1
President Obama scarcely mentioned healthcare in his third State of the Union address Tuesday night, even as the healthcare reform law he championed is hanging in the balance at the Supreme Court.
The bulk of Tuesday night's address before a joint session of Congress focused largely on jobs and the economy, and touched on taxes, education, and fixing a "broken" and fiercely partisan Washington.
A poll cited by FOX News asked voters which statement they agree with more: “President Obama is making a good faith effort to deal with the country’s economic problems, but the Republicans in Congress are playing politics by blocking his proposals and programs.”
Or this: “President Obama has not provided leadership on the economy, and he is just blaming the Republicans in Congress as an excuse for not doing his job.”
Have you or someone you know been affected by a job loss in these recent years? What are your thoughts?
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/01/24/president-obama-and-state-our-future/#ixzz1kRgbnO8m
1
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Sunday, January 15, 2012
The job outlook appears promising for 2012
1
According to the Washington Post, The nation added 200,000 jobs in December in a burst of hiring that drove the unemployment rate down two notches to 8.5 percent, its lowest in almost three years, and led economists to conclude that the improvement in the job market might just last.
“There is more horsepower to this economy than most believe,” said Sung Won Sohn, an economics professor at California State University, Channel Islands. “The stars are aligned right for a meaningful economic recovery.”
It was the sixth month in a row that the economy added at least 100,000 jobs, the longest streak since 2006. The economy added jobs every month last year, the first time that has happened since 2005.
And the unemployment rate, which peaked at 10 percent in October 2009 and stood at 9.1 percent in August, has fallen four months straight. It was 8.7 percent in November.
If economics textbooks and the best hopes of millions of unemployed Americans are confirmed, the virtuous cycle may be under way, which would suggest the job market will continue to strengthen.
When people are hired, they have more money to spend. The means greater demand for goods and services and results in businesses hiring even more people. That results in even more spending and leads to even more hiring.
That would be the reverse of the vicious cycle that took hold during the Great Recession. People lost jobs and spent less, so businesses rang up less sales and were forced to lay off more people. That led to even less spending and more layoffs.
“The labor market is healing,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial. She cautioned that “we still have a long way to go — years — to recoup the losses we have endured.”
Indeed, the economy added 1.6 million jobs for all of 2011. That is better than the 940,000 added during 2010. In 2009, the most bruising year of the Great Recession, the nation lost more than 5 million.
However, it will still take 6 million more jobs to get the United States back to what it had in December 2007, when the recession began. Economists forecast the nation will add almost 2 million this year.
The news certainly is encouraging. So...will YOU be ready when the job you're looking for opens up? Check with Start Now! Career Guide to see how we can help in your job search.
You can read the entire story here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/sixth-straight-month-of-solid-hiring-expected-when-government-reports-on-december-job-growth/2012/01/06/gIQAv7lMeP_story.html
1
According to the Washington Post, The nation added 200,000 jobs in December in a burst of hiring that drove the unemployment rate down two notches to 8.5 percent, its lowest in almost three years, and led economists to conclude that the improvement in the job market might just last.
“There is more horsepower to this economy than most believe,” said Sung Won Sohn, an economics professor at California State University, Channel Islands. “The stars are aligned right for a meaningful economic recovery.”
It was the sixth month in a row that the economy added at least 100,000 jobs, the longest streak since 2006. The economy added jobs every month last year, the first time that has happened since 2005.
And the unemployment rate, which peaked at 10 percent in October 2009 and stood at 9.1 percent in August, has fallen four months straight. It was 8.7 percent in November.
If economics textbooks and the best hopes of millions of unemployed Americans are confirmed, the virtuous cycle may be under way, which would suggest the job market will continue to strengthen.
When people are hired, they have more money to spend. The means greater demand for goods and services and results in businesses hiring even more people. That results in even more spending and leads to even more hiring.
That would be the reverse of the vicious cycle that took hold during the Great Recession. People lost jobs and spent less, so businesses rang up less sales and were forced to lay off more people. That led to even less spending and more layoffs.
“The labor market is healing,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial. She cautioned that “we still have a long way to go — years — to recoup the losses we have endured.”
Indeed, the economy added 1.6 million jobs for all of 2011. That is better than the 940,000 added during 2010. In 2009, the most bruising year of the Great Recession, the nation lost more than 5 million.
However, it will still take 6 million more jobs to get the United States back to what it had in December 2007, when the recession began. Economists forecast the nation will add almost 2 million this year.
The news certainly is encouraging. So...will YOU be ready when the job you're looking for opens up? Check with Start Now! Career Guide to see how we can help in your job search.
You can read the entire story here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/sixth-straight-month-of-solid-hiring-expected-when-government-reports-on-december-job-growth/2012/01/06/gIQAv7lMeP_story.html
1
Friday, January 6, 2012
Calling the digital paramedics
1
Let’s imagine you’re in a car accident in a remote area. You’ve run off the road and hit a tree. Your car has minimal damage but you are seriously injured.
The digital paramedics, in their digital helicopter, fly over to the scene. They begin to assess the accident using their now narrow parameters (there’s minimal front-end damage and they can see that no one has gone through the windshield). The digital paramedics determine very quickly that this accident doesn’t meet their criteria. They fly away.
Meanwhile, you’re inside the vehicle with a broken leg that’s pinned under the steering column and the air bag has deployed leaving you critically short of air. And no one is going to help you.
The same scenario can be used when attaching your resume to an on-line job posting. The parameters used by the hiring manager are quite limited. If specific key words are not inserted so the resume “floats to the top,” so to speak, it will be discarded.
Without ever knowing your experience, your background, your skills, or the achievements you’ve made in the work place, this company most likely will move on to the next resume.
So it is that the creation of your digital resume be planned strategically. With Start Now! Career Guide, we’ll show you what works and doesn’t work when posting your resume on-line. Visit us today!
Let’s imagine you’re in a car accident in a remote area. You’ve run off the road and hit a tree. Your car has minimal damage but you are seriously injured.
The digital paramedics, in their digital helicopter, fly over to the scene. They begin to assess the accident using their now narrow parameters (there’s minimal front-end damage and they can see that no one has gone through the windshield). The digital paramedics determine very quickly that this accident doesn’t meet their criteria. They fly away.
Meanwhile, you’re inside the vehicle with a broken leg that’s pinned under the steering column and the air bag has deployed leaving you critically short of air. And no one is going to help you.
The same scenario can be used when attaching your resume to an on-line job posting. The parameters used by the hiring manager are quite limited. If specific key words are not inserted so the resume “floats to the top,” so to speak, it will be discarded.
Without ever knowing your experience, your background, your skills, or the achievements you’ve made in the work place, this company most likely will move on to the next resume.
So it is that the creation of your digital resume be planned strategically. With Start Now! Career Guide, we’ll show you what works and doesn’t work when posting your resume on-line. Visit us today!
Saturday, December 31, 2011
How to hunt for a job using social media
1
Nicole Duhoski, founding partner of Chicago-based social-media strategy and public relations firm VineSprout (http://vinesprout.com), says anyone with access to the Internet can make the most of their job search by being smart about social media. Here are her tips for using key words in online profiles, downloading search tools, understanding how to use hashtags and keeping online resumes and other information constantly updated.
“If you spend a bit more time upfront and create solid resources online and thorough social media profiles, you can sit back and let Twitter, Google, recruiters and online connections do all the work for you,” Duhoski says.
• Build and develop a personal and professional online brand that reflects your skills, background, passions, experience, and personality. You don’t have to hide your identity or your personality just because you are job searching. Being a real person online and having a strong and consistent presence across all networks helps recruiters get to know you, and sets you apart from a list of names and resumes.
• Use the same picture across your networks to help with recognition. Create a vanity URL for Facebook, LinkedIn and other networks. (i.e. facebook.com/nduhoski; linkedin.com/nduhoski)
• Do not be shy about telling your online network that you are looking for a new opportunity, and remind them often. Do not try to hide that fact that you are unemployed and in search of a job online.
• Most jobs are found through networking and some of the best jobs are never posted on job boards.
• Create a simple, concise, easy to understand, 30-second job pitch and memorize it. Include it in your Twitter bio, your LinkedIn profile, Facebook and any other social network that you are on. Use it at networking events.
• Reach out to all friends, family and professional contacts and let everyone know that you are looking for a job. When people know exactly what you’re looking for, they are more likely to help you and to refer you to their network. Provide them with titles and descriptions and point them to your LinkedIn profile, or personal website with your resume.
• Attend as many networking events as possible. There is no shortage in Chicago. Conferences, local seminars, tweetups, social media/marketing/publicity clubs. Volunteer to work registration and you’ll have an opportunity to meet most of the attendees. Connect on LinkedIn within 24 hours.
• If you really want to get creative, Facebook ads, Facebook pages and video resumes, are some of the newer tools people are using to get noticed and stand out from the sea of resumes.
LinkedIn
• Make sure that your profile is updated, and continue to update it regularly to reflect any changes.
• Write your resume/LinkedIn profile for the job you want, not just the job(s) you’ve had. Include keywords that are relevant to the type of job that you are searching for.
• LinkedIn, like most social networks is constantly evolving. Log-in daily and stay abreast of changes to the functionality and features offered.
• Optimize your LinkedIn profile to let recruiters find you. Think about the top three to four keywords that you use to search for jobs, and make sure that they are included in your profile.
• Monitor how often your profile appears in searches and how many people are viewing your profile.
• Update your status and make changes and updates to your profile to stay current in the feeds of your connections. Try changing your headline often to see what works best and what keywords attract more views.
• Upload your resume and portfolio using Box.net.
• Use LinkedIn’s Advanced Job Search — Use the “Request Referral” button to find people in your network who know and can connect you to the contact that posted the job listing on LinkedIn.
• Use LinkedIn ‘Groups’ and ‘Answers’ to network and demonstrate your expertise in your field.
• Download the ‘JobsInsider toolbar’ so that you can see if you or any of your LinkedIn contacts are connected to a particular company when you are viewing external job listings on other sites.
• Be reachable. Make sure to include your personal contact information (email address, phone number and URLs for relevant social networks) on your resume, business cards and in your email signature. It sounds silly, but a lot of people forget to include their phone number or have outdated email addresses on important networks where people expect to be able to connect like LinkedIn or Facebook.
Twitter:
• Search Twitter for job openings. Search by location, job titles, company names, or hashtags such as #jobs, #job, #jobsearch #jobseeker #career. Monitor keywords that relate to the jobs that you are applying to as well as words like opening, position, etc.
• Follow relevant recruiters and people working in your industry, and people that have your dream job.
• Follow the brands and businesses that you have an interest in working for. Companies often have HR specific handles that are used to announce job openings.
• Use TwitJobSearch: a job search engine for Twitter that aggregates job listings and posts on Twitter.
Google Alerts:
• Set up Google Alerts to help you monitor job leads that never appear on major job boards. Test what works best by starting with a broad search string, and then play with your keywords and narrow your search until your results are completely relevant.
o (Chicago AND marketing) AND (manager OR director) AND (position OR listing OR job)
• Set up a Google alert for your own name to monitor your personal brand.
1
Nicole Duhoski, founding partner of Chicago-based social-media strategy and public relations firm VineSprout (http://vinesprout.com), says anyone with access to the Internet can make the most of their job search by being smart about social media. Here are her tips for using key words in online profiles, downloading search tools, understanding how to use hashtags and keeping online resumes and other information constantly updated.
“If you spend a bit more time upfront and create solid resources online and thorough social media profiles, you can sit back and let Twitter, Google, recruiters and online connections do all the work for you,” Duhoski says.
• Build and develop a personal and professional online brand that reflects your skills, background, passions, experience, and personality. You don’t have to hide your identity or your personality just because you are job searching. Being a real person online and having a strong and consistent presence across all networks helps recruiters get to know you, and sets you apart from a list of names and resumes.
• Use the same picture across your networks to help with recognition. Create a vanity URL for Facebook, LinkedIn and other networks. (i.e. facebook.com/nduhoski; linkedin.com/nduhoski)
• Do not be shy about telling your online network that you are looking for a new opportunity, and remind them often. Do not try to hide that fact that you are unemployed and in search of a job online.
• Most jobs are found through networking and some of the best jobs are never posted on job boards.
• Create a simple, concise, easy to understand, 30-second job pitch and memorize it. Include it in your Twitter bio, your LinkedIn profile, Facebook and any other social network that you are on. Use it at networking events.
• Reach out to all friends, family and professional contacts and let everyone know that you are looking for a job. When people know exactly what you’re looking for, they are more likely to help you and to refer you to their network. Provide them with titles and descriptions and point them to your LinkedIn profile, or personal website with your resume.
• Attend as many networking events as possible. There is no shortage in Chicago. Conferences, local seminars, tweetups, social media/marketing/publicity clubs. Volunteer to work registration and you’ll have an opportunity to meet most of the attendees. Connect on LinkedIn within 24 hours.
• If you really want to get creative, Facebook ads, Facebook pages and video resumes, are some of the newer tools people are using to get noticed and stand out from the sea of resumes.
• Make sure that your profile is updated, and continue to update it regularly to reflect any changes.
• Write your resume/LinkedIn profile for the job you want, not just the job(s) you’ve had. Include keywords that are relevant to the type of job that you are searching for.
• LinkedIn, like most social networks is constantly evolving. Log-in daily and stay abreast of changes to the functionality and features offered.
• Optimize your LinkedIn profile to let recruiters find you. Think about the top three to four keywords that you use to search for jobs, and make sure that they are included in your profile.
• Monitor how often your profile appears in searches and how many people are viewing your profile.
• Update your status and make changes and updates to your profile to stay current in the feeds of your connections. Try changing your headline often to see what works best and what keywords attract more views.
• Upload your resume and portfolio using Box.net.
• Use LinkedIn’s Advanced Job Search — Use the “Request Referral” button to find people in your network who know and can connect you to the contact that posted the job listing on LinkedIn.
• Use LinkedIn ‘Groups’ and ‘Answers’ to network and demonstrate your expertise in your field.
• Download the ‘JobsInsider toolbar’ so that you can see if you or any of your LinkedIn contacts are connected to a particular company when you are viewing external job listings on other sites.
• Be reachable. Make sure to include your personal contact information (email address, phone number and URLs for relevant social networks) on your resume, business cards and in your email signature. It sounds silly, but a lot of people forget to include their phone number or have outdated email addresses on important networks where people expect to be able to connect like LinkedIn or Facebook.
Twitter:
• Search Twitter for job openings. Search by location, job titles, company names, or hashtags such as #jobs, #job, #jobsearch #jobseeker #career. Monitor keywords that relate to the jobs that you are applying to as well as words like opening, position, etc.
• Follow relevant recruiters and people working in your industry, and people that have your dream job.
• Follow the brands and businesses that you have an interest in working for. Companies often have HR specific handles that are used to announce job openings.
• Use TwitJobSearch: a job search engine for Twitter that aggregates job listings and posts on Twitter.
Google Alerts:
• Set up Google Alerts to help you monitor job leads that never appear on major job boards. Test what works best by starting with a broad search string, and then play with your keywords and narrow your search until your results are completely relevant.
o (Chicago AND marketing) AND (manager OR director) AND (position OR listing OR job)
• Set up a Google alert for your own name to monitor your personal brand.
1
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Tempted to Lie on Your Resume? Think Twice.
1
According to a survey done by Forensic Psychology, 31 percent reported lying on a resume. Barbara Safani, writing for AOL Jobs reports that research culled by Jobacle suggests that the number may be as high as 43 percent; the breakdown of resume fibs looks like this:
1. Salary (27 percent) - Many job seekers think this is an easy lie to pull off. But more and more employers are requesting to see previous W2 statements as a contingency of employment, so lying about salary can get dicey very quickly.
2. Credentials (12 percent) - Some job seekers "obtain" a degree through a diploma mill, while others just fabricate a degree and hope no one will check its authenticity. There are many stories of people who lied on a resume by falsifying information about their education and got caught. So will you. Most employers routinely check education credentials.
3. Job performance (15 percent) - It can be tempting to embellish results on a resume. Writing that you cut operational costs by 50 percent or saved the organization millions of dollars is only appropriate when you have the facts to back your claims up. Some hiring managers will challenge the statistics you mention on your resume, so be prepared to back up any statements with proof of performance.
4. Job responsibilities (19 percent) - Some job seekers stretch the truth and claim they played a larger role on a project than they actually did or that they held responsibilities that in fact were the responsibilities of their superior. The holes in this fib may quickly be revealed when a prospective hiring manager chats with your supervisor as part of the reference checking process and realizes that you and your past supervisor viewed your role differently.
5. Job skills (17 percent) - If you took a one-day PowerPoint class in 1999 and never developed a PowerPoint presentation in any of your jobs, can you list it as a job skill? Not really, but a lot of people do just that. Claiming you have a skill that you don't will be easily spotted once you are on the job and lack of a critical skill could lead to dismissal, so resist the urge to claim you have skills that you do not.
The bottom line, Safani says, is that most people who lie on their resumes eventually get caught. Lying on a resume is a lousy career management strategy. Stick with the facts and strive to present those facts in the best possible light without embellishing the truth. In the long run, you will secure a position that you are better suited for and more likely to succeed in.
1
According to a survey done by Forensic Psychology, 31 percent reported lying on a resume. Barbara Safani, writing for AOL Jobs reports that research culled by Jobacle suggests that the number may be as high as 43 percent; the breakdown of resume fibs looks like this:
1. Salary (27 percent) - Many job seekers think this is an easy lie to pull off. But more and more employers are requesting to see previous W2 statements as a contingency of employment, so lying about salary can get dicey very quickly.
2. Credentials (12 percent) - Some job seekers "obtain" a degree through a diploma mill, while others just fabricate a degree and hope no one will check its authenticity. There are many stories of people who lied on a resume by falsifying information about their education and got caught. So will you. Most employers routinely check education credentials.
3. Job performance (15 percent) - It can be tempting to embellish results on a resume. Writing that you cut operational costs by 50 percent or saved the organization millions of dollars is only appropriate when you have the facts to back your claims up. Some hiring managers will challenge the statistics you mention on your resume, so be prepared to back up any statements with proof of performance.
4. Job responsibilities (19 percent) - Some job seekers stretch the truth and claim they played a larger role on a project than they actually did or that they held responsibilities that in fact were the responsibilities of their superior. The holes in this fib may quickly be revealed when a prospective hiring manager chats with your supervisor as part of the reference checking process and realizes that you and your past supervisor viewed your role differently.
5. Job skills (17 percent) - If you took a one-day PowerPoint class in 1999 and never developed a PowerPoint presentation in any of your jobs, can you list it as a job skill? Not really, but a lot of people do just that. Claiming you have a skill that you don't will be easily spotted once you are on the job and lack of a critical skill could lead to dismissal, so resist the urge to claim you have skills that you do not.
The bottom line, Safani says, is that most people who lie on their resumes eventually get caught. Lying on a resume is a lousy career management strategy. Stick with the facts and strive to present those facts in the best possible light without embellishing the truth. In the long run, you will secure a position that you are better suited for and more likely to succeed in.
1
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Time to Re-Start the Job Hunt
1
We've seen the headlines. Strong job-growth numbers in February and a slight dip in unemployment should encourage people to restart the job search — especially in the temporary job market. The unemployment rate fell to 8.9%, as the private sector added 222,000 jobs, according to today’s report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
According to Market Watch, temporary jobs, in particular, are a good place to gain a toehold in the workforce, experts said. Of the 222,000 private sector jobs added in February, 15,500 were temporary, according to Jodi Chavez, senior vice president for Accounting Principles, a division of Adecco, a human resources firm.
When the economy starts to bounce back, temporary staffing firms are among the first to hire, said Chavez. Many companies are still “a little gun-shy” to sign on full-time employees, she added.
There should be other job opportunities for workers outside of temporary staffing because of the rejuvenated labor economy. People looking for work should check in with previous employers and with companies they have interviewed with in the past year or two. If they weren’t hiring last year, they may be hiring now.
It isn't going to hurt to let a previous employer know that you’re very interested in working with them and you’d like to come back.
1
We've seen the headlines. Strong job-growth numbers in February and a slight dip in unemployment should encourage people to restart the job search — especially in the temporary job market. The unemployment rate fell to 8.9%, as the private sector added 222,000 jobs, according to today’s report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
According to Market Watch, temporary jobs, in particular, are a good place to gain a toehold in the workforce, experts said. Of the 222,000 private sector jobs added in February, 15,500 were temporary, according to Jodi Chavez, senior vice president for Accounting Principles, a division of Adecco, a human resources firm.
When the economy starts to bounce back, temporary staffing firms are among the first to hire, said Chavez. Many companies are still “a little gun-shy” to sign on full-time employees, she added.
There should be other job opportunities for workers outside of temporary staffing because of the rejuvenated labor economy. People looking for work should check in with previous employers and with companies they have interviewed with in the past year or two. If they weren’t hiring last year, they may be hiring now.
It isn't going to hurt to let a previous employer know that you’re very interested in working with them and you’d like to come back.
1
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Nine Worst Résumé Mistakes
1
In a recent article on AOL Jobs by Penelope Patsuris, she examines nine items every job seeker should consider when putting together their by résumé.
1. Heavy résumé paper, elaborate design and other embellishments help job seekers stand out. For years, expensive résumé paper was required by any candidate wishing to be taken seriously--but this point is now moot since human resources prefer electronic submissions. "We don't like to get paper of any kind," says Doreen Collins, a manager for global staffing quality initiatives at General Electric, "and if we do get hard copies we just scan them into the system." That's because GE, like most companies, uses an electronic résumé management system to sort through prospective hires. As for eye-catching design and graphics: do without them. Such ornamentation only makes your résumé more difficult to read for a hiring manager who has hundreds of others applicants to sift through. The harder you make it for someone to discern your qualifications, the less likely it is that you'll be deemed qualified. And in this electronic age, curlicues put you at a further disadvantage. "We get a lot of résumés with graphic files, fancy fonts, even banners," says Collins, "but the electronic system rejects them." Hi-tech attention-getting can actually take applicants out of the running altogether.
2. Include an objective at the top of your résumé. Bad idea says Peri Hansen, a principal with recruiting firm Korn/Ferry. "It's the fastest way to pigeon-hole yourself," she says. Specify "Asset Manager" and you may not even be considered for "Financial Planner." "The one exception may be if you're trying to transition from one career into something very different," says Hansen. "An objective explains why your experience doesn't obviously apply to the opening."
A much better idea: Identify your goals in the cover letter so they can be tailored to each position you apply for. And yes, despite the convenience and speed of e-mailing a résumé, cover letters are still very much required. "When you only get a résumé, you worry that someone's just sitting on Monster.com hitting the 'send' button," says GE's Collins, "without any serious interest in the job."
3. Including a paragraph summarizing your skills. If you need to summarize your skills at the end of your résumé, then you either have one very poorly written résumé or you are being redundant. Neither of these things appeal to employers. "Any skills or expertise you have should be addressed in the accomplishments you list at the jobs you've held," says Hansen.
4. A "functional" résumé will do a better job of highlighting your unique skills and expertise than one that simply lists your positions in chronological order. Functional résumés--which detail skills instead of listing positions--won't help manipulate how prospective employers perceive you. "People use them to hide a gap in their employment," says recruiting firm Ray & Berndtson's Chief Executive Paul Ray Jr., "or to demonstrate that their skills can be applied to many positions." But the format makes managers suspicious and more intent on piecing together a timeline of your employment--and it's also a tough read. "After reading these résumés, you have no idea what the hell people have actually accomplished at their old jobs," says Ray.
5. Submit your résumé for jobs that you know you're not qualified for, if they're at companies where you'd like to work. "A lot of time people will apply just because they see it's GE," says Collins, "but when they're not appropriate, it really just frustrates us."
Another big gaffe: mass mailing your résumé to every headhunter and contact you know with all of their e-mail addresses listed in the "Cc:" line. "It's amazing how many people do that," says Dennis Spring, the principal at New York-based recruiter Spring & Co. "Not only is it bad manners, but it makes you look like you're plastering your résumé all over the planet. In my mind that makes you a much less desirable candidate. We are only looking for people who are strategic in their thinking, and present themselves in a very targeted manner."
6. Keep résumé length down to one page. Yes, they drilled this into our heads in college, but we're grownups now with much more experience. The acceptable length for a career spanning over six or seven years is two pages, according to Korn/Ferry's Hansen. "As long ago as you may have held a job, or as short a period of time you may have held it, you don't want to leave out anything that you did," she says. "If you go to three pages you've either worked a very, very long time or are being verbose."
7. Sharing information about yourself as a person - such as hobbies and memberships - creates the image of a well-rounded individual that employers prefer to hire. "I don't really care what kind of a person you are," says Ray, "I want to know what you can do for me." There is also such a thing as too much information. Maybe the person reviewing your résumé happens to detest cat lovers.
8. Note that references are available upon request. Of course they are. "That just wastes paper," says GE's Collins, "and it makes you look dumb."
9. For each position you've held, you only need to list the name of your employer and their location. "Don't assume that people reading your résumé know what your company does," says Hansen. If your work for a relatively unknown firm describe the business, note its revenues and maybe how old it is. "Otherwise I have to go online and look up a company description," says Hansen. And wasting a recruiter's time is not a good idea.
1
In a recent article on AOL Jobs by Penelope Patsuris, she examines nine items every job seeker should consider when putting together their by résumé.
1. Heavy résumé paper, elaborate design and other embellishments help job seekers stand out. For years, expensive résumé paper was required by any candidate wishing to be taken seriously--but this point is now moot since human resources prefer electronic submissions. "We don't like to get paper of any kind," says Doreen Collins, a manager for global staffing quality initiatives at General Electric, "and if we do get hard copies we just scan them into the system." That's because GE, like most companies, uses an electronic résumé management system to sort through prospective hires. As for eye-catching design and graphics: do without them. Such ornamentation only makes your résumé more difficult to read for a hiring manager who has hundreds of others applicants to sift through. The harder you make it for someone to discern your qualifications, the less likely it is that you'll be deemed qualified. And in this electronic age, curlicues put you at a further disadvantage. "We get a lot of résumés with graphic files, fancy fonts, even banners," says Collins, "but the electronic system rejects them." Hi-tech attention-getting can actually take applicants out of the running altogether.
2. Include an objective at the top of your résumé. Bad idea says Peri Hansen, a principal with recruiting firm Korn/Ferry. "It's the fastest way to pigeon-hole yourself," she says. Specify "Asset Manager" and you may not even be considered for "Financial Planner." "The one exception may be if you're trying to transition from one career into something very different," says Hansen. "An objective explains why your experience doesn't obviously apply to the opening."
A much better idea: Identify your goals in the cover letter so they can be tailored to each position you apply for. And yes, despite the convenience and speed of e-mailing a résumé, cover letters are still very much required. "When you only get a résumé, you worry that someone's just sitting on Monster.com hitting the 'send' button," says GE's Collins, "without any serious interest in the job."
3. Including a paragraph summarizing your skills. If you need to summarize your skills at the end of your résumé, then you either have one very poorly written résumé or you are being redundant. Neither of these things appeal to employers. "Any skills or expertise you have should be addressed in the accomplishments you list at the jobs you've held," says Hansen.
4. A "functional" résumé will do a better job of highlighting your unique skills and expertise than one that simply lists your positions in chronological order. Functional résumés--which detail skills instead of listing positions--won't help manipulate how prospective employers perceive you. "People use them to hide a gap in their employment," says recruiting firm Ray & Berndtson's Chief Executive Paul Ray Jr., "or to demonstrate that their skills can be applied to many positions." But the format makes managers suspicious and more intent on piecing together a timeline of your employment--and it's also a tough read. "After reading these résumés, you have no idea what the hell people have actually accomplished at their old jobs," says Ray.
5. Submit your résumé for jobs that you know you're not qualified for, if they're at companies where you'd like to work. "A lot of time people will apply just because they see it's GE," says Collins, "but when they're not appropriate, it really just frustrates us."
Another big gaffe: mass mailing your résumé to every headhunter and contact you know with all of their e-mail addresses listed in the "Cc:" line. "It's amazing how many people do that," says Dennis Spring, the principal at New York-based recruiter Spring & Co. "Not only is it bad manners, but it makes you look like you're plastering your résumé all over the planet. In my mind that makes you a much less desirable candidate. We are only looking for people who are strategic in their thinking, and present themselves in a very targeted manner."
6. Keep résumé length down to one page. Yes, they drilled this into our heads in college, but we're grownups now with much more experience. The acceptable length for a career spanning over six or seven years is two pages, according to Korn/Ferry's Hansen. "As long ago as you may have held a job, or as short a period of time you may have held it, you don't want to leave out anything that you did," she says. "If you go to three pages you've either worked a very, very long time or are being verbose."
7. Sharing information about yourself as a person - such as hobbies and memberships - creates the image of a well-rounded individual that employers prefer to hire. "I don't really care what kind of a person you are," says Ray, "I want to know what you can do for me." There is also such a thing as too much information. Maybe the person reviewing your résumé happens to detest cat lovers.
8. Note that references are available upon request. Of course they are. "That just wastes paper," says GE's Collins, "and it makes you look dumb."
9. For each position you've held, you only need to list the name of your employer and their location. "Don't assume that people reading your résumé know what your company does," says Hansen. If your work for a relatively unknown firm describe the business, note its revenues and maybe how old it is. "Otherwise I have to go online and look up a company description," says Hansen. And wasting a recruiter's time is not a good idea.
1
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)