This week’s podcast addresses a topic that many of you might be surprised about: your resume. Your resume, regardless of the baggage associated with it, is probably your most critical career management document. While it’s not something you ought to leave laying around on your desk (or on monster.com, for that matter), that doesn’t mean you ought to treat it like something you dust off only when you really need it. It needs to be reviewed quarterly, believe it or not.

So, in this cast we’ll teach you how to prepare it, and how to maintain it. We won’t talk about cover letters, or how resumes are used in the job search, because job search is only one use of your resume.

The Sample Resume we refer to on the show is here.

The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman

Why We Like This Book:

This will be the most influential business book of the first decade of the 21st century. Drucker is more powerful, and more helpful, but TWIF will be more talked about. You cannot be a professional manager and remain effective in today’s flat world without understanding the forces in this book. The forces discussed WILL impact your organization - being aware will make you better at what you do.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey

Why We Like This Book:

Covey stands the test of time surprisingly well. While we see this more as a book for college graduates, it still works as an annual review document. The stories are great, and the recommendations are immediately do-able.

Rites of Passage at $100,000 to $1 Million+: Your Insider’s Lifetime Guide to Executive Job-Changing and Faster Career Progress in the 21st Century by John Lucht

Why We Like This Book:

The ONLY book on changing jobs you will ever need. As detailed and well-documented and -researched book as we know of. It is the equivalent of Effective Executive for job searches. May not be 100% applicable for college graduates, but is for everyone else. He says you should do your resume like we do, and no one else recommends this. Buy this book.

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

Why We Like This Book:

This book really IS a classic, and a perennial best seller… because it should be. These simple, basic truths about people withstand the test of time: “A person’s name, to that person, is the sweetest sound in any language”. Like it or not, you need to remember people’s names. Those who do outperform those who don’t. There are two other books in this genre that we also like: Never Eat Alone, and Love is the Killer App. If you like How to Win, you’ll love these two as well. Buy this book, especially if you’re an IT person or an engineer. Mike and I are, so we can say that.

We hate to use the name headhunters rather than recruiters, because Mark never liked that term when it was applied to him. But it’s a pretty common nickname for a group that is playing an increasingly important role in career management today. The World is Flat has taught us that no job is safe (note even fast food order takers!). Companies are no longer taking responsibility for your career. Tom Peters believes in a Brand Called “You”. Your career and its transitions are IN YOUR HANDS. You can’t call yourself a smart manager if you don’t know how to create the right relationship with recruiters in your industry.

Over the next two shows, we’ll tell you EXACTLY how to handle it when a recruiter calls you. There’s a right way to do this, and over NINETY PERCENT of managers fail at miserably. It’s not hard, and we lay it all out here. We’ll tell you some basic things you need to know about recruiters, the guidelines for the first call, and the key questions to ask THEM. As well, we share how to actually address their specific request, and then how to maintain a relationship with them after the call if you care to.

Last week, we discussed some basic things you need to know about recruiters and specifically how to handle the first call from the recruiter. Today, we discuss the key questions to ask them, as well as how to address their specific request. Additionally, we discuss what you can do to maintain a good relationship with them going forward. Would it surprise you that it looks a lot like maintaining ANY relationship?

We’ve also included on the website an Executive Recruiter Cheat Sheet. Print this sheet out and keep it handy in your desk … it will help you remember how to handle that initial call (what to say, what to ask) and assist you in ensuring that the first call from the recruiter isn’t the LAST call. You’ll find the cheat sheet here.

Join in and discuss this topic in the discussion boards here.

If you’re a manager, don’t think for a moment that someone else is managing your career. Those days are long gone. YOU are managing your career. What you do - not only in job skills, but also in what we call “Transition Skills” - will be the primary determinant of your career success. You’re not going to have the richest, most rewarding series of roles and opportunities by allowing someone in HR to know enough about you to get you where you need to be. And succession planning won’t save you either.

And one of the most important of the Transition Skills is Building And Maintaining Your Network. Most people are terrible at it. We know this because they have no network.

Now, notice that we did NOT say that the skill was “networking”. That term conjures up schmoozing, and cocktail parties, and too many people don’t like it. So, we’re not suggesting you do that.

We’re suggesting you Build and Maintain Your Network. It only takes THREE SIMPLE SKILLS, and we’ll walk through them.

Oh, yeah … and there’s a blooper in the show. Did you catch it?

One of the lost arts of the corporate world in the past 20 years is how to work with an administrative assistant. While we won’t argue that a great deal of the “leaning out” of corporations has been a good thing, working with admins effectively is one of the painful legacies of the cutbacks.

Of the executives who are assigned admins, our experience is that very few know how to use them well. There are many ways that the fantastic opportunity an admin offers are squandered. But in virtually all cases, the fundamental failure of managers who execute this responsibility is that they fail to delegate enough to the admin.

We start a series of casts on administrative assistants this week. In our first installment, we discuss the basics principles that will guide your thinking.

These casts will either help you do things right when you get to the point where you’re assigned an admin. Or, if you have an admin now, these casts will help you re-invent the relationship, making it what you always thought it should be.

After you’ve listened, you’ll want your admin to hear it.

This week, we continue our series on working effectively with administrative assistants. Given that this is part 2 of 3 parts, we’ve obviously had a lot to discuss on the subject.