How to Be a Financial Stud

from The Art of Manliness by Brett & Kate McKay

Editor's note: This is a guest post from Jeff Rose. We last heard from Mr. Rose when he was kind enough to give us a glimpse into the life of a financial planner. Today he fills us in on how to be financially studly.

Jeff Rose is an Illinois Certified Financial Planner and co-founder of Alliance Investment Planning Group. He is also the author of Good Financial Cents, a financial planning and investment blog. You can also learn more about Jeff at his website Jeff Rose Financial.

Throughout a man's life, he is presented with opportunities to leave his mark. The title that all men desire and hope that their name is mentioned in the same breath as is the unmistakable title of "Stud." In grade school, being a stud was making the starting five of the basketball team and being the first to french kiss a girl. In high school, it was cruising around in your slick hot rod, leading the football team to state, and landing the hottest cheerleader on the team. College introduced the beer bong and how much cooler your parties were than the one down the street. After graduation and well into your career, the next studly phase of your life begins. At this point in your life, women don't care how much you "could" bench press, the fact that you did 21 shots in one night (and lived to tell about it), or that you almost won the state championship in 2004. They want a man who has control of their finances and has a plan in place. They want a financial stud.

Have Some Cash

You better have some cash in your wallet and in the bank. I make it a point to always have at least $100-$200 cash in my wallet. For me, that's weird to say because I've always been an ATM guy. I keep cash on hand for times that debit cards just won't work. Whether it's buying the next round, leaving a generous tip, or simplifying the splitting of a dinner bill, having some cash on hand looks impressive.

But don't just keep cash in your wallet. You want to make sure you have a decent amount of cash stashed away in your savings account as an emergency fund as well. Having a decent amount of money in your savings is a sign that you are financially responsible and have the discipline to be able to put some money away. How much is enough? 3 months of your monthly household expenses is a start, but to be a true financial stud you should be somewhere in the 6-8 month range. If you want to feel like Arnold Schwarzenegger is his prime, then 12 months will give you "the pump" you're looking for.

Got Debt? Get Rid Of It

Whether young or old, there's nothing less attractive than having extra baggage. Even worse than having flabby love handles is having a mountain of debt. Just to confirm, I had a fellow female blogger, Mrs. Micah, give me her take on what makes a man a financial stud. Mrs. Micah says, "I think that being debt-free is sexy. It shows you can look after yourself, it frees up your future together, etc." For anybody that has struggled with debt, I know how burdensome it can be. It's even worse when you have to pass that burden on to your significant other. If you have debt, then having an action plan to get out of it will keep your stud credentials.

Forget the Bench Press…Max Out the Roth IRA

For the younger investor, maxing out your Roth IRA each year is the equivalent of being able to bench press 415 for reps. Let's say that by the age of 25 you are able to sock away the maximum Roth IRA limit of $5,000. If you continue to do so for 30 years, averaging 8% return, you'll have a $600,000 tax free nest egg waiting for you at retirement. And when you're finally put out to pasture, you'll be one happy stud.

Become a 401k Expert

Many times I hear of people just picking funds in their 401k because of what their co-workers are doing or because they thought the fund sounded cool. Whatever you do, do not be that guy. I had a friend in his early 20's who was putting most of his money in the "Total Return Fund" because it sounded the most aggressive. Newsflash: it was 100% bond fund. Granted, it helped him prevent major losses in the past year, but for a long term strategy, it's not the way to go. Don't get your 401k advice from chats around the water cooler; head to Google and do some research.

Budgets Are Sexy

A financial stud doesn't spend just to spend. A man needs to know where his money is going month to month. If spreadsheets aren't your thing, try writing down your bills so you can see how much money is really going out each month.

Don't just take my word for it. Check out J. Money's blog, Budgets Are Sexy, to get a grip on your finances. Here's what J. Money says, "Short answer: Budgets = Confidence = Manly. Long answer: Maintaining a budget is key in becoming financially studly. If you know where your money is coming and going, you'll know your strengths & limitations. And if you know your strengths & limitations, you can outwit your opponent at any time! Plus, you'll be able to make quick decisions on the spot which girls love. And you know what else girls love? Confidence. And this, my friend, is what the budget gives you."

Don't Get Superman Syndrome

Life insurance when you're single isn't really that important, but when a family is involved, it should take precedence. Face it, there is a 100% chance you are going to die. Last time I checked, that's better odds than Sea Biscuit at the Kentucky Derby. The last thing you want to do is croak too soon and leave your family in financial distress. Let me give you you an example. I had a married couple as clients where the husband was physically fit. He was not overweight, exercised regularly and didn't smoke. He was a doctor whose financial resume qualified him as a legitimate stud. Unfortunately, an unexpected massive heart attack left the wife and their two kids without a father. Thankfully, the father was wise enough to have enough life insurance for his wife to pay off what little debt they had left, pay the kids' way through college, and give the wife the option not to have to work the rest of her life. Dealing with the loss of a loved one is tough enough, but adding unnecessary financial burden can leave a mourning family in shambles.

Are you a financial stud?  Don't worry it's not too late.  If you are missing some of these studly qualities, make a commitment to make some changes.  You'll go from a "dud" to "stud" in no time.

If you enjoyed Jeff's post, read more of his stuff at Good Financial Cents, and subscribe to his RSS feed.

How to Get a Great Suit

from Lifehacker by StanwayCrispin

photo via atailoredsuit.com

Tailoring, tailoring-tailoring. Take the best suit money can buy, and leave off good tailoring and it'll hang on your body like a cheap suit. Buy a suit at Target and have it finely tailored ...

... and it'll look fantastic. It won't wear or dryclean great, but it'll fit you like a champ. I'm from the old school of suit wearing, allow me to impart my sage advice. ;)

1. Find a good local tailor, have 'em measure you.
2. Try on a few suit coats with said measurement, make sure they hang about right. Same with slacks.
3. Cuffs are good - contrary to belief they're never "out", and they have a functional advantage, they make slacks hang just right. They keep the pant legs from hanging getting caught in your shoes as well.
4. Dryclean the suit coat *and* the slacks at the same time. If you wear the suit on Saturday, get some gunk on the slacks, do NOT have just the slacks only cleaned. Even the best suit can fade a teeny tad with a cleaning, so keep the wear/fading even - clean both at the same time.
5. A suit that's not stained does NOT need to be drycleaned after each wearing, or each 5 wearings. Your under garmets take on the body oil and stink, its not a worry, a suit will last years longer if not over cleaned.
6. Wear a t shirt - it looks better. Period.
7. Make sure your tie meets the middle of your belt, please, please, oh please.
8. Show some cuff. Have your tailor cut the suit coat so your Properly long dress shirt shows just a bit. It looks sharp, and adds contrast to between your suit and hand.
9. Don't forget the dress shirt, 100% cotton ONLY, get them professionally laundered, and get a dry cleaner who knows what heavy starch means. Ya, I know, it sounds like it'll be "itchy", but after wearing the shirt for about 15 minutes its no more "itchy" than light starch. Ahh, the look of a crisp starched shirt. You'll have people ask you how your shirts look so crisp and sharp.
10. Pit stains? Schmit stains! When you take off your nice dress shirt, hit the pits with some stain stick action, let it sit, it'll be ok. Then when you get the shirt laundered the pits will come out nice and clean. Take about 30 seconds.
11. Traveling? Your dry cleaner has you covered. Instead of having your shirts on hangers as per usual, request they fold the shirts. They'll fold them, use some cardboard like a brand new shirt to save the collar from pressing down, and package it all up in a plastic bag - again just like a new shirt. That shirt is ready to travel!
12. Wrinkles? Well just hang your suit up. 100% wool will hang out nicely. Tough wrinkles? Travelling? Hang the suit in the bathroom when you shower, the steam will let the wrinkles release. And, if you have an otherwise clean suit have your drycleaner give it a press before that special event, it just costs a few bucks and your suit will look like it was just cleaned. Never have a suit that doesn't need a cleaning put through the rigors of dry-cleaning.

There. 20 years of wearing a suit 5 days a week imparted in 4 minutes.

How Zappos uses Twitter to find Employees

Twitter for Talent: Zappos' use of social networking to attract and engage employees

Posted May 26th, 2009 by Kevin Morris for wikinomics.com

At a time when managers and PR departments are scratching their heads trying to figure out how to approach employee use of social media (think: Wall Street Journal), online footwear retailer Zappos.com stands out as one company that just might have got things right.

I first learned of Zappos when I watched a speech CEO Tony Hsieh delivered at theBusiness Innovation Factory (BIF) about their "customer-centric approach to killing the competition". Since then, Zappos has received the praise of media, customers and employees alike, even after laying off 8% of their staff. (At the time of the speech Tony had *only* 10,000 followers on Twitter. He is now at 600,000+). One of my favourite parts of the presentation is Tony's statement that the brand is simply an extension of the company culture, and providing a compelling customer experience completely depends on hiring employees who fit that culture.

One of the keys to that culture is Zappos Core Value #6, Build Open and Honest Relationships with Communication. By Zappos opening up and sharing what goes on in a regular day at the company, customers and potential employees are invited to experience the corporate culture without ever making an appearance on the payroll. If a prospective employee likes what they see, they might make a great Zapponian, especially if they share similar values with CVF ('Core Values Frog'). Giving prospective employees a sneak peak into the culture of the company might explain why only 3% of new hires take Zappos up on their famous $2000 incentive to quit after training.

I was interested in how Zappos identified and hired people in the first place. I got in touch with Zappos Recruiting Manager, Christa Foley (currently twitter rank #4 attwitter.zappos.com ) to learn how Zappos uses social media to identify and hire quality people, and further encourages new hires to use those tools once part of the Zappos team (430+ employees are listed on the Zappos twitter page). I've included some highlights of our conversation after the jump.

How is Zappos using social networks for recruiting purposes?

We're using Twitter very heavily and to some extent, Facebook and LinkedIn. We're not using Facebook and LinkedIn as much as I'd like us to be so we're working on some strategies to use these networks more effectively in the future. For Twitter specifically, we're in a really lucky position because we have such a big group of employees on Twitter, over 400, and then, of course, Tony has an ungodly amount of followers on Twitter, something like over 500,000 at this point. So you definitely could say we're pretty active in the Twitter world.

It wouldn't fit within our culture to be salesy/pushy so we're not using Twitter to promote Zappos just for the sake of promoting Zappos. We're using it for what I think it was intended, which is a social network that we all enjoy. I've got a team of four people in recruiting and we're not blasting on Twitter every job opening or constantly directing people to our jobs page. To me, that feels like spamming, which I think goes against what Twitter was meant to be used for. I know spam happens online in general and you definitely can see that on Twitter too.

For us, we use much more of a passive approach to recruit on Twitter. Whether, through the following that various employees have or certainly through Tony's followers, there seems to be a buzz about Zappos which helps us identify possible candidates.

How are you finding potential hires on Twitter?

We use the search function on Twitter and search Zappos mentions on a daily basis. Anybody who mentions 'wow I'd love to work at Zappos' or 'just read this article about Zappos and it seems like it's a cool place to work' or 'I wish you guys were in New York' , basically any loose references to maybe wanting to work at Zappos, we reach out to those folks.

I usually follow them and if they don't follow me back in a couple of days, then I'll @reply to them so I can let them know how to find our openings and apply. But more often than not, if you follow someone, they'll follow you back especially if they've just mentioned Zappos, and I have "Zappos Recruiting " in my profile. In that scenario, I'll direct message them about our jobs.zappos.com site. So a lot of my Twitter activities are via direct messages versus public replies.

What's different about hiring in social networks versus traditional job boards?

I would say the quality of people, at least from an industry and skill-set standpoint, tends to be higher. When we post on a major job board, we may get 500 applicants but a large percentage of them won't be qualified or they are outside of the salary ranges posted for the jobs, or they don't want to move or those kinds of things. Whereas I think when you're using something like Twitter or Facebook or Linked In, someone connecting with you via these avenues has probably done their research or knows about your company more than just 'I want to be an AP clerk and there's 20 positions open in my city on Monster so I'm going to apply to all of them. '

How have social networks benefited employees once they are working in the company?

Twitter for us is also a really good way for employees to connect. We have a Zappos Twitter page, twitter.zappos.com , so employees can see just the Zappos employee feed . It's a great way to connect with people you share common interests with where you may not have otherwise. We have a very friendly, open environment but with over 700 employees in our Vegas office, while you would always say 'hi!' in the hallway to everyone, before Twitter you may not realize that person also loves to hike, has children the same age as your children, loves the same restaurant you do, etc.. I think as a company from a culture standpoint, Twitter has helped us tremendously with being another avenue for people to connect. This is important to us because one of our core values is to Create a Positive Team and Family Spirit where you don't view your co-workers as simply coworkers but where you connect with them on a personal level. .

Why has Zappos been so open about employees using social media, where other companies have been fairly resistant?

I think because we were fortunate enough to embrace it early on and see the many values it offers and how it helps enhance our culture. We believe that if you get the culture right, most other things fall into place. I think that maybe with other companies, their fears with social media are about what employees might say or how their activity might negatively impact their company's brand. We have embraced social media and encourage our employees to do so too. And as far as our direction to employees about what they can or cannot say, we don't really have a policy on this. If we did a good job with hiring for culture fit and training new hires about our culture, it's a non-issue. So maybe you have reason to worry about what people are saying, or how they're representing your company if everyone isn't aligned to the company vision and culture.

By no means do we have it all figured out. Everything that we do is a work in progress. It's almost more of an art in some regards than a science but I think our culture, openness and transparency aligns itself well with the basic premiss of social media.

Baby Boomers, Social Networking and Competitive Advantage

Posted by: Alin Wagner-Lahmy | Date: May 26, 2009 | for: martindale.com/blog/ | Topic: Web 2.0
image via balivillareservation.com

This year we have seen amazing growth in Internet use by adults, with 45+ category gaining more and more attention and pulling more weight with web advertising and investment overall. Last week Danah Boyd posted about Facebook being for Old people, and more and more stats show how internet, and especially social media is being used by Boomers, especially fo networking and community purposes.

Some key facts from Pew Internet show amazing growth:

• 2008 - today 36% of internet users are boomers (as oppose to 0% in 2000)
• 2008 - 35% of boomers are online several times a day
• 2008 - sharing videos and reading blogs seems like the strongest web 2.0 activity among boomers

All these show a great trend, and I was looking for some real inside info. 5 months ago I ran across the rare opportunity to meet an extraordinary man by the name of Carlos Hernandez, who made it his goal to educate, train and teach Social Media to the masses, especially to Baby Boomers. Following his presentation in CES09 (Social Media Jungle sessions) I asked Carlos about Boomers and Social Media. I was curious about why would Boomers find Social Media useful as well as what deters this group from using it; how does one explain the sudden surge and rise in Social Networkinguse with Boomers, one we have not witnessed in past years, and what are the main trends in it? Carlos and I exchanged a few emails a while back and now I finally have the opportunity to share them with you. there are some great pearls there:

"Suffice to say, the good news about being a Baby Boomer... is that we have the benefit of a built-up knowledge base and oodles of lessons learned. Alas, it can also be our down-fall, if we get so full of ourselves, i.e. hubris, that we ignore seeing our blind-spots and then wonder why we lose our jobs and less expensive, younger people seem to be our biggest competitors in the job search."

"Social media, and in particular LInkedIn, Facebook and Twitter are potential game-changers for us, because they allow one to be less of a stuffed shirt, without dumping the experience of walking the corporate halls. How? I find these powerful tools to be just the communication mode that opens the door to be more human. The ability to post a picture, list groups where we participate  (volunteer and professional) plus encourage asking and answering questions which opens windows for one to be heard and seen."

Carlos also shared this valuable link:  "Doctors, engineers, lawyers and any of many other classic professionals now have the avenue to sound less like a boiler-plate-laden resume. Liz Ryan, San Francisco Chronicle writer and 25-year HR veteran voiced the following in her recent article titled "The Savvy Networker: Eight Little Known Tricks for the Job Hunt".  "Yank the boilerplate out of your resume and give it a human voice, replacing the "results-orientated professional" with "I'm happiest solving thorny problems that slow down product development" or whatever (human) statement describes you". And that to me so accurately reflects the spirit of Social Media - the personality and personal connections that enhance and boost our personal and professional lives.

Together with Carlos, Barbara Rozgonyi has written a a great post that list great sources to show why social media is spreading like fire among baby boomers. Highly recommended for more reading on the subject.

Boomers are key participants for a fruitful web, and web is key for boomers. Despite and because of the above all numbers, links, quotes and proofs, I am still constantly thinking: how does one demonstrates the value of social media to ones still not buying into it? how does one converts offline behavior to online behavior, to break the wall that sometimes is to be found between boomers and social media and most importantly - what happened in 2008 to have caused such a jump in percentage of boomers participating in social media and how can we leverage on that? 

10 Golden Rules of Social Media

from WebWorkerDaily by Aliza Sherman

Written by Aliza Sherman.

I know, I know — it's a bit presumptuous of me to think I can write the "10 Golden Rules of Social Media." Then again, I've been online since 1987, consulting clients on the Internet since 1992, on the web since 1994, immersed in working on and speaking about the web since the mid-1990s, so I do feel like I've paid some dues and learned some lessons along the way.

So here are my 10 Golden Rules of Social Media to embrace, debate, pass around and refine. Have at it.

1. Respect the Spirit of the 'Net. Since 1995, I've been writing about and talking about what I call the "Spirit of the 'Net." The Internet was not meant for marketing and selling but for communication and connection to people and information. Understanding this, even today, can flip your marketing and selling strategy on its head, but you'll have far more success respecting the spirit of the 'Net, rather than throwing money at hard-sell tactics.

2. Listen. In the '90s, the Golden Rule of posting to a Usenet Newsgroup or other online community was to listen first before speaking. Listening thoughtfully gives you a better sense of not only what people are saying but also how they are feeling. In virtual spaces where there are no visual cues, good listening skills become a powerful asset. Listening also helps you map out your current social media footprint and measure your marketing campaigns over time. The key to successful social media marketing is listening.

3. Add Value. Enter any online conversation with the aim of adding value. Before posting a message as a new participant in a forum, ask yourself: How is this providing value to the conversation? To the community? In some circles, talking about your product or service can be considered valuable, but in most, it is unwelcome and intrusive.

4. Respond. From the early days of setting up the first web presences for clients such as Origins and Dr. Atkins, my company outlined the importance of timely responses to any feedback or queries generated from those sites. The burden of response can be great, but it can be lessened by using the right tools and crowdsourcing answers. A quick response is more important than ever, and thanks to search tools, alert apps and other services, it is possible to achieve. Don't be a dam in a conversation flow.

5. Do Good Things. Back in the '90s, a mentor and dear friend — Jerry Colonna — talked about "doing well by doing good," sparking in me the confidence to build a successful business with an underlying mission to help others. Doing good things can really help you to succeed in social media, too. Just do a Google search for Social Media for Social Good to see the power of this movement. This goes beyond adding value online. It means fundamentally changing your business model from a single bottom line — profit — to a triple bottom line — people, planet, profit — and then perpetuating this social responsibility to all you do in business, including online marketing and selling. I'm working with a financial client right now who truly believes in doing good. My client's messages and conversations around social good are getting much more traction than the regular financial messages.

6. Share the Wealth. When I used to talk about the Internet around the world, one key tenet I repeated almost every time was to share the wealth. "If you've got it, share it, spread it around," I'd say, but I wasn't only talking about money. I was talking about time, information and knowledge. In social media, sharing is the fuel of the conversation engine.

7. Give Kudos. Social media works when you are generous. There is nothing wrong with self-promotion, but things really take off when you give others praise or a moment in the spotlight. The rise of retweeting — real retweeting, not spammy retweeting — shows how far giving credit to others can go in social spaces.

8. Don't Spam. And speaking of spam, there is also an ugly surge of spamming in social media, today's equivalent of unscrupulous email marketers who inundated our email boxes with garbage and left a bad taste in our mouths for email marketing. On Twitter, I'm finding it a daily chore to delete people I'm following who send out spam messages, but I just don't have the time, interest or bandwidth to tolerate the "Get Lots of Followers on Autopilot" spam.

9. Be Real. Authenticity is the secret ingredient behind any good and valuable social media marketing campaign. If you know your audience, locate them online, listen, add value, respond, refrain from spamming and just be yourself, you'll have far better and more long-lasting positive results than if you try to be someone — or something — you're not.

10. Collaborate. Before you dive into social media for marketing and selling, take a look at who is out there and who is doing it well. How can you work with them, instead of trying to muscle your way into the space with all of your dollars? Those will often be dollars wasted because people can feel that push and recoil from the hard sell, blog about your misstep, sign petitions to boycott your company, you name it. If you put your money in places where it can do good while generating goodwill for your brand, you'll be much more likely to get a positive result from social media.

Social media tools are only that — tools. The real energy, spirit and power of social media is people. We are social media.

What are your Golden Rules of Social Media? What am I missing?

Sell Your Knowledge on the Side

from Stepcase Lifehack by Thursday Bram

Having a side line of income can come in handy — but not everyone is in a position to set up a full-fledged business or even take on freelance projects. That doesn't mean that there aren't any opportunities to make some money on the side. If you're knowledgeable about a specific area, you can sell your know-how, rather than selling your time. You'll still need a little time, of course, but there are several ways to come up with ways to make a little money within your time constraints.

1. Write an ebook or white paper

You can turn your knowledge and experiences into a document on your own schedule. While it does take an investment of some serious time to translate an ebook into serious earnings, you can start selling your work through sites likeScribd almost immediately. Your vendor will certainly take a cut, but the publication process is easier and faster than for print. There are also simple ways to up the likelihood of earning some good money: even something as basic as laying your document out in something besides Microsoft Word can give you an immediate boost. As far as topics go, how-to guides tend to do well, as do papers that address current issues in most fields.

2. Offer a seminar or class

While seminars and classes are generally a little more time-sensitive than projects that don't require you to interact with other people, there are a long list of ways to make them a little more flexible. One of the most basic is picking a time and date for the class that works with your schedule and then taking care of planning and other details when ever it's more convenient for you. Another option is offering a class online, even by email if that's what it takes. The biggest difficulty with selling slots in a class is that you have to have a good reason for prospective students to buy from you. If you aren't a well-known expert in your field, you're going to have to do some marketing to make sure that your class is full.

3. Tutor on your topic

If you specialize in a topic that is taught in school — from kindergarten through grad school — tutoring is an option. You don't even need to worry about trying to find local students: you can tutor online. That can make managing time easier, because you can work with students in different time zones so that you can better take advantage of your time. Sites like Tutorz, offer an opportunity to list yourself for a variety of subjects.

4. Write for websites

There are many websites that allow writers to post any number of articles and take a cut of the profits. You're not going to get rich off of such articles, but there's no problem if you need to write on an odd schedule — or even stop writing suddenly. You can write about pretty much any topic, although you'll probably be able to write more often if you focus on a topic you already know well. There are thousands of such sites. HubPages and Triond are just two examples.

5. Provide advice or consulting

You can offer your consulting services on your own online, but if you don't have a lot of time to devote to the project, it may be better to offer your services through a site that connects experts with individuals looking for advice. There are quite a few out there: one example is LivePerson.com. It's a pretty typical site. You post your information and then clients can hire you through the site. You decide on the time and date you'll actually talk to clients.

6. Answer questions

The number of websites offering payment for answers to specialized questions seem to grow every day. SmallBizAdvice, for instance, offers payment for answers to questions about small businesses, for example. There are also plenty of sites with multiple topics, as well as sites specially for students to post questions they have with (or, more often, from) their homework, like Student of Fortune.

Selling your knowledge

It's worth noting that none of these approaches are exactly get rich quick schemes. In some cases, they may not even be get rich quick schemes. You have to have some knowledge worth sharing, although that list can be pretty long — you'd be surprised what some people are willing to pay for video game tips or basic technical support — and you have to be able to share it in a fashion that other people can understand relatively easily. If you can handle those requirements, though, selling your knowledge can be a good way to bring in a little extra money. It doesn't hurt that there are plenty of websites and online services ready to handle much of the marketing and promotion, and let you focus on your own expertise. The pay goes down when you work through these sites, of course, but the amount of time you need to devote to finding clients and related aspects of being in business also goes down. It doesn't hurt that being associated with a larger site also establishes your credentials a lot faster than you can if you aren't already particularly well known.

If you've worked with a website beyond the ones I've mentioned here, please note them in the comments — there really are thousands of websites providing similar options out there, and I only discussed a handful here.

---

Thursday Bram blogs about a variety of topics, from personal finance to small business. She is the author of an upcoming book on the tools and tricks you need to build a career you can take with you during long-term travel. More information about Thursday and her book, Working Your Way Around the World, is available on her personal site, ThursdayBram.com.

The New Résumé: Dumb and Dumber

By JANE PORTER for online.wsj.com

Kristin Konopka sent out nearly 100 copies of her résumé in January in search of receptionist work, but got only one callback. That's when Ms. Konopka, a 29-year-old New York actress and yoga teacher, took her master's degree and academic teaching experience off her résumé.

The calls started coming in. The slimmer version of her résumé landed in 30 in-boxes and earned her three callbacks and two interviews. "It definitely picked up the interest," says Ms. Konopka, who realized quickly that people don't "want to hire anyone who is overqualified."

Securing work in a tight economy means more job seekers might find themselves applying for positions below their qualifications. Many unemployed professionals are willing to take paycuts for the promise of a paycheck. But to get a foot in the door, candidates are gearing down their résumés by hiding advanced degrees, changing too-lofty titles, shortening work experience descriptions, and removing awards and accolades.

In the past eight months, Jamaica Eilbes, an information-technology recruiter for Milwaukee employment agency Manpower, has had to weed out more overqualified résumés than usual from the stacks that cross her desk each day. "I'd never feel comfortable putting a really high-level candidate into a lower level position," says Ms. Eilbes, who recruits for Manpower and other clients. "We don't want to take you on if we think you are going to jump ship."

Matt Collins

But in recent months, Ms. Eilbes has seen more master's and doctoral degrees at the bottom of résumés instead of at the top. She's also seen candidates omitting or trimming job descriptions that showed they had substantial years of work experience. Résumés on which job descriptions taper off as they progress down the page raise Ms. Eilbes's suspicions. "How do I know I can trust them later down the road if there's something on their résumé they decided to take off so they could have a better chance at getting that job?" she says.

Still, for some professionals who find themselves constantly rejected despite decades of experience, scaling back the truth -- or at the least, some of their experiences -- can feel like the only chance at an interview.

Lenora Kaplan, 49, has 26 years of marketing experience but doesn't want her résumé to show it. When she lost her job as vice president of public relations at a small Las Vegas marketing firm in January, Ms. Kaplan searched for work with little success. At an interview for a shopping-mall marketing-director position in February, she was told that the hiring budget had only enough for a junior-level employee and that her résumé showed she was overqualified.

Many of the jobs she comes across ask for far fewer years of experience than she has. "There is nothing to apply for" at my level, Ms. Kaplan says. She quickly realized her job experience was pricing her out of too many positions. Her solution: To try not to look as senior level as she really was. So she eliminated certain jobs and removed details about speaking engagements and board positions.

In some cases, job seekers are being told by hiring agencies to tone down their résumés if they want to get hired. When Bridget Lee, 29, moved to New York from Shanghai eight months ago and put her application in at three temporary agencies, she was told to play down her work experience before they would send her résumé to potential clients. The temp-agency version of her résumé changed titles like "manager" and "freelance trend researcher" to "staff" and "office support" and omitted entirely her title as partner of a small marketing agency. "It's been a lesson for how I present myself," Ms. Lee says.

Career counselors advise against making too many drastic changes. But they also say the demand for this kind of restructuring is on the rise. In the past three months, Tammy Kabell, a Kansas City, Mo., job-search coach, says more clients are requesting her help to "dumb down" their résumés, whether by changing job titles, playing down experience, or altogether omitting some impressive achievements. One recent client, a 61-year-old former chief learning officer at a tech company, insisted on omitting her C-level job title from her résumé. She was fearful her application would be weeded out by the Web search-optimization tools companies use to manage résumés.

Some résumé writers advise reworking a résumé into a functional one stressing transferable skills instead of past job titles and accomplishments. "Instead of focusing on the big achievements that might scare an employer away, you can spell out what you can bring to an employer in the next position," Ms. Kabell says.

Of course, reducing your résumé to a skeleton of what it truly should be isn't likely to land you the job you really want. While it took Ms. Lee eight months to get a call back for a job that matched her real experience, this month she landed a position as a temporary account manager -- with potential for permanent work -- at a New York design firm. The interview and job offer weren't earned using her dumbed-down résumé, but rather with the original.

"You have to make those creative edits when it comes to short-term work, but in terms of long-term work, you have to stay true to your experience," says Ms. Lee.

Write to Jane Porter at jane.porter@wsj.com

Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page D5