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.
When you are writing a resume you are in the mindset of showing yourself off and you want to make sure that your potential employers know all the impressive things about you that can get you the job. Unfortunately, adding all those impressive skills, experiences, and accomplishments could fill up your resume with too much information and make it uninteresting to your potential employers. So how do you know if you have too much information? Here are some ways to tell if you have too much information and help you fix your resume so it doesn’t have too much information.
Does your resume read like a letter? If your resume has commentary that adds interesting information making it read like a letter, then you have gone in the wrong direction with your resume and you need to edit so that your resume doesn’t have that extra commentary. If you feel the commentary is necessary, then add it to your cover letter.
Does your resume go longer than three pages? If your resume is longer than three pages, you may have too much information. For technical resumes or even some senior executive resumes, it may be more acceptable, but for the typical professional or executive 2 or even 3 pages is best. The reader doesn’t want to browse through your novel to get to the good stuff. Keep it clean, concise, relevant, and focused.
Does your resume give skills, experiences, or accomplishments that do not apply to the job? If they don’t apply to the job description, leave them out. There is no reason to have things on your resume that won’t help you get the job. So edit them out and get back to the things that are applicable and impressive for the job.
These tips will help you edit your resume so you have the right amount of impressive information to get you to the interview– and hopefully the job!
Job interviews can be terrifying.It is one of the few times when you know without a doubt that you are being judged. Without judging you, how can potential employers know if you are a good fit or not? They can’t. They will go over everything in your resume and your work history with a fine tooth comb. They will call your references and they will make sure that you are worth their time and effort. Because of this, you need to be careful. You need to make sure that you don’t have anything in your past that could come back to haunt you and cause you to lose future job opportunities. This means that no matter what stage of life you are in or where you are in your career you need to be thinking ahead. Think about what effect the things you are doing today might have on your future. Here are some things that are obvious to avoid: bad talking your boss or superiors, being late, being unprofessional, etc. Those are things almost everyone knows to avoid, but there are some things people might not know, such as: talking about coworkers or superiors on Facebook or other social networking sites, posting vulgar or obscene things on your profile(s), or lying on your resume. All these things can be found out by future employers and harm your ability to keep your job and get a new job in the future. If you simply think ahead before you do anything, then you should be able to avoid doing something that could harm you later in the road and you won’t have to live up to it in an interview. Remember, you are being judged. Don’t give your potential employers anything they can judge badly.
Why It Is Important To Keep Executive Recruiters Happy
Executive recruiters are a very useful resource for employers in the hiring process.They can have a profound effect on whether or not you get hired. This means you need to keep them happy in order to ensure you get the job. Here are some very important things to keep in mind that will help you keep recruiters happy.
Don’t be dismissive. Even if you’re happy in your current role, or just extremely busy, take a moment to speak to search consultants or to call them back. While you may not be interested in the position they’re seeking to fill, you may know someone who might be a good match. Search professionals appreciate getting references and practicing the law of reciprocity.
Don’t surprise them. More importantly, don’t surprise their clients. If you have a blemish on your record, let them hear your version first, before they learn it secondhand.
Don’t embellish. Even at the highest levels of executive search, some candidates can’t resist the urge to embellish their resumes. Sometimes they don’t get caught. In nine cases out of 10, however, they do. Avoid the pitfall and be honest.
Don’t fail your own history test. It’s surprising how many candidates can’t recite their own professional histories in chronological order. Know exactly what you did and where and when you did it before meeting with a search consultant. And it’s a good tuneup for meeting with a prospective new employer.
Don’t neglect your homework. Some candidates will spend the first 10 minutes of an interview asking basic questions about the position and the company at issue, showing that they never bothered to read the search specification. Candidates who do independent research create a favorable impression and show their clear interest in the new opportunity.
Don’t forget your manners. When meeting with an executive-search consultant, remember that every word, gesture or inflection will be duly noted.
Keep these in mind and you will be able to keep your recruiter happy and get the job.
Career advancement is one of the most desirable career goals for most people.Getting a promotion can get you higher pay, better benefits, and more respect in your company. Now every person has a different goal for career advancement. Some people may just want to become a manager or supervisor, others may want to become heads of teams or departments, but there are also people who want to advance to the very top of the corporate food chain and have an executive career in mind. If that is what you want, then you need to prepare. And even if you do not want to go all the way to the top, then these tips can still help you get recognized and get you where you want to be.
Be Professional: While it seems obvious to be professional at work, other places may not seem so obvious. The most important place to remain professional is on social networking sites. Managers, supervisors, and higher ups can access your social networking profile at any time if they want. Make sure that what they see on there won’t embarrass you or harm your chances at promotion.
Put In The Effort: You will never get anywhere if you don’t put the work in. Your employers are not going to want to promote someone who does not work to help their company succeed. Perform work that helps the company and will impress your employers.
Ask About Additional Opportunities: Employers like to see people who go the extra mile. Ask your supervisor if there are any additional projects that need to be organized or extra work that you can head up. This will show them that you are serious about the company and will put you at the front of their minds when considering promotions.
Be Positive: People will gravitate towards others who seem positive and are enjoyable to be around. That includes your employers. They would much rather work with someone positive than someone who sucks the life out of everything. Keep a smile on your face and a spring in your step and you will be on your way to the top.
Now, while all these tips will help there is nothing more important than keeping that executive career in mind. Let that executive career fuel everything you do at work and sooner or later it will get you there.
Sometimes it seems that nothing is going your way in your work.You get passed up for a promotion, you don’t get a raise, or a new hire is brought in for a job that you are definitely qualified for. This can be discouraging and can make it hard to know what is needed to advance in your career. Take that plus the stigma that exists that you need to sell out in order to advance and it seems to be nearly impossible to advance without selling out or “playing dirty.” But that is not the case. The competition will be tough, but you can advance without selling out, but you need to be willing to put in the work and think through your advancement plan. The truth is you need to sell yourself in order to advance. How are your employers going to know that you deserve or even want the position if you don’t let them know? However, you do not want to be annoying, obnoxious, or sound entitled. When you do that you are slipping into selling out instead of selling yourself. Have good work to back up your claims that you are qualified. That will impress your employers more than spouting fluff or degrading your competition. Take that work you have done and show it to your employers. Show them that you have helped them be successful and you could do it again and again. If you can show them that and are willing to sell yourself to them you will have a much better chance of advancing than in any other way.
Personal branding is, in the simplest definition, the way you market yourself. It is the way the world, and potential employers, view you. And if used correctly, your personal brand can land you that job. Since your personal brand is the first impression that employers can get from you, you need to ensure that it is creating the impression that will represent you in a way that gets you a job. This means it needs to be professional. Whatever you say, write, or do, that is linked to your professional brand needs to be professional so that you can avoid embarrassment and avoid losing those important job opportunities. Think about what you want to present and make sure that everything you put out reflects that. Be careful that when you are making a professional brand you don’t make it boring or impersonal. It is still your brand. Let potential employers know who you are. They are not looking to hire a robot. They are looking to hire a person with whom they can work every single day. Let them know you can be that person. In order to ensure that your brand is seen and recognized by employers you need to spread it far and wide. Put your name out there. Put it on Facebook, put it on Twitter, put it on Tumblr, put it on LinkedIn, start a blog. Do all these things and advertise them on all the other sites you are a part of. Make it easy for potential employers to find you. These are fairly simple things to do, but they do take some time and careful planning. If you are willing to put in the time and effort, then you will be able to create a personal brand that will land you that job you want.
It can seem overwhelming to distribute your resume and get your name out there, but it doesn’t have to be.If you can slow down, think things through, and be confident in your search and distribution, then it will be much easier. Here are some things you should remember and be aware of when choosing where and how to distribute your resume.
Send your resume to more than one place: You will have a better chance at actually getting a job if you have your eggs in more than one basket.
Don’t give your resume to places you wouldn’t commute to: This seems like common sense, but it is something you should keep in mind the whole time you are distributing your resume. If you are not willing to commute daily to a company, then don’t bother wasting your time or theirs by giving them your resume.
Follow up: After spending hours giving your resume to dozens of companies, you want to be able to know what is happening and if your hard work is paying off. But be careful not to become annoying. Follow up after a week or two and be very polite and to the point.
Don’t become discouraged: Know right now that it will take a lot of time for you to get called in for an interview or get the job. You cannot let the long amount of time discourage you from distributing and re-distributing. You need to keep going and you will eventually get the job that you are looking for.
