The post 3 Reasons Having a Professional Website Will Land You Your Next Job appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> Head to any website targeted toward the self-employed and you’ll hear the same thing: You need a website to land clients. But what about those with more traditional jobs: Why consider creating a website? Maybe you’re happy with your traditional job, and you’ve got a killer resume. That’s all you need, right?Unfortunately, a killer resume doesn’t always cut it. You’ve likely experienced this firsthand, having gone into interview after interview with little to show for it. But there’s nothing more you can do to make your resume shine short of printing it on pink scented paper (and Elle Woods already did that one).
At this point, it’s time to give yourself more of an edge in the job hunt. How do you do this? One way is to create a website. (Click here to tweet this thought.)
Not sure if creating a website is worth it? Here are some reasons why a website is a good idea even when you’re a traditional employee.
It can be tough to show what you’re capable of in an interview or through a one to two page resume. With your website, you can do more to showcase your talents, and since it’s available publicly, you can reach more recruiters while giving them a convenient path to your portfolio.
Imagine this:
Instead of handing over a portfolio binder to the hiring manager, you give him access to your site by sharing your domain name. He’s stunned by your professionalism (and thankful he doesn’t have to worry about carrying around or misplacing your binder), and you don’t have to worry about getting your binder back before your next interview. Plus, you can incorporate digital content on a website, like an introduction video.
But this portfolio option only raises more questions. Why not just use LinkedIn or other platforms to showcase your expertise? Three reasons:
Another major question you probably have: What should I include in my portfolio? Try incorporating these elements:
Consider these examples of professional portfolios in various industries for inspiration:
Let’s say you set up a website. You’ll probably list it on your resume so hiring managers can learn more about you.
But your website can do so much more than that. Before you even see a job listing and apply to it, most hiring managers are already looking for you. Today, 80 percent of jobs are never listed, reports CNN.com. That means hiring managers are already on the search before you are.
How are they finding these qualified individuals? Many will tap into their networks and receive recommendations from people they already know, while others will go on the search themselves.
When recruiters look for qualified individuals, they might start with search engines, head to directories or go on a social media search. With a website, you can reel in those recruiters by having extra to offer. It’ll help you stand out from the crowd.
Even more than that, a website expands your visibility. If a recruiter uses a search engine, your website is more likely to show up than your LinkedIn profile. And if you have a blog, you could attract hiring managers to your site when they’re not even looking. They might like what they see and contact you.
How can you make your website more visible?
Brazen has talked about how blogging can boost your credibility countless times. As you blog in your niche and market that content, you can create a social following.
If you could tell a hiring manager you have 10,000 email subscribers on your industry-related blog, you’d probably raise a few eyebrows. This alone can serve as proof of your expertise, giving you stats to measure your success by and show that people hold you in high esteem within the field.
Check out these great posts for more about using your blog to get a job:
While a website is certainly a great job-landing tool for some people, it doesn’t always make sense for every job seeker. Consider starting a website when:
Are you ready to boost your professional appearance and start seeing more results from your interviews? Start by digging into how to build a website with PCMag’s guide.
Alicia Rades (@aliciarades) is a freelance blogger and writer eager to create content on blogging, writing, and career topics. Learn more about her and her blogging services at aliciaradeswriter.com, where you can download her free Which Freelance Blogger Should I Hire? Worksheet.
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]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2014/06/24/3-reasons-professional-website-will-land-next-job/feed/ 3The post Why You Should Always Keep a Running List of Your Career Accomplishments appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> Every professional should keep an up-to-date list of his or her accomplishments, responsibilities and results.Academic advisors sometimes call this a “brag sheet,” and they draw from it when writing recommendations for students. Keeping a list of your professional accomplishments serves a similar purpose.
This list acts as a repository that you can draw from whenever you need to. Don’t anticipate looking for a new job or updating your resume soon? You should still keep a list of your accomplishments. Here’s why:
It’s difficult to remember all the details of our experiences. Documenting them close to when they happen enables you to accurately keep track for the future. This will make it easier to weave relevant experiences into a resume or cover letter. It’ll also help you simply remember.
When you run into the VP you admire in the elevator and she asks, “So what have you been up to?” you’ll have articulate, meaningful responses to give her rather than saying, “Not much,” or giving her a generic, “Things are so crazy!” This also applies to when a recruiter reaches out to you on LinkedIn or when your uncle asks about your job over the holidays.
You’ll likely never include everything you’ve ever done in a resume or a conversation, but keeping a list of your accomplishments gives you options. When you’re ready to apply to your dream job, you can pick and choose the most relevant, compelling items.
Keeping stock of your accomplishments lets you observe your own trends. Are there any project areas you’ve really knocked out of the park? Do you post the best results when working on a team or alone? Maybe you’ve led multiple cross-functional teams and not even realized it. Documenting what you’re doing and how you spend your time helps you identify patterns that might influence what turn your career takes next.
Ready to start or update your list, but unsure how? Create a simple list. To save time and write in a professional tone, try to keep the list as a “master” version of your professional resume.
Don’t forget to apply well-known resume writing tips like including statistics to quantify your results, using strong action verbs and writing about work you’ve done in the past tense and current work in present tense.
It’s common to get caught up in our day-to-day and lose sight of our careers in a broad sense. The day-to-day is important, but it’s equally important to step back every now and then and take inventory of what we’ve been up to. (Click here to tweet this thought.)
Keeping this sort of list fresh prepares you for when the time comes to spruce up your resume, apply for a job or speak about an experience or specific result quickly.
Jane Scudder is a marketing manager and culture team lead at Hubzu.com. Passionate about career development, culture, and change management, she blogs in her spare time, follow her musings here: janeonchange.blogspot.com.
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]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2014/06/19/always-keep-running-list-career-accomplishments/feed/ 3The post How to Write a Resume: A Totally New Approach That Will Get You Hired appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> What if there was a way to truly land your dream job?I’m not talking about landing your dream job in the world of unicorns and rainbows, but in the real world — the one where you have bills to pay and maybe even mouths to feed. What if you could know what you love to do and get paid to do it? (Click here to tweet this question.)
How would that change things in your life?
If you’re starting to get excited, you’re not alone. Because there’s a powerful tool that will help you to define and land your dream job. It’s called The Reverse Resume.
This will help you approach the search for your dream job from a new perspective. So hold onto your heels. You’re about to be blown away.
You are, undoubtedly, familiar with a regular resume.
It’s a method for trying to cram every positive detail about yourself and all your career accomplishments into a single page. The goal is to impress upon those who make hiring decisions that you might be a good fit for a particular job.
The regular resume is meant to sum up your entire range of experience on one sheet of paper. Then that piece of paper is usually shuffled, filed, lost or disregarded. Not a nice way to be treated.
The Reverse Resume, as you might expect, is exactly the opposite.
Instead of summing yourself up neatly on one sheet of paper for review and critique to see if you meet criteria for the job, you sum up criteria of the job to see if it meets your standards.
Instead of hiring managers asking, “Is this candidate worth our time to bring in?” You ask, “Is this job worth my time — perhaps years of my life?”
The Reverse Resume can help you answer that question in a way that’s in sync with your deepest desires — even if you don’t know what those are just yet.
There’s a reason your job isn’t working for you: You don’t like it.
At first glance, not liking your work comes from the “soft” world of feelings, right brains and other touchy-feely things. But the truth is, humans are emotional beings. Not liking your work is just as valid as any reason you might give for wanting a different job.
It’s hard for many people to accept that feelings prevent their job satisfaction. It may be easier to accept that you’re simply no good at your job, don’t have the right skills or don’t have the right training. Clients have said to me, “I can’t believe I’m going to give up this job that pays so well because I don’t like it. It feels so irresponsible.”
Generally, the less we like something, the worse we are at it, and the less inclined we are to want to engage in it or immerse ourselves in it deeply. There’s no good reason to endure life at a job you don’t like.
There’s so much work out there to be done — so much work that could benefit from the most vibrant and alive version of you. So don’t settle for an un-animated version of yourself.
When you look for your next job using The Reverse Resume, your goal should be to capture what you want your work to feel like. Instead of a description of the function of your job (what you’ll be doing) start with a description of what you’ll be feeling and what happens that makes you feel that way.
Start with what you love to feel, what lights you up, what skills and talents you love to use, and the situations or environments you most love to be in or problems you love to solve. Ask yourself: Where and when do I thrive?
Once you paint that picture of what you want to feel and where you thrive, work backwards from there. You can ask yourself, what kinds of jobs would be most suited to someone who needs to be solving interesting problems and be surrounded by brilliant coworkers? A police officer? A scientist?
Keep brainstorming ideas. When you run out of ideas, it’s time to narrow down your list.
The deeper you dig into your Reverse Resume, the more you’ll know about how your environment should feel. Should your work for a startup or a corporation? Is working a 9-to-5 a better fit for you, or do you want to become an entrepreneur?
Keep asking yourself where you’ll be happiest. This is the criteria that will help you narrow your list (otherwise, you’ll just end up in another job you don’t like.)
Remember though, there are lots of reasons not to like a job. If you’re starving to death because your job doesn’t pay a living wage, you might grow to hate your job. If you never live to work a day because you’re in school too long, you might never know if you like your job.
So you’ll have to balance many factors when you think about your happiness, not just how joyful the actual job might make you — though this does count a great deal. Only you get to decide how much weight to give each thing. It’s up to you and your individual circumstances, and what makes you… well, happy.
Instead of searching for your dream job the old-fashioned way — looking at specific job titles and roles to see if they might fit — turn the whole process backwards with The Reverse Resume.
You don’t have to grope in the dark any longer. Many people don’t know where to start when they try to figure out what their dream job is. But having structure makes the process so much easier. Finding that dream job is possible! I’d love to know if you have success using The Reverse Resume.
Jessica Sweet, LICSW is a career and life coach dedicated to helping 45-55 year olds find or create work they love. You can get a more complete version of The Reverse Resume and her entire suite of free tools in the Passion Portfolio at http://www.wishingwellcoach.com
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The post How to Write a Resume: A Totally New Approach That Will Get You Hired appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2014/06/17/write-resume-totally-new-approach-will-get-hired/feed/ 5The post How to Overcome a Less-Than-Stellar Resume and Still Nail the Job Interview appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> OK, I admit it: I watch reality TV. Specifically, Million Dollar Listing, which follows real estate brokers closing deals in New York. I’m embarrassed, but…In one episode, the broker was entrusted to sell a spacious apartment in a great neighborhood with beautiful finishes. An absolutely stunning apartment, but with one problem: Part of its main view faced a brick wall. Not so appealing.
How would the realtor sell this apartment at top dollar?
His solution was creative. He invited other brokers representing potential buyers to a nighttime rave party with drinks and neon lights — and kept the living room lights off. He wanted his guests to feel the apartment’s large space, to see some of the finishes, but to avoid the eyesore immediately outside the main window.
When the guests arrived, he accentuated the apartment’s many positive features to get the brokers excited, knowing that he had to make them as passionate about the listing as he was. He could deal with the eyesore later; his first job was to get them to love the apartment.
What does Million Dollar Listing have to do with a job interview? (Click here to tweet this question.)
If you’re the college student equivalent of a Manhattan penthouse — ranked near the top of your class at a target school with several gold-standard internships — you can stop reading right now; you have zero to worry about. Employers will find you.
But if you’re that apartment that’s mostly great, but with a quickly identifiable weakness, you need to read on.
With a resume alone, recruiters will see your “brick walls,” but miss many of your best features. Below are three interview tips that will move your interview past the brick wall:
The three most common factors recruiters look for in college graduates are their schools, GPA and internships. If you attended a good school, but not a great school, be ready to explain why. If you were a late bloomer, focus on how you’ve excelled at your school and maximized every moment. If you had to stay close to home, explain why.
If your GPA doesn’t place you near the top of your class, talk about your priorities. Was it because you focused on the hardest classes? Did you immerse yourself in extracurricular activities? Were you a varsity athlete committing a huge amount of time to compete at the highest level? Did a dramatic life event affect your performance?
And last, if you didn’t have a top-tier internship, you better have a good reason why: Did you volunteer that summer? Travel the world? Care for a family member?
Your resume reveals a list of key decisions, accomplishments and opportunities earned, but rarely does it convey the passion you live your life by or evoke the emotion needed to make the interviewer your advocate. The one-on-one meeting is your one chance to convey your achievements and explain your core values.
If you know your story and, more importantly, can tell it with passion, without regret and with confidence, it’ll be easy for the interviewer to project your path to success in their organization.
Remember our real estate agent who wanted to postpone the brick wall discussion? He prepared himself to lead the buyers’ agents to the strengths of the condo first. You’ll have to do something similar in interviews.
Most of them begin with brief small talk and a leading statement by the interviewer: “So, tell me about yourself.”This is your opportunity to direct traffic and lead the interviewer to your strengths.
Make your first statement count. This doesn’t mean you should make it long, but make sure it leads to your strengths. I wish I knew this when I was interviewing at age 21. Looking back, here’s how I would’ve answered that question:
“I am a first-generation college student, and I was fortunate to have a family that instilled in me the value of education, the pride in hard work and the virtue of loyalty. I measure my success not by where I stand, but by where I am going and by how far I’ve come. I am really excited about being here because my core values would make me a great fit for a position in your company.”
With that one succinct statement, I would’ve given the interviewer a blueprint of where this interview would go on my terms. At each turn, I could’ve reverted to my core values and carefully woven my answers back to my initial statement.
My brick walls, which were a good-not-great GPA and a lack of a strong internship, wouldn’t have been so daunting because they were only part of my complete story of determination, passion and potential.
Your job interviews will be games of chess, not checkers. The interviewers start off in control because they ask the questions, but you must regain control by addressing your brick walls, by telling your story with passion and by leading the discussion back to where you want to go.
Your resume is just a lifeless piece of paper until you make it come alive. Tell your story, show your passion and be confident in yourself.
Felix Frey is the head options trader at a billion-dollar hedge fund and the creator of the Wall St Combine, a competition for students that uses non-traditional methods to find, prepare and mentor great talent.
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]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2014/06/10/overcome-less-stellar-resume-still-nail-job-interview/feed/ 1The post What High Fidelity Can Teach You About Finding a Great Job appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> In 1995, Nick Hornby penned High Fidelity, the story of a music-obsessed man-child counting down his top five relationships after being dumped (again). In 2000, John Cusack starred in a movie adaptation of the book and a cult classic emerged.The film has serious staying power — and not just for audiophiles. Why? Its lessons about love and pop culture also apply to work, specifically how to find a job that belongs in your list of all-time favorite careers. (Click here to tweet this list.)
Job search, like music compilations, is a subtle art with “lots of dos and don’ts,” as High Fidelity’s protagonist, Rob Gordon, notes. “You’ve got to kick it off with a killer to grab attention … then you have to cool it off a notch. There are lots of rules.” Your resume and cover letter should be customized for every job you pursue.
With each version, make it easy for hiring managers to distinguish you from other applicants flooding their inboxes. Lead with a strong, need-to-read intro about your standout accomplishments and in-demand talents. But hold up.
Showing off only helps if you show employers you have their best interests in mind. Job search might seem like it’s all about you, but by focusing on the company’s objectives, you’re much more likely to snag an offer. Rob Gordon finally got the message and made a mix for his ex full of music that would make her happy.
Make your application less about you and more about your audience. That’s how you woo people and get hired.
It’s not just fear of commitment that keeps Rob Gordon from everlasting love. His biggest hangup is the inability to shake that first buzz of instant chemistry with someone new. Even as he tries to win back his ex, he flirts with an attractive journalist over shared music obsessions. “When is this going to stop?!” he screams and ejects the mix he’s working on for this new lust interest.
He knows that eventually they’d run into their own set of issues as a couple. His energies are better spent working things out with his current flame who’s out of his league. Similarly, in today’s job market, it’s tempting to get caught up in a cool company’s shiny perks or new startup smell.
So what if the place involves a two-hour commute, pays less than your serving job and doesn’t include benefits? Here’s what — you might be single, healthy and up for anything, but will you be satisfied at this place in a year? As you get older, will the beer pong Fridays be less tempting than stock options? Are you a good fit or are you both just on your best behavior?
Write down a list of your short-term needs and long-term goals to see if they align with each company before you accept an offer.
Rob Gordon might be all mixed up about relationships, but he struck gold in the career department. He starts by owning a record store where he gets to listen to music all day, then risks it all to start his own label. Of course, he makes a lot of sacrifices along the way — mostly not making the big bucks. Doing what you love often means living paycheck to paycheck.
This is true whether you’re a budding entrepreneur or climbing the corporate ladder (hey, some people are passionate about finance). Start saving money and make the most of lean years by turning every freelance gig or long night at the office into valuable lessons. Find a mentor and hang with people who share your professional interests.
It worked for Rob and his employees: “I hired these guys for three days a week and they just started showing up every day. That was four years ago.” Obsession, when used wisely, can turn a day job into living your dream.
Jamie Gadette is a freelance writer and Lead Content Strategist for JobDash, an innovative EdTech company delivering Career Services software for colleges and universities. You can follow her music-obsessed updates @JamieSLC
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]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2014/06/05/high-fidelity-can-teach-finding-great-job/feed/ 0The post Make Your MBA Application Impossible to Resist with the Best Resume, Essay and Interview appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> As soon as you decided to apply to their MBA program, the school had to have you. Your resume earned universal admiration, your essay made them swoon and the interview was a formality. Welcome to the class of 20XX!Nothing could be further from the reality of today’s competitive MBA application process. No matter how decorated a student and professional you are, the applicant pool is full of equally qualified and remarkably diverse individuals. What does it take to impress and stand out from the crowd? (Click here to tweet this question.)
Everybody looks great in clothes tailored to them, since no two bodies are identical. Your resume works the same way. If you send the exact same resume to every MBA program, don’t expect enthusiastic responses. Showcase yourself in a light that appeals to individual schools.
For each school, shape the resume based on what you know about their unique elements, from teaching styles to location. With that in mind, maybe a skill featured first on your resume for one school is further down the list for another, or one particular aspect of a past job is explained in detail for one program but omitted for the rest.
Ask what this school emphasizes: case study, internships, group projects? Use your resume to show real-world experience matching the program’s specific brand.
The biggest mistake MBA applicants make when writing essays is not looking at the group as a whole. Each essay should complement — not overlap — others, like pieces of a puzzle coming together to create a picture.
Do two of your essays focus on leadership? Change one to talk more about your cooperative abilities. Does every essay end in triumph? Share an unfortunate error or failed endeavor and what it taught you. MBA admissions officers want to read about a well-rounded skill set in diverse situations.
Overall, your essays should paint a picture of your most important personal and professional traits without getting too focused on a couple particular themes. In addition, make sure your essays don’t repeat information found elsewhere in the application, particularly your resume.
The interview is probably the most nerve-racking aspect of the MBA application process. With preparation, though, you’ll come in confident and ready to impress.
You probably selected each target school based at least partially on knowing an alumnus or having met one or two during an information session or visit. Get in touch and ask what they remember about their interviews.
How many people were present? Was it formal or conversational? Did interviewers ask new questions or request elaboration on topics from your essays?
Of course, no two interviews are identical. But you can build a basic idea of the atmosphere, expectations and common questions from those who have been there before.
Yes, this can seem daunting, but the payoff is substantial. Time spent pondering interviewers’ questions is time lost. Plus, sitting in silence can come across as awkward or unprofessional to MBA selection committees.
Create a base of useable responses that come quickly to mind and cover many topics, from employment and education to visions and values. Make sure they don’t sound overly rehearsed, though. You shouldn’t memorize word-for-word, but rather build confidence with talking points so they flow naturally in the right situation, even under pressure.
While preparing, also think about how you might be able to impress the interviewer with unconventional — but appropriate — responses. A great option is featuring relevant anecdotes from volunteer service, travels or daily life in addition to those from work and school. You don’t want to sound like someone focused on nothing but your job and studies.
Thanks to today’s technology, there’s no excuse for not knowing what you look and sound like in an interview setting. Use a computer or phone to record mock interviews and watch them. You’ll be stunned how often you say “um,” “like,” or other verbal tics, which should be minimized.
Also, pay attention to your body language. Does your attempt at eye contact make you look borderline psychotic? Are you too stiff? Do you fidget? Recognizing those behaviors is the first step to correcting them and adopting a professional yet comfortable interview demeanor.
Though nothing in admissions is ever guaranteed, a well-tailored resume, diverse set of compelling essays and preparation for anything an interviewer can throw your way will make you a triple threat coveted by any MBA program. Good luck!
Ryan Hickey is the Managing Editor of Peterson’s & EssayEdge and is an expert in many aspects of college, graduate, and professional admissions. He’s worked in various admissions capacities for nearly a decade, including writing test-prep material for the SAT, AP exams, and TOEFL, editing essays and personal statements, and consulting directly with applicants.
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The post Make Your MBA Application Impossible to Resist with the Best Resume, Essay and Interview appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2014/05/06/make-mba-application-impossible-resist-best-resume-essay-interview/feed/ 1The post The Perfect Resume Starts With Avoiding These 7 Tired Cliches appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> You may think your resume is already tip top, but put yourself in the shoes of a recruiter. They look at hundreds of resumes every day. To them, most look exactly like all the other nondescript resumes in their pile. If you’re using the same tired phrases as everyone else, you’re not as exciting — or as hireable — as you thought you were.A recruiter spends an average of six to 10 seconds per resume. Do you really want to waste even one of those precious milliseconds with a single word that doesn’t add to your credibility?
It goes without saying that you want your resume to stand out. You want a job, don’t you? It’s not hard to steer clear of common clichés and be more original. You just need to know which phrases to avoid.
Nix these seven clichés from your resume, and you’ll be well on your way to grabbing the recruiter’s attention — and staying out of the “no thanks” pile, once and for all.
Your resume will read like a work of fiction when you use phrases like “seasoned manager” or “influential leader” without an accompanying explanation.
Drop the qualitative description and add years of experience, job-specific technical skills and quantifiable achievements instead. Better yet, add graphs and other visuals to show what you’ve accomplished in previous jobs.
Not many applicants use visuals, but these graphics do more than add aesthetic appeal to your resume — visuals can add an air of credibility to your claims, which helps the recruiter believe you.
“Creative” might seem like the perfect word to describe your unique personality. Unfortunately, thousands of other applicants think the same thing. Recruiters have seen this word so much they will completely gloss over it.
Creative was the top buzzword for two years in LinkedIn’s annual survey of clichés. Many LinkedIn profiles use the word “creative” — even professionals not involved in creative fields.
Instead of telling the recruiter you’re creative, show them evidence of your creativity. (Click here to tweet this thought.) Write a compelling cover letter or create a video resume to narrate the highlights of your career. Add interesting (nice-to-know, but not-so-personal) tidbits about yourself, and you’ll have a show-stopping resume cum cover letter in one neat little package.
What exactly do you mean when you describe yourself as results oriented? Do you aim to hit the goals your employer sets out for you? That should be a given. Every employer wants employees who drive results.
So prove to the recruiter you’re that person with details, and nix the empty and nondescript “results oriented.” This description is subjective. Instead, highlight your skills and accomplishments by using the names of the projects or campaigns you worked on, then include the results for said projects.
So what’s wrong with saying you’re passionate? It goes two ways: Recruiters might buy this (not likely) and think you’re passionate about what you do, or they might think you’re desperately looking for a job.
The verity of your enthusiasm can easily be checked through your social media profiles. If you really love what you do, your Facebook and Twitter accounts would show work-related status updates, reflecting how excited you are about what’s happening in your job.
Delete “passionate” and similar adjectives fit for romantic novels. Replace them with solid examples of how much you love what you do, such as details about personal projects related to your line of work. For instance, if you’re a programmer, include info about apps you’re developing for your own use or for fun.
Upon seeing this phrase, a recruiter pictures a mechanical employee doing what he’s paid to do — no more, no less. Change this phrase to “managed X,” “completed X tasks” or similar action verbs that embody leadership and initiative.
“Guru” sounds impressive, doesn’t it? Calling yourself a guru on your resume makes you sound like somebody trying hard to look smart. Stop proclaiming you’re a guru, ninja or expert. It’s fine if other people describe you that way, but not to describe yourself.
Replace these self-proclaimed titles. Demonstrate your expertise instead by listing published books or articles, interviews, past speaking engagements and other accomplishments that could establish your contribution in your field.
Remember, pretending to be someone you’re not will backfire on you during the interview.
Although this is a must-have soft skill, recruiters don’t need to see it on your resume.
Why?
Because hiring managers can judge your communication skills in mere seconds! If your resume and cover letter fail to communicate why you should get an interview, then what’s the point of putting “excellent communication skills” on paper?
Proofread your resume for grammar slips instead. Remove fillers and redundant phrases.
Your resume is your stepping stone to getting a job, so invest an extra 30 minutes to make it attention-grabbing. Review your resume, cover letter and LinkedIn profile for these seven clichés and buzzwords. Save a copy of the original files, then apply the tips above to revamp your profile. Compare before and after files and see the difference.
Share one of the changes you’ve made in the comments!
Michelle Riklan is a Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW) and Certified Employment Interview Consultant (CEIC). Her resumes get results, and she coaches her clients through all phases of the job search.
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]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2014/05/01/perfect-resume-starts-avoiding-7-tired-cliches/feed/ 8The post 4 Mega-Mistakes You Don’t Want to Make On Your Resume appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> Spelling and grammar errors. Gaps in unemployment. Vague job descriptions.Most job seekers are well aware of the major no-nos on resumes, but here’s the bad news: your resume probably has other red flags you’re not aware of. Here’s the worst news: There’s no way to know for sure what they are.
Why? Because every recruiter and hiring manager has a different approach, and every company has different needs. A red flag for one position is an asset for another.
What’s a job seeker to do? Well, if you’re a mind reader, that’s a big help. Otherwise, you have to rely on learning about industry norms and consider what you want in a job and a company. Here are a few common red flags:
While you should never include a link to a personal profile, not having one at all can also raise concerns. In most positions, technology plays an important role, and your ability to maintain a social media account shows a level of comfort employers want to see.
For many creative jobs, such as Web design, photography or writing, it’s expected as a way to gain access to a portfolio of your work. Depending on your industry, this can be done through a Flickr account, a blog or even a Twitter feed.
For jobs that rely heavily on your ability to network and develop relationships, such as marketing and sales positions, showcasing your large social following can be an asset. For many online marketing positions, it’s a requirement, whether it’s stated upfront or not.
Not sure what the standard is for your industry? In almost any job, it’s a safe bet to include your LinkedIn profile. (Click here to tweet this thought.) A great place is in your header under your email address. It’s unlikely a hiring manager would toss your resume for including it, and you’ll avoid being overlooked because someone assumes you’re a techno-phobe.
You probably know that job hoppers are frowned upon, but staying in one place for too long can also hurt you. Many employers want applicants with a wide range of experience. They may question the depth of your knowledge of the industry or wonder why you didn’t take initiative to find more opportunities for growth.
This is particularly true for any industry that requires a diverse set of skills and expertise, such as technology-related fields and project management positions.
What’s a loyal employee to do? If you changed positions or were promoted, break up those different titles into separate sections. Be sure to highlight any changes in department or location as well.
If you haven’t moved around, it’s even more important to highlight specific accomplishments and continuing education to alleviate any concerns. And before you panic, consider this:
If you’ve been in one position for a long period of time, it’s likely you valued that company’s loyalty to you as well. If a new potential employer thinks loyalty is a weakness, it may not be the right match for you anyway.
Nine times out of ten, including this section on your resume is a bad idea. Employers don’t care about your life outside of work. (Many of them would probably prefer you didn’t have one at all.)
That being said, for some jobs, it’s crucial to showing why you’re the right candidate. If you’re applying for a position at a surfboard company, the fact you can ride a wave is definitely relevant.
A veterinarian’s office is likely to be impressed by your volunteer work with the local shelter and your three dogs, two cats, one gerbil and tank full of fish. In these instances, not including information about your personal life is a mistake.
Also, some workplaces — particularly younger, tech companies — make a point to showcase their employees’ hobbies and personal accomplishments. For instance, they might post on their blog about an employee winning a chess tournament or share the results of their annual table tennis competition.
It’s about showing that you’re not just qualified, but also a match for the company culture. It’s unlikely your resume would be thrown out for omitting this information, but its inclusion can move you to the top of the pile.
If you seem too good to be true, employers often assume it’s all false. Even if they believe you, it can bring up questions about why you want the job in the first place and how long you’ll stay if you get it.
This can be particularly frustrating for applicants actively seeking a less stressful position or trying to change industries. Take it down a notch. Look at what’s required for this particular position, and make sure you’re showcasing just those qualifications (and maybe just a bit more).
Don’t be afraid to tone down position titles, too. It’s not lying to list your position as marketing if you were the marketing manager, but that extra word can make a big difference in how you’re perceived.
Also, be careful about over-explaining your positions as this can be seen as overcompensating. The key is to focus on achievements in a clear but concise way.
What concerns do you have about the impression your resume gives employers? Share in the comments.
Juliana Weiss-Roessler is a professional resume writer based in Austin, TX. She’s also a contributor to JobTonic.com, where you can perform a job search and apply directly to multiple top job search sites in one easy location.
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The post 4 Mega-Mistakes You Don’t Want to Make On Your Resume appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2014/04/11/4-mega-mistakes-dont-want-make-resume/feed/ 2The post How Using Your Job Application to Tell a Story Can Get You Hired appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> What do Batman Begins, The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and your resume all have in common? A need for context.Any good movie provides a context, or a frame, for viewers to understand the main character and his actions. The context is not only what motivates the main character and allows him to overcome great obstacles; it’s also how the audience relates to that character’s story.
Batman’s frame is his parents’ death. In The Lord of The Rings, the frame is Frodo and Sam’s friendship, and in Harry Potter, it’s Harry’s status as an outsider. Just like these Hollywood blockbusters, your resume needs context to tell your story, too.
You probably already know your resume has less than 10 seconds to grab someone’s attention. By adding context, you give hiring managers a frame for your experience and accomplishments so they can quickly digest your story.
Often a strong frame can actually shape how potential employers understand your skills and qualifications. So spending a little effort to set the stage is well worth it. And since almost all communication and job applications are online these days, it’s easy to set up your stage.
Take these three simple actions to frame how recruiters and employers will view your story:
What’s your desired job title? Writer? Marketing Specialist? Business Analyst?
Whatever it is, add that title behind your name in your email from field. Yes, that’s it. Easy, right? Simply go to your email settings and change your name to something that alludes to the position you want.
For example, if you’re in sales, then you’ll want to send employers emails from John Doe — Sales Leader. Even before the recruiter or hiring manager reads your email, you set an expectation. Right off the bat, you identify yourself as someone who can help them with their sales.
Once a hiring manager has read your introductory email, you’ll want to make two things clear. First, make sure your email signature matches your from setting. Then, directly below your name, include a link to your your LinkedIn profile. Make it easy and seamless to find out more information about you.
Of course, your LinkedIn profile should also carry the same context, or frame, to fully take advantage of the branding opportunity. So double-check that your LinkedIn headline matches your email from setting and signature.
There’s a reason all those infomercials run a fake timer to insist you to “call now before time runs out!” Advertisers know they have a limited window of time to get someone to act. When it comes to the job hunt, you’re in the same boat as those informercials.
If you can convince an employer to act — to visit your LinkedIn profile as soon as they finish reading your email — then they’ve already invested more time in you than they do with the average applicant. Once a potential employer takes that step to learn more about you, you increase your chances of them wanting to get to know you better in an interview.
Too often, job seekers call their resume file resume.doc. While this may make sense sitting on your personal desktop, a recruiter who receives hundreds of resumes a day won’t feel the same way.
Make it easier for them to remember who you are and what you do. (Click here to tweet this thought.) Use the same title you used for your email from setting. For instance, Jonh_Doe_Sales_Leader.doc.
Remember the key is to make sure every time they see your name, it’s associated with what you do. That’s how you start your story. Then, your resume simply unfolds that story.
Now you have a surefire way for employers to view you as a sales professional, IT specialist or project manager before they know anything about you. You’ve created a frame through which they can view your experience. Hey, it works for Hollywood; why not you?
Steve P. Brady is an executive resume writer who blogs on resume writing and career development.
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The post How Using Your Job Application to Tell a Story Can Get You Hired appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2014/03/21/telling-story-job-application-can-get-hired/feed/ 4The post How a Well-Crafted Summary Can Take Your Resume from Boring to Stellar appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> If you’re a career-minded person, you’re probably always looking for ways to improve your resume (and if you’re not, you should be). A summary section may be exactly what you need.The summary section is a great opportunity to quickly establish yourself as a stand-out candidate by taking the best parts of your resume and cover letter and shrinking them into a super-impactful area at the top of your resume.
Still not convinced? Check out the following three ways a summary section could take your resume to the next level:
It’s always better to tell someone your brand than to leave them to figure it out. Your summary statement provides a powerful opportunity to establish your brand right away. Unlike the weak objective statement that says what you’re looking for, a good summary statement lets the reader know who you are, what you do and what makes you amazing at it. (Click here to tweet this thought.)
Imagine a resume for a sales position with a digital goods company begins with the following:
Results-Driven Digital Product Sales Manager Who Consistently Beats Quotas
That statement doesn’t just say “Hey, I sell things.” It lets the recruiter know the applicant is great at moving digital products. They’ve effectively branded themselves as the go-to person for selling digital products, and a recruiter is more likely to read the details.
Every novel has an insert in the sleeve or a quick description on the back that gives juicy plot points and character details. That’s the author’s way of trying to sell you on the best parts of the book to convince you to buy and read the whole thing.
That’s what your summary section can do for your resume.
Recruiters are short on time and only spend around six seconds on the first glance of your resume. That’s why it’s suggested the most relevant information be in the top one-third of your resume — it’s most likely to be read.
Your summary statement will put a highlight reel of the best moments at the top of your resume, making it easy for the reader to identify why they need to pick up the phone and get you in for an interview, stat.
The applicant tracking system (ATS) is the machine recruiters use to search for resumes based on keywords and key phrases. Resumes without these words (or few of them) may never be seen by human eyes. Try to get a good number of these keywords in your resume, but make it sound natural. The summary section is a good way to pull this off.
Imagine the digital sales position ad mentioned earlier states it’s looking for someone with experience defining digital sales mission statements. An applicant may set up their summary section like this:
Results-Driven Digital Product Sales Manager Who Consistently Beats Quotas
Not only do you have a high-powered, attention-grabbing summary statement, but you’ve also used the bullets to back up it up and add keywords the ATS will be looking for.
The summary section is a power tool to add to your resume arsenal, whether you’re looking for a job online or hitting the pavement and getting your resume into the hands of people who make the decisions. Put a summary section on your resume to get it the attention it deserves.
Have any questions about writing a summary? Hit up the comments below!
Ibrahim Alamin is hellbent on helping people find the jobs they really want or create them. For more tips, check out his blog and his e-course on resume hacking.
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The post How a Well-Crafted Summary Can Take Your Resume from Boring to Stellar appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2014/03/17/well-crafted-summary-can-take-resume-boring-stellar/feed/ 9The post 7 Reasons You Should Update Your Resume Right Now, Even If You’re Not Looking for a Job appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> Work is going well, and you have a job you enjoy with great benefits. You feel like you have a future at this company. You have no intention of moving on anytime soon. You’re in a good place professionally, so you may never need to think about revisiting your boring old resume ever again!Unfortunately, that’s a myth. In fact, everyone should review their resume and and keep it up-to-date no matter where they are in their career.
If you haven’t revisited your resume for awhile, read on for seven reasons why you should polish it this very moment:
A resume isn’t just a list of job titles and how long you’ve worked at various jobs. It’s a record of your body of work.
Your resume contains info about what you’ve learned, the skills you’ve developed and the differences you’ve made in your career. Having a clear sense of your journey will help you make smart short-term and long-term plans for your career.
When you’re in the thick of day-to-day work, it’s easy to forget how far you’ve come and in which areas you’ve developed. By revisiting your accomplishments periodically, you’ll better be able to track your own professional progress and make sure the important ones make it to your resume.
If you update your resume just every few years or only when you’re looking for a job, you might completely forget about new skills because you mastered them so long ago. By keeping your resume up-to-date, you can see how you’ve grown even from a few months ago.
One of the keys to happiness, impact and career development is understanding yourself. Your resume is the blueprint not only of your skills and achievements, but also of your preferences, passions and values. Every role you’ve ever had has been a reflection of who you are.
You can learn from the jobs you loved, the ones you hated and those that were just a bit “blah.”
Dig deep. Did you thrive in a particular type of environment? Did you enjoy working in teams or independently? Did you thrive working for innovative fast-changing organizations or those that valued evolution and heritage?
Analyze what lit you up and has worked along your career path, as well as what hasn’t worked. Use the information you learn about yourself to tailor your own work towards your preferences.
Your key achievements happened for a reason. And so did your mistakes. Have a look at your resume and think about which events have been great teachers. What did you learn? How have you moved forward with those learnings? What could you do to develop even further?
Research has shown that the more you work to your strengths, skills and passions, the happier and more productive you are. In other words, it’s not doing great work that brings you happiness, but feeling happy that helps you do great work. (Click here to tweet this thought.)
So, how have you worked toward your strengths in the past? How can you do it more in the future? How can you consciously use those strengths more often and in new ways?
Resumes give you a high-level view of your career. Patterns start to emerge that can give you new insights into your career and where you might want to head in the future. Ask yourself what thought processes led to you make those career choices. Would you do anything differently?
The world of work has changed beyond recognition over the past 20 years. It’s a sad fact, but you never know when your resume might come in handy. Having one that’s up-to-date will help you hit the ground running if you ever do need to look for alternative work.
If you have an updated resume you can send out quickly, you’ll recover more quickly after a layoff and have less to stress about. Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst, as the saying goes.
Revisiting your resume can feel like a pain in the butt. It takes time and requires that you reflect on your career journey. But it doesn’t have to be so painful. The more frequently you update your resume, the less work it really is. Plus, revisiting your accomplishments will help you develop confidence and clearer direction in your career.
Jo Casey is a trainer and coach who helps people find more joy, passion and impact in their work. You can connect with Jo at www.jocasey.com, where you can sign up for her free “Work Happier Now” video course.
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The post 7 Reasons You Should Update Your Resume Right Now, Even If You’re Not Looking for a Job appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2014/01/21/7-reasons-you-should-update-your-resume-right-now-even-if-youre-not-looking-for-a-job/feed/ 2The post Why You Shouldn’t Put Education at the Top of Your Resume appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> Resumes? Who needs them!That’s the thinking of folks at LinkedIn, who recently announced you can use the professional network to apply for jobs — and you don’t even need a resume.
Now, fire off a job application using your LinkedIn profile. (Click “Apply Now” on this job to see it in action.) Sounds pretty nice if you’re applying in a hurry.
For all other scenarios, your resume still matters. Heather Huhman of job resource Come Recommended says you could be super creative and make a resume that looks like an Amazon product description.
Want an easier way to get noticed? Move “Education” to the bottom of your resume and “Work Experience” to the top. The strategy has everything to do with our economy today and will make your resume more effective time and again.
If you begin your resume with “Education,” you sacrifice coveted space to, frankly, the least interesting part of your bio.
Then, the employer looks up from your piece of paper and says, “OK, so what do you know how to do?”
We are entrenched in a skills-based economy, and what really counts are your abilities. It doesn’t matter if you learned them at college, an internship, a full-time job or while babysitting your neighbor’s kids.
Skills. Skills. Skills.
Employers want ‘em, and your resume must quickly prove you got ‘em.
The challenge in this hyper-ADD, six-second Vine, 140-character tweet social universe is to immediately convince someone of your “specific contribution,” as columnist Thomas Friedman calls it.
In journalism, it’s called the “‘lead” (or “lede,” if you want to be fancy about it). The lead here is your current job and the most compelling duties or accomplishments you’ve mastered to date.
If you only have internships and not a “real job,” it’s OK to start with those positions. Be detailed about the work you did and let your experience — not your college — describe you. Bosses don’t care where your skills come from, only that you have them. (Click here to Tweet this idea.)
If an employer has to scan the page to find the goods (your skills), then you’ve effectively “buried the lead.” That’s a journalism (and employment) no-no.
Don’t worry. An employer will locate your college and degree(s) at the bottom of the resume. Just realize that a diploma alone won’t make you different. Whether it’s a two-year associate’s, four-year bachelor’s or online coursework, plenty of people have graduated from somewhere.
You know what no one else can claim? Your diverse range of talents.
Crack open your resume right now and place “Work Experience” at the top. In today’s job market, your skills are the greatest thing you’ve got.
How else can you spruce up your resume?
This post originally appeared on News to Live By.
Danny Rubin is a PR professional in Virginia Beach. He also writes News To Live By, a blog that shows us the career advice that’s hidden in the day’s top stories. Follow him at @NewsToLiveBy.
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The post Why You Shouldn’t Put Education at the Top of Your Resume appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2013/11/13/why-you-shouldnt-put-education-at-the-top-of-your-resume/feed/ 7The post Revenge of the Geeks: How Your Geekiness Can Make You an Appealing Job Candidate appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> Geek has become more chic the last few years. In fact, a recent Modis Geek Pride survey found more than 87 percent of Americans fly their geek flag proudly. If you’re one of these geeks, that’s great news. You have a lot to offer many companies.Computer whizzes and tech nerds are no longer the only geeks in the game. The title “geek” now applies to anyone with a huge passion or interest of any sort, especially for comics, movies or video games.
This means most companies may already have several diehard geek employees on staff. And, since people enjoy working with colleagues who share similar interests, that also means companies are looking to hire ever more geeks.
If don’t consider yourself a geek, it might be time to jump on the bandwagon and start nerding out over what you’re truly passionate about. It could make or break your job hunt.
But simply announcing “Hey! I’m a geek!” won’t land you the job. You need to translate your geekiness into skills employers understand. (Click here to Tweet this thought.)
During your interview, fly your geek flag high and focus on these aspects of your personality. You’ll be well on your way to showing your interviewer you’re one of the best employees the company could possibly hire.
There’s not a single company that doesn’t have problems to solve, whether it’s their own or their customers’ or both.
This is where geeks come in handy. They enjoy challenges and finding answers to problems. (More so with technical geeks, but also with the pop-culture-type ones.)
For this reason, your geeky self tends to give your all at work, which may not be as common in some of your non-geek coworkers. What company wouldn’t want to hire you for that?
No matter what your passion or hobby, geeks tend to be creative and experimental. Since you don’t learn via traditional methods or work via traditional processes, you tend to find ways to teach yourself.
Employers love creative self-starters, especially when you use that skill to solve their problems. For example, you might take a smartphone picture of your signed contract and send it via email instead of hunting down an envelope, stamp and mailing address. (It really does get there faster…)
If you’re looking to exercise your creativity, look for companies that are flexible and innovative. A more traditional setting might stifle this aspect of your geekiness.
As a geek, you tend to want to make a make a life instead of a career. This means you’re less likely to be a workaholic who runs yourself down and reduces your quality of work.
But be careful of becoming too dedicated to your “life” instead of your job; realistic, optimistic geeks understand that to live a good life, a job is a necessary and welcome component.
This mindset is tied closely to the geek desire to be creative. If an old model doesn’t work for you or the problem at hand, you’re willing to toss it out the door and try something new. You’d rather learn from what Joss Whedon can teach you about business than what the latest Wall Street guru has to say.
If a company’s looking for workers with a little bit of daring and open-mindedness, you’re their ideal candidate. A geek is more willing to help a company grow, adapt and develop through alternative methods than some of their older or non-geek counterparts.
It’s not all about just you and your life. You want to contribute something greater to the world and make it a better place, whether that be through the products you support or the way you live your life. (“Yep, this Superman shirt is 100 percent organic cotton!”)
It’s likely that if you’re a geek working for a company in the business of changing lives, you’ll feel passionate about that company’s goals, services and products.
Of course, not all geeks are created equal. And not all companies can handle having you work for them (and vice versa). As mentioned above, geeks work best in innovative companies.
But you’re also a huge force to be reckoned with in the workplace.
So when you’re applying for jobs, fly that geek flag high and make sure you apply to companies that not only provide professional growth, but also gladly accept your geeky character into their culture.
Bree Brouwer is a freelance blogger and content strategist who writes for FortressGeek.com, a Canadian-based online retailer full of nerdy goods. Bree and the staff at FG love helping geeks get paid to do what they’re passionate about.
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The post Revenge of the Geeks: How Your Geekiness Can Make You an Appealing Job Candidate appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2013/11/11/revenge-of-the-geeks-how-your-geekiness-can-make-you-an-appealing-job-candidate/feed/ 1The post 6 Appealing Skills to Include on Your Resume When You Change Careers appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> So you picked a degree in a career field you thought you’d love, but a few years into the daily grind, you’re no longer feeling it. What can you do when all your education and experience is in one field, but you know in your gut it’s time to move on?Don’t despair — you’re not the first person to find yourself in this pickle. Believe it or not, you can transfer plenty of skills from your field to your next dream job. (Click here to Tweet this thought.) And if you’re on the lookout for a drastic career change, quite a few unexpected jobs pay surprisingly well.
Here are six of the top transferable skills all employers want and how you can mine them from your experience, no matter how distant your ideal job seems from your current career:
Whether your experience has been arguing criminal cases in front of a jury or fielding customer complaints at a call center, your communication skills will serve you well as a career changer.
Being able to clearly communicate your thoughts, ideas and suggestions is valued in every workplace. In addition, if you’re adept at reading people and tweaking your communication style to meet the needs of those you work with, you’ll become invaluable to whatever organization you want to join.
Think of what your colleagues, clients and supervisors would say about your communication skills, and translate that praise into your resume and interviewing plan of attack.
Even if the only group you’ve had the chance to lead was your son’s little league team, your ability to lead a group, organize different players and manage unexpected situations — like rain or wardrobe malfunctions — will serve you well as you change careers.
Think back on your career for times when you were selected to lead a project, discussion or committee. Don’t rule out any time when you were able to take charge and facilitate a positive outcome.
Find ways to share examples from a universal perspective. Identify specific skills and outcomes rather than the tasks you performed. For example, you could say, “Led a team of 12 people to successfully meet and exceed goals for three quarters” rather than explaining the technical details of your work as an accountant, office manager or other specific position.
Your ability to broadly highlight your leadership and management abilities will put you at the top of the list in your new job search.
Being willing to do more than you’re asked — as well as the ability to anticipate the needs of your boss, customers or colleagues — are key factors to success in any industry. Identify examples of when you went above and beyond.
It could have been taking on an extra project, putting in extra hours or extending your patience to help train the new recruit. Highlight those examples, and be as specific as possible without pigeonholing yourself in the field you’re leaving.
If you received any service awards or other acknowledgement for your efforts, be sure to include those details in an “Awards and Recognitions” section on your resume.
Chances are there’s something about the job you’re leaving that you feel passionately about — there’s a reason you chose it in the first place. Identify those core elements that drove you into this field and isolate their value to your new field.
If you chose journalism because you love telling stories, but you’re burned out on chasing ambulances and legislative upsets, maybe you can parlay that love into working at your local library, social media management or Web marketing. Find a company, hobby or interest you enjoy and translate your storytelling skills into telling that story instead of dissecting the traumas and tribulations of the world.
All the clichés about juggling and hats come into play when you’re switching fields. If your job gave you the chance to fulfill more than one role at your company — such as managing both the marketing and the HR departments — highlight that experience when applying for jobs.
These skills are crucial, especially if you’re drawn to working for a non-profit or becoming a teacher, two of the hottest fields for career jumpers. In smaller companies and classrooms, you need to be able to manage more than one task at a time without losing sight of your ultimate goal — or losing control of your charges.
Believe it or not, your perfect attendance record and wasted vacation days can be a top selling point, no matter how big a jump your move from accountant to massage therapist seems. Just like clients need their taxes filed on time, clients also want a massage therapist to begin and end their $100 massage on time.
If you can be relied upon and don’t leave people waiting, you’re already on the road to success no matter what your career change is. But if you include “dependability” in the list of skills on your resume, make sure you have specific examples to back it up when you’re asked about it in an interview.
What other skills do you think all employers value?
Elli Bishop is the community manager for The Daily Buzz, the BusinessBee blog. You can follow BusinessBee on Twitter, Google+ or Facebook.
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The post 6 Appealing Skills to Include on Your Resume When You Change Careers appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2013/10/22/6-appealing-skills-to-include-on-your-resume-when-you-change-careers/feed/ 14The post Follow These Online Dating Rules to Find the Perfect Job Match appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> Your 20s are a time to explore the professional and personal passions that will stick with you for the rest of your life.But as just about every 20-something has figured out, searching is tough. It’s stressful and uncertain. Sometimes it’d be nice to have some help narrowing down your options.
This probably explains why more than a third of those using online dating sites are Millennials. eHarmony is one of the most popular sites, due in large part to the detailed assessments all users must complete at the start of the process. Though it may seem unromantic and even scientific at times, customers believe this extensive questionnaire will lead them to the romance of their dreams.
If you pay attention, you’ll notice many of the tactics you’d use to answer eHarmony’s questions resemble items your resume should also cover.
Grill your career experience using the same logical and detail-oriented method, and you’re well on your way to romancing the next company you meet into hiring you. Specifically, keep these six pointers in mind:
eHarmony asks you to be honest with yourself and with potential matches when you fill out their questionnaire, so why shouldn’t the same policy apply to your resume?
Preface the job history portion of your resume with a career statement or a statement of intent. Overworked hiring managers have little time and no patience for lies. Be clear about who you are, what you can do and why you’d be a perfect match for the position.
When you craft your online dating profile, you write with a specific kind of guy or gal in mind. Think the same way when you’re reworking that resume of yours.
Remember you’re writing (and rewriting) for the person you hope to meet or the company you hope will hire you. While you do have certain skills you’ll always include no matter what, no two jobs are identical. So you need to spin yourself in different ways for different jobs.
On any online dating site, you should try to be honest while also playing up your best traits. You want to cast the widest net and make yourself look as desirable as possible to the largest number of potential matches. Resume writing is no different. (Click here to tweet this thought.)
If you’re right out of school, weight your resume toward your academic and extracurricular accomplishments. But after a few years and a few jobs, it’s time to shift the emphasis onto the real-world proof that you’re a rock star. No one will care that you were in the honors college or performed in your university’s color guard. Shorten the education section of your resume, keep only the most important details and bump it to the bottom of the page.
Obviously, your resume won’t have the same emphasis on your personal interests as your dating profile. But to give recruiters and HR managers a better snapshot of who you are, consider adding a miscellaneous section to your resume to highlight what you’re passionate about. Your work as a freelance writer, blogger or artist can help you stand out from other candidates.
Everyone wants a viral resume — and would probably like their dating profile to go viral among the right set, too. But instead of going for flash, emphasize your most unique and desirable work-appropriate interests and accomplishments.
When it comes to dating profiles and resumes, no one wants to read a novel. Instead, share only the most valuable and pertinent details when describing the duties and overarching goals in your work experience.
There’s a reason text fields on dating profiles have set character limits. Follow their example. Unless you’ve worked for the same company for a while or your position is difficult to explain, try to keep each job description to less than 100 words.
Use power words and keep your word choice from verging on academic. Avoid vague words like “stuff” or “things.” Write in an active voice instead of using passive verbs. Aim to be concise and sound professional.
When you start writing your bio on eHarmony, you should write in a voice that’s uniquely yours — after all, your overarching goal is to find someone who will adore you for you, right?
Hiring managers are a little less interested in loving you for you and a little more into loving you for how you can fit with their company. With that in mind, look at the job listing and figure out how to pitch slap the heck out of the hiring manager.
Don’t exactly copy the tone you read in the listing, but try to fold it in — harmonize with it, if you will. You’re not out to be loved as a person; you’re out to demonstrate that you and that company belong together.
Emmie Scott is a Millennial lifestyle blogger, marketing exec and founder of World By Storm Consulting LLC, which seeks to bring together panels of experts in various fields to proactively start conversations with college seniors, filling in the gaps where career centers leave off and hiring managers pick up. Connect with Emmie and World By Storm on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.
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The post Follow These Online Dating Rules to Find the Perfect Job Match appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2013/10/11/follow-these-online-dating-rules-to-find-the-perfect-job-match/feed/ 4The post Simple Resume Tips to Stand Out in the Creative World appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> Do you aspire to work in a creative industry? A job where you’re able to be innovative on a daily basis: social media, Web designer, marketing manager, interactive or graphic designers?Beware: the creative world moves fast and can be cut-throat. Here’s how you set yourself apart with your resume:
If you work in the creative industry and you don’t have a portfolio, it’s simple: you won’t be employed.
Why? Because for most creative positions, the work is visual. A portfolio should be a collection of your latest and best work. It doesn’t matter if it’s a digital version or a hard copy as long as it’s properly presented and showcases your best work.
This may sound simple, but the layout is something most people wouldn’t even consider when submitting a resume. If you work in a creative industry, attention to detail matters! To make sure your resume stands out from the rest, your layout needs:
Again, this sounds overly simple, but font is something most people don’t consider, and it does matter.
You want a font that’s clear, easy to read and exceptionally neat. Using a font that’s inappropriate could cause the employer to not take your resume seriously. Yes, it’s as detrimental as that! Some favorites are:
Many resumes are full of empty promises. If you state that you’re innovative, creative and hardworking, make sure you prove it:
“I’m innovative because… I came up with a new design concept for a website.”
“I’m creative because… I proposed a brand new strategy and concept on an award-winning marketing campaign.”
“I’m hard working because… I turned around a client’s website in only six months. It originally ranked on page 10 of Google with no conversions and is now ranking on Google’s first page with a monthly conversion rate of 65 percent of traffic.”
When listing your credentials, back them up with valid claims. Short and sweet bullet points will do; you’ll likely be asked for further information in the interview.
You’d be surprised how badly written some resumes are. Don’t let yours be one of them.
Write up your resume, let it sit for a while and then return to it. You’re more likely to spot mistakes this way. If you’re still not completely confident, get a second opinion. It’s sometimes difficult to spot typos or grammatical errors because you know what you’re trying to say, so you’ll read it that way.
If two identical resumes are on file, but one is better written than the other, whose do you think will be chosen? It can be the difference between getting an interview or not.
You’re often advised to keep your written copy as simple as possible, but creative industries are ones where you can afford to get a little fancy with your words. You want your peers to enjoy reading your resume all the way to the end, so why not make it interesting for them?
James Baker works for G2 Recruitment, a leading recruitment agency that specializes in the world of digital media, among other areas.
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]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2013/08/20/simple-resume-tips-to-stand-out-in-the-creative-world/feed/ 1The post 4 Clever Ways to Use an Infographic Resume to Get Hired appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> Many questions come up while creating an infographic resume:Should you use a graph in line form or a pie chart?
Should you put a big number right up near the top so everyone can see that important stat?
Should you include company icons along with your job history?
If you set out to make an infographic resume on your own, here are a few key components of these creative resumes and how they affect the impact of your document:
What does a map say about you? It could say you’re willing to move for the right opportunity, you’re not afraid of traveling for work or it could say you’re a carefree traveler and haven’t quite made up your mind about what you want to do.
If you’re looking to maximize overseas work or want to show your global reach for strategic management opportunities, using a map is probably a good fit. If you’re simply showing someone you’re adventurous, it could backfire.
When you put a map on a resume, you want to make sure it’s in line with both your personality and the job you’re looking for. If there’s a disconnect between either of those things, it’s probably a good idea to scrap it.
Often, in a more traditional resume, you’ll see references attached at the end: a name, title, number and maybe an email address for each person. But who says references have to be at the end of a resume as an afterthought?
The question to ask yourself is: Who are the three most important or well-known people (or people with recognizable titles) you could get references from? It’s important that important people think you’re important!
This is a tricky one. QR codes are often misused and, even more often, don’t offer the kind of interactive experience they promise.
Should you use a QR code? If you’re going to direct somebody to a portfolio or some other interactive area on the Web, then this is acceptable. If you’re not going to give them something useful, forget about it.
If you’re absolutely sure about putting a QR code on your resume, here are some QR dos and don’ts:
DO link to portfolios, reels, an app you made, an interactive online piece you’ve created or a place where someone can buy your stuff.
DON’T link to your Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, another copy of your resume, a printable version of your resume or a home page.
Instead, make the PDF interactive and include links where relevant. Besides, how often is this really going to get printed?
There are many different charts you can use to define skills. Two favorites are the skill bubble and skill growth charts.
Here’s an example of a resume with a skill bubble chart:
You can see the growth in this person’s skills going from tactical to strategic over her career. It shows willingness to take on tasks with higher levels of thinking and responsibility. It’s something an employer interested in developing people for management positions likes to see.
Here’s a resume with a skill growth chart:
You can see what this person has done over time and how he’s learned and augmented his skill set. This chart is powerful for showing growth as well.
If you can show an employer, who might think less of your resume if you haven’t held a job title similar to the one you’re applying for, that your skills add up to awesomeness, that’s a big plus. That’s what these charts can do.
No matter which components you use, everything will convey a different message depending on the way it’s applied. Tailor each attribute of your new, creative resume to the right audience, and you’ll be on your way to infographic resume success.
Hagan Blount is based in New York City and has designed 40+ infographic resumes. He’s worked with everyone from developers in Qatar to risk managers in Kenya to PR professionals leaving Australia for a shot at the Big Apple and is excited to work with new and interesting people from all professions.
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]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2013/07/30/4-clever-ways-to-use-an-infographic-resume-to-get-hired/feed/ 11The post The Risks (and Rewards) of Lying During Your Job Hunt appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> Yahoo’s CEO Scott Thompson lost his job in 2012 because he falsified his resume. He lied about getting a computer science degree and was forced to resign when the truth came to light.“How could he do such a thing?” the American public cried out. “What kind of criminal lies on his resume?”
But as it turns out, just about everyone does. According to a recent AOL survey, 78 percent of respondents admitted to using a misleading resume when applying for a job. So before you cast stones, ask yourself this: Do you want to be part of the cheaters or the goody-goodies?
If the dark side is tempting you, here are the most popular ways to fool employers during a job search. But beware: each trick comes with its own traps.
You’re updating your resume and want to make your abilities pop off the page. So you simply change your knowledge of a computer program into a proficiency. A moment later, you’ve magically learned HTML—and co-founded your first company while accepting the Nobel Peace Prize.
The reward: You look more accomplished on paper.
The risk: You lose the job offer when your true abilities are exposed in an interview.
The consensus: Exaggerating your abilities on your resume can lead to a downward spiral of crippling lies. Don’t do it. Instead, emphasize your best skill that applies to the job.
It makes sense to glorify your work history. After all, interviewers will toss you aside if you sound like a complainer who clashes with management.
But you shouldn’t come across as a pushover, either. You want to actually enjoy your next job, so be honest about your expectations.
The reward: You come across as a good fit and a fun candidate.
The risk: You end up in a similar job situation and are similarly unhappy because you weren’t upfront about your expectations.
The consensus: A little sugarcoating is fine, but be honest about what you want to accomplish in the target position.
Here’s a question you’re guaranteed to face during your job search: “Why are you looking for work?”
The question you’ll then ask yourself is, “Should I say I left my job because it didn’t line up with my career goals, or should I admit I was let go?”
The reward: Avoid the negative connotation associated with being fired.
The risk: The hiring manager contacts your references and finds out the truth.
The consensus: You’ll be caught quickly. You can paint your breakup in a positive light, but don’t lie about what transpired.
Employers love measuring job performance with statistics and rankings. As you draft your resume and interview with hiring managers, it’s tempting to boast that you’re in the top three at your company even if it’s not exactly true.
The reward: Thanks to the stats, you look like a candidate who can impact the bottom line.
The risk: Your references reveal the truth about your “top three” ranking.
The consensus: You can get the job offer without fabricating your past performance. Plus, this type of lie generally comes back to bite you when the truth is exposed.
When drafting a resume, you have to omit pieces of your past. Hiring managers only want information that applies to the job, so choose your most impressive work examples and skills.
But there’s a thin line between omitting and disguising. If you’re using a functional resume to conceal a two-year work gap, hiring managers will wonder why you’re being so sneaky. What were you doing in those two years?
The reward: Your resume covers up major weaknesses.
The risk: Omitting obvious chunks of your past raises a huge red flag for employers.
The consensus: It’s okay to leave out small details that are irrelevant to the target job, but limit it to that: small, unrelated specifics.
Sometimes it seems like the only way to reach your salary expectations is to cheat the system. But while hiring managers might expect a little number-tampering nowadays, there are better ways to increase your starting pay.
The reward: $$$
The risk: Hiring managers generally confirm your job title and employment details—like salary—when contacting previous employers.
The consensus: If an employer wants you, they’ll pay you. Negotiate for a higher paycheck rather than lying about your salary history.
Rocco Brown-Morris is the content team manager for www.livecareer.com, America’s # 1 resume builder. Check them out at www.facebook.com/livecareer or on Google+ for advice and tips on all things career- and resume-related.
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]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2013/07/08/the-risks-and-rewards-of-lying-during-your-job-hunt/feed/ 9The post The Pros and Cons of Hiring a Resume Writer appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> With the large number of applicants vying for jobs, catching the attention of hiring managers with a strong resume and cover letter is a must. In the past few years, professional resume writers and writing service companies have popped up to help job seekers turn out professional documents. But should you hire such a service?Candidates who have a negative online reputation may want someone who can smoothly turn a phrase and improve their image. Or if you’ve been in a technical field and are applying for management or marketing jobs, your writing skills may need some tweaking to appeal to a different hiring criterion.
If you do feel professional writing would improve your resume, there are both pros and cons of hiring a resume writer. Here are a few aspects of outsourcing writing tasks that will help you make a strategic decision:
The new hiring paradigm involves waiting until the perfect candidate comes along. While there is really no direct correlation between someone’s writing skills and job performance, quality writing screams quality work. A grammatical mistake can be read as lack of attention to detail, and the use of slang can say you’re too informal in professional settings.
For many jobs, the ability to write clearly and effectively is essential. This includes any job with customer contact such as sales, marketing, customer service and technical support. A well-written resume will ensure you come across as a quality candidate for any job.
It’s no longer enough to do one aspect of a job. More employers are expanding job descriptions and increasing duties to compensate for the perceived instability in the economic climate. Often this involves writing your own reports and interacting more with customers with decreased support staff.
Demonstrating good writing on your resume tells a company’s HR department that they can count on you to fill cross-functional jobs and gives you a competitive edge over other candidates.
If you’ve been out of the job market for a period of time, it’s hard to know what the current hiring practices are without a lot of time-consuming research.
Many resume writing services have been in business for years and track industry trends. Their writers are trained in how to respond to the demands of HR professionals and hiring managers. Insider knowledge is an intangible benefit worth the cost of using a service.
Professionally written resumes are now so popular there’s almost no advantage to using one. Spell and grammar checks in your word processing program can ensure a minimum level of quality, and that may be all you need.
Many resume writing services are so busy they now just churn out resumes, many of which read the same. A resume with style and personality may be refreshing to a human resources manager who’s used to reading carbon copy documents every day.
If you’re out of work, the cost of a having a resume professionally written is a big consideration. Prices vary, with top online companies charging from $49 to $199 for their services.
Hiring an independent writer via Craigslist is one option to cut costs. This may be more economical and can give you more personalized attention…but it’s very difficult to gauge experience and success.
An eye-popping cover letter is personalized for the company and job you’re applying for. Your professionally written resume may include a standardized cover letter. If you write your own customized cover letter, it’s a sure tip-off that you’ve used a professional service, as it’s almost impossible to match writing styles. For many, this dilemma makes the decision not to use a resume writer easy.
The pros and cons of hiring someone to write your resume professionally need to be carefully weighed. The process is not for everyone, but for some, the benefits can outweigh the downsides.
That said? Creativity and style could be a more appropriate way to land your new job!
Sarah Boisvert is an author who writes on a variety of business and innovation topics. She also covers social media and online reputation management.
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]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2013/06/26/the-pros-and-cons-of-hiring-a-resume-writer/feed/ 16The post What You Should Leave Off Your Resume appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> Your resume may only be a single page, but it’s a potential minefield when it comes to your career. On one hand, you want enough information so the employer sees what a stellar candidate you are. On the other, you don’t want to step into any pitfalls that will give the hiring manager reason to exclude you.Here are the dos and don’ts for writing each section of your resume:
DO tell an employer about your skills and experience that are relevant to the position. Customize your resume for each position you’d like to pursue. A cookie-cutter approach to looking for work is less likely to be successful.
DON’T list every short-term job you’ve held. If you’ve worked at a number of temporary positions, it may look as though you have trouble holding a job. The exception is writing about a temporary job or internship that’s relevant to the position you’re applying for.
DO include your home phone number and main email address. Depending on how much privacy you have to take calls and pick up messages from a prospective employer at work, you may also want to include your cell number.
DON’T list your business phone number or email account on your resume. Your current employer may be monitoring your phone calls and email correspondence. Unless you want to be put in an awkward position or fired, you should keep all the details of your job search private.
If your cell phone was issued by your employer, you should consider it company property and make job search-related calls from your home or a personal device.
DO include a link to your LinkedIn profile if it will present you in professional manner. Go over it carefully before you share this information with a prospective employer. You’ll want to make sure that anything you’re writing will complement your resume.
DON’T share your personal Facebook or other social network links if they may contain anything you wouldn’t feel comfortable seeing on a billboard in the middle of your city. Something you or a friend posted as a private joke may not seem very amusing to a hiring manager and could cost you a job offer. Err on the side of keeping your private life private.
DO deal with any lengthy gaps in your employment history directly. If you took a year off from work to travel, for example, include that so that the employer can fill in this blank easily.
DON’T leave a blank space on the resume without an explanation. The employer may wonder if you have something to hide.
DO tell a potential employer if you have international experience, especially if you’re applying to a company with offices in other countries. If you’ve completed a study abroad semester as part of your university program, make sure this information is clearly highlighted.
DON’T tell an employer something the company doesn’t need to know. This includes information about your country of origin, culture, race or nationality. You also don’t need to reveal your citizenship status.
DO include volunteer experience on your resume. A recruiter may not necessarily consider a candidate with paid experience more desirable than a person who gave his or her time for free. As long as your volunteer experience fits with the job you’re trying to land, include it in your resume.
DON’T list volunteer time if it would be a stretch to see how it would fit with the position. If you aren’t sure you should add it to your resume, ask a trusted friend, an instructor or a career counselor for guidance. If they can’t immediately see the connection, an employer won’t be able to grasp it, either.
Follow these dos and don’ts to write a well-polished resume that shines. You’ll find it easier to get invited for an interview, which is your chance to demonstrate how you can benefit the company. That will be your opportunity to sell yourself to the employer.
Leslie Anglesey is an educator at University of Southern California and an editor for writing services. If you have any questions, connect with her at Google+ or drop a line at les.anglesey (at) gmail (dot) com.
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]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2013/05/23/what-you-should-leave-off-your-resume/feed/ 31The post 3 Ways to Land a Job Without Touching Your Resume appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> Use your talent to serve the American public! The IRS has a variety of career opportunities and is seeking bright people like you. Learn more here: http://jobs.irs.gov.What’s the one piece of paper you expect to represent your entire identity? No, not your birth certificate or Social Security card. It’s your resume, and the reason it’s so valuable is because it’s going to land you your dream job. Right?
Well… maybe not. Unfortunately, you’re not the only the only one who hopes this piece of paper is your ticket to a job.
In this competitive job market, openings receive resumes from hundreds of applicants. Some candidates send out hundreds of resumes and get just one interview. With all this competition, let’s jump into how you can really stand out in a sea of potential employees:
Your resume is not the only way to get a job. So many applicants rely on their resumes alone to present themselves. Come up with another way to stand out from the crowd, or else you’re fighting an uphill battle alongside droves of other applicants.
Take Philippe Dubost, for example. This January, he built an online resume that resembled an Amazon product page. After promoting this creative resume online, it received 1.3 million unique visitors in three weeks (1,000,000 in just the first eight days) as well as 39,000 Facebook likes, 1,100 emails, 800 LinkedIn connection requests and 2,149 Twitter mentions.
Philippe is currently in the process of discussing job opportunities. Instead of fighting with tons of other candidates for one job, he’s the one candidate the companies are fighting to hire.
Imagine you were in the position to hire someone with your same exact resume. What makes you the candidate so special? Communicate how you can add value to your ideal company or organization.
Sadly, this is the step most people miss when looking for a job. In today’s job market, companies want to know how you can grow their company from day one.
Yes, you read that right; today’s employees should actively be marketing themselves to the companies they want to work for. Finding a novel way to do this helps.
Alec Brownstein’s success story is a perfect example of this strategy. In 2010, Brownstein landed a job at Y&R New York, a well-known and respected advertising agency. He did it by using Google AdWords associated with top creative directors. When they Googled themselves, they saw his ad. He landed interviews with all five creative directors he targeted.
Brownstein spent a total of $6 and didn’t even have a resume. Instead, he came up with a great way to market himself to the companies he wanted to work for.
Even if you don’t have the skills to build a Google AdWords campaign or faux Amazon product page to market yourself, you can still learn from these applicants’ success. Your Web presence—whether you showcase your personality in your LinkedIn bio, your online resume or go so far as to launch a website—can be just as powerful as your resume, if not more so.
Get the attention of prospective employers. Being unique will set you apart. When you do something special, out of the box or different, you’re showing potential employers that you are someone who can problem-solve to get results.
Nick Reese is an author, entrepreneur and change maker. Along with the team at Microbrand Media, he built ForgetYourResume.org, a simple, free, open source tool to help you create amazing online resumes quickly.
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]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2013/04/16/3-ways-to-land-a-job-without-touching-your-resume/feed/ 3The post 4 Tips for Designing a Resume That Will Get You Hired appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> You’ve read all the advice for writing a stellar resume and applied all the tips for great content. You’ve spent hours reviewing and perfecting it line by line. Friends have checked and double checked your spelling and grammar.But you’re still not getting callbacks. Is there anything else you can possibly do to improve your resume so your chances at landing a job are better?
It could be time to leave the content alone. Instead, focus your energy on the design. Yes, I said design.
Consider that hiring recruiters only look at an individual resume for between six seconds (according to a study conducted by TheLadders) and 15 seconds (according to Chameleon Resumes). A well-organized and visually pleasing resume is important to make a strong first impression.
These four tips will help draw the eye to important information and create visual order:
Fonts fall into two main groups: serif fonts and sans-serif fonts. Times New Roman and Cambria are serif fonts, meaning each letter has a tiny edge. Arial and Calibri are rounder, sans-serif fonts. (Wikipedia’s article on serifs gives a quick explanation of the difference.)
The difference is important because serif fonts look great at larger point sizes, but the further you reduce them, the less legible they are. The serifs create clutter and strain the eyes, especially in large blocks. They are not good to use in the main body of your resume.
Instead, use a serif for section headers and a sans-serif for the body. The change in font creates clear visual separation that attracts the eye to important information.
For example, use Cambria for job titles and the dates you were employed, then switch to Calibri for the content describing the position. TheLadders reports that company titles and employment dates are two of the most reviewed parts of your resume. Changing the font will guide the eye naturally to these sections.
If you prefer to stick to one font for consistency, use a sans-serif. Sans-serifs look fine in larger text and are still easy to read in smaller sizes.
Spacing is an important visual cue to the brain, as well as a resting space for the eyes. Two common mistakes on resumes are:
I can’t say it enough: spacing is important. The visual cue it sends to our brains can’t be replaced by bold text. Nothing says “this section is ending and the next is beginning” like a nice double space in your document.
It’s equally important to keep the header and its associated content grouped together. Section headers should not be stranded out in the middle of no man’s land. Remember, a recruiter spends less than 15 seconds scanning your resume. Anyone should be able to glance at a section header and automatically understand it belongs with the bullets below.
If you like a cleaner look with lots of white space, use half the amount of space between section title and content in relation to the space used between sections. Your resume will still have white space, but you won’t sacrifice visual organization.
Every line you can save in your main header is one more line you can dedicate to describing your skills below. Every piece of contact information does not need its own line like this resume example or this one. Instead, use one line for your entire address and another for your cell phone number and email. Here’s a great example of a space-saving header.
Don’t list multiple addresses, phone numbers or email addresses. List the closest address to the job you’re applying for. Include the one phone number and one email address where you can most easily be reached.
A recruiter will glaze right over large chunks of text on a resume because paragraphs don’t stand out. List your accomplishments in bullets to improve the chances of catching the recruiter’s eye.
If you submit most of your resumes through online applications, you may be tempted to write in paragraphs because bullets don’t always copy well into form fields. Don’t give in to this temptation! The solution is to keep three identical resume documents up to date:
Use dashes instead of bullet points for the .txt document. The dashes will copy and paste without format errors into an online application.
It’s slightly more work to keep three documents up to date, but the extra effort will be well worth it when you start getting follow-ups.
Have you applied any of these tips to your resume? Has it made a difference?
Bridget Conrad is an advertising and marketing professional. She writes Branded, a photography blog about the everyday adventures and misadventures of attempted adulthood.
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]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2013/03/28/4-tips-for-designing-a-resume-that-will-get-you-hired/feed/ 16The post 8 Ways to Fast-Track Your Application to the Top of a Recruiter’s Pile appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> Use your talent to serve the American public! The IRS has a variety of career opportunities and is seeking bright people like you. Learn more here: http://jobs.irs.gov.Applying for jobs is a challenging task, one made all the more difficult when you know your recruiter has dozens of other applicants to consider.
Instead of getting lost in the crowd, here are some things you can do to fast-track your resume to the front of a long queue:
Some recruiters and HR professionals appreciate you calling or emailing them before you submit your application. That way, they will be on the lookout for your application or, at the very least, your name will ring a bell when they see it. Be strategic with your timing, though; don’t call them at 5:00 p.m. on a Friday when they will be busy.
You might not be able to get hold of them on the first attempt, or they might not respond to your first email. But it’s okay to follow up on your messages as long as you don’t do it too often. Waiting at least a week is usually recommended, but it depends on who you’re working with. Don’t think of following up as bothering the recruiter; think of it as showing how much of a go-getter you are.
Your ultimate aim here is to make a good impression, which won’t happen if you get their name wrong. Even if you’re looking at several different opportunities, make sure you know who you’re contacting each time and address that person appropriately.
Not tailoring your resume is usually a game-killer. If your resume isn’t tailored for a specific position, it looks like you didn’t care enough to put the time in. Make your resume relevant for the job you want and know the extra effort will benefit you later.
Have a catchy personal profile or summary at the top that makes you sound interesting and committed. Recruiters read hundreds of profiles, and the more you can make yours stand out, the better. Don’t use the usual generic spiel and buzzwords—aim to think outside the box while remaining professional.
Your resume can only be one or two pages, so the details you include need to be maximally relevant and advantageous. The information recruiters are looking for to bump you up the queue are your key skills and experience, so internships and job experience should be prominent. Emphasize the responsibilities and skills you acquired at each role by listing them under each title.
Hobbies and interests may not seem like the most critical section on your resume, but they’re still important. This is where you can show what you’re like as a person and what makes you different and fun. Don’t write about your run-of-the-mill hobbies like “watching movies” or “listening to music”; instead, include interests that give you a sense of uniqueness, traits that will help the recruiter remember you.
It shows dedication, organization and awareness if you apply long before the deadline. It also means your resume will be one of the first the recruiter sees, and if it impresses them, it makes their job—and yours!—a lot easier. When you decide you want to apply somewhere, don’t stall; get that application out as soon as possible.
Anna Pitts is a Marketing Assistant and Online Researcher at the Graduate Recruitment Bureau. Her work involves PR and outreach and writing informative, interesting advice-based articles for graduates and students.
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The post 8 Ways to Fast-Track Your Application to the Top of a Recruiter’s Pile appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2013/03/12/8-ways-to-fast-track-your-application-to-the-top-of-a-recruiters-pile/feed/ 6The post Why You Should Create Your Own ‘Failure Resume’ appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> We all remember when we failed our first test, and we know too well that it’s impossible to erase the memory of our first romantic rejection. There’s no denying that failure is hard to forget.But there’s a light at the end of this painful trip down memory lane. Perhaps Henry Ford put it best when he said, “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again—this time more intelligently.”
There’s always an intelligent way to handle any failure you come across in life. The most intelligent way I’ve found is to record my failures in what I like to call a “failure resume.”
The first time I heard this term was back in 2009. Stanford professor Tina Seelig blogged about how she required her students to write a “failure resume.”
These resumes don’t highlight what one would typically expect to find in a resume. Instead of compiling successes, they list personal, professional and academic failures. After each failure, she had her students reflect on what they learned throughout the process. Genius.
When considering what to add to your own failure resume, it’s important to know the distinction between a failure and a mistake. They aren’t one and the same. A failure is a lack of success, whereas a mistake is an incorrect action. Failure doesn’t necessarily have to stem from a mistake.
Here are the two strongest reasons for using this type of marketing document:
1. It helps you learn from your failures. Too often, we are uncomfortable admitting our work has failed. We’re quick to put our failures behind us. But why not learn from them? Purposefully take the time to understand what you accomplished, determine what you learned throughout the process and decide what you would do differently.
2. You can more easily assess how much risk you’re taking on in your current role. Most people are overly satisfied with their performance in their current roles. They’re accomplishing their goals and moving their careers and organizations forward, but if you were to ask them the last time they failed at work, they’d likely be stumped.
Don’t play it too safe. As Woody Allen once said, “If you are not failing every now and again, it’s a sign that you’re not doing anything very innovative.”
As you create your own resume, you’ll have a chance to reflect on what you’ve done right—and what you haven’t. This, in itself, should be motivation to improve.
One of the tricks used to get to the root cause of a problem is the “five whys” technique. When creating your failure resume, list a failure and then try to answer one simple question: why did this project fail?
From there, take your answer and try to drill down further by continuing to answer “Why?” four more times. Eventually, you’ll reach the root cause of the failure. This is your chance to address that cause.
You can try and ignore it, but odds are, you’ll face the same issue again. Don’t let that happen! Save yourself from the disappointment of having to list the same failure, year after year, by nipping the issue in the bud right now.
The majority of organizations nowadays have a review process to evaluate their employees with annual or quarterly check-ins. During the process, each employee takes the time to list all their successes over that time period, eventually consolidating the entire year’s achievements.
But failure is quite possibly the strongest tool organizations have when trying to better themselves. That’s why it deserves a place in the review process.
Organizations would do well to carve out a bit of space on their “personal development plans” to actually capture these failures. Discussing failure would likely prove to be a significantly more meaningful discussion than simply having employees cite all their accomplishments. Unfortunately, until organizations are able to incorporate a “tolerance” for failure into their culture, it’s unlikely that you’ll see much traction in this space.
Make yourself a belated New Year’s resolution: use your failures as catalysts for growth.
By utilizing a failure resume, you can prevent yourself from traveling down the path to failure again. The best way for a person and an organization to grow is by admitting their failures and learning from them.
Maybe there’s a reason failure is so hard to forget.
Matt Hunt is a professional speaker, blogger, consultant and founder of Stanford and Griggs, LLC. With over 20 years of business and technology experience, he has a demonstrated excellence in business strategy, innovation and leadership development with large companies, small companies and non-profit organizations.
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The post Why You Should Create Your Own ‘Failure Resume’ appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2013/02/06/why-you-should-create-your-own-failure-resume/feed/ 17The post 3 Ways to Avoid Grammar Gaffes that Could Ruin Your Resume appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> Your tie is straight and your hair is neat. You’ve practiced that perfect handshake. You’re more than ready to dazzle a potential employer…but none of that matters if you haven’t yet gotten the call for an interview.Remember: it’s not only your experience or skills that will make or break your application; in many cases, it’s the grammar on your resume.
Your resume is the first thing about you a potential employer sees—and even though your skills and past experience will be carefully evaluated, so will your professionalism. One of the fastest ways for a potential employer to get a sense of your professional character is the spelling, grammar and punctuation on your resume. A resume without typos can mean the difference between being called in for an interview or being passed over for another candidate.
More than two-thirds of all office jobs require a significant amount of writing, making written communication a key consideration in hiring. The bottom line is that employers need to be totally sure you’re able to fire off emails, reports and other documents quickly and flawlessly—and your resume is an effective measuring stick.
Although that seems obvious to many job seekers, a recent Grammarly study found the average candidate makes up to six spelling, punctuation and grammar mistakes in his or her resume. Six! With that many errors in a document meant to showcase your talents, imagine how many mistakes might end up in an email or report.
Here are a few steps to ensure your writing will not scare off potential employers:
Seriously. When you stare at your resume for too long, simple mistakes (such as spelling “and” as “adn”) can go unnoticed. Only contextual spell checkers like Grammarly (full disclosure: that’s where I work) account for words that are spelled correctly but not in context. Examples include confusion between “your” and “you’re” and “then” and “than.”
Linguists and writers consistently argue about the specific rules related to proper use of grammar. And, although “grammar” is a pretty broad term, for the purposes of your resume and job search, there is only one true metric that potential employers consider as they look to decipher the grammar in your resume: does this make sense?
When talking about past work experience, consistently use verbs in the past tense. Job seekers who talk about a current position should use the present tense (“lead” versus “led,” etc.). Makes sense, right?
Use a thesaurus to find words with the same meaning so you don’t sound like a broken record. A wider vocabulary shows your potential employer you are creative and resourceful, while “I am a dedicated person who is dedicated to my job” does not. It just makes sense!
Read your writing aloud when proofreading. You will catch errors you might miss otherwise. You will also notice if your sentences make sense or sound odd, which is something spelling and grammar checkers cannot tell you.
Choose a format, and stick with it! Having bullet points in one section of a resume and numbers in the next is distracting. Make sure all your fonts are the same type, size and color (which should always be black). Review your resume or document for general uniformity, and if one section stands out, tweak it to match the rest.
Checking for all these seemingly minor errors might make you cringe, but many resources online can help. Websites such as Words, Answers and Handbook are just a few of the online resources you can use to catch mistakes and improve your writing.
Good resume writing can help you land that dream job interview—and, once that’s in order, you can take advantage of that perfect handshake.
Make sense?
Brad Hoover joined Grammarly as CEO in 2011 to help perfect written English.
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The post 3 Ways to Avoid Grammar Gaffes that Could Ruin Your Resume appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2012/12/04/3-ways-to-avoid-grammar-gaffes-that-could-ruin-your-resume/feed/ 15The post How to Write a Deliciously Enticing Resume Recruiters Won’t Want to Put Down appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> In today’s digital age, who doesn’t have a short attention span? There’s so much information available that if certain content doesn’t capture us, we’ll drop it and find something that does.Keep this front of mind when writing your resume. Essentially, to write an enticing resume, you have to switch from being an engineer or finance executive to a marketer so that you can capture the attention of anyone who glimpses at your application. Recruiters and hiring managers might spend only a few seconds looking at your resume, and you need to communicate a lot in those few seconds.
If your written communication is enticing from the get-go, the reader will be impressed. That person will read a little further, confirming their belief about the quality of the document—which means you, the candidate, are likely to get a call. If your written communication doesn’t grab their attention, your opportunity is gone for good. Even if that person does continue to read on, he’ll be looking for evidence to confirm his first conclusion: that the resume isn’t good enough to make the cut.
Your resume is the first impression you make in the hiring process. With that in mind, here are five tips that will help you write a resume that’s enticing, one that won’t get culled unnecessarily. Some of these might seem obvious, but the mistakes are quite common, so it’s worth a reminder.
We humans are very clever, but we’re not mind-readers, even with our evolved mental processes. So when a recruiter sees things on a resume that don’t align with that particular job they’re recruiting for, it’s onto the next resume—anything to speed up the shortlisting process. Because if you don’t seem like the right fit, the pile of resumes promises someone better.
Stock standard resumes simply don’t work. Different roles require different standout skills. Nobody wants to receive a cover letter saying “Dear Sir…” Make sure you customize not only for the role, but for the reader, too.
A recruiter once told me I wouldn’t be able to get a job as an HR project manager in a bank because I had no banking experience. Another, less-experienced recruiter, recruiting for the same role had a different opinion, sent me for an interview—and I got the job!
We’ve all been in the position where we made a decision we were certain about, only to later realize we were wrong. Even though we believed wholeheartedly we were right, new information emerges and, well, we realize we didn’t know enough at the time to make an informed decision.
Nobody is immune to making those judgment errors. That’s why it’s vitally important that you don’t give recruiters any further reason to be careless with your resume. A careless mistake on your part where relevant, important information has been left out could cost you that job.
And don’t be afraid to boast. Better to oversell yourself than undersell, right?
Since the reader will likely only spend a few seconds skimming your resume, your task is to make sure the most important information (a.k.a. the details that will get you the job) are at the top. This will help the recruiter focus on what makes you different and why you should get the job.
Displaying your most important information near the top of your resume will heighten your chances of getting noticed. Don’t hide details that could make you the best choice.
How do you ensure that your resume doesn’t get culled unnecessarily and much too soon? Don’t give recruiters reason to discard you.
Your resume must not only look and feel good, but must also be filled with GREAT content. It is essentially proving that you’re the right fit for the role you’ve applied for. Spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, missing information, too much information and words that are out of place all contribute to increasing the chances of your resume being dumped into the “thanks, but no thanks” basket. Making your resume flawless increases the chances of getting that job you’re so excited about.
Each word on your resume must serve a purpose. And that purpose is simple: to get the reader to read the next word.
Look at it as a competition. For a word to be on the page, it needs to be one hell of a mighty word. The better you choose your words, the more likely whoever reads them will invite you for an interview.
So take a look at your resume and ask yourself: What does my resume communicate? If I were a complete stranger, would I be interested in reading my resume?
Irene Kotov is the founder of Arielle Consulting and is passionate about people, careers and management. Through resume writing services and interview coaching, Irene works with job seekers to help them create a powerful impression throughout the job search and beyond, focusing on written, verbal and non-verbal communication skills.
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The post How to Write a Deliciously Enticing Resume Recruiters Won’t Want to Put Down appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2012/11/29/how-to-write-a-deliciously-enticing-resume-recruiters-wont-want-to-put-down/feed/ 13The post Why You Should Think Twice About That Infographic Resume appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> Quirky, brightly colored infographics are growing in popularity among today’s job applicants. But chances are you probably should not use an infographic resume.So if you’re considering paying a designer to make a flashy infographic resume for you, consider these two points first:
Most careers are not creative. You may enjoy dressing your cat in a hat at home, but once you get to your cubicle, you’re all spreadsheets and invoices, and that’s just fine.
Creative industries comprise four percent of all businesses and two percent of all employees, according to Americans for the Arts. That means that only two percent of you could probably benefit from a funky infographic resume.
Some careers lend themselves quite naturally to infographic resumes, such as those in graphic design, art or even interior design. But for the rest of us, it makes more sense to stick to the tried-and-true print resume format. A subtle dash of color in section titles or a colored paper as background is about as artistic as most of us should get with our professional documents.
Consider not only your position but the company you’re applying to. Would hiring managers there really appreciate an infographic? Some design companies are surprisingly utilitarian in their operations, even if they’re cutting-edge in their designs.
Even if you’re submitting a creative resume for an appropriate industry like graphic design, consider including a standard formatted resume as well, because it might be more suited for official purposes like recordkeeping.
Don’t bother with an infographic resume unless you’re going to design it yourself. Using a software service or designer just won’t be worth the money or time.
Why? Because if you’re offering an infographic resume, it’s to display your talents as an artist, not your outsourcing abilities. By paying someone else or using software, you could look lazy.
Worse, you might even end up with a subpar final product. As they say, if you want it done right, do it yourself.
Don’t make an infographic resume just because you’ve heard it’s a popular trend. Remember, this is the document that’s supposed to sell you and your skills to a potential employer. The only time you should venture into infographic territory is when you’re 100 percent positive it will work to your advantage.
Have you ever tried an infographic resume? How did it work out?
is a professional resume consultant for a leading online resume builder company and is also a freeform career enthusiast. He eats, sleeps and breathes resumes and particularly enjoys looking at the world of employment from unique and unexplored perspectives.
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The post Why You Should Think Twice About That Infographic Resume appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2012/11/26/why-you-should-think-twice-about-that-infographic-resume/feed/ 27The post How to Get Away with Lying on Your Resume appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> When is it not only beneficial, but also morally acceptable, to lie on your resume? Only in instances when you’re lying to yourself for the benefit of self-confidence.Much has been written about building confidence for an interview. But how do you get the interview in the first place? It still comes down to how you look on paper—your resume and cover letter have to pop.
To be sure, lying to yourself without misrepresenting who you truly are is a balancing act. Here are some tips you can use to pull it off:
Own your successes, big or small. You’ve done some remarkable things. Find an artful way to include these achievements in your resume or cover letter. You might not think it’s a big deal, but this is where you need to overcome the subjectivity of your self-view and derive confidence from your accomplishments.
If you worked part-time as a server while maintaining a 3.5 GPA throughout school, point to this as a demonstration of your impeccable work ethic.
If you were president of your fraternity and raised $5,000 for a local charity through an event you organized, highlight your advanced organizational and management skills.
Train yourself to accept compliments and use them to your advantage. If your supervisor at your latest internship tells you you’re a great problem solver, roll with it, regardless of whether or not you agree with the assessment.
Rather than asking for a formal reference, ask former employers and professors—those who have worked with you and can speak to your abilities—to help you craft a resume and cover letter that helps you put your best foot forward.
Use these comments and compliments to help you define your strengths as a job candidate. Your self-view might be conflicted to an extent, but consider the source.
Don’t let the pursuit of the perfect job stand in your way of getting hired. The truth is, most job descriptions list attributes and qualifications they assume the right candidate will possess. Some are strict. Others are, at best, an educated guess.
In a highly competitive job market, employers continue to enjoy the luxury of selectivity in the hiring process. You’ve probably seen it: it’s the perfect job description, but you’re missing out on one of the 10 soft skills they’re requiring. (“I’m not sure if I’m a true ‘self-starter.’”)
Rest assured, if you’re checking off most of the boxes in the qualifications and requirements sections of a job description, you’re likely a highly competitive candidate. Whether you believe it or not, present yourself to employers as the candidate they’ve been looking for all along.
Finally, know your limits as a candidate. The word “expert” is one of the most commonly overused words on resumes and one that can come back to bite you.
For example, knowing how to use Microsoft Excel does not make you an Excel expert. If you consider yourself to be an advanced user, by all means, work that into your resume. But be careful not to overstate things.
Confidence is a double-edged sword. Displaying overconfidence can paint you as out of touch or arrogant, while being more reserved or timid can come across as weak. As with everything in life, make it a goal to strike that healthy balance.
And if you have to lie to yourself to get there, do so confidently.
(Of course, never lie about facts. It’s wrong on many levels and is a huge resume blunder that’s easily avoidable.)
Eddie Earnest is the lead marketer at HigherNext and a regular contributor to Corporate Casual, a blog focused on exploring trends in higher education, entry-level hiring and the assessment of business skills.
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The post How to Get Away with Lying on Your Resume appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2012/11/23/how-to-get-away-with-lying-on-your-resume/feed/ 23The post 5 Real-Life Resume Blunders You Can Be Glad You Didn’t Make appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> Find out if your resume will land you in the resume black hole, or make you stand out. Get our top 5 resume tips now!Your resume can be the key that unlocks the door to a new job. Or, it can be the blast of cold wind that slams the door shut before you ever get close to an interview.
We asked some employers to tell us about the biggest resume blunders they’ve experienced—and they had plenty to share.
So, while you’re busy unifying your fonts and running spell check, don’t lose site of the big picture. Here are five resume mega-blunders to avoid at all costs:
The CEO of Lexion Capital Management gets plenty of “dear sir …” cover letters from job seekers. Problem is, Elle Kaplan is decidedly a woman, and Lexion is one of the only 100 percent women-owned and operated investment firms in the U.S.
Applicants, she said, have “been assuming that I am a male! Huge mistake.”
Moral of the story: Don’t make assumptions! Do some research and figure out to whom you are sending your resume. Failing that, be gender neutral. And, no, we’re not talking about “dear sir or madame”—unless, of course, you’re applying for a job in 1974.
A resume template can be great…as long as you don’t forget to fill the thing out. Elaine Simon of DeBebians.com received a resume from an applicant who obviously used a template.
“Seeing the telltale ‘ABC School – Sometown, NY’ on a resume definitely sends that candidate directly into the trash,” Simon said.
Moral of the story: Pay attention to the details. Proofread your resume, then have your mom, local grocer or stranger on a bus give it a look before you fire it off into cyberspace.
Consultant Barry Maher received a resume that boasted that the applicant had won something called the “Executive Merit Award.” The problem was, no one at the guy’s former company had heard of the award.
“He simply replied that it was probably because after he’d won it three years in a row, the company retired the reward in his honor,” Maher said.
Moral of the story: Real accomplishments are impressive; fake ones, not so much. So don’t lie on your resume. It seldom turns out well. Oh, and an embellishment is just a lie by another name.
Vanessa Hojda, a York psychology student in Canada, thought she was sending her resume to a prospective employer via email. What she really sent was a photo of a wild-eyed Nic Cage, causing her job search to go viral.
Moral of the story: Again, pay attention to the details so you only send what you intend to send. When you save your resume, give it a name that’s easy to identify.
There was a time when we would have said you could never do too much research for a prospective job. That was before we talked to Steve Jones, VP of programing for Newcap Radio.
“[A job candidate] knew my wife’s maiden name, and the names of my kids,” Jones said. “He referenced not only things that I had accomplished in my career, but family events that he should have no knowledge of. Using social media, he had gone deep and done his research.”
Moral of the story: Research is good, but stalking is not. Focus more on the industry, the company and its competition than on the actual hiring manager’s personal life. (That means no rummaging through his trash cans.)
Have you made any resume blunders that you can (finally) laugh about?
Luke Roney is the content guy at CareerBliss, an online community dedicated to helping people find happiness at every stage of their careers.
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The post 5 Real-Life Resume Blunders You Can Be Glad You Didn’t Make appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2012/11/02/5-real-life-resume-blunders-youre-glad-you-didnt-make/feed/ 12The post If You Really Want to Make Your Point, Start Stripping appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> Get our best career advice delivered to your inbox. Sign up today!Have you ever looked at your cluttered desk or closet and gotten the feeling that you have too much stuff? That all the possessions you own are actually starting to own you?
Be careful, because having too much stuff can become a habit that could harm your job search as well.
In 2008, I moved from Washington, D.C. to Chicago. I desperately wanted to use movers, but they were too expensive. At my roommate’s advice, I sold most of my stuff, packed what was left into my car, drove to Chicago and used the furniture proceeds (plus what I would have spent on movers) to buy new stuff.
Reducing my possessions to the bare essentials was powerfully liberating. It taught me the virtue of “less is more”—that, given the chance, we all keep too much stuff; but when forced, we can make drastic cuts in our lives. And stripping away the unnecessary doesn’t lead to any real downside. Actually, such cuts allow us to move more freely and even communicate more clearly.
The same mentality has implications for resumes, elevator pitches and interviews:
Parkinson’s law states that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” I like to think of that when traveling. Bring a large suitcase, and I’ll probably fill it. Commit to a backpack, and I’ll bring only what’s needed and probably be fine. (Obviously this isn’t true in every instance.)
Same goes for your resume—commit to one page and stick to that. It will force you to keep your most relevant experience and ditch the fluff. Recruiters spend about six seconds looking at your resume, so even if you have tons of other info, it probably won’t even be noticed. If you’re worried about getting past resume robots, you can always include keywords from the job description to optimize the one page you have. But keeping everything to one page shows your best information in the most digestible way.
While the one-page-only advice isn’t applicable in every instance, unless you’re applying for a C-level role, stick to one page.
As with your resume, if you try to cram everything into your elevator pitch, you’re doomed. Attention spans are short and getting shorter, so you need to distill what you offer, how you add value and why someone needs to hire you into a brief pitch. Conventional wisdom says your elevator pitch should be 30-60 seconds, but the shorter the better.
One can’t overstate how easily distracted or bored people get, so you need to make your point right away. Brevity is key!
If you’ve ever caught yourself rambling through an answer at an interview, you can certainly appreciate the “less is more” virtue. An interview isn’t just about whether you give the right answers, it’s also about how you communicate the right answers.
If you ramble and wander through a response, eventually coming to the correct answer, you’re dead in the water. If you can distill your answer down to the most essential elements—and communicate those elements clearly and succinctly—your chances skyrocket. You could even get the answer wrong, but if you deliver it in a clear, thoughtful and brief way, you’ve still got a shot. It’s all about the delivery.
Since my D.C./Chicago move, I’ve been constantly reminded of the power of brevity and eliminating the unnecessary. It’s almost like an immutable law of physics. Keep only what’s critical, strip away what’s not, and you’ll think, write and communicate more effectively.
Tim Murphy is a writer and the founder of ApplyMate, a free job application tracking tool. When he’s not writing about career issues and entrepreneurship, Tim is running, writing gear reviews and eating his way through Chicago.
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The post If You Really Want to Make Your Point, Start Stripping appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2012/10/10/if-you-really-want-to-make-your-point-start-stripping/feed/ 4The post 4 Non-Traditional Ways to Get Killer Resume Feedback appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> This post is made possible through Brazen’s partnership with LearnVest, which empowers women to take control of their personal finances and live their richest lives. For more LearnVest, sign up for their daily newsletter here.
Your resume. It’s the key that opens the city’s gates.
If it’s not close to perfect, you’ll be tossed into the rejection pile faster than the speed of light.
Hiring managers traditionally look at your resume, follow up with your LinkedIn profile and then call you for an interview. If you’re rarely getting interviewed, you need some serious feedback. Like right now.
But where can you get reliable feedback? Your friends only want to look at your resume so many times.
Here are a few non-traditional places to find out where your resume needs improving:
You know that person you don’t get along with? He might irritate the hell out of you, but he’s also smart.
Try asking him for advice. Why? Because he won’t brown-nose you or tell you what you want to hear. He’ll give you straight-up, actionable feedback.
Why would you want to get advice from someone who doesn’t like you that much and isn’t very nice? Because your friends might tell you your resume looks great, which is entirely unhelpful.
This might not be easy, but it’s worth dealing with him for 15 minutes if it helps you land a job, right?
Your old boss has hired you before. Find out why.
Fire a bunch of questions at her. Ask what she liked about you as an employee and what appealed to her on your resume. Laser in on these attributes as you make edits.
Why is your old boss such a valuable asset? Because she actually makes hiring decisions, and she knows how to help you leverage your skills and experience.
What do strangers in coffee shops have in common with resume screeners? They both don’t know you.
This could also be the perfect excuse to talk to that cute guy you’ve been eyeing across the cafe. Tell him your friend asked for some feedback on her resume, and you’re wondering if he can quickly help you out.
Resume readers take an average of 5-20 seconds to skim a resume (usually on the lower end of the spectrum). So give him 20 seconds to read it before you snatch it back.
Now here’s the important part: ask him what he remembers about the resume.
If he doesn’t remember much about you, neither will anyone else.
What better place to get constructive criticism and get eaten alive by trolling piranhas than the Internet?
If you’re as gutsy as they come (or just desperate for a job), post your resume to Reddit’s job section or another forum and ask for feedback.
Be sure to remove any information that identifies you. (You could even fabricate company names.) As long as the meat of the resume remains the same, you’ll get valuable suggestions for improvement.
Remember: there’s a lot of garbage out there on the Web, so don’t take anything people say too personally.
The most important part of the job search process is to never give up. Constantly improve your resume and keep your eyes open for opportunities.
Most winners have gotten where they are because they failed, learned and tried again.
Johann Beishline is the 19-year-old Co-Founder and CMO of LineShed, a personal PR firm specializing in resumes and LinkedIn profiles. Follow him on Twitter @LeadersWin or @LineShed.
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The post 4 Non-Traditional Ways to Get Killer Resume Feedback appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2012/09/25/4-non-traditional-ways-to-get-killer-resume-feedback/feed/ 12The post A Resume that Looks Like Google Analytics appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> If you’ve ever considered doing something creative with your resume, have a look at this one featured by Business Insider.The creator, Simone Fortunini, an online marketing manager, modeled the look of his resume on Google Analytics.
How cool is THAT?!
Business Insider writes:
Fortunini tells us that since his work experiences stem from online marketing and advertising campaigns, Google Analytics is a basic tool that those in his industry work with, and he wanted to create a resume illustrating his understanding in online marketing, graphic design abilities and HTML skills.
“My intent with this project is showing both the two sides of my professionality in digital: a good technological understanding and an online marketing knowledge,” Fortunini says. “Trying to analyze my professional path like a ‘web site performance’ has been hard, but helpful to get an objective point of view about current achievements and future goals.”
Want to see the resume? Click over to the full Business Insider piece.
Then stop back here and tell us what you think!
You might also take this a step further and ask yourself: If you were to turn your resume into a visual tool used by people in your target industry, what would it be?
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The post A Resume that Looks Like Google Analytics appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2012/07/25/a-resume-that-looks-like-google-analytics/feed/ 8The post How NOT to Use Social Media on Your Resume appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> Are you top digital talent looking for a new career? Join Brazen Careerist and Mashable for an online career fair on July 31st to connect with top employers from DC to NYC!You know your way around LinkedIn. You get that Twitter isn’t all about broadcasting that you’ve just gotten up to make your fourth cup of coffee. And Facebook? Come on.
So on the job hunt, you want people to know this. So badly that you practically want to skywrite it onto your resumé: I KNOW SOCIAL MEDIA.
After all, this is the thing that’s going to set you apart, the thing that’s going to give you an edge, right? Hang on. It’s pretty much expected that millenials will be comfortable with social media. But play up your comfiness with Facebook too much, and it could land your resumé in the reject pile. “There are some recruiters out there that see that as a negative,” Mack Collier, a social media strategist, told Brazen Careerist.
Why? Because dwelling on your Twitter know-how can lead people to think that, well, you’re on Twitter twelve hours a day. And that scares employers who might want you to get some actual work done.
Here’s how to note your social media prowess on your resume to make it work for you:
It’s not enough to say you have social media experience. We all do.
Instead, look at the job description and figure out a way you might use social media to do it better. “How are you using social media? As a research tool? To find out the weather?” Collier says. “The whole point is you just don’t want to make it look like the only way you use Twitter is to talk with your friends.”
You know those times someone’s posted something on your Facebook wall that made you cringe? Or worse, tagged you in a photo that shows your, let’s just say, less-than-professional side? Don’t let that happen.
Dan Schawbel, founder of MillenialBranding.com, a Gen Y research and consulting company, told Brazen control is ultra important here. He says the average young person is connected to 16 coworkers on Facebook. That line between what you do on your off time and your office life is blurred. “So when I post something, I always ask, ‘How can this affect me?’”
Schawbel recommends ramping up your account settings – specifically, moderate tags and posts on your Facebook wall. “If you don’t do that, you’re at a huge loss because then you lose control over how you’re perceived online,” he says. And your online image is just as important as your persona on paper.
So before you tweet that you’re shoe shopping or teasing your cat with a laser pointer in the middle of the day, think twice. Your prospective employer is probably watching.
If the job description makes little or no mention of social media, just make a quick mention of it and move on. But if it’s a key part of what you’ll be doing, take a little time to describe which social media platforms you’ve used and how it can make you more efficient.
Even better? Spell out what’s in it for them. “Put it in terms they’ll understand how they can get more money or save money or get more customers, or more traffic,” Collier says.
In general, certain fields are likely to put more weight on social media, Schawbel says. “Marketing, communications, creative jobs, entertainment–any of those fields and industries and professions, if you don’t do it, you have no shot at getting those jobs,” he says. On the flip side, if you’re applying for an accountant gig, it can’t hurt, but it probably won’t be the thing to seal the deal.
Gigi Douban is a freelance writer based in Birmingham, Ala. Follow her on Twitter at @gdouban, where she’ll spare you the agony of knowing how many cups of coffee she’s had on a given day. Or find her at www.gigidouban.com.
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]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2012/07/02/how-not-to-use-social-media-on-your-resume/feed/ 10The post The Smartest Way to Think About Your Resume appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> Is your resume boring or super-hero style? Find out how to create a resume and cover letter that will get you called in for that coveted interview.When was the last time you thought about your resume in a context other than needing to get it updated or submitted? The honest answer is probably “never,” which is why it’s such a good idea to ponder this question:
What IS my resume?
If you’re like most people who answer this question, you’ve probably come up with a phrase or sentence to the effect of “an overview and summary of personal skills, interests, employment history, attributes and professional experience.” Sound about right?
Now think about this: did your response relate in any way to the PURPOSE or function of a resume? Did it speak to what your resume is designed to do?
For that matter, what is the purpose of a resume? What is it supposed to prompt? Take a few seconds and complete the following sentence:
The purpose of a resume is to ___________________________.
If you answered honestly and thoroughly, you’ve probably recognized a few fundamental responses, like “help me land interviews” or “catch the attention of prospective employers” or “help me find a new job.” In other words, what your resume IS happens to be far less important than what your resume is designed to DO.
Your resume, like everything else, is designed to serve a purpose. To be direct, specific and blunt…
Yes, you read correctly. Your resume is a sales letter. The idea of marketing or promoting yourself may be a bit uncomfortable, but opinions and judgments aside, you are absolutely using your resume to sell yourself to prospective employers. It’s not a question. It’s fact.
Marketing yourself effectively ensures that the value you can add is obvious and clearly defined for your audience. This encourages prospective employers to interview and hire you, and ultimately requires that they provide adequate compensation for your time and talent.
Knowing what a resume truly is can be a huge advantage, which is why it’s important to bring up a point on ethics. You can think of it as the Guiding Principle of Resume Writing (because that sounds fancy), but it’s really just common sense and old-fashioned honesty.
Guiding Principle: ALL information you present on your resume and throughout the hiring process must be truthful, factual and accurate. Always.
Does that mean you’re stuck with whatever resume you’ve already got? Absolutely not! There are plenty of clever ways to polish and refine your content that fall well within the bounds of professional ethics and personal integrity.
As it turns out, the rapidly accelerating pace of decision-making means effective positioning of facts and details is an absolute necessity. The key is learning how to creatively present your skills and experiences in a way that works with the resume-scanning tricks used by the people making decisions about you as a potential candidate. This is one of the driving forces behind the New Rules of Resume Writing.
Resume readers have limited time and an almost unlimited number of candidates to review, and it’s a good idea to use this knowledge to your advantage.
If you want to write a great resume, start by paying attention to the way employers describe their hiring goals in the job descriptions they write. Read as many of these as you can, paying particular attention to the words, phrases, and titles used by the people who are searching for individuals with your skills and experience. Understanding what they’re looking for and using the right language on your resume will help you attract more viewers, more interest, and more interview activity.
You’ve heard the saying “you never get a second chance to make a first impression.” It’s as true in resume writing as it is in dating.
One glance often sets the tone for an entire first date, and that same infinitesimally small opening is what you can reasonably expect from a resume reader. That means you have to get right to the point and show them something relevant, and do so without a lot of preamble and wasted space.
As one of my mentors used to say, “treat the beginning of your resume like the front page of a newspaper and make sure it JUMPS out at readers.” The advice is even more relevant today than ever before.
The rest of the rules require a bit more depth of explanation than can be offered here, but all point to a common theme – making sure others can readily find and identify you as a viable match for their opportunities.
The internet empowers you to promote yourself to a far broader audience than has ever been possible before; understanding the rules of the game will help set you up for a far more productive and rewarding job search, and that’s a beautiful thing.
Michael B. Junge is the author of Purple Squirrel: Stand Out, Land Interviews, and Master the Modern Job Market and a member of the leadership recruiting team at Google, Inc. He can be visited online at www.michaelbjunge.com, Facebook, and Twitter (@michaelbjunge).
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]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2012/06/27/the-smartest-way-to-think-about-your-resume/feed/ 3The post Hey, Have You Seen This? Job Applicant Explains How He Got a Job He Wasn’t Qualified For appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> Nothing beats first-hand experience as Tim Murphy knows.Tim, a Brazen Life contributor and the founder of ApplyMate.com, decided to take a break from writing about job search recently and instead put himself in his reader’s shoes and applied for a job. The catch: he went for a job even though he thought he wasn’t qualified for it. He got the job and wrote a series of posts about how he did it on his blog.
Take a look here where Tim discusses the dreaded “experience gap” and explains how he used the experience he has to sell himself:
I have a blog, so I started there. I also write for Brazen Careerist (here’s my latest post), so I used that too. The site where I was applying is one that reviews high-end men’s gear so writing about careers isn’t a natural fit. But it is something, and it shows I can and do write for a large audience.
The next post in the series describes exactly how he revamped his resume for the specific job requirements. Biggest take away from this post: Tim didn’t just edit his resume, he completely rewrote it to seem like all he ever did was what this job required. And he didn’t do it by lying, but by only talking about his most relevant experience. “That’s all employers care about anyway, why talk about anything else?”
The final post, titled “Packaging and Spin,” talks about the importance of offering employers something different. Tim writes:
Why would I pitch myself to a company by saying, “Hey, I’m really excited about giving you more of what you already do really well!”? Employers are looking for something NEW. Fresh perspective, different ideas, alternative skill sets, new solutions. We can’t pitch ourselves as more of the same!
So I took a hard look at their site and noticed a type of outdoor gear that was somewhat under-represented. For example – they cover high-end, luxury travel gear extremely well, but there was room to beef up the equally high-end hunting and fishing gear. I pitched myself as just the person to help them capitalize on this opportunity.
What do you think of Tim’s strategies?
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]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2012/05/18/hey-have-you-seen-this-job-applicant-explains-how-he-got-a-job-he-wasnt-qualified-for/feed/ 10The post Should You Really Make Your Resume All Pretty and Fancy? appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> Looking for a job that’s made just for you? Learn how to network your way into a job you love in our free one-hour video with the Classy Career Girl and Brazen’s networking experts.It’s not even big news anymore when someone does something “crazy” to get a job. Whether it’s a Google or Facebook advertisement, a shoe in a box, or a resume in Trafalgar Square, job seekers are getting more and more aggressive about standing out.
Personally – and as someone who has taken these measures – I love it. The economy blows and the “traditional” resume isn’t so much of a necessity anymore, especially for less traditional job seekers. So when I came across Loft Resumes, I was immediately smitten.
According to their website, Loft helps job seekers stand out in a sea of sameness with stylish resumes. Think unique typography, bold colors and graphics. They say, “Show [employers] that you’re the type of person willing to invest in the most important document you’ll ever create. That just as your resume isn’t status quo, neither are you. And that’s precisely why they need you.” (Someone hired a great copywriter.)
But I was also immediately skeptical. At least $99 for resume design? I thought about how my dear friend and resume writer extraordinaire, Jenny Foss, critiqued my resume last year and gave me some crucial feedback.
I had spiffed it up with some visuals, my logo, etc., and she told me point blank to tone it down. Not because it wasn’t pretty, but because many companies use applicant tracking systems, and if you use a lot of graphical elements in your resume, it might not pass through the system.
So I sent Jenny the link to Loft and asked her opinion. “These resumes would be great for someone in a creative/design-centric field who plans to send the resume directly to the inbox of a hiring manager or contact,” she replied. “Not so much a good idea for an online application, which will more than likely route the resume through an ATS.”
That’s when I emailed Loft co-founder Dodd Caldwell. He told me that about 70 percent of jobs are found through personal networking, while 30 percent are found through career boards. “We fit well with those 70 percent,” he said. “Great visual design can be a positive add-on for the right folks.”
And then, responding to my question about applicant tracking systems, he said, “Our advice for folks who are submitting to places where resume parsing software may be used is that they have a text version of their resume on hand as well and then use the Loft Resume for interviews and emails.”
The takeaway? Hiring a resume writer or paying for a gorgeous design depends on the kind of job you’re looking for. If you’re eager to work for a small, creative startup, they’re sure to respect an out-of-the-box approach. But if your dream is to work for a big corporate, you might offer a resume in a more traditional style.
Now, I’ve been in the desperately-looking-for-work boat, and each and every time I’ve gotten my foot in the door has been through growing a pair and standing out. I’ve never applied to a company who used ATS, though. I hand-delivered (hand-emailed?) all my resumes and almost every single interviewer commented on how much they liked my style.
So there is a place for gorgeously designed resumes that show you’re different, while also really awesomely displaying your credentials.
Of course, job seekers are also notoriously broke. But I’m strongly of the mindset that you have to spend money to make money. And when it comes to getting the perfect job, it’s hugely important to shell out a bit of dough for a resume that shows you in the best possible light (just like an interview outfit that makes you feel stunning).
Have you ever invested in a service or product to help your job search? Did it pay off?
Marian Schembari is a blogger, traveler and all-around social media thug. She’s based in Auckland, New Zealand, hails from Connecticut and blogs at marianlibrarian.com.
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]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2012/04/26/should-you-really-make-your-resume-all-pretty-and-fancy/feed/ 10The post 3 Compelling Ways to Market Your Non-Traditional Work History appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> Jumpstart your job search this February 6-17 with BrazenU’s online bootcamp How to Get a Job You Will Love. Top experts teach techniques for stellar resumes, must-read cover letters, savvy networking and more.One of the great things about living in a capitalist economy is that there is quite literally a business for everything.
Candidates have come into my office with all kinds of projects and jobs. I’ve heard job applicants talk about coordinating the production of an iPhone App, raising money for a village in Africa, working in a business that plays the middle man between lottery winners and the government, and more.
The coolest jobs are often some of the most unconventional, which makes it difficult to translate that experience into a marketable resume should you ever find yourself needing or wanting to enter the traditional workforce.
Many of these candidates ask for assistance because while they may have spectacular experience, putting a non-traditional job on paper sometimes leaves hiring managers scratching their heads. The good news is that you can tailor your resume to meet the needs of the job while still touting your work history.
Here’s how:
If you have an unconventional or just plain random work history, it’s your job to find a way to make your resume functional. That means identifying a skill set that’s transferable and using it as your angle.
For instance, let’s say you worked for a non-profit by raising funds and then also sold Mary Kay to make some extra money. In both cases, you had essentially the same goal: get someone to give you their money by using your marketing and selling skills. As a result, you would focus on how your sales abilities, whether you’re selling a product or a good cause.
It’s common these days to come across candidates who ran their own small businesses and had to close them down because of the recession. While I personally love go-getters and entrepreneurs, they can run into some real problems when entering the traditional workforce.
The biggest problem is credibility. You can have all the legal documentation in the world, but you still won’t have the professional reference of a superior, making it difficult for someone to attest to your work abilities. The other issue is that anyone can say they ran a business, and sometimes they’re lying.
You need to list these businesses, of course, but don’t call yourself the owner or president on your resume. Instead, simply state the tasks that you accomplished, such as sales or operations, and when possible, show how you worked as part of a team. When the time comes for an interview, make sure you can quantify those accomplishments; that will help the interviewer feel confident you’re telling the truth.
When describing your entrepreneurial pursuits, keep it short and simple, just like you would if you worked for a legacy company. There’s no need to explain that your second cousin was your partner in XYZ business venture or that you were helping a friend with their catering business. Simply say that you worked at said company and what you accomplished, not why you did it.
Resumes are not autobiographies; rather, they should be a marketing tool to help you get a job. For this reason, it’s okay to get a little creative while staying honest – especially if you come from a non-traditional line of work.
Amanda Abella is a personnel administrator for a Miami-based employment agency and a freelance writer. She also runs Grad Meets World, a popular Gen Y blog where she discusses health, career, personal finance, entrepreneurship, and more.
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]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2012/01/10/3-compelling-ways-to-market-your-non-traditional-work-history/feed/ 17The post Volunteering May Help Your Career More Than You Think appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> Think organizing your church’s annual potluck or volunteering at the local homeless shelter means squat when it comes to your resume and job search?Think again. Charity and volunteer work could be key to landing your next job, particularly if you learn transferable skills, according to a new LinkedIn survey.
It might sound like a no-brainer, but less than half of people surveyed by LinkedIn included volunteer gigs on their resume, even though the vast majority had volunteering experience.
“Professionals often have the misconception that volunteer work doesn’t qualify as ‘real’ work experience,” Nicole Williams, LinkedIn’s connection director, said in a press release.
But just because a job doesn’t pay doesn’t mean you don’t benefit. Individuals glean plenty of tangible skills and experience from charity work, Williams says. For example, even if you’re a salesperson by trade, organizing a nonprofit fundraising event requires event planning, time management and marketing, skills professionals should highlight on their resume regardless of their field.
While professionals often overlook or underestimate the value of volunteer work, the exposure to varied skill sets that charity work provides can make you a more versatile, attractive employee, not to mention a more competitive job seeker.
In fact, 41 percent of hiring authorities surveyed by LinkedIn rated volunteer experience equally as important as paid experience. “Given the current economic climate and the hypercompetitive job market, it’s essential to include your volunteer work on your profile,” Williams says. “When hiring managers or business partners are comparing two people side by side, volunteer experience makes you a more multifaceted professional and can set you apart from the competition.”
The adjective alone doesn’t convey the work you accomplished. Instead, use a title that better represents the specific duties your volunteer work entailed, says Susan J. Ellis, president of Philadelphia-based Energize, Inc., a training, consulting and publishing firm that specializes in volunteerism.
For example, if you donated your time helping at-risk students with their homework, use the title “tutor” and outline the skills you used — and gained — such as problem solving or counseling. The fact that the work you did was unpaid should appear in the job description, but first grab the potential employer’s attention with an accurate job title.
This is especially important when tailoring your resume to submit for a particular position. Frame your volunteer experience to highlight the skills most important and applicable to the job you’re applying to.
For example, did you supervise a staff or committee of volunteers? That requires a variety of skills, from time management to motivation. Did your volunteer work require you to speak publicly or write press releases and promotional materials? These skills apply to almost any position and impress employers, so make sure to draw attention to them.
Many young professionals have had numerous internships and volunteer posts or held positions in countless clubs and student groups. So it’s easy for volunteer work to overwhelm professional accomplishments on a resume. While it’s important for employers to get a full picture of your skills and attributes, be picky about the charity work you include on your resume. “A resume is meant to show a potential employer what you’ve proven you can do,” Ellis says. “It is not meant to be a recitation of every job you’ve ever held.”
Use your volunteer work to serve a purpose, whether to indicate activity between formal positions or underscore skills applicable to the position you want.
Unless job seekers have a specific reason for segregating volunteer experience and other professional experience, unpaid experience should appear alongside paid experience, experts say. Not only does that help give volunteer work experience the same weight as a paid job, but it helps build a seamless chronological progression of work experience, which is key to impressing employers.
That’s especially important when paid jobs are separated by stretches of volunteer work. “Most employers look for continuity and growth as a worker changes jobs,” Mary Agnes Williams, an employment and administrative services consultant, wrote in a recent Energize article. “Time that is not accounted for on the resume waves a ‘red flag,’ which can jeopardize the applicant’s chances for consideration.”
Meg Handley is a writer and online journalist who covers a wide range of money and business topics including economics, investing, and real estate. She lives in Washington, D.C.
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]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2011/09/07/volunteering-helps-your-career/feed/ 15The post Rude Awakening: In Your Job Search, It’s Not All About You appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> If you think about it, the job search is a very selfish process. After all, the job seeker is spending all of their time talking about themselves. My experience, my skills, my goals, me, me, me. In a competitive job market where employers are staring at a mountain of resumes from applicants talking about themselves, how does someone stand out?Job seekers, you’re in for a wake-up call: it’s not all about you. In the hiring process, employers ultimately want to find someone who can help the company, not the other way around. Applicants who understand this truth will naturally stand out amongst the unemployed masses and get more interviews.
Of course, job search documents should be about you, just not all about you. Think of it as, you and the company. Or better yet, the company and you.
The next time you’re writing to a company that you’d like to work for, keep these three tips in mind:
It’s true that you might be sending application after application to dozens of companies everyday, but if you don’t do your research beforehand, your effort is completely wasted. Basic or shallow research won’t cut it. You need to really learn about the company, its employees and its spot in the marketplace. If you know the company, you’ll be better equipped to communicate what you offer in the context of the organization’s needs. It will also show throughout the hiring process.
Once you’ve done the research, think about what your application means for the company. Think about the needs of the company, its shortcomings and strengths, along with those of their competitors in the field you’re applying. Get down to what makes this company special (or what it needs to become special). What are your strengths? How would they complement the company or department?
Instead about thinking of this open position as the job you want, think of it as the gap the company needs you to fill. Keep your focus on the company as you write your resume, cover letter, or one-page proposal. Concentrate on the company’s specific needs and how you can assess them.
Joanna Riley Weidenmiller is the CEO of The One-Page Company. Prior to launching One-Page, Joanna was the CEO of Performance Advertising. Joanna earned her BA in foreign affairs from the University of Virginia and lives between Beijing, China, and San Francisco.
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]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2011/07/28/rude-awakening-in-your-job-search-it%e2%80%99s-not-all-about-you/feed/ 9The post There is No Job Search Silver Bullet appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> Last year I read Charlie Wilson’s War, a book, later made into a movie, about a Texas Congressman and his crusade to arm the mujahedeen fighting against the Soviets in Afghanistan. One notable point emerges about half-way through, and it’s applicable beyond just the book’s context – especially to job seekers.Congressman Wilson and his aides are struggling to find the one, magic weapon they can provide to the mujahedeen. His weapons expert explains that they shouldn’t look for a single new weapon, or a “silver bullet.” Rather, they needed a “symphony of different weapons that, when put together, would change the balance in favor of the mujahedeen.”
With each new piece of technology or trend, we hear about the “death” of something else. Resumes are out – bios are in, job boards and sending cold applications are out, networking and LinkedIn are hot.
Nonsense.
Adopting any one approach (especially if it’s the latest, hot trend) to the exclusion of others is a bad idea. Job hunting isn’t a zero-sum game where the presence of one technique, strategy, platform, or application means the absence of another. The key is to use as many methods as possible while maintaining harmony.
To say resumes are out is just crazy. Talk to a working recruiter and ask if they think resumes are out. Resumes have been the standard for measuring professional suitability for decades, so the recruiting industry isn’t going to just shelf them any time soon. Even if more elaborate bios, or video resumes, or LinkedIn profiles do grow in popularity, they aren’t going to replace traditional resumes. Each tactic will evolve, with some becoming mainstays and others falling away. You need to experiment with all of them and find the ones that work best for you.
Another point about bios: these new voices praising the importance of a well-written bio run contrary to just about every recruiter I’ve talked to about how applications are viewed. Recruiters scan resumes for bullet points and keywords and almost always skip over bios, personal statements, or anything else that results in more reading time. If you have a statement, be very careful it is not there at the expense of an easily digested bullet point. No matter how good it is, it doesn’t matter if no one reads it!
I know, I know – leviathan job boards like Monster and CareerBuilder get a bad wrap for being too big to navigate, too clumsy to use, and overall just a waste of time. While I don’t think they have all the answers, it’s a mistake to ignore them completely. If nothing else, you can use job boards for market research when looking for a job. When trying to break into a certain field, those massive job boards provide tons of job descriptions from which you can tailor your resume. Also, Monster is at least trying to diversify their offerings with BeKnown, which is a somewhat tardy version of In the Door and BranchOut (apps that help you tap into your Facebook network’s professional connections). From what I can see, CareerBuilder is still just a job board.
I also like using job boards the way I used to use Orbitz and Expedia (before Kayak). Back in the day you could search for flights using Orbitz, find what was available, and book using Orbitz for a slightly higher rate. Or, what many people did was use those services as flight search engines, find out what was available, and then just book directly through the airline’s site. I didn’t want to search each airline’s website for availability, but I also didn’t want to pay the extra fee by booking through the flight search engine. Job boards can be used the same way – use them to find out what’s available and apply directly through the company’s site.
This is another place where getting caught up in the trend is dangerous. Yes, networking is extremely important, but it’s only one means to an end. Networking is not an end itself. If you are talking to someone about a job at their company, most of the time the first thing they will ask you is, “Have you applied online yet?” If your answer is “no,” or worse, if you didn’t know about the opening, you look like someone who isn’t serious about working at that company. You need to do your due diligence and get the obvious steps out of the way before networking can do anything meaningful for you. If all your ducks aren’t in a row, networking is just socializing.
Submitting job applications online also makes it easier for anyone in a position to help you, to actually help you. Once you can tell them about a particular job at their company, they can refer you to a specific person or department. Much better to attack a specific job from multiple fronts, than to approach someone and say, “I’m not sure where exactly, I just really want to work here.” Everyone says you need to network to get a job, but networking only works when done in conjunction with other approaches.
Regardless of the latest advice, or the supposed “death” of a trend, always remember than there is no silver bullet for your job search. There is no one solution. You need a symphony of job search weapons, all working in harmony, to land a job in this market.
Tim Murphy is a member of the Brazen Life Contributor Network.
Ed. note: If you’re looking for your next great opportunity, consider signing up for the Job Hunt Network Roulette on Wed., July 27. Tim’s right on — there is no silver bullet for job search. But making some great connections is sure to provide powerful ammunition! Okay, okay… done with the metaphor.
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]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2011/07/15/there-is-no-job-search-silver-bullet/feed/ 16The post Beyond the Resume: 8 Nontraditional Approaches to Hiring appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> Hiring processes can be some of the most frustrating professional experiences for both candidates, who have to ensure their resumes stand out from the pack, and hiring managers, who have to comb through that pack.But every once in a while, a company takes a risk and adopts a creative approach to hiring. Here are eight instances where some part of the hiring process wasn’t completely standard:
1. Crankset Group: When the firm needed to hire a chief results officer, it posted a four-page ad on Craigslist specifically asking that applicants not send resumes. Instead, job seekers answered questions about “culture, life, ambitions, motivation, fun, etc.,” Chuck Blakeman, founder of the organization, wrote on his blog. And in case you were wondering, the 45 who sent resumes did not get a call.
2. I Love Rewards, Inc.: When the consulting firm received a whopping 1,200 applications for nine jobs, it invited applicants to attend an open house. Just 400 attended. In this instance, just showing up was a large part of the application process. Attendees mingled casually with employers on one floor, while on a different floor, individual candidates got 5 minutes with an interviewer.
3. Google: One would expect the search giant to master the job hunt, and the multi-billion dollar company knew what geeks it was looking for. Google plastered California- and Massachusetts-area billboards with complicated mathematical questions, and figured whoever could solve the puzzle would be a good fit, NPR reported.
4. Quicken Loans: For this mortgage company looking to hire 200 mortgage bankers a month, job fairs weren’t realistic. Instead, Quicken took to the streets in “road rallies,” where employees recruited from malls. So what stores made the list? Best Buy, Circuit City and TGI Fridays.
5. Sunglass Hut: Talk about a cool blogging gig. The winner of a Sunglasses Hut contest for fashion bloggers landed a six-figure salary, a fully furnished apartment in New York and a $1,000 clothing allowance.
6. Electronic Arts: The video game company used American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) to create a job advertisement for potential programmer applicants to decipher. To attract high caliber candidates, they placed billboards with the ad in front of competitor offices. Some applicants responded by providing their resumes in ASCII.
7. 37 Signals: When the web design company decided it was time to hire an office manager, it posted a rather atypical job description on its blog. “Instead of a boring list of skills—this software, that many years of experience, ‘team player,’ etc.—we wrote a list of 26 things that this person would have done in a week had he or she been working here,” company founder Jason Fried wrote in Inc.
8. Southwest: During first-round group interviews at the airline, applicants are asked how they’ve used humor to defuse tense situations. It’s part of a series of ways Southwest tries to identify candidates who have a great attitude. The company has a long history of using offbeat interview tactics to screen for mindset.
Tatiana Christian has had a lot of experience with job ads recently as she searches for a job. She blogs about that and other topics at ParisianFeline.
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]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2011/07/06/beyond-the-resume-8-nontraditional-approaches-to-hiring/feed/ 11The post How to Break into an Unfamiliar Industry appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> Working in a service-focused field — such as accounting, marketing, information technology or something else — has many benefits. One is that it provides you with a skill set you can transfer to a variety of industries.But while it gives you the opportunity to work with companies focusing on different topic areas, it could mean that those areas, while interesting, aren’t aligned with your experience.
Perhaps that is exactly what attracts you to the position — the chance to dive into something new. Employers often favor candidates with some experience in the field, so how do you break into an industry that you know little to nothing about? Can it even be done?
It is challenging, for sure, but it is possible.
Almost a month ago, I started as the marketing communications specialist for Monroe Veterinary Associates in Rochester, N.Y. Now believe me, I’m no expert when it comes to animal health. But I do love pets (especially doggies!) and I believe in keeping them healthy, so I used that passion and my marketing expertise to get my foot in the door and land the job.
Maybe you’re facing a similar situation and you’re applying for a job that doesn’t exactly match your experience, or you’re thinking about breaking into an unfamiliar industry. Here are some strategies that can help you do just that.
If there is an industry you find interesting, it shouldn’t be such a chore to do a bit of research about it. Find a trade journal or online magazine and read a few articles. A few places you might consider starting are America’s Career InfoNet and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
You don’t need to become an expert overnight; just be sure to pick up a few bits of information that can give you an extra edge during conversations with those currently working in the field.
But please remember: secondary research only goes so far. It’s important to express your passion for and ability to learn more about the industry. Don’t be afraid to acknowledge you don’t know a ton about the area, but be sure to describe an experience that shows you know how to quickly learn new information. To prove during interviews that I can learn quickly, I talked about how I covered a few legal cases for my university’s newspaper during college, which forced me to learn (and accurately write about) complicated information on a deadline.
These days, technology makes it easy to connect with anyone.
I can almost guarantee that no matter the industry you’re considering, you can find someone in the world who’s talking about it online. You can find industry Twitter chats, LinkedIn groups or even connect with a Brazen user who works in the field. Use these tools to make professional connections with people who have experience in areas that interest you.
Whether you’re a marketer, accountant, financial director, IT professional or something else, you need to be able to explain how your specific skills and knowledge can apply (and add to) the company and its industry. Even if you can’t bring subject matter expertise to the position, potential employers will love that you have useful skills combined with a unique outsiders perspective.
Hopefully you do this already, but if not, always write cover letters and resumes based on the job descriptions. Unless your experience matches up almost word-for-word with the job at hand (and it almost never does), spell out why you’re qualified (and that includes more than work history) in a clean, professional manner using your cover letter and resume.
Find a way to relate your skills and experiences to the job. For example, in the cover letter I wrote to apply for my current position, I included a sentence or two about how my family has always had a dog and how I’ve helped my mother with her pet-sitting business. I described my marketing communications expertise in the rest of the letter and noted how I could use those skills to help the company. A cover letter is a tool to let your personality and your passion shine.
Ruth Harper is a member of the Brazen Contributor Network. The opinions in this post are her own.
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]]> Working at a web start-up means we all see lots of awesome, inspiring career-related content every day. So we figured we’d take the best of it and share it with you once a week. Oh and if we missed something, let us know in the comments or nominate stuff for the next roundup using #BrazenStuff in a tweet!In her post, “Letter to a young graduate,” social change advocate Akhila Kolisetty discusses what she’s learned in the year since she graduated.
Inc. magazine released its annual 30 under 30 list. Be sure to check out profiles of the founders of Quora and the Nom Nom Truck. Yum!
Stuck in a crummy job? Alexis Grant, a career break expert, has suggestions for how you can use your job to get you where you want to be.
Unique resumes rock! Don’t miss this Mashable slideshow of 7 ingenious resumes.
Do you know any proud New Yorkers who live outside of the Big Apple? We often find some separation anxiety going on there. At least there’s a group in Washington, D.C. to help with that.
Ever dreamed of being a top U.N. official? This snappy U.N.-produced video gives a glimpse of what it’s like to be the top dog at the world body:
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]]> As a new employee at a Miami-based employment agency, I spend most of my days looking at resumes, scheduling appointments and helping recruiters prepare candidates for the tough job market.Read: I spend a lot of time reviewing disastrous resumes.
The worst part is that I see the same mistakes over and over again. Given the exceedingly competitive job market, you’d think people would pay more attention.
If you are on the job hunt make sure to avoid some of these common resume mistakes.
My co-workers and I want to cry every time an exceedingly long resume is submitted. That means we have to sift through it, pick out the great parts and cut it down to one page.
People seem to think that the longer their resumes are, the better they are. It means you have more experience, right? Wrong. Employers will probably spend less than 10 seconds looking at your resume. They want something straight and to the point, not a dissertation.
If you give them entire paragraphs explaining how you worked at McDonald’s during summer break as a teenager and it gave you sales experience, they will probably trash it. Instead, stick to the stuff that is relevant to the position, use bullet points and get to the point.
In some cases, for example if you’re a freelance writer or web designer, potential clients might want to see a more detailed resume. But for the most part, brief is best.
Part of my new job involves calling up potential candidates and scheduling interviews with recruiters. As the person who has to get a hold of job candidates somehow, it would certainly make my life easier (and get you an interview sooner!) if the the contact information on your resume is correct and up-to-date.
Often I encounter resumes with old or incorrect contact details. I try to dig for the correct number or email address, but potential employers may not put in the time to track you down.
Read what you are applying for, people! I’ve already had several people call me upset over the fact that they thought they were applying for high level positions. The truth of the matter is that if they had actually read the job ad they would have clearly seen that our agency mostly deals with entry level positions.
Make sure to read the details of every job ad, especially the ones you want to pursue. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to call and ask if there is a number or email address given.
Resumes should not have highlighted text, bizarre designs, funky colors or perfume sprayed on them. Employers don’t want to be blinded by cyan highlighting. They want to get the information they need as quickly as possible.
Keep it simple, people. Black Times New Roman 12pt font is all you need.
We all know it’s a no-no, but people actually do this. They say one thing on their resume, claiming to have a bachelors degree for example, we schedule them for an interview, they come in and we find out they were lying. It wastes the employer’s time (and money) and makes you look like an idiot. Just don’t do it.
Remember that your resume is supposed to reflect you as a person and as a worker, so try to avoid silly mistakes. Believe it or not, by avoiding these common mistakes you will dramatically increase your chances of being called in for an interview.
Amanda Abella is a member of the Brazen Life Contributor Network.
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]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2011/06/27/leave-these-basic-resume-mistakes-in-the-dust/feed/ 54The post Resume Mythbusting appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> With over 245 resumes for every interview granted, on average, according to the Georgia Department of Labor, major employers can’t feasibly read every resume. The solution – more and more employers use automated filtering systems that scan your resume when you upload it online or send it in an email. These applicant tracking systems, as they’re called, rank candidates based on the relevance of their experiences, and many large employers and job boards supposedly now use these scanning systems.What this means for job seekers is that the way you see your resume when you submit it, is rarely the way it’s viewed. Instead, an employer may never see your resume until you hand it over in the interview room – that is, if you make it to the interview. What may actually be keeping you from getting the interview call, ironically enough, may be the very same resume tips that job seekers have been following for years. Here’s the run-through on some common tips that, in the current age of resume databases, may hold you back:
We are quickly becoming a society of specialists. As a result, hiring managers gravitate to employees who have work experiences that build on each other, rather than job candidates who have a scattered job history. This trend is reflected in the emergence of semantic and contextual searching technologies that automatically rank candidates based on how relevant experiences listed in your resume are against the job employers are looking to fill. As a result, listing a smorgasbord of skills can work against you.
Solution: Keep your resume focused! Only list the experiences that are relevant and make sure to tailor each experience to be as relevant as possible. Consider the job description your cheat sheet.
While this is usually the case if you’re in a creative field, styling your resume can place you at a disadvantage. Employer databases regularly capture only a fraction of the content uploaded from a resume. Resumes with unique headers and formatting are even harder to upload. Meaning, if your information is not captured, it’s never considered.
Don’t believe it? Recall the last time you uploaded your resume into an online job application. How much of the information did you have to rearrange, to place in the correct order? Now recall all those times you weren’t given a chance to correct your information after submitting your resume.
Solution: Keep it simple! Make your resume format clean or use a template. Thousands of templates can be found online by simply doing a Google search.
Let’s face it – less and less of us are sticking to a single career path, and the average employment duration is now less than five years. As a result, many job seekers want to blur the less applicable gaps in work experience by using a functional resume. However, without dates, applicant tracking systems are almost completely lost at organizing your information into a database and can no longer produce information on how recent or how deep your knowledge may be.
Solution: Keep your resume chronological. Highlight key skills in a summary statement, but keep experiences in an easy to follow format and order.
Mona Abdel-Halim is co- inventor of Resunate.com, a free web app and a resume builder. She also blogs at blog.resunate.com
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by Julien Gordon
Who has the marbles to walk into an interview and drop this resume on the table? If I were recruiting for my company and someone submitted this resume, I would probably hire them on the spot.
You can write the most thorough resume, with strong action verbs, the nicest layout and the best schools and GPA, printed on the finest paper, but if it doesn’t communicate that you 1) create value and 2) get money, the chances of you getting hired are slim.
The sizing of each section of the resume is extremely important. Eighty percent of your resume is about your performance and 20 percent about your personality.
A lot of resumes are full of fluff. If you are overcompensating by filling up your resume with achievements and awards from high school or words typed per minute, it’s probably a sign that the size of your impact isn’t that great. Where you went to school and your GPA don’t matter that much—even a 4.0 won’t get you hired today. The baseline is that you have finished college, created value and have some sort of leadership beyond self.
A resume should not be a carbon copy of your job descriptions. Instead, each bullet point should communicate how you moved the organization or some aspect of it from point A to point B. Potential employers are more concerned with what you MOVED FORWARD than what you DID BACK THEN. You can even take it one step further and create a resume 2.0, which is more like a visual portfolio of your value. An addendum to your portfolio should include physical examples of the quality of your work (i.e., business plans or essays you’ve written, presentations you’ve created, an actual website or product you designed or marketed, etc.).
Let’s face it: most resumes are lies. There is so much information asymmetry in the career search process. Companies lie by posting job descriptions that don’t truly communicate the nature of the job, and potential employees exaggerate each and every bullet point on their resume, falsely presenting their true nature. It’s easier to search the dictionary for the perfect SAT word than it is for someone to actually create real value. Employers see you as a risk until proven otherwise.
In other words, no company is NOT hiring. When a company is down, it will hire anyone who it thinks will take it higher. The only way to bounce back from an economic downturn is to either lay off people and hope that things return to the good ol’ days or hire great people who will be intrapreneurs (i.e., entrepreneurs within an existing company) who will think of new ways to reposition and repurpose the company through innovation.
If someone great knocks on the door, they won’t shut it. But keep in mind that I don’t mean “great” as in “great person” or “great personality”—I mean someone with a great performance track record. Leading people over the past 10 years has shown me that nice people don’t always produce nice results. It’s sad but true: unfortunately, personality and performance aren’t correlated. Personality only gets you so far. Sometimes nice guys do finish last because they don’t perform.
The best resume I’ve ever seen is Jay-Z’s. His resume is full of ways that he has created EXTREME value for companies he has started and worked with. School doesn’t prepare us to create EXTREME value; it prepares us to be employees. An 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. workday becomes a 9:00 a.m. to 5 p.m. job, and homework becomes work that you have to take home.
Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Michael Dell (of Dell), Mark Zuckerberg, Ralph Lauren, Jack Taylor (Enterprise) and others dropped out of college because they saw ways to create EXTREME value in the world that college wasn’t preparing them to do. Imagine if Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg followed the rest of their classmates and ended up being a consultant or investment banker. I probably wouldn’t be typing this to you on a PC or a Mac, and you probably wouldn’t be reading it on Facebook.
I’m not saying this to encourage anyone drop out; I have three degrees, and I value each one because I used the free time and risk-free space to practice value creation. I failed at five business during college and grad school. Instead of seeing yourself as buying an education, see it as buying two or four years of time to educate yourself and demonstrate you can create value through on-campus leadership, entrepreneurship, event execution and internships. Even if you don’t want to be an entrepreneur, you need to embrace the entrepreneurial spirit.
The last time I was speaking, I asked everyone who intended to have a job to stand up, and of course everyone stood up. Next, I said to sit down if they’d never created $1,000 of income in a year through any form of work, and about 30 percent of the room sat down. And finally, I said to sit down if ’they’d never created $1,000 of income on their own outside of a company before. Only a handful of people remained standing. This is the problem with our economy: everyone wants a job, but nobody is trying to create them. There is an imbalance between entrepreneurial-minded people and employee-minded people. Companies need both, but the entrepreneurial-minded person will always get hired first, and the employee-minded person will always get fired first.
True value forces whoever is being offered the value to make a choice. It causes the exchange or movement of time, money and other forms of capital. Most people are indifferent and happy with who they are and where they are, even though they may say they aren’t. Value makes them admit that they want to be somewhere else, somewhere better and then helps them actually get there. In my book, The 8 Cylinders of Success, I define this ability to close the space between point A and point B for someone else as your “professional velocity.” The higher your professional velocity is, the faster you will get hired. You communicate this on your resume through using “point A to point B” bullet points.
Unemployment is not a sign of the lack of jobs in the economy. Unemployment is a sign of a lack of people who have and can demonstrate that they have created value for others in the past. That’s why 50 percent of workers are underemployed, meaning that that they have jobs, but they aren’t using their passion, they aren’t reaching their full potential and they aren’t making their highest contribution to the world every day. Whereas the national unemployment rate is only 10 percent, underemployment is five times that. This cycle starts with your resume.
So many people drive to work, leave half of themselves in the passenger seat and drag the other half of themselves inside the office. Note that underemployment has nothing to do with one’s salary; you can be making $200,000 a year and still be underemployed. Economies fail when too many people are underemployed. Employees get mad when companies cut dead weight, and employers get mad when they realize that they hired dead weight. Are you dead weight, or are you helping your company soar? It’s hard for dead weight to move, so it simply holds on as long as it can.
At the end of the day, a resume 1.0 won’t get you a job, and a resume 2.0 might land you an interview. A resume is exactly what it means…without the accent over the e. It’s a document that employers use to answer the question “Will this person be able to resume (pronounced “re-zoom”) their past success here?” If you haven’t been creating value where you are right now—even if you hate it—it’s going to be difficult to communicate your value to another potential employer. If you hate your job, remember that you chose it by way of your past choices and actions, which ultimately shaped your future choices. So seek to create value wherever you are because it will only position you to do things that you truly value in the near future.
I’ll leave you with the quote that inspired this blog entry. It came from Jeremih’s song “I’mma Star” (an unexpected place):
So here I am… Check my DNA
Getting money’s the only thing on my resume
I thought I told yah… I’m a star
Are you a star? Is creating value in your DNA? And is gettin’ money evident on your resume?
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]]>by Kristen Fischer
Here’s some advice from a gal who writes resumes for a living: verbiage is important.
That’s why I’d like to talk about a few words that can help make your resume sparkle. Use these as you freshen up your resume and give it the power words necessary to help you land the gig you want.
I like this one best for recent grads because it offers a fancy way to detail how you answered calls and memos. And we all know that during your internships or summer jobs, you managed a lot of busy work. Instead of stating that you answered telephone calls, you can use it to say you responded to customer inquiries. It shows that you can leverage even the most piddly experience into a diplomatic document.
This is another great word for grads to use to help make busy work jobs sound a little more appealing. Did you put together executive reports while you rotted away at that much-required internship? Don’t just say that you compiled reports—state that you generated them. It’s a power word that shows you can make things happen.
I love this word because it goes beyond what “created” can say. Use this one to highlight what you did that went above and beyond. For example, did you create a new spreadsheet that helped to better organize employee training schedules? Say that you innovated it! Again, it’s just a simple synonym, but it offers a bit more powered than the standard “I made that.” Use it for little things—anything—that you did to improve business processes; this shows that you work to improve corporate objectives.
Here’s something to remember: It’s okay to jazz up your resume with fancy words and action verbs that state what you’ve done and what you’re capable of. But it’s not cool to lie about things. So, for example, if you only took part in paper-shuffling, make sure your resume makes it clear that you didn’t invent the company’s next strategic plan—even though just by stapling it you did get some real-world work exposure!
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