Whether you like your current boss or not, it’s important to understand they can have a major impact on your future career. In a perfect world, we would all have a boss we get along with very well and who understands when we want to advance our career. Unfortunately, that’s not usually the reality, and getting along with the boss is sometimes more difficult than you want it to be. In addition to writing resumes that get you hired, you have to know whether your boss is helping or hurting your future career opportunities. Here are a few aspects to consider in this regard.
Not Giving You The Credit You Deserve
If your boss has a tendency to take credit for the work you’ve done, you may need to step in and take action. Of course, it’s not the best idea to confront them with a negative tone, but there’s usually no harm in having a positive conversation with them about it. Most of the time the rest of your organization will know the work you put into any given project and know you’re the one who should get the most credit. If your boss refuses to give you credit for any projects you do, then you may feel like you’re spinning your wheels with no opportunities for career advancement.
Picking Favorites in The Office
Every boss has their favorites. You would never put that you were your boss’s favorite person in your executive profile, but it definitely helps when it comes to advancing in your career. The best thing to do is go out of your way to get on your boss’s good side, in addition to delivering high quality work. Find out about some of their hobbies or interests and strike up conversations with them. Making this personal connection without overstepping boundaries will keep you at the forefront of their mind when other opportunities arise. Again, this information won’t go on your executive profile, but it’s human nature for your boss to like you more if they feel a connection with you other than working in the same building.
Constantly Providing You With Urgent Projects
Your boss may give you urgent projects from time-to-time, but if every single project is so urgent that you can’t get your own work done, it may be time to address it with them. The best resume writing service always suggests adding achievements and accomplishments on your resume, but an unreasonable boss can prevent this from happening. If you simply can’t get your work done because of these projects, let your boss know what’s on your plate and ask them to help you prioritize projects. You’ll feel less stressed as a result and your boss should be open to helping you out. Professional Resume Services is known as the best resume writing service, but our services go beyond simply writing a resume. We are here to help you with any aspect of your career. Whether you’re searching for a job, looking to advance with your current employer or want to explore a new career, we have some great resources to help you. Never hesitate to reach out to us if you need any assistance with your present or future career.
Critical Details to Include on a Senior Level Executive Resume
If you’ve been on a job hunt for any amount of time, you likely have heard about the importance of details. But how do you know which details to include on a senior level resume? The formatting, length and other similar aspects can be corrected by the best executive resume writers, but even the experts don’t know the details of your work history. When you’re applying for a senior level position, consider including these critical details when writing an effective resume.
Don’t Hide Your Credentials
You don’t want your credentials to be buried in your resume or be hard to read, especially if they are a requirement for the job. Display your credentials with the rest of your Education section. If you have letters to display after your name, proudly do so! Don’t be shy. Show the reader what degree(s) or certifications you have! Recruiters and hiring managers will look at the top of the page first, so the top resume writing services always suggest putting them there.
Clearly Show Your Areas of Expertise
The next thing the best executive resume writers will suggest is demonstrating your areas of expertise clearly. All of your skills from your previous job may not correlate exactly to the position you’re applying for. If this is the case, then only list the areas of expertise most relevant to the position you desire. You can do this by looking at the job description and matching certain keywords from it on your resume.
Focus on Recent Experience
When writing an effective resume, your experience should be listed in chronological order. However, most of the time it’s not as important to put detailed information about places you worked at 15 years ago. Instead, focus on the most recent and relevant experience you have. And be sure to quantify your accomplishments, since numbers generally tend to make more of a significant impact on hiring managers.
Provide Your Online Profile Information
Most employers will search for your online profile before contacting you for an interview. You could make their job a little easier by providing them with a link to your LinkedIn profile or any other profile you would like them to view. Just be sure to clean up your profile beforehand, so only the information you want to be visible will actually be seen. Nowadays how an online profile is displayed can make or break your status as a candidate, and you can guarantee the employer will look for it. Professional Resume Services has the best executive resume writers to help you craft the perfect resume. We will ask you all the right questions in order to understand your job history, so the information can be presented clearly. The details make a huge difference in the effectiveness of any resume, and we won’t overlook anything. Feel free to contact us at any time if you are unsure about whether certain details are needed or if you are struggling with any aspect of your job search.
Made a Mistake at Work? Repair it in Five Easy Steps
Everyone is going to make mistakes at work. Some mistakes are bigger than others, but most of them are repairable if you handle them in the appropriate manner. Many times if a good result comes out of the mistake, then you could actually enhance your reputation and make the most of it. Here are five steps to take if you’ve made a mistake at work.
Apologize To The Appropriate People
Most of the time you’ll have to apologize to your boss for a mistake you’ve made. Even if what you did or didn’t do was out of your control to some extent, it’s important to make a sincere apology about it. One thing you can’t do is blame others for it. Apologizing immediately will help your reputation and give you the opportunity to make up for it.
Take Full Responsibility
Even if a mistake wasn’t entirely your fault, it’s never good for your c-level personal branding to throw others under the bus. While it’s usually acceptable to acknowledge external circumstances that may have led to a mistake being made, it still makes you look much better if you take complete responsibility and work toward fixing it.
Seek Opportunities To Do Positive Work
If your reputation has taken a hit because of your mistake and you’ve done the first two steps, the next thing to do is seek out opportunities to prove yourself again. One mistake generally will not drastically damage your reputation, and it can sometimes quickly be restored by producing high quality work again. Of course, negatives generally outweigh positives, so the more positive work you do, the quicker the negatives will fade away.
Let it Go
Dwelling on a mistake isn’t good for anyone. When you’ve apologized, taken full responsibility and continue to do great work, you have to let your big mistake go. It’s easy to continue thinking about the mistake and how bad you feel about it, but chances are others have moved on from it, so you should too. It does no good to continue thinking about the mistake, since it could hinder your ability to move on.
Collaborate With A Mentor
If all else fails, talk with your mentor about the mistake you’ve made and how you can successfully alleviate it. Your mentor should be very tied into your c-level personal branding, so getting advice from them should be very beneficial. If nothing else, your mentor can bring you peace of mind knowing you’ve done everything you can to fix your mistake and help you move on from it. Professional Resume Services is one of the top rated resume writing services, but we believe we are more than that. We enjoy helping executives with every aspect of their job search, as well as deal with issues that come up with their current job. Whether you need help writing an executive bio or just need to talk about personal branding, contact us at any time and we will be here to help.
Writing a resume should take a while due to the detailed nature of it. However, if you have more questions than answers as you’re writing it, then it could be taking longer than it needs to. It’s only natural for executives to have questions when crafting their resume, and a professional resume writing service can help answer all of them. No question is unreasonable, and here are some of the most frequently asked questions we hear.
What Length Should My Resume Be?
A common misconception is a resume should never be more than one or two pages. While this could be true for some professions, it’s acceptable to make it a little longer if you’re applying for a senior level position. The key is formatting the resume so it is easy to read, highlights your important attributes and doesn’t have big chunks of text. A professional resume writing service can help you trim some of your words, so each one is meaningful no matter how long the resume ends up being.
How Can My Resume Represent Me?
Focusing on your personal brand is the best way to make your resume give a true representation of who you are. Your resume gives you the opportunity to tell about your skills and accomplishments, as well as your soft skills like leadership ability, personality and more. Another way for your resume to be a true representation of you is to target your audience and write to them specifically.
What’s The Purpose of A Biography?
An executive resume biography shouldn’t simply summarize your resume, contrary to popular belief. Instead, it should be used as a tool to tell a story about your accomplishments and expand more on your soft skills. The goal with an executive resume biography is to provide employers with a vision of how you can help their company by expanding on your resume.
Is A Cover Letter Really Necessary?
Sometimes employers will read cover letters and sometimes they won’t. You never know which side the company is on, so it’s always best to just write one. When you work with a cover letter writing service, you can easily accomplish this and actually enhance your chances of landing an interview. Sending in a cover letter with your resume won’t hurt your chances, as long as it’s written appropriately. But not sending in a cover letter could get your resume thrown out immediately. Professional Resume Services is here to answer all of your questions pertaining to executive resumes and more. We enjoy helping job seekers with their resume and understand there are many questions throughout the process. If you ever have a question about your resume, cover letter or anything else, don’t hesitate to reach out to us and we will help you in any way we can.
When you first sit down to write your resume from scratch, it’s normal to sit there for several minutes before you write your first word. Where to begin writing an effective resume is difficult, especially in today’s competitive world. But even if you have a resume you’ve used in the past, chances are some significant adjustments need to be made if you’re searching for a new job. This brings up the point of targeting your resume to match the specific job description you’re looking at. You probably have heard from an executive resume service that it’s important to do so, but in what ways are you supposed to match them? Here are some tips to consider when writing your resume.
Focus on Keywords in The Job Description
The best professional resume writers will print out a job description, grab a highlighter and mark each keyword they can find. These keywords should describe the particular candidate the employer is looking for, as well as the strengths and skills you possess. Once you identify them all, plug them into your resume as high on the page as possible. Include as many keywords as you can, but be careful not to stuff too many of them in to make it sound unnatural.
Think About How A Potential Employer Reads Your Resume
It’s easy to talk about your past experiences and accomplishments. The biggest mistake professionals make is talking about previous achievements that aren’t relevant to the job they are applying for. When writing an effective resume, you have to write it while thinking about how a potential employer will read it. They want to see what value you bring to the table specifically for their company, and don’t necessarily care about anything else. By looking closely at the job description, the best professional resume writers can identify what’s appropriate to mention and what should be avoided.
Discover What You Truly Want From A Job
A common misconception about writing an effective resume is it should be more general instead of focused. The idea is the more general your resume is, the better your chances are of landing another open position, even if you don’t qualify for the one you really want. This can lead to a sloppy resume and an unfocused job search effort. Taking the time to truly discover what you want from a job, from a salary standpoint, cultural standpoint, work/life balance and more will help you target your resume. Professional Resume Services is an executive resume service that helps professionals write resumes that stand out. We will always ask for the job description of any job you are interested in and tailor your resume to match it. Our professional resume writers have experience in many different industries, so never hesitate to contact us if you need assistance with yours.
No matter how strong you think your resume is, there’s always room for improvement. Even the top rated resume writing services will write, proof and edit any given resume multiple times before it gets into the final form. Sometimes it only takes some minor tweaks, but other times a complete overhaul is necessary. In order to make your resume stand out, here are some secrets to strengthen it.
Utilize Keywords Properly
Potential employers look for keywords at the top of every resume. When you’re writing a professional resume, it’s important to use unique keywords that stand out, rather than using general ones used by every other applicant. Instead of saying you are a “team player,” write about a specific project in which you were a team leader and had to collaborate with others in your organization. The exact keywords can come from either the job description or the industry you work in, but the focus should be specific and unique.
Balance The Design of Your Resume
The best executive resume format will stand out, but not go overboard. The perfect balance incorporates white space and not having big blocks of text. Your goal is for your reader to glance quickly at the resume and notice something different about it. Even a two-second pause is enough time to get the reader to think about reading more. Bullet points are also critical components when writing a professional resume, and it’s easy to incorporate them when you have more than two sentences in any given section.
Control Where Your Reader’s Eyes Go
The top rated resume writing services you use will help you dictate what the reader actually looks at. The strongest resumes have two different parts to them, even though it’s just a single resume. Having a quick visual appeal when the reader glances at it is the first part. But then the content has to be interesting and relevant for the reader to continue reading – the second part. Using bold text, italics and underlining are easy ways to draw your reader’s attention to important points you want them to see. Without these small visual cues, the information you want them to see may get looked over without a second thought. Professional Resume Services is one of the top rated resume writing services for a reason. We are always looking for ways to improve the resumes of our clients, even if we created them from scratch to begin with. By incorporating these secrets into your resume, you’ll have a stronger and more engaging document for a potential employer to read. Feel free to contact us at any time for more tips on how to improve your executive resume.
Networking is essential in the business world today if you want to land the job of your dreams. But what if you already have a job? There are still plenty of reasons to continue your networking efforts, and doing so within your workplace is beneficial as well. If you work for a large company, chances are you may not know half of the people you work with. Unlike networking to find a new job, you won’t have to visit the top resume writing services to make an impression on a co-worker. All it takes is a friendly conversation to learn more about someone. Here are a few tips for networking within your current workplace.
Strike A Lunchtime Conversation
Your lunch hour is a good time to unwind and take a break. If you’re going to the break room anyway, try striking up a conversation with someone instead of sitting in the corner by yourself. This is a perfect opportunity to discuss matters not related to work and could even lead to a strong personal and business connection. Most people will welcome a lunchtime conversation, but you should also be respectful and notice certain signs if the other person doesn’t want to talk at the moment.
Take Time To Be Friendly
You don’t have to visit an executive resume service to know being friendly will help you make more connections. Simply asking someone how their day is going or just smiling at them in the hallway can create a memorable moment. It also creates somewhat of an icebreaker when you see the same person in the break room, elevator or anywhere else you have a few seconds to strike up a conversation. Friendliness is closely related to familiarity, and the more your face is familiar to others, the easier it will be to connect with them.
Introduce Yourself To New Hires
A newly hired professional in your organization is likely eager to meet as many people as possible. Even if you aren’t comfortable with networking at any capacity, talking to a new hire is easy. If you know their name ahead of time, you can look at their LinkedIn profile to help you with a conversation starter. Give the new hire some useful tips and they’ll remember you and connect with you more often.
Check LinkedIn
The easiest connections to make with your LinkedIn profile are the ones who work with you. In fact, LinkedIn may even recognize the same company name in other profiles and suggest you connect with them. When you make LinkedIn connections with people in your workplace, you’ll build some familiarity and make conversations much easier to get started when you interact in person. Professional Resume Services is more than simply an executive resume service. We help professionals with their networking efforts, LinkedIn profile building and much more. Any time a professional needs us with any aspect of their current job or job search, we are always available. Feel free to contact us at any time if you need assistance with your networking efforts.
ATS Myths You Shouldn’t Believe When Job Searching
If it’s been a while since your last job search, you may have been introduced to a new tool to look out for called Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS). These systems help employers filter through resumes easier by identifying specific keywords and phrases and eliminating the ones that don’t have them. This makes utilizing top rated resume writing services even more important, since they can identify ATS terms you need to use and ones you need to avoid. The more research you do on ATS, the more misinformation you could potentially read. Here are some of the most common myths we’ve seen and you shouldn’t believe.
Length Makes A Difference
The best executive resume format may suggest keeping your resume to no more than two pages, but the length actually has no impact on ATS. The hiring manager may not want to read a long resume, however. Having a long resume won’t hurt your chances of passing through ATS, but be careful with the length since it will eventually be read by an actual person.
Only Certain File Types Are Acceptable
Most of the newer Applicant Tracking Systems can read resumes and cover letters in various formats. Your goal should be to create a version which is easily readable for humans and another computer-friendly version. The good news is when you submit a resume electronically, the system will prompt you to upload the preferred file type so you can convert it accordingly.
Keywords Can Never Be Overused
You never know which keywords an employer is looking for in a resume. However, one thing you shouldn’t do is stuff it with the keywords you think are most relevant. Incorporating a mix of keywords into your resumes and cover letters is more effective than having a high density of one particular keyword. Keywords can definitely be overused and will make your resume sound unnatural as a result.
Capitalization or Various Fonts Can’t Be Used
ATS generally doesn’t recognize or penalize you for using capitalization, various fonts or styles. Your goal is to make your resume stand out without going overboard, and one strategy is to use these different features. If this is your strategy, then you can proceed accordingly without worrying about not passing ATS. Professional Resume Services is one of the top rated resume writing services because of our well-rounded expertise. We stay on top of all the latest trends when it comes to job searching, and ATS is definitely one of them. We focus our efforts on helping job candidates format their resumes appropriately so they can be ready for any obstacle. For assistance at any point in your job search, don’t hesitate to contact us.
Whether you like your current boss or not, it’s important to understand they can have a major impact on your future career. In a perfect world, we would all have a boss we get along with very well and who understands when we want to advance our career. Unfortunately, that’s not usually the reality, and getting along with the boss is sometimes more difficult than you want it to be. In addition to writing resumes that get you hired, you have to know whether your boss is helping or hurting your future career opportunities. Here are a few aspects to consider in this regard.
