It is inevitable that your experience, skills, and achievements will change and increase.That is just a part of working and progressing in your career. With career progression comes the need to update your resume to reflect your career highlights and history. Since most people don’t really think about updating their resume until they are looking for a new job, job seekers today need to make sure that resume updates are made only after careful thought and time have been put forth. Quick updates could mean making critical errors, and we all know that errors on a resume don’t lead to an interview-errors lead to the trash pile. Here is some food for thought to ponder before you start making revisions to your resume:
If you are rushing to put something onto your resume last minute, chances are it will not look as good as the rest of your resume. You will not take the time necessary to edit and make sure that the piece of information you have just put in matches the flow of the rest of your resume. If one part of your resume looks different from the rest of the document, employers may take this as a sign that you do not give attention to detail, or that you are disorganized.
If you put something on last minute, more likely than not you will forget what it is that you have just put on. This means that in an interview, if you are asked about the addition, you may need to scramble to figure out what exactly it is and why you put it on your resume in the first place. That scrambling looks, to your interviewer, like you don’t know what they are talking about (which could make it seem like you never did it in the first place), and it will make you look inadequate and incompetent. Not a good first impression!
Quick fixes lead to quick errors. Job seekers are more likely to have spelling, spacing and grammar errors when making quick edits. Read your changes over several times and ensure you don’t have typos. Better yet-try a second set of eyes. Ask a friend or colleague to review your changes just to be sure you didn’t miss anything. If you have errors on your resume, the employer will expect that you will make errors in your daily work, and may not see you as a strong candidate for the position, regardless of your skills and expertise.
All in all, it is just better to add additions right when they happen. Make your resume a living document. Receive an award? Add it to your resume. Complete a professional development class? Add it to your resume. Keeping your revisions current will give you time to know exactly what is on your resume and why you included certain information. Doing so will save you from bumbling and looking unprofessional in an interview, as well as will make your resume look more impressive overall.
Searching for a job takes time and energy and leads to a lot of disappointment. It is even worse when you can’t find jobs that are close to home. So what do you do? How do you continue with your search and find a job that will work? The following are some guidelines to help you move forward with your search and figure out what to do next.
Decide how far you are willing to commute
Look for jobs that fit into your desired commuting distance
If there are not jobs that fit your commuting distance, look for jobs that offer telecommuting positions. This can be a very good option for people with families, students, or if you are looking for a second job.
If there are no telecommuting positions or you do not feel that telecommuting is not the right option for you then you have a big decision to make. Should you move to find a job?
Now, you don’t need to jump up and move right away. You can start looking for jobs near an area you would be willing to move to. If you can find a job that fits what you want and is in a place you would be willing to move to, then you should go ahead and apply for the job. Since you are moving for the purpose of getting a job, you should really wait to move until you have a job secured. Who knows, your employer may even help pay for your moving costs. It is hard to not have a job close to home, but there are still options for you and even though it may be scary, moving for a job is something that many people have and will continue to do, so you don’t have to feel alone.
In life, you have to make goals. You want to go to a certain college, get married, have children, etc. These goals help you to stay focused and help you progress and lead you to new and exciting opportunities. While many people will make goals for their lives in general, a lot of people fail to make goals for their career. They get into a rut thinking things like, “I have a job, so I don’t need to try and progress” or “There is no room for me to progress; it is safer to stay where I am.” These thoughts are ridiculous. Of course you should try to progress! You want to progress in life, so you should want to progress in your career. This is why career goals are so important.
Remember: When making goals, you don’t want to make one big goal without having smaller goals to achieve while working your way up the ladder. That would make your job much harder and a lot more disappointing. You need to have an ultimate goal, but you also need some small, short-term goals to get you up to that point. If your ultimate goal is to be an executive, then what do you need to achieve on your way up to that level?
These smaller goals may be simple. They may be things like making a goal to get a $0.50 raise before the year is over, or they may be a little bit bigger, like being in charge of a new project or managing a department. Establishing realistic short-term goals will keep you on the track to where your want to land professionally and will make your work experience much more enjoyable and meaningful.
Career goals help you keep focused, but they also make your job less monotonous and boring, because you are always working towards something. Having specific goals will make your daily work a little more exciting, help you feel like what you’re doing is worthwhile, and will add value to your life.
One of the most important things employers are looking at in job candidates is which candidates care about the company and will help the company succeed. You want to be able to show potential employers that you are the person they have in mind. Creating a targeted resume is a great way to do that. A targeted resume is different than a traditional resume because it is created with the specific company in mind as you write every aspect of the resume. This will impress your potential employers because it will show them that you not only are thinking about their company, but that you also did your research and know what you are talking about. Follow these steps and you will be on your way to creating a great targeted resume:
Do Your Research: Take some time and research the company you are applying for, and even the specific job you are looking at. This will make it easy when it comes to actually writing up your resume.
Start With Your Objective: Start your resume by writing an objective that uses the company’s name and expresses that you want to help said company succeed. This will give the great first impression that will keep your potential employers interested in what you have to say.
Make Sure Your Experience Matches Your Objective: Now that you have an objective to guide you, you need to make sure that every entry in your work experience shows your potential employers that you can live up to what you stated in your objective. This also goes for your achievements and accomplishments. Try to choose work experience entries that are similar to what you are applying for.
These steps will help you create a targeted resume simply and effectively, a resume will help you land the job and impress your potential employers.
