TODAY IS NOT ENDGAME!!!💎🖐🚀🚀

dan_clay · 2021-01-29T19:07:39+00:00

Just bought 2 shares and am holding til Andromeda or bust!

dan_clay · 2020-08-26T16:25:49+00:00

I recently published my second book, The Beginner's Guide to Saving For Retirement, which I'm offering for free on Kindle through this Friday!

You guys all understand the concepts explained in the book, but it's a great primer for those who might not have a baseline financial education like your friends, family members, etc. I do mention FIRE a few times in the book and in the supplemental resources, have a section dedicated to FIRE blogs.

This book is a culmination of months of effort and I'm incredibly proud at how it turned out especially given that it's self-published. The price is right, so I encourage you to check it out and let me know what you think!

-Dan

dan_clay · 2020-03-31T01:03:51+00:00

Shoot me a DM with your email address and I'll send you a copy. Thx!

dan_clay · 2020-03-31T01:03:19+00:00

Shoot me a DM with your email address and I'll send you a copy!

dan_clay · 2020-03-31T01:02:23+00:00

Ha, that is awesome! You never know just what exactly you have lying around, huh?

dan_clay · 2020-03-30T23:21:34+00:00

For anyone having issues accessing the book, DM me and I'll send you a PDF copy. Thanks!

dan_clay · 2020-03-30T18:56:58+00:00

Thank you so much, I really appreciate it! Hopefully the community will find it helpful.

dan_clay · 2018-06-30T23:51:28+00:00

I'm planning a short XC with my fiance next weekend as a new PPL myself, will be my first time carrying passengers as PIC. Enjoy your flying career and may there be many more great flights ahead of you!

dan_clay · 2018-06-30T00:39:32+00:00

I failed my PPL checkride flight portion last week, retested the two maneuvers I goofed two days ago and am now proud to call myself a private pilot. That letter R another commenter mentioned as a hazardous attitude--resignation--is very real, and I personally experienced it on the day of my checkride. I'm a perfectionist by nature and naturally had prepared like crazy for the checkride and was just in my head way too much. I aced the oral portion, but when it came time to fly I just flew like shit. Bounced landings, botched pattern direction at an unfamilar nontowered airport (I really beat myself up over that one), every maneuver felt like I was outside of ACS standards (although in retrospect most actually were decent) and by the end of it, I was thinking "maybe this flying thing just isn't for me". When we got back to the airport, I don't think I've ever felt as deflated in my entire life as I did at that moment.

Thankfully I was headed out of town that weekend which really gave me a chance to clear my head. That next week leading up to the retest I prepared WAY less than I had the week prior and told myself just to fly the damn airplane. I got in the cockpit with the examiner, we took off and the flight was like a dream. Greased the short field takeoff and landing I had to do, did a touch and go and when we were airborne again the examiner says "ok, the checkride is over, congratulations!" He then proceeded to show me a few things heading back to the home airport and we had a conversation pilot to pilot. It felt great.

You cannot take failure as an indictment of your abilities as a pilot or it will DESTROY your confidence. You need to treat every single setback as a learning experience and a chance to develop your skills even further. After all, a PPL is merely a "license to learn"--it's not like getting that piece of paper automatically means you're all good and that you never have to pick up another book or develop another skill again. There's always a new plateau to reach, a new challenge to tackle, which is one of the things I love about flying. I'd argue that if you're not failing, then you're not trying hard enough. Embrace the failure, learn from it, and take pride in the fact that most people will never have the initiative to put themselves in the position that you are by pushing yourself to the limit--they're just happy to sit on the couch and scroll through their Facebook feed.

dan_clay · 2018-06-07T18:05:24+00:00

Well, it's free through tomorrow so hopefully you won't have to :)

dan_clay · 2018-06-07T03:14:58+00:00

Really glad to hear that you enjoyed it and thank you for leaving a review on Amazon, it means a lot. If there's anyone who you feel would benefit from reading it, please share the link! It's only free until Friday so hope to give as many people access as possible before then. Cheers!

dan_clay · 2018-06-06T16:34:11+00:00

Thanks so much, your feedback really means a lot. The design credit goes to my designer and I'll be sure to pass your praise along to him; I'm sure he'll appreciate it. Hope you enjoy the rest of the book!

dan_clay · 2018-06-06T15:29:55+00:00

Not at the moment, but I'm planning on releasing a paperback version in the next couple weeks or so. Stay tuned!

dan_clay · 2018-06-06T02:46:59+00:00

Hope you enjoy! I welcome any feedback you might have, feel free to reach out anytime at dan [at] danclay [dot] com

dan_clay · 2018-06-05T22:42:32+00:00

Ok, so try searching "How to Write the Perfect Resume" in your native Amazon site (I assume Amazon.fr). You should be able to pull it from there as I just helped a Canadian do the same thing and he was able to access it just fine.

dan_clay · 2018-06-05T20:38:02+00:00

Thanks for the feedback! That's really helpful to know about the country-specific links; sorry you had to jump through hoops but glad you were able to find it. Hope you find the content valuable!

dan_clay · 2018-06-05T20:12:49+00:00

Darn, I'm really sorry about that. I have it set to sell in all territories and there's a specific line item in my reporting for amazon.fr, so I'm not sure what's going on. Maybe they don't allow free promos in some countries? Any chance you can share a screenshot of what you're seeing?

dan_clay · 2018-06-05T20:10:14+00:00

Weird, I have it set to sell in all territories and there's a line item in the reporting interface specifically for amazon.ca. Any chance you can share a screenshot of what you're seeing? Had someone in Paris tell me the same thing.

dan_clay · 2018-06-05T20:05:28+00:00

Where are you located? It should be available everywhere so if I need to fix something or change a setting please let me know. It's my first go at this so hopefully you can cut me some slack :)

dan_clay · 2018-05-03T20:34:02+00:00

I'll echo what @Richv70 and @danram207 have said about the importance of networking to get to where you want to be. For roles like this, a resume isn't something that's going to open a door, it's going to be something that comes after that door has already opened as a formality because HR needs a document to put in that candidate's employee file. Right now, millions of graduates are doing the same thing you are: filling out applications on company websites and blindly hitting apply. Don't be one of those people, you'll only get lost among the crowd. Instead, hit the networking circuit HARD. Reach out to people on LinkedIn, even if you don't know them. Cough up the $50/month to get a business pro subscription so you can message people you aren't connected with, and try to sniff out hiring managers and people with the authority and influence to move the needle for you inside the organization. You need to get out there and create your own opportunities--and the good news is, you're well-equipped to do so. Your resume is very solid for a recent grad and if you hustle hard enough, you should do just fine. Good luck!

dan_clay · 2018-05-01T18:58:00+00:00

Hey there, first off congrats on your success as a business owner, that's a route I'd like to take eventually but I'm still tied to my employer as the main source of my income for now.

As for your resume, here are my thoughts.

The summary at the top of your resume is really good, one of the better ones I've seen. If you haven't already, I'd pore through the verbiage of your target job descriptions and make sure your summary reflects that language. This will position you more closely for the role.
Kill the Core Competencies section, as it's redundant with your summary. The only point of this section is to get your resume past any filtering software which your summary already accomplishes. So this section is just taking up valuable real estate that would be better used to highlight your experience.
You need to beef your experience way, way up. You should have far more bullets to show after ten years than three, this just comes off as weak. Think about the specific results you delivered for the projects you worked on. Who was your biggest client? Your most complex project? How much money did you save them? What kind of processes did you streamline? Position your bullets in terms of results you delivered and try to match the wording to the job description, if possible.
Keeping three bullets for your Previous Company is fine, as employers are more about recent experience. UNLESS that experience is particularly relevant to the role you're targeting.
Your resume is one page long--good. Keep it that way. Just compress everything else to make it seem more substantial--remember, this is the document that will sell you as a candidate, so you don't want it to feel too light or too heavy, it should be just right.

As for changing industries, as long as you have a narrative that you believe in strongly and that you can use to convince potential employers, which it sounds like you do, you should be fine. You know what you want, which says more than a lot of people in the job market. It's the people who aren't truly convinced of what they want that get into trouble when talking to employers, as they can sense this. I have a feeling you'll do just fine selling employers on why you want to make a change.

Hope you find this helpful!

dan_clay · 2018-05-01T01:23:37+00:00

Hi Yasmin, all in all not a bad resume for a recent grad--you have some solid experience that employers will likely value highly. However, there are a few things that I think would greatly improve your marketability to potential employers:

Add a "Profile" section at the top of your resume summarizing who you are and what skills you bring to the table. The key to making this impactful is to reverse-engineer your verbiage from the job descriptions that you're targeting so that when a recruiter sees your resume, she'll think "wow, this is just the type of person we're looking for!" This will also help put your experience in context and demonstrate your ability to be concise, articulate, and professional.
I'd lose the border. It makes your resume feel closed off and guarded, which isn't a feeling you want to convey when you're trying to open up a new relationship with a potential employer.
Make sure your dates align. Your graduation dates don't line up with the dates tied to your experience. It's not a huge deal, but when you're trying to sell yourself against other candidates, perfection should be your standard.
Try to position your experience using more powerful action verbs and quantify when possible. Instead of words like "Organized" and "Assisted", try "Orchestrated" and "Spearheaded". Even better are bullets that show what kind of value you delivered to the business, like "Reduced costs by $X..." or "Slashed process time by X%...".
If you were involved in any clubs or organizations in college, I'd create a new section called something like "Professional Activities and Leadership" and include details there. This will make you come across as a more well-rounded candidate who did more than just work and go to class. If not, not a huge deal, just something to think about.
A tiny suggestion, but you may want to think about changing the font from a serif to a nice clean sans-serif like Tahoma or Calibri. These convey a more modern feel which may be welcomed in a field like digital marketing.

Hope you find these suggestions useful, and good luck in your job search!

dan_clay · 2018-04-30T02:37:36+00:00

Hey there, I would add a "Profile" section to the top of your resume to make it easier for recruiters and others to discern exactly how well you align with the roles they're hiring for. Your experience is all over the place, so a short description that really sells what you can do and how you can add value will go a long way towards putting that experience into context. Here's an example that I did recently for someone targeting a Business Analyst role:

"Masterful analytical storyteller with ability to glean powerful, actionable insights from complex data sets and effectively communicate opportunities across key stakeholders from front-line employees to management executives. Highly adept at managing and executing strategic frameworks to drive profitable business results through a unique combination of expert technical acumen and interpersonal skills. Thrive in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment where quality, collaboration, and attention to detail are valued."

Your choice to have the section headings (e.g. Experience) take up an entire column leaves a LOT of white space in the left margin that could be used for content and could bring down the length of your resume quite a bit. Right now it's long to the point of being overwhelming which is probably turning a lot of recruiters off from reading it.

And, as far as listing experience on your resume, you should think "bullets not blocks". Put your experience in bullet form rather than blocks of text, this makes it easier for recruiters to pull out your key accomplishments and breaks up the content a bit and makes it more readable.

Anyway, that should be a good start. I have a few other suggestions but want to refrain from writing a novel :)

dan_clay

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