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.
A resume is your first opportunity to sell yourself to future employers. Use this opportunity to make a good impression. Unfortunately, many people make common and simple to fix mistakes that keep them from making that good impression. Here are some common errors to look for before you send your resume to an employer.
Avoid spelling errors, typos, and poor grammar. This is simple, yet it will make you look unprofessional and incompetent.
A common error in resume writing is changing from first to third person midway through your resume. Stay consistent throughout your resume writing.
Another common resume problem that you should avoid is creating a resume that reads like a job description. Keep the focus on your skills, accomplishments and how your accomplishments were achieved.
Avoid creating a resume that is too long. Put yourself in the position of the person reading your resume. Most future employers will be reading a multitude of resumes at one time. One way to avoid a too long resume is to avoid providing personal information that isn’t relevant to the job. If your resume is too long, they are sure to not go through the entire resume.
A common mistake in resumes that is often overlooked is making sure you provide accurate information. Employers will not be impressed if you didn’t take the initiative to provide them with accurate information. Gather up accurate dates, names, phone numbers.
Avoid the common mistake of giving partial information because you don’t remember, recall, or haven’t updated your resume.
Lastly, an important and common error you should avoid in writing a resume is keeping it simple. Provide simple yet powerful information. Enough information, but not too much. And, as always, simple and accurate.
When applying for a job, you are not going to be the only applicant. You will be competing for the job with dozens of other qualified candidates. With so many candidates, it is not unreasonable to fear your resume getting passed over or lost in the mix of things. In order to avoid that from happening you need to create a resume that will stand out from the crowd. While you want your resume to pop, you do not want it to be unprofessional. Here are some concepts to create an impressive resume that will stand out.
Eye Catching: You want your resume to catch your potential employer’s eye immediately so they spend time looking at your resume intently rather than just passing over it briefly. While it would be easy to do this using a wacky font, that is a bad idea. Using a wacky font looks unprofessional and can be hard to read. It might not look the same on their computer either. They might see an entirely different font. Instead, use a sans serif font. Another idea is to add a touch of color. Color in small doses can look great. This will catch their eye without looking unprofessional.
Professional: You do not want to give your potential employers a bad impression by having a resume that looks unprofessional. This means you need to keep it easily readable and organized. No wacky fonts, bright colors, or pictures (or words) that are large, obscene or vulgar. A small clip art that has to do with the job may be appropriate, but for the most part you should not put any pictures on your resume at all.
Impressive: Now that you have caught their eye and shown them a professional resume, you need to impress them with what you put on your resume. Keep them interested and invested in you by putting your greatest accomplishments, achievements, and job titles on your resume. This is what will make them want to call you in for an interview.
It can be hard to get your resume noticed in a sea of resumes that all look very similar, but if you can find a way to make your resume stand out without compromising professionalism, then you will be one step ahead and closer to getting an interview and landing a job.
There are times when you will not use a traditional resume when applying for a job. You may need to use a functional resume, a professional or executive resume, or you may need to use a curriculum vitae.
A curriculum vitae is typically used when you:
Are applying for an academic position or a research fellowship
You have a lot of publishing credits to your name
The company you are applying for asks for a more detailed history of your professional accomplishments
If you are in one of these positions, then you need to ensure that your CV is complete.
The main difference between a resume and a CV is the detail included in a CV. This means that a CV is going to be much longer.
A complete curriculum vitae should include all publications in which you’ve been published and all relevant training. You should also include a full work history even if it spans across twenty or thirty years. Obviously having all this information will make your CV particularly lengthy. If your CV is not three or more pages, it is likely that you do not have all the information you need to present.
Go through your entire career and education history to ensure you have all the information. Hopefully, you have kept complete records so that you know exactly what to put into your CV and the details about each project, publishing, and job.
When you have all the details put into your curriculum vitae it will be long, but don’t worry, a CV should be that long in order for it to be complete and professional.
There are many skills you can put on your resume, but there are two specific skills that are very important to employers and will help upgrade your resume:
Customer Service
Strong Work Ethic
These skills are important in almost any field of work, and here is why:
Customer Service: Companies have customers. That is how they make money. They get paid by a customer, a client, another company, etc. to perform their purpose as a company, making customer satisfaction a very important facet of their business. If their customers are not happy, then the company will lose business and money. How do they keep those customers happy? By providing the customer with the product or service and providing it through employees that exhibit excellent customer service. If you have learned how to be an excellent executor of customer service, and you express this on your resume, you will be at the top of the list for jobs, because employers will know that you will help keep their customers happy and help them make money.
Strong Work Ethic: Micro-managing is one of the most inefficient forms of management. It keeps supervisors from getting more things done and it keeps employees from feeling that they enjoy their work. If you have to be micro-managed in order to get your work done, you are wasting time and losing revenue for the company. However, if you are able to work well on your own without supervision and can produce good work independently, then you are working more efficiently and in turn, helping the company save and earn money.
If you have both of these skills, and show where you have used these skills throughout your career, you need to make sure that you feature them prominently in your resume. If you don’t have these skills, then learn them. Work on them and learn how to utilize customer service and a strong work ethic in any situation so that you can upgrade your resume and land a great job.
Don't Write Your Resume Like You Are The Only Applicant
The job market is competitive. And it is even more competitive today than ever before. This means that you need to up your game and quit playing around. You can’t just put skills or experience on your resume haphazardly. If you do that you are writing your resume as though you are the only person applying for the job. That is the farthest thing from the truth. You are competing against many applicants who are just as qualified as you are. So what do you do? You compete. You show that you are the best candidate for the job. How do you do that? You make your resume speak for you and make you look impressive. Just follow the tips below to help you create an impressive resume that will compete against the other applicants.
Organization: The way you organize your resume may seem like a simple thing, but it can change the impression that your potential employers get when they read your resume. Organize your skills by listing the most applicable skills to the job first. If you are not sure what skills will be most applicable, then list your strongest skills first. Do the same with your experiences. List the most applicable or the most impressive experiences first. This will put stronger focus on the most important skills and experiences in your resume.
Keywords: Use keywords throughout your resume to put emphasis on the skills or ideas that you want your potential employers to remember about you when they are deciding about interviews and the job. Don’t overdo them though. If you use keywords too repetitively, then it will turn off employers and possibly annoy them. Keep a good balance. If you are unsure, then have someone read over your resume to see if you have used to many keywords.
These are just two very simple ways that you can make your resume more competitiveand more impressive to potential employers, which will lead you to getting an interview and hopefully getting that job.
So often, when researching how to put together a resume,the posts and articles are a lot of “a resume is this,” and “a resume should have this,” but often, there is no information about what is dangerous or unnecessary in a resume. That is what this post is for–to help you understand what a resume is not so you can create the best and most impressive resume. A resume is not:
A letter: It is not a place to talk or chat about yourself and your accomplishments. You can do that a little bit in your cover letter, but mostly that type of communication will be for your interview.
A soapbox: Blatantly bragging or putting false commentary into your resume in order to make your skills sound better than they are isn’t advisable. While it’s good to sell yourself and your skills, sell them on skills you’ve actually done, not what you”think you can” do.
A comedy club: You don’t need to add humor or personality to your resume. Employers are not looking for that type of thing in a resume. They want simple facts with enough information for them to decide if they want you to come in for an interview. Add some personality to your social media profiles. Talk about your interests and likes in that type of forum, but a resume is not the best place for them.
A grocery list: While, yes, you will list your skills, work experiences, and accomplishments, there is more to it than that. You can’t simply list every job without a few details like dates of employment, job title, employer, and some job duties. You don’t need a lot of detail, but you need enough so your potential employers have an idea of what you have done.
These are things to watch out for. Your resume may seem like it doesn’t have your voice or personality, but that is OK. It doesn’t need all that fluff. Save that for your cover letter and, more importantly, your interview.
In order to advance in your career or show improvements on your resume, you need to make sure that you are constantly trying to better yourself and your skills. Employers want to see that you will make their company a more profitable place. Whether by awarding you with a promotion or giving you the job in the first place, you need to show employers the value you offer by doing something to enhance your career on a daily basis. You will be surprised how simple it can be to improve and develop skills, which may in turn lead them to give you the job or the promotion.
Practice: This is simple, but if you continue to practice the skills you already have, then you will become more proficient and they will become more impressive to employers.
Networking: This is another simple thing, but so very important. You need to make sure that employers know your name so that when promotions come up you are one of the first names that come into their head. Make sure your name is prominent on successful projects, that your initiative to move up the ladder is known, and that you introduce yourself to those attending meetings with you, especially when interacting with the company’s executives.
Training: Look for training and professional development opportunities in your industry that would help you develop new skills or enhance yourcurrent skills. Training by professionals can be a great way to learn and become impressive. If the training is especially applicable to your job, employers may even pay for part or all of the training.
There are so many things you can do to improve your career and resume. If you feel you are not improving, then take the time to ask yourself what you have been doing lately to add value to your career, as well as create a plan to further your skills and expertise. In today’s competitive job market, it is essential that you show employers the value you add to the company, every single day.
