How Long Have You Been In The Race?

Resume Writing

how long have you been in the race?
Have you noticed that the working world is kind of like a track event? Some races are marathons, and the runners who win are slow and steady folks who keep on moving ahead, where the sprinters, the ones who zip past leaving their co-workers in a cloud of dust, don’t always stay on track. Not that sprinting is bad, it’s just a different race and the techniques that work in a short speed contest don’t do well in endurance challenges. Track events will generally have a variety of contests and different skills will win different events.
Sometimes an athlete will move from one event to another, like the sprinter in the marathon. If the sprinter has developed the endurance to keep a steady pace and still have the strength to run fast at the end, they will likely be the winner. If they have no endurance, they won’t be able to keep up in the long run. An athlete who has learned how to adapt can switch to several events and win them all, but it takes experience and training. It also takes recognition that they are capable of moving from one category to the next.
A worker who has moved up to manager or supervisor and shown 2 – 10 years of quality work is often ready to be promoted from one event to the next, but they have trouble getting the recognition for their abilities. Because they are seen as capable managers or supervisors, it doesn’t necessarily follow that they will be seen as executives. It’s like the marathon runner has announced they are entering the sprint.
Our professional resume packages highlight all the accomplishments in your career and showcase the skills that you will bring to a promotion. They are perfect for presenting your abilities as a professional ready to add a different category to your career.
If you have been the race for a long time, maybe it is time to up your game. Go over your resume part by part and make sure it represents who you are today and where you see yourself going. Do your accomplishments shine brightly? Is your experience rich with detail but yet concise enough to not bore your reader to tears? Does your resume have action statement and keywords to pass a keyword scanning machine? To stay competitive, update your resume yearly with highlights of what you did the previous year. Don’t leave it until the last minute when someone is asking for it. Like training, it takes a bit of time and thought, but the results will be worth it.
 

Three Tips For Using Electronic Job Applications

Professional Resumes

three tips for using electronic job applications

It is very likely that your next job application will be done electronically. In some ways this makes the process easier, I think, since many find it laborious to fill out paper applications by hand. Still, there are some issues you can run into with an electronic application that could cause problems if you’re not paying attention.

  1. Read the instructions.  Don’t assume you know how this particular company’s software will work just because you have filed online in other places. There might be a nuance that makes a difference to the person (or computer) screening the applications. When hundreds of applications are being screened, little things can get you in the wrong category.
  2. Load your resume in the right format. There’s a reason why Professional Resume Services offers both ASCII and PDF versions of your resume in our professional resume packages. We don’t know what your (hopefully) future employer will want. Having both versions gives you the best chance of having the right one.
  3. Check all the information carefully! It happens all the time: the resume is attached and the little boxes of the electronic job application magically fill up. But those little boxes don’t have the information in the right place and, again, a little thing makes a big difference in getting your application passed through the initial filter. You need to look it over with the idea that you are proofreading, even though your resume was already proofread. Otherwise, you could end up verifying that your college degree was earned at your last job when you carelessly submit it. That scenario isn’t as farfetched as it sounds–so check to make sure the right information is in each box.