|
|
| www.1001TopWords.com |
|
|
Six of the Best for a Winning Resume
1. Be Complete Make sure that your resume includes EVERYTHING your prospective employer would need to know to be able to offer you an interview. It is NOT unheard of for your carefully-crafted cover letter to be separated from your CV - if your contact details were only on your cover letter, how will they get in touch to arrange the interview? Therefore, make sure that your CV includes AT LEAST the following information: ---> Full contact details ---> The position you are applying for or are interested in ---> Employment history ---> Personal and professional achievements ---> Academic and professional qualifications ---> If not included elsewhere, evidence of your key strengths that will make you an irresistible candidate! And while we're at it, functional resumes are a big NO-NO!! As a professional recruiter, when I see a functional resume, I think "What is this guy (or gal) hiding?". It's like smelling fresh paint on an old car. Just stick with a chronological resume ALL THE TIME and paint any inconsistencies (e.g., career breaks) in as good a light as possible. This will ALWAYS be better than trying to hide it in the first place! 2. Be Relevant Seasoned recruiters are AMAZED by the number of applicants who have clearly not tailored their resume to the job they are applying for. Make sure that you put yourself in THEIR shoes. Think about what they are looking for in your resume. If, for instance, you are applying as a job as an office manager and your experience is in telesales, make sure that you emphasise your team leadership and time management skills. If, however, you were applying for a sales job, then clearly focus on your ability to get leads, convert leads into sales, and sell more products to existing customers. If it doesn't, CHANGE it or DELETE it!! 3. Be Recent As well as being relevant, make sure that your resume content is RECENT. If you are a seasoned manager applying for the position of CEO in a large company, is your experience managing your university's theatre company particularly convincing? On the other hand, if you are a recent graduate, that could be exactly the right thing to put on your resume as it will demonstrate that you have some management experience. Just make sure that you back it up with specific accomplishments in the role!! 4. Be Specific Be as specific as you can on how YOUR performance served the company you were working for. As an illustration, consider these four descriptions of an applicant's experience managing a sales function: ---> Responsible for 50 people in XYZ Corp's sales department. ---> Managed 50 colleagues in XYZ Corp's sales department to increase sales by 100% over 4 years. ---> Led 50 colleagues in XYZ Corp's sales department to increase XYZ's share of the widget market from 15% to 20% over 4 years. ---> Led XYZ Corp's 50 strong sales team to increase XYZ Corp's share of the widget market by radically overhauling the compensation structure, fostering a more collaborative culture within the team and redesigning the customer acquisition process. Now, if I needed to make a decision on which of these resumes would be worthy of an interview, guess which one I would choose... 5. Be Clear Make your resume as clear as you can in five ways: ---> Font: Use an easily-readable font. Verdana is a classic, is easily readable and is easy on the eye. Other favourites are Times New Roman or Georgia. Try to stick to one, or at most two font sizes (nothing less than 8 point and ideally nothing less than 10 point), and do not over-style your text. Italics, bold and underlined words on the same page look clumsy. ---> Format: Make the format of your resume as easy to follow as possible, and consider using horizontal rules across the page to separate sections. ---> Language: Ensure that the description of your experiences and accomplishments is as clear as possible. Test them with your friends. Ask them whether it is possible to make the descriptions clearer or more concise. ---> Consistency: Make sure that you are consistent in every way - this significantly increases readability. For instance, use a consistent date format throughout. If your first position is listed in the order of [date, company, position, achievements] then make sure they are ALL listed like that. When listing your achievements, make sure that they all start with a verb. And make sure that font sizes and styles are consistent for similar words - for instance if your previous employers' names is in bold, then they all should be. ---> Spelling and Grammar: Use your word-processor's spelling and grammar checking facility. A spelling or grammatical error in a resume is quite simply inexcusable and could be enough ON ITS OWN to send your resume to the bin. Once you've checked it on the computer, check it with someone who you trust to pick up any last gremlins in the grammar. 6. Be Brief Ideally, a resume should be just one page, although if you are applying for a job in which the assessor will need significantly greater detail on your past accomplishments, then the resume can spread to two pages. Wrap Up So, now you have a winning resume guide! Go back to your old resume and check it against the six easy steps in the winning resume guide, and make sure your phone is on the hook for when those recruiters call! Jonathan Lewis is the founder and CEO of Careerfriend, a company committed to helping people succeed in their dream careers. His extensive experience of attracting, recruiting, retaining and developing exceptional people in management consulting and investment banking allows him to offer clear, actionable advice which has a great impact on people either looking for new jobs or looking to succeed further in their existing jobs. The Careerfriend website (http://www.careerfriend.com) contains free career advice articles to help people succeed in securing dream careers, from career and employer selection, through resume and cover letter writing, to interviewing, salary negotiation and ongoing career development. Jonathan was educated at Cambridge University, UK and has advised major national and international corporations, both in the public and private sectors, on issues of corporate strategy, corporate organization, labor relations, personnel development
|
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Stand Out From the Crowd with Simple Marketing Methods Although today's job market can be very competitive, many job seekers overlook simple techniques that will catch potential employers' attention. Apply these eight ideas to stay ahead of your competitors and get hired now! Top 10 Skills for New World of Work There are many changes coming in the world of work, such as increased competition, the need for more education and certifications, and the trend to change careers 5-7 times in a lifetime. No matter what job or career path you decide to take, there are some basic skills that all employers look for. To succeed in the modern world of work, keep your skill set up- to- date. The following is a list of the top ten skills needed for the new world of work. How to Terminate an Employee and Live to Tell the Tale 1. Employee Backdrop in Australia Power Resumes ? Writing Your Objectives A powerful resume starts with a good statement of objective. This is the headline of your advertisement promoting yourself. The headline has to be simple yet state with clarity that you are the perfect choice for the specific job or position. Minding Your Own Business Think you have gone as far as you can in your present job? Instead of looking around for a similar position in another company, you may want to strike out on your own as a consultant. The Springtime of Your Career Rick Jarow, author of Creating the Work You Love, introduced many of us to the notion of career seasons. When we're struggling with a career, we're most likely to think of winter. At some point a career change (or other transition) feels like being buried under a coat of ice, hibernating through long, dark days. Hopefully we learn to see the beauty of winter -- sun on the snow, clear air, the bare outlines of trees denied their leafy cover-ups. The Top 10 Ways to Manage Your Career Many people in the last decade have experienced either a layoff or termination in their lives or the lives of somebody they know. While many of these people affected have experienced outplacement-consulting services, some have not and they may be in for a rude awakening - corporations no longer "take care of you". Managing your career in these times require you to have a game plan and an understanding of yourself and human behavior. That is why outplacement consulting and career coaches have become so popular and are being sought out by individuals, not just corporations. A career coach can help you manage more than just your career, they can help you communicate better and get along with others better. Waiting for Lightening to Strike Author and management guru, Peter Drucker says, "People adjust to the level of demands made on them." I would add, we also adjust to the level we demand of ourselves. At some point we grow up and pass for adults by how we look. To match that look with action requires both discipline and determination. Waiting For the Official Job Offer At the end of the third job interview, Helene was told by the hiring manager, "Congratulations, I am going to recommend you for the position. Expect a call from HR." Helene breathed a sigh of relief because her job search of six months was finally over. Using Your Whine Factor Brian's work was exceptional. Still, as his boss, I rarely offered him additional responsibilities, never thought of promoting him or selecting him for a critical project. Why? His whine factor got in the way. He was quick to complain to anyone who'd listen how much work was on his plate, or how hard or how late he worked. His whine factor was a protective shield that insured he didn't get more work to do. But, it also shielded him from getting the opportunity filled assignments, more interesting work, and the highest pay raises. Stephanie was a different story. She was masterful at weaving vivid details with a precision that explained exactly why the expected outcome didn't happen. This week it centered on a miscommunication, last week it was the delayed delivery, or the reduced advertising, an incompetent supplier or a staff illness. Every story was accurate; every reason plausible; every explanation justifiable; always a good reason why she couldn't deliver the promised quality, precision or timeliness. As her boss, it took me time to realize that Stephanie's accountability decreased each time her whine factor increased. As she became more entrenched in offering reasons why something didn't happen, she became less personally involved in the actual results. I've seen the whine factor derail projects and people in my twenty years in management. Whining shifts a mindset from can do to can't do, allows potholes to become sink holes, turns challenges to complaints and reframes opportunities into woe is me. You can use your own whine factor as a barometer to keep you on track. If the factor is high, be alerted that your actions are, most likely, becoming less accountable. That should signal you to tune into what you can personally do to control, adjust or correct the current course so you can deliver the expected results. I think that point is worth repeating because it differentiates performance in significant ways. If you want to control the outcome, you'll need to get your hands a bit calloused along the way. Learning to listen to your whine factor is a helpful self-feedback mechanism to guide you towards greater accountability and winning at working behaviors. Less whine means more accountability. Higher accountability typically means better results. And better results are what most of us are after. (c) 2004 Nan S. Russell. All rights reserved. Find Passion for Your Work Most people spend approximately 25% to over 67% of their waking hours working. Eventually, most everyone will want to work in a career that they enjoy and are paid well enough to live a prosperous life. Yet, far too many people end up being miserable in their job and find themselves stuck in a career that they did not choose. People then get discouraged, produce less, and become disgruntled. Unfortunately, people then blame themselves or those they work for, when in truth there is rarely anything wrong with them or the people they work for. Instead, maybe their job selection process is flawed which causes them to fall into the wrong positions. Tales from the Corporate Frontlines: Career Opportunities for New Graduates Tales from the Corporate Frontlines: Career Opportunities for New Graduates Common Résumé Mistakes Using a general résumé. Air Liquide: Driving Liquid Air Have you ever heard of liquid air? The process of liquifying air was a major scientific achievement that took place over 100 years ago. Even after 100 years there are only a few companies that liquify air, which is probably why you've never heard of it before. Liquifying air is a cheap way to isolate different gasses like oxygen and nitrogen. American Idol Syndrome I like Simon, one of three judges on American Idol. I find his feedback refreshingly honest. And while his words startle me with their ego wounding potential, the traditional feel-good, let-you-down-easy, sugar-coated feedback is not much of a gift. It's hard to tell someone they're not good enough and their dreams are not going to happen, at least in this venue. But not telling them is no gift either. Some contestants rise to the challenges he throws at them. Some don't. And, some can't. Which one are you? The people who influenced me most in my career were those who gave me the hardest critiques. Stricken with a bruised-ego for days, or on occasion for months, inevitably their feedback helped me make the right life choices to improve, change direction, or stay the course with intensity. In fact, the boss who was the hardest on me is the one I thank the most. Good was not good enough if I was capable of better, and she was quick to point out when that was. No sugar coating from her. And the funny thing? When I was honest with myself, I knew she was right. Being honest with yourself is one of the challenges to winning at working. We all have talents and abilities, but they're not always in the areas we pursue at work. Too many people I've run across in my career have American Idol Syndrome (AIS). Like Idol contestants auditioning with little or no singing ability, these people believe they are good at what they do. They can't understand why they don't get the promotion, the outstanding review, or the highest increases. They view themselves as varsity team material, but they play with junior varsity skills. When I was a freshman at Stanford, I got a D in biology. Stanford graded on a bell-curve, so an 84% that might traditionally put me in a B category, was near the class bottom. Accustomed to A's, first quarter grades woke me up. At first, I rationalized a D at Stanford was an A or a B at most any other school. But, reality prevailed. I wasn't at another school. If I was going to compete at the school I was at, it was time to use more than high school skills to bring results. Are you applying yourself? Are you as good as you could be to get the raise, the promotion, or the more interesting work? If these are things you want, don't suffer from AIS. Give yourself some Simon-esk feedback. Ego aside. A Simon-esk answer to the questions, "how good are you?" and "are you in the right field?" offers you a chance at becoming happier and more successful at working. The answers give you choices: you can stay the course; find a playing field at your skill level; improve your skills to compete where you are; or change directions. (c) 2004 Nan S. Russell. All rights reserved. Are You Bored By What You Do? Is your working life in the doldrums? Do you feel stuck in a rut? Uncertain about the future? Depressed by what you can see ahead? Still looking for a job that will fully engage your interest? Networking Mistakes and How You Can Avoid Them 'Fear of rejection' is the major reason why individuals looking for a career change hesitate to use networking as the most powerful weapon in their job search armoury. This is even the case with senior people who you would have thought anybody would be delighted to receive a call from. In 99.9% of cases this fear is unfounded - most professional people are pleased to receive calls from like-minded people and are a pleasure and delight to talk to. What To Do When A Co-Worker Turns Nasty A friend of mine laments that work would be great if only there were no other people there! No matter where we work, we will work with others. Often, those relationships are cordial if not friendly, but there can be challenges. You will not love all of your co-workers, and some will be downright nasty. Tales From the Corporate Frontlines: Here Today, Gone Tomorrow This article relates to the Job Security competency, commonly evaluated in employee satisfaction surveys. After a large scale cut in personnel, this particular group of employees needed some extra support. Examining the issue of job security measures how your employees view their job security within your organization. In today's often volatile or contingent labor market, it's crucial to understand the level of security your employees feel about maintaining their jobs. Studies show that employees who do not feel secure in their jobs are less likely to be committed to best assisting customers. Evaluating this competency can be especially useful if your organization has suffered recent layoffs or firings. The Executive Resume - Moving Beyond Accomplishments There is a major difference between conventional resumes and executive resumes. Accomplishments are usually the center point of a conventional resume (i.e., indicating how much money was saved, how sales increased, what processes were proposed, planned, initiated, implemented, or streamlined). The executive resume, on the other hand, has more than one focus. It alludes to the executive's ability to drive profits (accomplishments) and the capacity to lead (that is, to blend various "soft" skills) an organization.
|
| © Athifea Distribution LLC - 2013 |