In order to secure a job you must have a resume. There is really no way around it. Not only must you have a resume, but it needs to be professional and accurate. In order to get you started, here are the basic elements of any good resume. You might already know most of these, but in case you didn’t, here they are:
Heading: this includes your name and contact information. It should be easy to read and centered on the top of the page.
Career Summary: this is a 5-7 sentence summary of what you have done and are capable of doing. It focuses on your brand, expertise and experience. You need to let the company know what you can do for them.
Qualifications: this is a short bulleted list of your skills and qualifications for the job (i.e. keywords of the job position, keywords of what you’ve done “Process Implementation” or “Territory Sales”, etc.).
Experience: this gives a brief summary of your prior work experience. Include company name, your job title, your supervisor’s name, and a brief summary of what your duties were.
Education: this gives a brief overview of your highest degree of education and/or any additional education that pertains to the job. This could include classes or certifications in a certain area that would help you perform well for the company you are applying to.
Those are the main elements of a good resume. Remember to keep it clean, concise, and easy to read. Also, keep it up to date and accurate–do not add fluff or fake jobs to your experience (you’ll be caught).
These tips will get you started and as you apply for more jobs you will become even better at creating and adapting your resume for jobs.
When you are looking for a job, there are different types of ads to which you will respond.Some will be Craigslist style where you send your resume to a recruiter via a randomized email address. Others will be ads with an Apply button that you click. This button may take you to a company or recruiting agency website where you will be prompted to set up an account. However you apply, most resumes are parsed into an applicant tracking system. The resume is parsed by extracting certain information such as name, contact information, work history and education, and this information is used to populate the fields of your applicant tracking system record. The good thing about submitting your resume this way is that you do not have to fill in long, repetitious forms for each position with information that is already on your resume. The bad thing about parsing resumes is that in order for the applicant tracking system to parse your resume correctly, your resume needs to be very plain in format and text. Diacritics, such as those accent marks found over the e’s in the word “resume” may cause your resume to be parsed incorrectly. Common parsing mistakes include your name ending up in the incorrect fields, one phone number that is parsed into several different phone number fields, incomplete address and missing work history dates. Incorrect information in these fields may mean that your resume does not come up in a candidate search run by a hiring manager. Improve your chances to be called for an interview by casting a critical eye over your resume. A plainer resume format that should parse easily uses bold and plain text only. We create “ASCII” or .txt (plain) versions of your resume for just this reason– applying online and working with recruiters. Leave out the unusual diacritics and the ampersand (&). An ampersand will cause havoc when a resume is parsed. Clearly demarcate resume sections by adding a couple of line spaces between each section. If you are uploading a resume to a company’s applicant tracking system, you may have to fill out some fields by hand, while others are populated by the system. Check all fields for accuracy before you hit Send.
Running a business entails making a business plan before you start the business and following up on that plan once the business is up and running.You should treat your career the same way. Do not wait for your employer to offer you opportunities to develop your skill sets. Even if you do have a job right now, you should continue to network. Find out what is happening in your career field, who is hiring, who is firing. You should know the career trends so you are the one who decides when you make your next career move, not your employer. The days of the company taking care of your career development are long over.While you do not have to become a business entrepreneur, you have to be an entrepreneur when it comes to your own career. Think about how you come across professionally on your resume, in correspondence and on the telephone.What type of professional do you want to be? How are you going to brand and market yourself? Your brand is your reputation or how people see you professionally. You may never need an executive bio, but it is a good exercise to write one anyways because it helps organize your thoughts on who you are professionally and how your career development has progressed.
In this day social media and social networking is everything and if you are not a part of it you are missing out on a great deal.
Companies that utilize social media sites are on the top of their game and they want to know that their employees are not only comfortable using these sites, but are skilled at using them. Take advantage of this. When you apply for a job offer your future employer the chance to look at one or more of your personal pages on various social media sites. Be warned: if you do decide to do this, make sure that your page or profile is professional and enjoyable. Do not post crass, vulgar, or potentially embarrassing thing that could jeopardize your chance at a job. This is also something to be careful of once you have a job. Be careful to avoid talking about employers or coworkers in a negative, mean, or condescending way. This will keep you from getting into any unnecessary company drama. If the company you apply for (or currently work for) has not gotten on board the social media promotion train, then offer to help get them started. If you are skilled and effective when using social media sites, then offer to start a Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Linkedin, or blog for the company. Not only will you be showing initiative, but you will also be in charge of helping the company’s marketing in a big way. This will be very impressive to employers.
Social media is an extremely useful tool and you (as well as the company you work for) need to take advantage of it in order to get ahead.
Writing a resume can be overwhelming, but you don’t have to let it get to you. There are many different types of resumes and many ways to write them, but here are some tips that will help get you started so you can have an amazing resume with less stress and frustration.
Focus on your strengths:People are not perfect. They have flaws, but potential employers know that. They are not looking for your flaws. They are looking for your strengths and the skills that make you stand out. Don’t make things harder on yourself. Take the things you are the best at and put a lot of focus on those things when writing your resume.
Emphasize your achievements: Potential employers not only want to know that you are skilled in an area, but they want to know that you have put that skill to use and it was a positive outcome. They are hiring someone that will help their company succeed, and you need to show them that you have succeeded in the past and have the skills to succeed in the future.
Keep it honest: It seems like a simple enough tip, but it is true. Too often people try to fluff their resumes with skills and experience that are not completely true. This may get you the job if your fake resume is impressive enough, but your employers will find out that you lied eventually and that will cause more problems than your fake resume can help you with. Keep your resume honest and it will pay off in the long run.
Keep these tips in mind as you write your resume and it will be smooth sailing.
Searching for a job takes a lot of effort.It can also take a lot of time, but it doesn’t have to take over all your time. You can still search for a job and find a job, without losing days at a time if you follow these tips to help you manage your time.
Use efficient methods of job searching: The most efficient job search method is to use the internet. The internet is fast, easy, and in some cases will do the work for you. Sign up for a job hosting site and opt in for email notifications when jobs that fit your profile show up on the site. This will give you time to work on other aspects of the job search like preparing a resume, cover letter, or practicing your interview attitude.
Set aside time that is for only job searching: It is more than likely that if you don’t have a specific time and purpose when you sit down at the computer you will end up doing nothing of value and wasting time. If you have set aside a couple hours for only job searching, then you will stay focused and get better results.
Take breaks: If you don’t take breaks every once in a while during your job search you will lose focus and your searching will be less effective. You will also start to dread the searching and not want to do it the next day or at all. This is not the attitude you want to have when searching for a job.
These tips will help keep you (and your job search) focused and will help you manage your time while searching for a job so you can move on to the next steps and get the job you want.
When you are distributing resumes your ultimate goal is to get the job.A job as a high power executive. In order to get a job you need to get an interview and in order to get an interview your potential employers need to be able to contact you. This is where your executive resume comes in. Your resume needs to have your name, address, email, and phone number at the very top of your resume in the heading. These will be the main forms of communication that an employer will use to contact you. If these are not clear on your resume then you may have lost the job already. Some people leave it off for confidentiality reasons, but I think that could be a mistake. To some recruiters or hiring managers, it seems suspicious. In this day there are some additional ways that an employer can contact you and judge you as an appropriate candidate for the position. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter are popular ways for employers to check up on there potential employees. In order to ensure they are really checking up on you and not someone with the same name you should put your profile names in a separate section on your executive resume. If you have a personal website, then put the URL on your resume as well. Make sure your online profiles are cleaned up and professional. Even top executives get turned down due to less than appropriate profile pics or posts. Your executive resume is all your potential employers have and you need to ensure that they are able to get a hold of you. Your executive resume is your calling card and if you do not have the correct information present, then you will lose the job opportunity and you won’t reach that ultimate goal you have been striving for: getting a job that is worthwhile.
Successful job searching is a huge task. And resume distribution is probably the biggest and most difficult part of the whole process. It takes a lot of time and effort, and you will be hit with a lot of rejection and disappointment. With all that pulling you down, it is often hard to keep motivated and continue the search, but you can do it. Here are some simple tips to help you stay motivated and keep your head in the right place as you distribute and search.
Move On Quickly From Rejection: There is nothing more degrading than rejection, but there is no reason to dwell on it. Accept that you were not the right fit and move on to the next place. This will keep you from getting bogged down by multiple rejections.
Take A Resume Distribution “Vacation”: Now, don’t go off to Hawaii on a whim, but it is advisable to take a day off from the job search every once in a while. A day spent doing things for yourself will get you back up to where you want to be to continue your distribution with vigor.
Keep Positive: I know, this sounds nearly impossible, but you can do it. Some people have a mantra they recite to keep them in good spirits, others have a routine they go through that keeps them from thinking about the disappointment too much. Figure out what works for you and if you can’t think of anything, smiling can change your whole attitude and keep you going.
It will not be easy. The important things rarely are. But that does not mean you should give up. You need to keep motivated if you want to be rewarded. Eventually you will succeed and you will land that job that you have been searching for so diligently.
