One place where many people fail at work is in maintaining a professional distance between them and colleagues.This is primarily a problem for young and inexperienced workers because they are not used to being in a business environment. This can be especially problematic for those looking for a new job. It’s normal to look to those you work with for friendship. By working at the same company you already have many common interests and expectations. You know the same people and likely work on the same projects. The problem is that very often your coworkers are also competing with you for promotions, bonuses, and even a job in the event of layoffs or cutbacks. There is a natural competition that goes on in a work environment to be the best and to be the one that gets the promotions. If you have been overly liberal in complaints, for example, the person you were speaking with just might use that as a means to get ahead at work. It’s better to save your complaints for non-work friends. It’s especially advisable to maintain a professional distance when you are looking for a new job. More than one person has made the mistake of letting those at work know he was looking for something better only to find out that the boss was not happy to hear about it. Worst case scenario is that this can cause you to lose the job you already have before you find a new one. While networking is important in your job search, keep those you work with, even your friends, in the dark about this.
Writing an objective or career summary can be one of the hardest sections to write in a resume. Why? It is often the shortest part of your resume, so it shouldn’t be hard, right? Unfortunately, it can be very difficult for people because you have to briefly summarize why an employer should hire you. When it gets to the point that it is too difficult to write a tailored, specific summary, some people will give up and just write a vague or generalized one. While this is certainly an option for people, there are problems with it. Some of these include:
Confusing or Unclear: If your career summary is vague or generalized, it can become unclear to your potential employers what your focus actually is. You don’t want to make it harder for your potential employers to see what your goal is. They are looking through dozens (or hundreds!) of resumes, and if it is too hard for them to understand what you are saying, they probably won’t take the time to go through the rest of your resume.
Looks Lazy: Besides being unclear, a vague summary can look just plain lazy. It can look like you didn’t take time to research the position, and that can cause employers to feel like you don’t care about the role, or their time.
Now that you know some of the problems with having a vague objective, here are some ways that you can fix it so you have a specific, tailored objective that will impress employers.
Maintain a clear focus: Be very clear about what it is you want to do. Briefly add some tangible experiences that pertain to this role. Show your expertise and brand!
Research: Do some research on the position so you know what you are talking about. Add similar qualities that you possess to the summary as it will help you stand out more.
That is it. You just need to be willing to take the time and do the work and you will end up with an impressive focus and summary that will help keep potential employers reading and interested in your resume, and you.
In order to have a successful job search you need to be outgoing, resilient, and be able to put yourself out there. You can’t afford to be passive. If you are passive, you may lose out on opportunities, or come off as incompetent in an interview. So the other choices are to be aggressive or assertive. There is a fine line between being aggressive and being assertive, so you need to be aware of the differences between the two and the differences in results from being assertive or aggressive.
Aggressive: People that are aggressive will push their ideas and thoughts onto others. They will not take no for an answer. They will use almost any means necessary to get what they want. They are pushy and can become obnoxious, annoying, and rude. If you are aggressive in a job search or an interview, potential employers will become upset with you and your attitude. They will not want to hire you because you are not the type of person they want to work with or be around. Avoid being aggressive; it can cause you problems.
Assertive: Many people have a hard time deciphering the difference between being aggressive and assertive. While aggressive people are pushy with their ideas, assertive people express their ideas without pushing their ideas on others. Be confident, but be willing to back down if you become pushy or obnoxious. This will show potential employers that you believe strongly in your ideas and yourself, but that you are also willing to listen to others. Being assertive is a trait you want to make sure you develop and show at interviews and in your job search.
Now that you know what being aggressive and what being assertive look like, you can avoid being aggressive and you can work towards being assertive in order to have a successful job search and an even more successful interview.
Job sharing is one way to get work hours flexibility, especially if you need it because of child care or elderly parent responsibilities. My mom did job sharing when I was young. She worked Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning, and her co-worker worked Wednesday afternoon, Thursday and Friday. Both loved the arrangement and through careful planning, this went on for 15+ years. Sharing a job with another person requires flexibility and good communication skills to keep the work flowing even on the days when you are not at work. This goes beyond good face-to-face communication skills as you have to be able to communicate with the other worker when you are not working at the same time. Email is one type of communication that helps in a job share situation. Being flexible and able to accept phone calls on non-work time is also helpful. Good documentation skills are critical to job sharing. This ensures that the work gets done properly with no mistakes even when you are not there yourself. One example of documentation skills is medical charting for doctors and nurses. The next doctor or nurse should be able to tell what treatment a patient has received and what he will need next. My mom and her co-worker had ‘in’ and ‘out’ boxes so they knew what the other was working on. They also had lots of sticky notes (this was all that was available 30 years ago!). Neatness counts. If you share supplies or equipment, they need to be checked on a regular basis to ensure that you do not run out of anything critical or misplace a needed piece of equipment. Return all equipment to its storage place. Also check for breakage and let the other job sharer know if something is broken so that this person does not try to use it until it is fixed. Job sharing adds critical thinking and planning skill sets to your resume. It also adds documentation skills and communication skills. All of these skills are a bonus, so make sure you indicate on your resume under Work Experience that a position you held was a job share. You can list the position then put in parentheses: (job share, 30 hours per week).
Instead of just sending out a generic resume, today’s job candidates need to take the time to tailor their resume to fit every job being applied for. While this may make the application process take longer, it will be well worth the effort in the long run. Here are a few tips to tailor your resume and help make the application process go faster:
Keep the information on your resume up to date. Just got a new cell phone? Change the contact information right away. It is easy to forget to change such a small thing, but you shouldn’t wait until you’re applying for a new job. An out-of-date phone number can have big, negative consequence (such as not being contacted for your dream job).
Read the job qualifications and duties carefully. Add the same keywords to your resume so that it will make it through the recruiter’s software scanner.
Use separate resumes for experience in different industries or a functional resume for two or more closely related industries. It makes it easier to add crucial keywords to your resume when tailoring it to a specific position.
Learn to be a cut and paste, toggle expert. Not all job application databases will let you upload a resume into different information fields. Become familiar with Control+C and Control+V to copy and paste. PCs use the Alt+Tab keys and Macs use the Apple+Tab keys to toggle between screens. Copy text from your resume first, then toggle to the job application page and paste the text into the information boxes.
Name your resumes generically and modify the name each time you upload it to an application database. For example, label your updated resume “Edit512” for the industry it addresses and the date you updated it. Do not name your resume with a company name. It is too easy to upload your Xerox resume for an IBM position, and forgetting to change the name will count against you as a job candidate.
Following these easy tips will help you to be more prepared for your job search.
The facts on your resume may get you an interview and even a job offer, but even these facts must still be verified before you start a new job. You should keep legitimate documents that back up the information on your resume. Some of these documents include: College and High School Diplomas: Degrees are being checked with regular frequency before a job offer is finalized due to the fact that many people lie about their education credentials on their resumes. Diplomas are also a good way to verify education when a school no longer exists. W-2/W-4 Tax Documents: The W-2 tax form is issued by your employer. It is an official record of taxes on the state and federal level that were taken from your paycheck. As such, it is also an official record of which company you were employed by. If a company fails to respond to background check inquiries, at least you have one legal document that shows you worked there. The W-4, which lists your tax exemptions may work as well. Job Offer Letters: If you receive a verbal offer, either in person or over the telephone, you should also request that the offer be put into writing on the company’s letterhead. You then have an official document that at least illustrates the job offer and proposed starting date.
Most of these documents may be hard to get your hands on, especially if you were not thinking about education and employment verifications needed for future employment. Pay stubs, however, should be relatively easy to keep and pull out if you need them. They serve two purposes: to verify employment and wages. Wage verification may be needed to negotiate a higher salary rate at your next job.
Very few people stay in one career or even one job for decades anymore. Moving from one job to the next is one way to acquire skill sets relatively quickly. Once you acquire those skill sets, you may feel as if it is time for a career change. Your resume can help you reach that next career target in a couple of ways.
The career objective on a resume is sometimes a long, run-on sentence that doesn’t really say a lot about who you are or what you are looking for in a career. However, using a career objective effectively can help you when you are looking to change careers, but do not have experience in the career you are targeting. Succinctly state which skills you do have and how you want to use them. For example: I want to use my design skills to present museum exhibits. Look carefully at job descriptions for your next targeted career and pick out the skills you have now that will transfer to this career. For example, while you may never have designed a museum exhibit, your art gallery event planning and exhibit design are both assets in your targeted career because they are also skills used in planning and designing museum exhibits. Environmental design skills are also a plus in staging a 3D exhibit where foot traffic patterns and how people interact with the exhibits are important. Highlight your transferable skills in a skills summary and show how you used these skills in an Accomplishments and Experience summary on your resume.
When you have a strong resume that clearly states the position you want, you have a greater chance of capturing the attention of the reader and moving on to your next big adventure.
Resume formats may be similar from country to country, but the acceptable content can vary depending on where you live. If you are a foreign citizen looking to work in the United States, check out the resume differences before you send a resume to a US company. What you put on your resume may inadvertently cost you a job because employers may make negative inferences about some of the information that does not need to be on there.
For example, putting a picture of yourself on the first page of your resume may be done in several European countries, but it is not the norm here. Even if you are an actor or a singer, a professional headshot usually accompanies the resume instead of being placed on the resume. Decisions about you as a candidate should be made based on your skills, not your degree of attractiveness.
Leave off your marital status and the number of children you have. It is illegal in the US to ask if you are married or if you have children. This information could imply that you may have competing needs between work and family. For example, you may need to call in sick because one of your kids is sick and you must stay home with him. Or you may need to leave work early on a regular basis to pick up your daughter from daycare.
Religious and political affiliations do not belong on a resume unless they directly relate to the job for which you are applying. For example, stating your religious affiliation on your resume if you are looking for church organist jobs may help you. Or, showing that you’re a Democrat on your resume would be appropriate if you are looking for a position on a Democratic campaign.
Hobbies and interests used to be sections on a resume used especially when a resume was pretty short and needed filling out or when the hobby or interest directly related to the position. They are not used as much now on American resumes. Be careful if you do use these sections. The information you share can damage your chances of getting a position. For example, if you belong to Insulin Pumpers Group 75 of Detroit because your child uses an insulin pump, a potential employer may think you have diabetes. This could be used to discriminate against you, even though discriminating against someone with a chronic illness is illegal in the US.
