It’s standard practice nowadays for employers to check with references before deciding to hire a particular candidate. Now more than ever, it’s important to have credible references on your resume and to ensure they’ll give you a good review. Even going as far as staying in touch with your connections on LinkedIn will go a long way in making sure all your bases are covered when it comes to your references. Sometimes the best resumes that get you hired are the ones with the best references. Here are some quick ways to ensure your references are as helpful as possible.
Ask Your References Ahead of Time
Your reference may feel disrespected if they get a call from a potential employer on your behalf without you asking them first. This is especially true if you haven’t kept in touch with your reference for a while. If they are surprised to get a call about you, they probably won’t be as helpful since they weren’t prepared for the call. Just giving them a simple call ahead of time will go a long way in ensuring they help you out as much as possible.
Provide as Much Information About the Job as Possible
The best resume writing services will suggest giving your references details about the job you’re applying for. This will help them match the skills from your previous job to the one you want. Let them know the types of questions they’ll be asked so they’ll feel as prepared as possible. The last thing you want from your references is for them to be unprepared and not highlight your attributes as much as you’d like.
Choose Professional References Instead of Personal
The first thing a professional resume writing service will tell you is to use professional references instead of personal ones. If you lack work experience, you may have no choice but to use personal references, however. A potential employer assumes personal references will say as many good things about a candidate as they can since they are a family member or friend. Professional references will give more of an honest opinion and will be more likely to give them the information they want to hear about your skills and work ethic.
Thank Your Reference for Helping You
Once your professional reference agrees to help you out, be sure to thank them by sending a simple thank you note or taking them out to lunch to show your gratitude. After they answer questions from your potential employer, follow up with them to thank them again. You never know when you may need to use them as a reference again so show your appreciation as much as possible. Saying “thank you” is always a good thing.
Holding a temporary job is nothing to be ashamed of, whether it’s an entry level or executive level position. Many people who have trouble finding work turn to staffing agencies to help place them in temporary positions. However, if you play your cards right, a temp job could be permanent before you know it. The reality is some companies may not be in a good position financially to hire a permanent employee, but they might be in a better position several months or a year down the road. Here are some of the benefits of a temporary job and how they might lead to full-time work.
You Gain Valuable Experience
When you are a temporary employee, you not only gain experience, but also the specific experience for the company you’re working for. Once you have a few months of experience under your belt, you can consider hiring the best resume writing service to brush up your resume. It’s possible you’ll be interviewed for a full-time position at your temp job. At the least, you’ll have valuable experience to add to your resume.
Don’t Act Like a Temporary Employee
The biggest mistake temps make is acting like they are only going to be at the job for a few months. Instead, show interest in the company and the work you’re doing and get involved as much as you can. If you act like you’re a full-time employee, it will make more sense for the company to bring you on full-time when they’re able to. Once you’re ready, a cover letter writing service can help you make sure you look as good on paper as you do in person from a professional standpoint.
Network as Much as Possible
Networking is especially beneficial if you want your temporary executive job to become permanent. With the help of an executive resume writer, you can craft the perfect resume to hand out to the right people once you get acquainted with the company you’re working for. Depending on the size of the organization, you can talk to people from different departments to get your name out there. You may not be interested in the work other departments do, but you never know who you will meet in the process.
Do More Than What’s Asked
Being a temporary employee is tough because you don’t want to overstep your boundaries. However, there’s nothing wrong with going above and beyond the work you’re supposed to do. Being engaged with your work and asking questions about systems and processes will show you care about the job and will likely give you consideration when the company is looking for a full-time employee.
The best resume writing service can only help you if you have the experience to back it up.
Depending on how you use the Internet and social media, you could accelerate your job search or cause it to crash and burn. Thousands of jobs are posted online every day and there are many more thousands of people searching for jobs. Statistics show your chances of getting a job solely through an online presence are extremely low. Crafting the perfect resumes that get you hired will only go so far if you don’t have a personal connection with a recruiter or company. The Internet can be a valuable tool when used properly so here are three little-known ways to take advantage of it.
Have an Online Influence
LinkedIn is a great way to increase your online presence and influence. You hear me talk about this time and again. LinkedIn is key. The more connections you have, the better you will look online. Having hundreds of connections means you are a potentially valuable resource for generating new business, with the ability to bring in more talent and market a brand. However, having online connections you don’t really know well are just false senses of influence and could hurt your reputation.
Stalk Social Media
Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms are great for learning about a company’s office culture. Even if you use top rated resume writing services to craft your resume, you won’t get the job you want if you don’t fit into their culture. Companies use social media to attract their target customers and employees. If a company uses a professional approach on their social media platform, you should use that same approach when contacting them. Alternatively, if you notice their style is more laid back, you can cater toward that writing and communication style to fit in better.
Create Multimedia Resumes
Simply uploading resumes to job boards is ineffective, thanks to the high saturation of resumes already flooding in. Plus, they clog your email with spam. Stay away if you can. No matter how many professional resume writing services you use, it’s difficult to get recognized among hundreds or thousands of resumes. Now you can use the Internet to create multimedia “resumes” to break up the monotony.
Instead of uploading a traditional resume, create a website or a blog to highlight your attributes. You could make a short video to introduce yourself, talk about your skills and provide examples and work products for recruiters. This is your chance to be as creative as you want in order to set yourself apart from the rest of the job seekers.
With these three tips, you can use the Internet to your advantage to land a new job. Your creativity, combined with the help of professional resume writing services, could put you ahead of the curve.
Autumn can be a refreshing time of year, both from a weather perspective and for job seekers. You’ve gotten through the tough summer months and may feel a little worn down after applying for jobs consistently. The good news is autumn brings out new opportunities since school is back in session and newly graduated students aren’t flooding the market. Now is the time to get involved with your LinkedIn profile development and touch up your resume to revamp your job search!
Learn New Skills
If you’ve struggled with getting the job you desire, consider taking online classes or certification programs. The best professional resume writing services will suggest adding any type of educational experience to your resume, especially if you don’t have a significant amount of relevant work experience. Not only will learning new skills boost your confidence, but employers might even be more attracted to your resume because of your commitment to continuing your education.
Open Your Thoughts
It’s easy to get caught up in the repetitiveness of applying for certain jobs. You could be leaving some great jobs on the table due to tunnel vision. Open up your thoughts a bit and look at other opportunities. These may or may not be relevant to the jobs or experience you’ve had in the past, but the goal is to broaden your horizons.
When you look at other job opportunities, you may realize you’re more qualified for those than the ones you’ve been looking for. Alternatively, you could find a field that interests you enough to look into taking continuing education classes to learn more. Professional resume writing services will encourage you to broaden your view of your job search so you don’t get bogged down and find yourself in a rut.
Consider Temporary Jobs or Contract Work
The best executive resume format will highlight your attributes and indicate you’re open to a variety of opportunities. However, you don’t want to seem desperate. Sometimes companies simply aren’t hiring full-time employees, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t apply. You may be able to find a temporary job or a contract position to help get valuable experience.
The autumn months are unique because companies don’t necessarily hire a lot during the holidays. If you are able to work as a contractor or hold a temporary position through the holidays, you may even be brought on full-time after the first of the year; and if not, at least you have something else to put on your resume!
Seasonal changes can be refreshing to job seekers, and professional resume writing services know this. Autumn is a great time to rejuvenate your job search.
Job fairs used to be designed for entry-level positions and students looking for their first job. However, executive job fairs have become more popular in recent years because they help executives get their name out to companies and recruiters. Whether you’re actively looking for a job or just want to learn more about different options, attending an executive job fair can be beneficial. Follow these five tips to make your experience a success.
Target Recruiters or Companies
Look at the schedule beforehand and find the specific companies and recruiters you want to talk to. Prepare your executive resume cover letter by tailoring it toward those companies. This will help make an immediate impact. When a recruiter knows you have a special interest in them, they will likely return the favor and give you more attention.
Do Your Research
Research the companies you’re interested in fully, but also do a little research on other companies as well. Know the names of people you want to talk to in each company and learn about the companies’ histories. If you’re able to demonstrate to a recruiter you know about their company, you can skip that step in the discussion and move into why you would be a great fit. This will stand out much more than general discussion!
Bring Resumes and Yes, Even Business Cards
You need to be a good writer to get the attention of recruiters. They will likely receive hundreds of resumes and business cards during executive job fairs so it’s important yours stands out. Yes, people still give out business cards. If you have some, bring them. If you need to hire executive resume services prior to the job fair, do it.
Prepare Like You Would For a Job Interview
The biggest mistake people make is treating executive job fairs like a social event rather than a job interview. If you go into a job interview with the perfect executive resume cover letter, why wouldn’t you do the same at a job fair?
This is where researching companies is critical so you can customize several cover letters for specific companies. Most people won’t take the time to make each cover letter distinct so it gives you a great chance to stand out among the group.
Be Social
Don’t just limit your conversations to recruiters. Talk to other job seekers as well to get a sense of the competition out there. You may be surprised how many ideas and tips you can receive from fellow job seekers. Socializing with people with similar interests as you will only help your development for your next executive job fair.
A Simple Guide to Sharing Your Executive Resume on the Internet
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Congratulations! You’ve finally got your executive resume polished and ready to share with the world. Whether you used the best executive resume writing service or you crafted the perfect resume yourself, it’s time to show it off. Believe it or not, there are some things you need to look out for when sharing your executive resume on the Internet. With so many job boards, it can be difficult to determine where to post your resume. Here is a simple guide to sharing your resume with the online world.
Avoid Sharing Personal Information
When you publish any kind of personal information on the Internet, you never know who will see it. Avoid putting your home address or phone number, unless you want to get a lot of unwanted spam. An executive resume writer would suggest limiting your personal information to just a city or state so there’s no easy way to track you down. Once a potential employer contacts you, feel free to share the information like you normally would with a standard resume.
There’s No Bad Place to Post Your Resume
Some people believe you can post your executive resume anywhere and everywhere, while others suggest being selective. There isn’t necessarily a bad place to put your resume online, but you could find unexpected consequences. The more places you post, the more exposure your resume will receive. However, you may also receive more spam mail.
Posting your resume to just a few websites limits your exposure, but you’ll also be able to more easily determine legitimate contacts from phony ones. My favorite professional website for job seekers is LinkedIn. You can post your resume, research companies and look for jobs, all in one place.
Be Careful About Solicitations
The top rated resume writing services will warn you about solicitations you’ll receive in response to your resume. I always suggest to my clients to create a separate email address only for job search to make sure they don’t receive those types of emails (spam) in their personal inbox. You may get emails asking for personal information, but don’t fall for it. Legitimate employers most likely will wait until the interview to ask for that information so don’t give it out online unless you’ve already established a relationship with them.
These are just a few things to consider when posting your executive resume on the Internet. An executive resume writer may tell you any kind of exposure is good exposure. While that may be true, you also have to understand what you may see as a result.
If you’re going to spend a lot of time writing an effective resume, you might as well know the secrets to making it pop. You only have a few seconds to impress a recruiter before they move on to the next resume. Resume writing is an art not many people have mastered, but the ones who understand it will have a higher likelihood of landing the job they desire. Here are four ways you may not have known could help your resume stand out!
Targeting Is Key
The best resume writing service will advise you to target every aspect of your resume. Mention the specific job you’re applying for and your exact accomplishments. Avoid putting in accomplishments not relevant to the job you want, no matter how good it looks. The hiring manager is only interested in what you can do for them so they won’t care about a certain accomplishment if it doesn’t translate to their job.
Repeat Keywords
Keywords are tricky because you don’t always know which ones recruiters are looking for. Instead of being general about skills and accomplishments, be specific. A professional resume writing service can help you identify keywords based on the job you’re applying for. The more you use keywords throughout your resume, the more likely your resume will be noticed. Just be careful not to saturate your resume to the point where it reads unnaturally. Try checking out the job description you are looking at for more keywords.
Tailor Your Resume to the Job You’re Searching For
Any professional resume writing service will tell you there’s nothing worse than using the same resume for different jobs. Recruiters can easily identify when someone just blindly sends their resume to them. Put in a few statements about how you will help their company based on your research about them. Showing you’ve researched the company and understand their needs will go a long way in making your resume stand out.
Use a Performance Profile
Your performance profile should show how your skills match the objectives of the company and the ability to do the job you’re applying for. A good tip is to look at the job and skill requirements on the job posting and incorporate those points in your performance profile. Many companies will use the keywords they’re looking for in their job description so that’s a great way to target your resume to the job and match your performance capabilities with their job opening.
In today’s busy world, getting your resume to stand out among the rest can seem like an impossible task. By using these four tips, you should see more success.
Everything in today’s world is fast-paced, including the people who review resumes. If you want your executive resume to get noticed, something has to stand out immediately. The key to writing an effective resume is to ensure the reader finds exactly what they’re looking for in less than five seconds. A resume requiring more attention than that will likely be passed over. This is really the truth. I’ve talked with a few of my recruiter friends, and they said they just glance at it and don’t give it more than 15 seconds. By following these simple tips, you’ll be able to make your executive resume stand out in the modern job hunting world.
Capture the Reader’s Attention
Sometimes the best way to capture your reader’s attention is by making subtle changes to the standard resume. You could use a different font, as long as it’s still professional. You can use a bit of color, a graph, a chart, etc. to make it stand out. They’ve come a long way since I started out 17 years ago and all we could use was Times New Roman, 12 pt. Font. The top rated resume writing services can suggest different ways to make your resume pop, but these are just a couple of simple ideas to get you started.
Make Your Achievements Stand Out
Many people who review resumes start reading at the top of the page. They’ll generally skim down to find keywords or important phrases that meet their requirements. If you want to help them out, you could consider using bold or italics in those areas to make sure they grab the reader’s attention.
Eliminate fluff to avoid making your resume too lengthy. If a recruiter is looking for a particular skill set, they want to find it in your resume immediately. Otherwise, they will quickly lose interest and move on to the next candidate, even if you are perfectly qualified for the job. Crisp and concise are the goals here.
Keywords Are Critical
This could be the same or different from the words you bolded in your resume. Since the vast majority of resumes are submitted online, companies will run them through software to find the keywords they’re looking for. If yours doesn’t have the words they want to see, you don’t stand a chance at getting an interview.
When writing an effective resume, you need to ensure you use recognizable keywords. Depending on the type of executive job you’re applying for, the keywords you use may vary. Avoid using generic terms and phrases and you’ll stand a better chance of at least getting a human to look at your resume.
The modern executive job market has never been more competitive. It’s critical to formulate the perfect resume to get any sort of recognition. Writing your resume is a critical first step in landing an interview so remember to refer to these tips when you get started.
