Focusing on the goals you’ve set for yourself can keep you motivated even when times are tough. However, the top resume writing services always see people set unrealistic or overly-ambitious goals, which often ends up hurting them more than helping. One aspect of goal-setting everyone can benefit from is always looking at the end result of what you actually want to achieve. Most goals are based on money or production, but many people feel a hollow happiness when they’re actually achieved for several different reasons. Here are some of the main reasons why you should think about setting realistic career goals for yourself.
Work-Life Balance Is A Necessity
One of the main career goals proven to lead to happiness is having a good work-life balance. Besides, what good does a six figure salary do if you never have the time to enjoy the benefits? Everyone has different lifestyles, so if you live to work instead of work to live, then do what makes you happy. But when work begins taking a toll on you and is impacting your personal life in a negative way, then your executive resume writer may suggest reevaluating your goals and making adjustments as needed.
The Right Salary Expectations Will Make You Happier
Making your goals based around the amount of money you make usually won’t lead to genuine happiness. Money is necessary to live and get the things you want, but if you set unrealistic salary expectations, then the constant grind to achieve it will eventually catch up with you. Instead, every executive resume writer will suggest looking at your current finances, what possessions would make you happy and how much money you need to live comfortably. Taking the time to do so can be eye-opening in either a good way or a bad way. The main idea here is to not focus on the size of the paycheck solely, since long-term happiness usually doesn’t stem from it.
Love What You Do
If you dread the thought of getting up to go to work every morning, then it may be time to reevaluate your career goals. Sometimes the mental aspect of not liking your job will outweigh the size of the paycheck significantly. The happiest executives are the ones who base their goals off of enjoying what they do every day. This doesn’t mean you have to brush up your LinkedIn profile and start looking for a new job if you aren’t happy at your current one, but it may mean you need to set new goals and make little changes. Achieving goals is all about perspective and being realistic. Small victories throughout the course of your career make a big difference in having a positive mindset. Professional Resume Services is one of the top resume writing services because we focus on every one of our clients as individuals. We understand everyone has different goals and are motivated differently, so we will adapt and cater to those needs and desires. If you struggle with setting attainable goals that will make you truly happy, we can help you think about certain aspects you may not have considered before. We are always available when you need us, so feel free to contact us when that time comes.
Getting a new job offer is exciting, especially if it comes with a significant salary increase. However, many executives only look at the size of the paycheck and don’t look at other aspects, especially if a job relocation is required. Sometimes a fresh start is exactly what an executive needs at some point in their career, but picking up and moving your family is easier said than done. Your professional resume writing service may help you land a new job in another city or state, but consider these points before you pick up and move.
Consider The Cost of Living
Understanding the cost of living in your new city will help you determine whether the higher salary is worth it. Many candidates find the higher salary is equivalent to the higher cost of living, making the move essentially a wash. Of course, everyone has their own reasons for wanting to relocate, and money may not be the only factor. You may be able to check the LinkedIn profile of other professionals in your field who live in your potential new city. Don’t hesitate to message them directly to get more information and make a new contact.
Think About Your New Commute To Work
If you don’t like spending hours every day commuting to work, then you need to consider your options. Check on public transportation, parking, high traffic areas and more. Some cities are known for having bad traffic, so you don’t want to put yourself in a situation where you have to sit in traffic for hours, especially if you don’t have to with your current job. Again, this is where checking in on the LinkedIn profile of another professional can help you gain a better understanding of the area.
How Will Your Relocation Affect Your Family?
No matter how effective you are at writing a professional resume and ultimately landing a new job, you need to consider how the job relocation will affect your family. If you are single with nothing to lose, then this may not be an issue for you. However, dealing with the stresses of moving can be difficult for a family. Whether it’s your spouse’s job considerations, children’s education or other points, be sure to cover all aspects so your family is comfortable with the move as well. Professional Resume Services is a professional resume writing service dedicated to helping executives land the jobs they desire. Relocating for a job is difficult on everyone, but many times the benefits outweigh the negatives. Be sure to contact us to learn more about writing a professional resume or for other tips about job relocation.
Can Your Family and Friends Boost Your Networking Success?
Networking seems so simple, but so tricky at the same time. Many professionals and executives believe they will have easy access to a job if there is a family member or friend in the company. However, this isn’t necessarily true. And even if it is partially true, you have to be careful how you approach the situation. When it comes to personal branding for senior level managers, always having a professional approach is critical. You could be putting your family member’s or your friend’s reputation on the line by asking for a favor. Here are other things to consider.
Use Them, But Don’t Abuse Them
There’s no harm in asking someone you know to help you get your foot in the door. But you don’t want to make them go out of their way and potentially damage their own reputation and success on your behalf. As you know, c-level personal branding takes a lot of time and effort to build, but can be damaged instantly. Don’t abuse your close connections by pressuring them to fight for you, especially if you may not be completely qualified.
Verify Your Qualifications First
The best thing you can do right away is ask your close connections whether you are qualified for a position they have available. You should also learn how to optimize your LinkedIn profile before you even reach out to them, just so your information is current. The worst thing that can happen to both your reputation and your friend or family member’s is to make the effort to get your foot in the door, only to find out you don’t meet the necessary qualifications.
Understand Their Risk in Helping You
Family and friends can boost your networking efforts, but also take into consideration the risk they are taking in helping you. They’ve worked hard to get in the position they are in just like you have. If they recommend you and you don’t fit with the company for some reason, their own c-level personal branding could take a hit. Sometimes it’s not worth the risk for them, so take that into consideration before asking any favors. Professional Resume Services can help you with your networking efforts. Whether you need to learn how to optimize your LinkedIn profile or brush up your resume, we are here for you when you need us. Feel free to reach out to us at any time.
Women, particularly young women, get a lot of conflicting advice about how to look and how to act. But that advice doesn’t come with validity, and the cost of following some advice is pretty high. A recent study in Psychology of Popular Media Culture looks at The Price of Sexy: Viewers’ Perceptions of a Sexualized Versus Nonsexualized Facebook Profile Photograph and it shows a small part of that cost.
In the study, only the views of adolescent and young adult women were assessed. The result shows that among her peers, a young woman in a sexualized picture is considered less attractive physically and socially. She also is considered less competent to complete tasks, and the only difference between the two profile pictures is the way the same woman presents herself. This is the price tag among her female peers right now, and it doesn’t go into why the other girls think the way they do or how it affects future careers.
Counting The Career Cost
If you want to prepare your teen for first job expectations, it might be a good idea to point out the increasing evidence that our online behavior has a price tag. Talk about the way our choices have consequences and let them experience some of those consequences in the safety of your home. Let them be late because they overslept, or wear wrinkles because they didn’t fold their laundry, and anything else that can be connected as a cost — a consequence because of a choice. Many times the real world cost helps a young person connect the way online behavior also has a cost.
Then look past the present choices at the career they are hoping to pursue and help them visualize how their choices today affect their future. Use the things they can see to help them understand the things they don’t see yet. Studies like “The Price of Sexy” can be helpful in discussions because you can talk about the study instead of the individual, and that makes things less confrontational.
By now you have had the first part of the season to evaluate your summer strategies for whatever is going on at home while you are at work. Households with children face some real challenges when school is out (I know ours does), and I’m pretty sure you have done your best to make a plan, but is it working?
Now is a good time to ask your kids how they feel about the summer so far and get suggestions for solving some of the problems that have come up. Talk to your caregiver and emergency backup and let them know you appreciate all they do. That stay-at-home neighbor needs to be thanked for being on call, even if you haven’t had to make the call. And don’t forget to thank your kids for acting responsibly even though they should be doing it anyway.
Have a family treat night and brainstorm how to deal with little things before they turn into door-slamming fights. Do you have a system in place for conflict resolution at home? Do you need to create a sign that lists expectations and rules while you are at work? Is the person in charge while you are gone abusing their authority? Are consequences clear and consistent?
Many kids (and adults) find it easier to discuss problems when there’s something to do while you talk. I’m thinking ice cream with all the toppings here, but do what works for your family. There’s something about a regular family time that you know will be happening that makes communication develop.
It’s easy to forget that family life does develop the skills you bring into your career. There are surprising ways family and career overlap and most of it has to do with the strengths we developed at home.
It’s that time again, the season where suddenly everybody wants to find a summer job if they are old enough to need money. If your teen (or even pre-teen) is asking about ways to earn some cash around the house, use this summer as a foundation for developing creative skills that come in handy their entire working career. Look For What Someone Will Pay For
Challenge your kids to be entrepreneurs and create their own jobs. I know a kid who very carefully surveyed his siblings about which candy bars they liked and invested in a stash of their favorites — which he sold at a profit to his family members when they got the urge to snack. This is how a lot of jobs are created because it’s the essence of business. Look For What Fills A Need
Again, this is the foundation of many entrepreneurial startups. Does a neighbor need help with yard work? Can they take over making dinner, or shopping? Is there a big project around the place that could use them? Is this a one-time need or an ongoing need? Sometimes a kid can earn some cash by doing these jobs, other times it is volunteer service but this leads to the next point… Look For The Skills You Will Learn
The ability to see what needs to be done and do it is a skill that must be learned and practiced or your quality of life suffers. The ability to keep doing what isn’t fun anymore just because you said you would is part of being a responsible person. Keeping track of any money you earn, knowing how you spent it, and possibly saving some is a good idea at any age. Learning how to make change, for instance, will probably be in most entry-level summer jobs in the real world.
When a teen is ready to go out into the job market for their first summer jobs, having done some things that developed basic job skills really can make a difference in what their first ‘real’ job is like. Imagine two teens: one has never done anything to earn money or volunteered any service anywhere. The second teen has regularly done volunteer community service with a club and did odd jobs on the side. Which one would you want to hire?
When the U.S, government passed laws in 2006 enacting the new parent-rights portions of the Work and Families Act, they extended pay and leave for new parents, including men on paternity leave. Working dads have been eligible for up to two weeks of paid leave since 2003, but the new measures extend these benefits. Statutory Maternity Pay, Maternity Allowance and Statutory Adoption Pay have been extended from 39 weeks to 52, with working fathers entitled to take an extra 26 weeks off of work to care for their child, if the mom has returned to work and has not used all of her eligible maternity leave. These employer-supplied benefits are of course only available if your employer is a regular tax and benefits-paying entity. Those who are independent contractors or employed on a part-time basis may not be eligible for these benefits. Eligibility is also determined by requirements such as the father must be the biological father of the baby or married to the mother, and expected to share in responsibilities related to rearing the child. Timing is also important for eligibility and the father is expected to work for the same employer from the time of conception until the time of birth, with leave scheduled starting only when the baby is due, and arrives. Taking time off early might negate your eligibility, so be sure to carefully look over the rules and guidelines. You need to notify your employer of your intentions to take leave by the 15th week before the estimated due date. You can take the leave any time after the birth; it does not have to immediately follow the day the baby is born. Men on paternity leave is becoming a more common phenomenon than ever before, with the paternity leave being extended to include unpaid time off, after the eligible time period for benefits expires. With the previous disparity in wages that was so clearly sex-defined being narrowed, more women than ever are bringing home as much or more money than their partners. This can potentially free up the formerly “conventional” situation where the mom stays home and raises the kids while dad works outside the home, to a more non-traditional family set-up, where dad stays home and mom goes to work. It has raised a whole new crop of social issues as well, related to conventional gender roles in our society, and how best to raise a child with the new option of dad staying home. Since more and more people are finding it financially and socially viable to have the father be the primary care-giver and mom be the bread winner, whole social networks are now available to dads who need peers with similar experiences, and moms who have to deal with the stress of being away from their children. Conventional family settings have of course always been that mom stays and dad works, and the new dynamic inherent with choosing a different path brings a new set of challenges to both parents and children.
Many women choose to stay at home for several years after having children. While this time frame varies, it always creates a period of time during which you had no ‘real’ job. Once a mother is ready to go back to work, one of the first problems they face in deciding how to write a resume that not only accurately describes their professional experience and career but also properly addresses extended maternity leaves. By using tact and creativity while remaining professional, it is often possible to ‘spin’ an extended leave for the purposes of resume writing and interviewing. Be honest. Some job seekers mistakenly believe that extended maternity leave is an automatic black mark. Because of this, some lie and claim they were self-employed during their maternity leave. This is a patently bad idea. While it is unlikely that a future employer will investigate the claim, lying during the job seeking process is unethical and can lead to problems down the line. Instead, be honest about your extended work leave. I have found that all hiring managers want is an answer. Where were you all that time? On an extended vacation? Watching Oprah? In prison? They just want to know about the gap. There are two ways to present extended work leave during the resume writing process. The first is to simply include one or two sentences in the cover letter explaining the reason for your extended leave, the birth of children, and that you are ready to re-enter the work force. Job seekers who opt for this option should keep it short and focus on logical reasons versus cute stories about their children (please don’t do that). Remember to keep it professional. A second option is including your work leave directly on your resume. Some job seekers have had success by including their responsibilities and skills used during their extended leave. Scheduling, organizing and multi-tasking are just a few of the skills new mothers hone during their absence from work. These skills, and others, can be beneficial in the work environment. Unfortunately, the human resources community is divided on the subject. While there are laws governing hiring practices, the truth is a resume and cover letter is your first and often only chance to sway a hiring manager to meet with you. While an extended leave of absence for child care reasons may be admirable to some, actually giving the job seeker a leg up, other hiring managers may shy away from resumes that do not adequately cover the subject. The best advice may be to carefully research the company and hiring manager for each job you are submitting your resume for and to craft a specific resume and cover letter for each job. Carefully reviewing a company website and Internet research may very well give you inside insight into the company and their practices. Finding a job after an extended maternity leave can be a long process. In fact, it seems like the longer you were out of the workforce, the longer it takes to become employed again. Try focusing your efforts on professionally representing your time off and be as honest as you can. Remember that finding a job is a job in itself so stay positive, craft custom resumes and cover letters whenever possible and use your interview as a chance to really showcase what you can offer the company.
