Career Coach: Ghosts Can Haunt Your Career
How you leave a job is important to your reputation. End your job in good standing. Giving two weeks' notice so the employer can find someone to replace you is commonplace. But don't give your two weeks' notice just before starting a two-week vacation.
Exorcize the Demons
If you damaged your invisible resume, work hard to fix it. Acknowledge your past mistakes to your potential employer and tell him or her you have learned from them. Having learned from them, you are a better employee and you want to prove it. Volunteer to work for free for a week. Work hard. You want to prove that you can be trusted, you are a valuable employee and you are going to make the best of your fresh start. Be friendly to everyone. Prove you are a team player with a great attitude.
Cast a Magic Spell
The invisible resume is your most important marketing tool. The world is small and word about your reputation can be spread using the tools of the internet and face to face contact. You want that to work for you, not against you.
Your performance is key to building your believability. Build a reputation for honesty, candor and ethical behavior. Avoid gossip. Be trust worthy. Be a "problem solver." Be dependable, committed and easy to deal with.
Maintain a professional, upbeat, can-do attitude. Enthusiasm and passion go a long way to building your career.
Your invisible resume is exchanged any place two people get together -- at work, social gatherings, meetings and especially when a company looks for new hires. Ever heard anyone say, "Anybody know this guy? What's he like?" Word travels fast and your invisible resume travels faster than you know. You add to your invisible resume every day, but it is very hard to delete anything.
Reputations matter. Make sure your invisible resume is stellar and you'll never have a problem finding a job.
Pamela Kleibrink Thompson is a recruiter, career coach and internationally known speaker at conferences and colleges. As a career coach she helps people find jobs and careers they love. She helps clients visualize their future and gives ideas on how to attain what they desire. As a recruiter, she helps companies find the people they need. You can contact her at PamRecruit@q.com. Her "Career Coach" column can be read at http://mag.awn.com. Her Linkedin profile can be found at http://www.linkedin.com/in/pamelathompson.
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Hey, that post leaves me feeling foliosh. Kudos to you!
A lot of this wouldn't be an issue if the industry was unionized.
I can understand an employer trying to get more information on an applicant, but this is rather extreme.
As someone who's had their reputation damaged by a petty, jealous, attention-mongering gossip in animation school, let me say this: don't always believe what you hear, employers. If a friend's cousin's co-worker's former classmate says "this person is a terrible jerk," you might be better off getting to know the applicant yourself. At that point it would be a huge game of "Telephone" spanning over several years anyway, so how would you even know the information you got was accurate, much less still accurate after all those years?
Seriously, leave the small town social politics at the door, animation industry.
"I've known very good-natured, talented people who have been prevented from accessing work due to professional malice."
That is my professional experience too!
Because of the social nature of the animation world, things like invisible resumes do need to be considered. Most hiring is done internally and/or through referrals. By the time you see a position on a job board, the actual job itself has probably been advertised internally for up to a month or two. This aspect of the industry can be very difficult on individuals who are more introverted and less likely to run with cliques.
The unfortunate reality of any creative industry is that a certain degree of "mean" goes a long way. Some people wouldn't call it "mean" so much as "assertive" or "ambitious". But call it like it is. Many of the people who continue to work are those who have good social IQ's, not necessarily the most talent. Although I will say many of them are exceptionally talented.
I wouldn't worry so much about your "invisible resume" as your heartfelt desire to learn, contribute, and most of all "COLLABORATE" :)
If the people you're trying to get along with won't give you the time of day, and if they're the ones getting work, don't sweat it. You'll find like-minded people. Do not get caught up in the negativity of worrying about what people are thinking of you. Just do your job.
I agree with 'Anonymous'. It's one thing to be an idiot on the job, it's another to rely solely on the opinions of people who are trying to keep their own jobs and hire friends. The opinions and feelings of artists are more often than not a little exaggerated. I think everyone can recall studying animation/illustration in college or in some other capacity, it's often very dramatic. Also, "invisible resume" is just another way of saying that competition compels people to back-stab. Not everyone can like everyone. And 'supervisor' does not equal 'mature'.
There is the unfortunate reality that due to the competitive nature of the industry, some people are a little too willing to write your invisible resume.
Supervisors are only human, and if they seem to have high prejudice against an individual, it needs to be considered, but if the artist's work stands up to scutiny, an interview should at least be awarded.
I've known very good-natured, talented people who have been prevented from accessing work due to professional malice.
Challenging personalities will arrise, but that's life. Some of the best art every produced arrose from tension and adversity.
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