Day in the Life of a Wine Recruiter

This morning I posted a winejobs.com ad, and within one hour I have received 50 resumes. Bear with me while I sort through them and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

NPR Piece on Unemployment

NPR's Day to Day program is going off the air today. All of the staff there is losing their jobs. They did a piece about famous film terminations. Being let go is never fun, but maybe hearing famous endings will ease the pain a bit. Link to it here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102112039

When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Volunteer

A trend among the newly unemployed is to volunteer. This is a great way to stay active, involved and possibly learn some new skills. With the economy in the doldrums, many non-profit organizations aren't receiving their usual charitable donations. Countering this financial deficit is the new influx of people willing to give their time. Volunteer time can be the most helpful donations a charity can receive.

Volunteering your time when you are looking for work might seem like the wrong use of your time, but staying engaged and hopeful can be the best medicine for you right now. Look at what time you have available, and then explore some local charities that could use your expertise. Whether you are helping out at your children's school, fixing a website for the local shelter or helping with bookkeeping at the health clinic, you will be using your skills to help others. And not surprisingly, you will probably expand your network of contacts. The executive director of the charity may also be involved in a new winery start-up, and after seeing how giving and skilled you were, would love to talk to you about a future position.

Volunteering is also a great way to explore new roles. If you have been in management for years, and are tiring of some of the emotional demands, try a different role. By allowing yourself to try on new duties, you might find an area of work that you really enjoy.

Enjoy yourself. This is a very important way to spend your time. You're not sitting on the couch watching TV. You're not wallowing in self pity. You are out there interacting with others. You are enjoying some new camaraderie. You are also getting to know some people in ways you haven't in the past. Helping out at the school allows you to see how your kid's day goes. While helping clean cages at the SPCA you get to see new families light up when they find their family pet. There are so many ways you can lighten up and have fun that you need to take advantage of it.

And most importantly, you'll be helping others.

What to put on your resume.

One of my readers recently wrote to me about writing a resume for the wine industry. With permission, here's the email followed by my suggestions.



Hi Amy,I have recently come across your wine talent blog and I am hoping to get some advice from you on how to develop an effective resume. I am not currently in the wine industry but, I am hoping to enter into it. I am currently a product manager and have a lot of transferable skills. I'm not sure how to create a new career change resume. Do you have any tips that you can share? or sites to direct me to?Any advice you can give will be greatly appreciated! Thanks so much.



My suggestions:

• Having transferable skills is the most important element, and the part I would promote on your resume.


• Chronological resumes with your most recent position listed first are the best format.


• Put an experience section first on your resume. This is where you can highlight what you have done, and what is easily transferred into the wine biz.


• Use bullet points. Recruiters, HR managers and hiring managers get resume fatigue. We like to have your abilities pointed out to us--easily found and easily understood.

After the format of the resume, I would encourage you to highlight the areas which are easily transferred. Program management is a discipline that can be used within sales organizations, marketing departments, management and administration. Think about what areas could use your skills, and then write your resume addressing those areas. For other disciplines, look at them from a new perspective, and figure out new areas where you can capitalize on them.

Get involved. I say this from a wine perspective. I often see that people who successfully have made a transition steeped themselves in wine knowledge, news and started making contacts. This commitment shows potential employers that you are serious about your change. I recommend taking classes online, going to wine education courses and reading everything you can get your hands on.

Good Luck!

Gary Vaynerchuk on Doing What You Love

Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV posted this on Twitter today, and I thought it would be very appropriate for WineTalent's blog. Hope you enjoy it.
http://garyvaynerchuk.com/post/78965849/doing-what-you-love-can-lead-to-more-then-just-happiness