After years of attending classes, studying, and taking exams, you have finally graduated! You have your degree in hand and are ready to start your job search. So, what’s your first step?
Even in a strong economy, starting out on the job search is never easy. In a down economy, it can be even harder. However, there are plenty of things you can be doing to get your job search started off on the right foot.
Your Resume
Your resume is the first impression you give an employer. The content, format and style should be created in a manner that represents the value and expertise you offer, as well as appealing enough to stand above the stack of resumes the employer will be receiving for the open position. If you aren’t comfortable writing your own resume, consider consulting a professional writing service to help you out. Professional writers are trained to create individualized resumes that generate interviews.
Networking
Research professional organizations within your industry. Many have jobs posted on their sites, as well as have details of upcoming job fairs and other networking events. If you know of friends or colleagues involved in any of the organizations you’re interested in, contact them to see if it would benefit you to join as well.
Interview Prep
Start now preparing for future interviews. While your parents and friends may give you interview tips, they won’t be there holding your hand during the interview-you need to be ableto dazzle an employer on your own! Have 1-2 outfits readily available for interviews, as well as copies of your resume prepared to take with you. Read blogs and books that offer interview advice and if you have time, always research the company before you head into the interview. Being able to speak the company language will show the hiring manager you are serious about joining their team.
The usual advice about the length of a resume is that it should be no more than two pages. However, in a recession, people are desperate to find jobs. One of the ways people try to make themselves look more impressive as a candidate is to add a lot of extraneous or irrelevant material to their resumes. The results are usually a two-page resume with a bloated header, tiny margins, small fonts, long run-on job titles and a lot of repetition, which a recruiter will not read. If this is what your resume is beginning to look like, then it is time for a resume check-up and a resume update. While a resume update will add more information to your resume, there are other areas in which you can begin to cut out extraneous information.
Start with the header. Unless you really do live in two places, you do not need more than one contact address. Choose two main ways to contact you directly, perhaps a cell phone number and an email. Remove that long, run-on career objective. Your resume should speak for itself as to what your career objective really is, unless you are trying to use your current skill sets to switch into a new field. If this is so, keep your objective to one or two sentences at the most.
Use your actual job titles on your resume. Do not add words or change the titles to make them look more impressive. If your actual job title is 10 words long, then so be it. Be brief in your job duties, leaving out phrases such as “I did the books…” or “I am a go-getter who facilitated…” In general, you do not use the word “I” on a resume.
Keep other sections such as Education, Awards, Associations and Professional Development to just the facts. While it is important to show that you are a life-long learner, you do not need to list every workshop you’ve ever participated in, especially if it does not relate to the position for which you are applying.
What you need to remember is that when you come to apply for a job application your resume is their first impression of you. You might be the best person for the job but if your resume doesn’t showcase this in the right way, then you will seriously dent your chances of being successful.
One of the main things that you need to avoid is spelling mistakes and grammatical errors throughout your resume. You need to check and double check your resume to make sure that everything in it is correct. You will often find that even the simplest of mistakes will rule you out of the running for a job. Remember that it is likely a number of people will be applying for the same job so the person in charge of applications will be looking for reasons to take people out of the running – you want to make sure you don’t give them one!
Also make sure that your resume is precise when it comes to job experience and skills. You don’t want to be too general. You need to give them a reason to hire you so selling yourself is a must when it comes to your resume. Include information of previous jobs and the skills that these positions have taught you.
It can be tricky but try not to make your resume too general, or ‘one size fits all.’ If you are applying for different jobs, then you may need to tweak each version of your resume slightly to sell yourself for each of the different job types that you are trying. That way you can be sure that when you are applying for different job positions you know that your resume is as relevant as possible and gives you the best chance of success.
The presentation of your resume is also important. Along with it reading well and including the right information, you need to make sure that it is pleasing on the eye. Remember that they will be reading many different resumes so you need to make sure that yours stands out for all the right reasons. Keeping your resume clean and tidy, you want it to include all of the information that is needed without it being too cluttered and busy. Add a little color or a graph of your recent sales numbers, etc. You need to give them a reason to read your resume and by making it look like hard work to read you are ruining your chances before you even start.
Online media is growing and with it so is the opportunity to apply for jobs online. Many companies now opt to advertise their job vacancies online as they know it will reach a massive range of people and they have every chance of finding someone perfect for the job – and much quicker than old fashioned methods of newspaper adverts and classified adverts.
For some reason people often feel much more relaxed about applying for a job online and assume that emailing a resume in order to apply for job doesn’t need the same attention to detail that a posted resume does. However, this isn’t the case and you should make sure that your resume and cover letter are perfect, even if you are applying via email.
Just because you are attaching your resume to an email that doesn’t mean that the cover letter shouldn’t include all of the relevant details. Your best bet is to treat the email body as you would a cover letter. This means that you need to make sure that you include all of the relevant details – the position you are applying for, why you would be perfect and how they can contact you for example.
When you are searching for jobs online they will often have a reference number attached to them. It is essential that you include this reference number in your email cover letter. Also make sure that your email has a subject to it – even if it is just “Job Vacancy Application” so that your email doesn’t get over looked and pushed to one side.
Most people use the Education section of their resumes to list their degrees to show their qualifications for a particular position. This section of the resume seems pretty cut and dried. List schools, cities and dates of attendance and move on to distributing the resume. However, in today’s difficult economy, being competent may not be enough to land you that coveted first step to a job: being named as a candidate. You need to show the potential employer how you are going to wow them, exceed their wildest dreams, and how you will solve their most difficult problems. You can do this by showing the employer that you are a life-long learner.
By all means, list your degrees on your resume and leave off their dates of completion if you feel that it dates you. But make an effort to keep learning and to update your skills. Add related skills to your professional resume that will build on your primary skill sets. Go to workshops. Take continuing education classes, set aside time for informative webinars. Knowledge becomes quickly obsolete in this age of technology; those who keep learning and use that knowledge in their careers are the employees who will be most productive and get noticed by management.
It isn’t as difficult as it sounds. Yes, learning does take time, but you get the opportunity to experiment during work and see which skills work in a given situation and which don’t. This is valuable knowledge, and it deserves a place on your resume, right under your degree list. Make it snazzy. For example, don’t just list “Internet Search Webinar.” Make sure you list the appropriate webinar name such as “Weddles Guide to Internet Searches.” Weddles is a respected and known name within the job search industry. The name signifies that you learned valuable information by attending this webinar.
Above all, be prepared to talk about any new experiences you listed on your resume with an interviewer. Tell how this new learning can resolve employer problems and how it can be used to train other employees. Make a case for life-long learning, and you may just start a trend at your new workplace to give employees funds and time off to pursue new learning.
I really like doing my work on a Mac, and if you are lucky enough to be able to choose your computer platform, showcasing your computer skills on your resume is an easy task. Whether you have a professional writer help you build your resume, or you choose to do it yourself, getting familiar with how your word processing program works, quirks and all, on both platforms will make your life easier.
More employers operate on a PC platform than on a Mac platform. So if you are a Mac fan like me and looking for a job, getting to know both platforms will be a big plus. Unfortunately, Windows Vista was such a buggy system that many PC users like myself bailed out and bought a Mac. Fast forward to now. Windows 7 has been a relatively stable environment, and if you have been away for awhile, learning Windows 7 won’t be all that difficult. It builds on computer skills that you used when you were working in Windows XP. There are also apps that will allow you to run a stable Windows environment on a Mac if you really want to stick with your Mac computer. Don’t let an employer catch you unaware, however, if you are a diehard PC fan. Some employers do work exclusively on Macs, especially in design fields such as graphic design and packaging.
Knowing both platforms will help you in your job search. Be sure to list both on your resume if you are up-to-date on MAC and PC systems. If not, look online for free workshops. Windows has gotten much better at providing online training. Apple recognizes that not everyone lives close enough to an Apple store to attend their free workshops, so much of that information is also online. Add any computer workshops you attended to your resume, as well as any computer certifications completed.
Make potential employers aware of your computer proficiencies by listing programs and applications you use on a regular basis on your resume. Most position ads will tell you which programs are required or desired. Check the ad carefully, and make sure you list every program and app required with which you have experience.
We all recognize how important it is to make a good first impression when applying for a job. The way your resume looks, the content that it contains, and the way that it is presented to a potential employer could be the difference between getting your resume read, or tossed into the trash. If you are serious about changing careers or finding a new job, then it is vital that you have a resume that represents the best you have to offer.
While it is possible for you to write your own resume, it’s not always as easy as it sounds. It is hard to get a resume that is completely perfect, especially if you don’t have the skills or expertise to know what should be on your resume, or how your it should be formatted to truly market your achievements and career history.
Consider hiring a professional resume writer. Although people may be put off having a resume written for them because of the price, in today’s competitive job market, a quality, professionally-written resume is may be your best bet in scoring an interview.
Most professional resume writing services offer a complete resume package for the price. Not only will the service craft a great resume for you, they will also take care of things such as the cover letter, the thank you letter. Furthermore, a professional resume writer will also provide all of these documents in different formats so you can use them whether you want to apply for a job online or through other channels.
Presenting a high-quality resume to a potential employer gives you the best chance of achieving success in your job search!
An executive resume should be created with the end purpose in mind, that of getting you an interview for the job opening. Do not just list all the things you have done in former jobs, for resumes at this level more information is needed about the processes used to get the job done.
Do not write a confusing history of former positions. Start your work history with your latest position and end with your first working position relevant to the job opening you are intending to get an interview for.
For an executive resume, 2-4 pages is acceptable. I always say, ‘if the experience warrants it, then add another page’ (however, less is more sometimes–I try to stick to 2ish). Do ensure all the information is concise and relevant. Employers do not want to have to sift through pages of irrelevant information. It would be wise to invest in having a professional resume writer create a resume for you if you are unsure of the current formats used for resumes (plug, plug, plug).
Always be very specific in your writing and information, use precise numbers to convey any targets that you have been set and met in previous positions, it all helps to build a better picture of your abilities by the employer reading the resume. Creating a focused, targeted, concise resume is what employers are looking for in an executive resume. It is vitally important that it stands out from the crowd before it has even a chance of being read at all. Employers are busy people and need to know immediately if your resume is worth their time reading, and an executive resume can help with this!
After years of attending classes, studying, and taking exams, you have finally graduated! You have your degree in hand and are ready to start your job search. So, what’s your first step?
