say you’re making $100,000 a year and the job for which you’re applying pays $75,000. You may be willing to come down somewhat in salary, especially for the right opportunity, and if they meet you they may like you enough to negotiate a bit. But you’ll never get that chance if they see your current salary. “Too expensive for us,” they’ll say, and if you’re lucky, you’ll get a polite letter about being “overqualified.”

Or you may be making $75,000 a year, while the position for which you’re applying may be in the ballpark of $100,000. Do you get where I’m going with this? If you tell them what you make, they may decide you’re making too little and they don’t want to give you that much of a raise. Either they’ll lower the salary to fit you (something you would prefer to avoid), or they’ll give your resume the heave-ho and move on to a “more qualified” candidate. Either way, you lose. In addition, a lot of people have a problem with divulging sensitive salary information to a person they have never met.

An alternative is to respond to the question about salary, but to postpone giving an answer. You might say in a cover letter, “In response to your question about salary requirements, I am flexible with regard to salary, depending on the challenges and opportunities that the job offers. I would be happy to discuss this with you in greater detail once we have established a mutual interest.” Translation: Make me an offer, then we’ll talk.

There is, of course, some risk in not answering the dreaded salary question. There are employers who will not consider a candidate who doesn’t comply when asked to put the numbers on the table prior to the interview. In truth, however, there are risks either way. Too much information about salary too soon can sorely limit your opportunities. So weigh the options before you choose how you’re going to respond to a question about salary history or salary expectations.

There is an exception to all of this: When dealing with recruiters, put your cards on the table with regard to salary. Remember that most recruiters are paid on commission, so it is in their best interest to get you the highest salary possible.

~ Anne Follis, CPRW