Instead of getting discouraged by the lack of response to your resume….get busy!
There are a myriad of tactics and tools you can use to improve your resume and not all are painful or require a lot of redo to your resume. The thing is – they can help you get a job and isn’t that what you want?
So how do you go about fixing your resume quickly?
- Delete your objective. Many companies do not care what you want. It’s a sad truth but one that have to live with. Removing your objective gives more space for you to focus on skills that the employer craves.
- Add a straightforward statement that explains why you are uniquely qualified for the position. Such as:Proven Marketing Leader with Far Reaching Corporate ExperienceMake sure that your statement is true and matches your job description. The last thing you want to do is make yourself out to be something that you’re not. HR Managers hate this, especially if you use a headline in your resume. But, if done correctly a statement helps recruiters immediately see that you are what they’re looking for in a candidate.
- Include a summary of skills (keyword bulleted list) -especially if you have skills related to the open position. But, also include things like certifications, features you have, language skills and any technical abilities that would set you apart from your peers. Do you understand Linux or can you program C++? Then add that on your resume. Any skills that you possess should be showcased because it gives you extra value to the employer. You may not need those skills but it’s good to have them on your resume.
- Look through job descriptions in order to identify keywords companies are looking for on your resume. This sounds trickier than it actually is but there’s a site called www.wordle.net. There you can copy and paste the job description and it will give you a simple, easy to read explanation about the keywords that your prospective employer is looking for. Keywords help your resume stand out and if a company sees that your resume has the needed keywords, you stand a better chance of landing the job. Adjust your resume according to the keywords and to match the description of the job.
- Replace weak words and statements with Power Words. Instead of saying “Contributed to the company newsletter,” write, “Managed the award winning Vista monthly publication, the flagship magazine of Made-Up Company, the world’s largest manufacturer of silicon diodes.” Both statements may be true but the second one carries a lot more weight and showcases your talents. Make sure your statements are said with power.
The job market is tough right now, so you have to take advantage of any opportunity. Do not let one slip by because your resume is not up to par. Next month check out more tips on how to improve your resume and get noticed!
We’ve all worked with really talented people we thought would never leave the company – not because they didn’t want to leave – some do. But we think that they won’t ever leave because we’ve seen their resumes and they sell themselves short and they probably wouldn’t get hired.
Some job seekers do not want to overstate their accomplishments or qualifications or seem boastful, so they paint a picture to prospective employers that they are not as amazing at their job as they really are.
Instead of being one of those people who’s afraid of change, you can use power words in your resume to take ownership of the many successes you’ve had at your past jobs. It’s not like you’re lying on your resume – far from it – you’re just highlighting (in a profound way) your accomplishments in order for them to sound more appealing to the reader.
It’s time to stop taking the backseat to your insecurities and fix your resume so that you can take your career to that next level.
One way is to use more descriptive words when describing your past accomplishments. Instead of saying on your resume, “I organized the file cabinet.”, say something like, “Devised a system of organization which led to increased worker awareness, reduced downtime and saved XYZ Company over $200,000 a year.” Both sentences are true, but the revised one really showcases what you did, how it benefited the company and the employees. Plus, it just sounds more impressive!
It’s also very important to use quantifiable statements and numbers about the contributions you made at your previous employers. These statements lend an air of credibility to your resume and give the HR Manager a glimpse into what types of budgets, figures and time frames you’re capable of succeeding with. These statements could involve how your job efforts:
- increased revenue for the 3Q by XXX dollars or percentage
- helped the company reduce costs and saved them XX dollars as a result of improved processes
- trained XX employees in a new programming language, which resulted in the company saving XX dollars, improved customer service, etc…
But, how can adding power words and quantifiable statements on your resume contribute to your job search?
It’s not just about showing how you saved the company money, improved processes, or trained new employees. It’s about putting value in yourself as an employee and showcasing what you’ve done in a way that allows HR Managers to quickly see how you could benefit their company.
If you want to improve your resumes vocabulary, go to www.thesaurus.com and spice up your resume with stronger words. Just be sure not to overdo it. You want to sound professional, not like you just tossed in some “2-dollar” words to sound smart.
Your goal is to sell yourself —and your resume is your best tool for making sure you succeed in your job search.
Resumes mean so much to hiring managers. It’s your first introduction to a prospective employer and it’s how you differentiate yourself. But what separates the bad resumes from the good ones?
The best resumes avoid abbreviations. Abbreviations are not professional nor are they accepted. Nothing makes HR managers cringe more than seeing sentences like the following: “Answered the phone and went 2 C clients” (yes, I truly have seen this). It may be the information age but this is not a text message so don’t treat it as such.
Giving up too much personal information is a no-no. You should leave off anything related to hobbies or interests that are not related to the job. Do not include your weight and height unless you’re applying for a position as a gym trainer. If it’s not related to the job in any way, do not include it on your resume. Leave out your illnesses or why you took off 2 years to care for a dying parent. As hard as that may have been, it will count against you.
The best resumes are the best because they’re not being used as an art canvas. If you try to stand out by having large graphics on your resume it’s a bad move, because this will give you an unprofessional and amateurish looking resume. Your prospective employer only wants to see your skills, your duties and achievements. You’re not going to get anywhere by having a Word Art picture of a snail on your resume.
Keep the negativity to yourself. The best resumes are neutral in tone or highlight the best attributes of the applicant. But, if you have information on your resume that is negative, such as, leaving your previous employer because you did not like the boss, just keep that part to yourself. Do not try to explain the situation on your resume. That’s an impossible battle that you should not fight. Your resume’s job is to sell and promote you. So don’t eliminate yourself because you were negative.
Good resumes include dates. Do not make an HR manager have to guess. This kills your resume on the spot. You have to include dates. What years were you in college, did you attend graduate school or did you graduate from a trade school? How long have you been working at your current position? Do not make the hiring manager have to ask questions about your resume. The second they have to guess, your resume is going straight to the trash. Make sure your resume flows easily and there are no date gaps. If you took a year off to go travel or to go back to school, include this on your resume.
Bad resumes do not highlight achievements. Many people will fill their resumes with irrelevant information, but they leave off the most important part of the resume – focusing on their achievements. You want to stand out from other applicants, so how can you do that if you do not showcase what you’ve done. Explaining your past accomplishments means that the HR manager can see what you’ve done and know how you can fill their need. If you have the abilities, you need to showcase them on your resume.
Focusing on your experience, your background and your accomplishments is what’s known as a functional resume. Chronological resumes list all of your employers in the order of the date that you worked for them, typically with the oldest employer at the bottom of the resume. Functional resumes are great for people who are looking to make a career change, people with multiple positions with different industries, people with gaps in their employment and those just starting out on their career. However, as always, I have to warn you that recruiter and hiring people really don’t like functional style resumes. They feel you may be “hiding” something.
You can combine both resume types to give yourself a well-rounded appearance to potential employers, plus hiring managers love to see a list of previous experience, especially when it’s for a position of authority. Providing work history is an excellent way to showcase how your accomplishments have translated to actual success in the work place.
Start by writing a list of the skills that you used at your previous jobs. List them one by one so that you cover a wide range of tasks on your resume. Depending on the position you’re applying for, modify your skills to directly reflect those of the position that you’re applying for. Don’t embellish, instead focus on what you’ve accomplished and how it will allow you to succeed at your new position.
Use bullet points to provide a concise and accurate depiction of your responsibilities and where you used your skills. List our your accomplishments and try to use numbers to demonstrate an actual value. You can say something like, you promoted better paper management and turned your office into a green office, reducing the waste and lowering cost for trash maintenance by a third. Or that you increased sales in your office by 15% over a 5 year period.
Show your employer in the bullet section of your accomplishments. You want to be able to match your accomplishments with a tangible company, so make sure to list the companies where you worked. Your accomplishments only mean so much if they can be backed up. Listing your companies, or contacts you may have done a project for, will help highlight your accomplishments.
Use action verbs at the beginning of your accomplishments. Saying things like, “demonstrated” a strong desire to train new employees, is better than saying “trained staff.” Elaborate on your accomplishments, it’s all right to use descriptive words here. In fact, the HR manager may appreciate your ability to be descriptive.
Complete a short job history below the accomplishment section of your resume. This will help employers get a good idea of your work history. Make sure to include the name of the employer, your job title, the dates you worked for the employer and the location of the job. Write this list in reverse chronological order.
It’s time to get those accomplishments out there and find the job that you’ve always wanted!
Even if you have an excellent resume, it still may not be targeted to find the right kind of work for you. What can you do to increase the number of responses you get from employers?
Customization is Key!
Blasting your resume out for every position you see won’t help you find the right job. If you want to grab an HR manager’s attention, you need to give them what they are looking for. You need to take the time to customize your resume for each employer and highlight your strengths that will set you apart.
Before you respond to a job posting, look over the job description and see what the credentials are. If you submit your application to a company that does not post the requirements, then look around at other similar positions. Odds are that you can find similar information that will allow you to tailor your resume. Once you’ve found your qualifications, you will be at the right place to meet that employer’s specifications.
The most convenient way to customize your resume is to create a master resume and then tweak it depending on each individual job’s requirements. If you want to tweak your resume, then try these steps:
Copy the Master Resume
Find the resume that is right for you to begin with-you don’t want to use your resume that is based on your pre-job experience qualifications, so find one that is current enough for you to tweak it accordingly. Now you’re ready to customize your resume for whatever position you’re applying for.
Start with the Title
Start with your stated career goal, along with two or three of your top credentials. You need to tailor these credentials to your specific employer’s job requirements. For example: “Advertising Manager – Advertising Degree with 10 Years Experience in an Agency.”
Examine your Objective
You need to show that you are perfectly capable of handling this job’s requirements. Create a precise, short resume objective instead of a blanket statement that would work with any job. If your goal is to be the “Chief of Software Development for Bank of America’s online data privacy support,” then it will show the HR manager that you have real, honest goals. It also makes you more attractive to their specific needs.
Summary of Qualifications
Once you have an outline of the job’s requirements, you can begin to tweak your qualifications to match those in the the position you are seeking. If you handle this step correctly and match up with what the company’s needs, you will become the number one candidate. Add some information that is uniquely applicable to your desired position. You have to stand out.
Expand your Job Descriptions
A lot of HR managers will go straight to the prospect’s employment history to assess their qualifications. Review your listed job descriptions and see how you can modify them to more accurately reflect your past experiences. You’ve probably done some of the functions at a previous employer that will be applicable to the current HR manager. Place the most compelling qualifications at the top of the description and make sure they stand out.
Don’t leave out the Skills
Once you’ve found the right job for you, look at the required skills on the job posting and match what the job requires with your skills. Place the skills that would be most beneficial to your prospective employer at the top of the skills section.
Today’s post is by guest blogger, Kenneth McCall. Read more about Ken at the end of the article.
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When people hear the words “easy to train”, the first thing that often comes to mind is a household pet. But believe it or not, the phrase applies to people too. And it is especially relevant to a person looking for a job.
Many people assume that employers limit themselves to a standard and predictable set of criteria when they go about hiring: Where did you go to college? What kind of degree did you earn? What kind of experience do you have? How many years have you worked? What are your talents and skills? Questions like these are always going to be asked. But employers who have hired a lot of new employees in the past and are familiar with the process of assimilating a new person into their workforce think differently. They understand that no matter how qualified a new hire may be, there will always be an initial learning curve of some type……to be followed by several future learning curves as the business continually adjusts to market changes. And they know that the true value of a new employee is often measured in units related to the ease of successfully navigating all these learning curves. To an employer like this, one question usually supersedes all the rest: How trainable is this job candidate?
You won’t hear employers asking a question like that in an interview, at least not directly. Instead, they look for clues…..things about the job seeker that are good indicators of trainability. I like to call them trainability factors. If you are that person looking for a job, it might help you to know what these factors are so that you can highlight them in your resume and during your interviews. Here are some of them:
- Willingness to learn: Employers know that when it comes to trainability, half the battle is the employee’s willingness to be trained. The last thing a company manager wants is to have to train someone who approaches a training session kicking and screaming, or just as badly, goes along with the training but does so with a notable lack of interest or effort. As a job seeker, you should make it clear that you are not a person who falls into this category. Specify in your resume and cover letter that you are a quick learner who is willing and able to ramp up to speed in learning the job. If a particular job entails a certain educational, certification, or licensing requirement, state your willingness to do whatever is necessary to fulfill that requirement. Even better, include examples to show that you were willing to undergo training, certification, or licensure in the past. If you are already aware of specific training requirements for the job you are seeking, then you can enroll in this training before your interview and show by your actions exactly how willing you are.
- Adaptability and flexibility: There is nothing as certain as change. This is especially true in the corporate world, where businesses are constantly adjusting to new technology, emerging trends, and changes in the business market. Employers know that a potential hire who is flexible and can adapt to change easily will become an employee who is trainable. Point out in your resume (and during interviews as well) any situations in your past where you were required to adapt to a new set of circumstances and did so successfully.
- Eagerness and enthusiasm: If you are an enthusiastic person by nature, then make sure you allow your enthusiasm to shine during your job interview. And be sure to mention your eagerness to work and learn prominently in your resume and/or cover letter too. Eagerness is a very attractive characteristic to potential employers. Managers are instinctively more confident in a person’s ability to assimilate in a new job and new environment when they see that the person has an enthusiastic outlook. And they know that this type of attitude will make a person more responsive to training.
- Perseverance and commitment: When the going gets tough, employers want tough employees who will keep going. Learning something new can be frustrating and difficult but a person who doesn’t give up easily can overcome these hurdles. In your resume, give examples of circumstances in your past where you tried your best to persevere through tough times.
- Integrity: It’s not hard to see that people who are prompt, dependable, and always keep their word are looked upon as valuable employees. They are also viewed as very trainable. Put your integrity on high display throughout the job seeking process. Always give honest answers to questions in your interview. And be very honest and forthright when you write your resume as well.
Your skills and your background are important considerations to a future employer – but they are far from the only ones. Employers want individuals who provide the best fit and that usually means individuals who can be trained successfully. When you write your resume with the trainability factors in mind, your resume will stand out because it will speak beyond your skills.
Kenneth McCall is director of IT for storage.com In this role he builds the systems that help customers find the best self storage units for their needs, for example through Kenneth’s and his team’s work customers can find self storage in Chicago and other cities. In his spare time, Kenneth likes to bike and participate in outdoor activities.
Everyone has an email address– or if they don’t then they are seriously lacking the skills necessary to find a job. Most people only have one email address they use for everything and a lot of the time they have had that address since they were younger. This might not be a bad thing if your address is based on your name, but if you have an email address like: partyanimal69@’madeupaddress’.com or sexykit10@thisaddress.com, then you probably need to create a separate email account just for your job search.
Typically, your email address will be the first thing that a prospective employer will see when you send them your resume. You email address should be as professional as it can be. Instead of having biglarr@’madeupaddress’.com, you should use a variation of your name. It’s much more professional and it won’t have a negative impact on your chances of getting the position. Some hiring managers won’t even look at a resume if it comes in with a novelty email address. Do you think that a hiring manager would be interested in adding someone who does not present a professional demeanor?
One thing you definitely need to do is create a new professional email address. It’s easy to sign up and get a free email address. You could create your email address based on your name, but if you have a creative profession, you could do a play off of that. But, you don’t want to over do it. If your email address based on your name is taken, then try a last name, first name combination. If this is taken then you can add a number to the end of it. The most important thing is to create an email address that will get you through to the hiring manager. There are thousands of email combinations that you can create, you just want one that will not raise a flag with the HR manager.
Another thing HR managers hate is when they get a resume from a work related email address. This shows the HR manager that at your current employer, you’re not fulfilling your job requirements. Actions like these will definitely raise the red flag when an HR manager sees this. Who knows, they could have worked at your employer before and still know people there. Imagine the problems that could come when they get in touch with your HR manager about you sending out resumes on company time. This could put you current position in jeopardy and affect your ability to find a new job. You never know if they will not take offer you the job because they believe that you might do the same thing to them.
You should set-up an email address that’s professional and will not get you blacklisted by the HR department. It’s a tough job market out there, and everyone needs that extra little edge.
The United States job market seems to be picking up steam, but there is still a lot of recovery to be done if the job market is to regain its pre-recession levels. Some Americans are not waiting for that and are deciding to forgo the tumultuous U.S. job market for something more certain, like jobs overseas.
U.S. expats are becoming a regularity in overseas job markets as more Americans find it difficult to locate jobs in their native country and decide to opt out. So what are the signs that it’s time to look for a job overseas?
1. If your position has already been reduced
If your position is in decline in America that doesn’t mean there isn’t a market for your skills in another country. A lot of programmers have left to find work in Europe or in Asia’s developing markets. There is also a lot of opportunity in South America, where countries like Brazil and Peru have seen a remarkable turnaround and an expanding middle class. Plus, just think of all the delicious food you’d get to have daily!
2. If you just want to get out and try something new
If you’re just interested in taking a break from the traditional work you’ve been doing, then why not consider teaching in another country? English as a second language requires their teachers to be fluent English speakers and have a degree. Your degree does not have to be in English, in fact you do not have to even have a teaching certificate, but some require that you complete a course before you can be hired. This may not be an option for everyone but it’s a great way to get a job overseas.
3. You’ve stopped growing as an employee
If you have nothing to look forward to each day, then what are you doing at your job? If you’re not improving your skills or building your position within the company, maybe you would be better off with an employer overseas. Overseas employers typically offer challenging goals to their employees while providing for growth opportunities within the company. Red lights should be flashing if you have been with your company for a few years without any opportunities. You might even like the challenge of getting acclimated to a new lifestyle.
4. The economy takes another downturn
If the economy takes another tumble and the job market suffers, it would be a good idea to look for jobs in other areas. Canada is a great location within the North American continent that offers great opportunities for expats, while keeping close to family and friends. The homesickness should fade soon thanks to Canada’s proximity to the U.S., the lack of a language barrier and the availability of jobs. Aye?
No matter what you want to do with your career, if you decide to look for work overseas, make sure that you take in all the factors. It’s not like moving down the street but it could be a great opportunity to advance your career.
