Tuesday, August 17th, 2010
Recent high school graduates, some stay-at-home moms, and those individuals who are just starting trade school or vocational college are faced with extra challenges in creating a resume that will prove their worth. As with all resume content, it’s imperative to focus on what you do have to offer, rather than what you lack. All it takes is a creative approach in putting your best foot forward.
1. USE A FUNCTIONAL FORMAT THAT STRESSES SKILLS, RATHER THAN EXPERIENCE:
Unlike the popular reverse-chronological format that details employers, titles, dates of employment, and job duties, the functional format showcases what you know.
For a recent high school graduate or those just entering trade school, that may mean clerical skills such as typing (including words per minute), computer proficiency (list software), data entry, 10-key, some bookkeeping, tailoring (sewing), cooking (home economics skills), or whatever was learned in high school that can be applied to a real job.
In the case of a stay-at-home mom, everyday tasks such as managing a household budget, paying bills (bookkeeping in the corporate world), childcare, scheduling pediatrician visits (appointment setting in the corporate world), planning children’s birthday parties or family get-togethers (event planning in the corporate world), can all have value in a professional environment, especially in an administrative assistant role.
2. USE VOLUNTEER EXPERIENCE IN LIEU OF PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:
Many individuals erroneously believe that if they weren’t paid for work, then it has no value in the corporate world. Nothing could be further from the truth. Skills in fundraising, event planning & coordination, media relations (either speaking with the press or authoring newsletters), activities planning, and community outreach (providing after school activities for at-risk youth, organizing a soup kitchen, etc.) can be stated as skills on a resume so long as the volunteer work is relevant to the current job search. It’s equally important to indicate how these skills transfer to a corporate environment – eg: event/activities planning may be valuable in an administrative assistant position when clerical support is needed to make travel/lodging arrangements for an executive or when a corporate party needs to be organized.
3. SEARCH ONLINE JOBS (HOTJOBS.COM, ETC.) TO DETERMINE HOW YOUR SKILLS MATCH THOSE QUALIFICATIONS MOST WANTED BY EMPLOYERS:
Even a basic entry-level position such as reception requires skill in answering phones and greeting the public. Determine what employers generally want in an employee, through online searches, then dovetail your strengths with their needs.
For example, a recent high school graduate is seeking a job as a receptionist. The information to highlight on this individual’s resume is any school activity that would tell the hiring manager this is a people-person, with a pleasant demeanor, who is always willing to help. Information that might relay this would be functioning as a hostess at a school-sponsored Las Vegas night or a fundraising supper, or perhaps this individual represented the school to prospective students during campus visits and tours.
Tuesday, July 6th, 2010
A Qualifications Summary is your first and best chance to make a favorable impression on a hiring manager. It is a marketing tool that sells your unique skills to the targeted company.
To be effective, a Qualifications Summary must:
1. Provide a snapshot of you as the ideal candidate for the position.
2. Be concise and to the point, addressing what expertise you can bring to the job to benefit the prospective employer.
3. Address pertinent qualifications in the job posting.
4. List your most stellar and recent quantified accomplishment that pertains to your current job search.
5. Provide additional data that enhances your candidacy, including:
A. Linguistic capabilities in foreign languages
B. Certifications
C. Licensure
D. Willingness to travel or to relocate for the new position
6. State specific skills, such as computer proficiencies (if applicable)
7. List your past employers if they are well known, eg: Boeing, Wall Street Journal, Macy’s, AT&T, etc.
8. Work Permits or Green Card data for foreign nationals.
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Category: Entry Level, Executive, Professional, Resume, Student, Tips | Tags: Tags: certified writers, meeting employer expectations, Resume, resume format strengths, resume preparation, resume tips, resumes,
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
The skills and experience information in modern resumes can be listed using three separate formats:
1. Reverse chronological
2. Functional
3. A combination of the two
Reverse chronological
Generally speaking, hiring managers prefer that employment data is provided with the most recent job listed first, followed by the next most recent, and so on. In that way, it’s easy to see career progression from an entry-level position to a more senior status. It’s also easy to detect gaps in dates of employment. It’s these gaps that cause candidates to select functional formats.
Functional
Functional formats stress what skills you have, rather than where and when you used them. These formats are best for students who have just graduated from college and have little “real-world” experience; those who have been out of the workforce for long periods because they were raising children; or job seekers who are transitioning from one career or industry to another. However, sometimes joining a functional with a reverse chronological format makes the most sense – these are called combination resumes.
Combination
With this format, skills that are relevant to the current job search are placed in a special section by function, while the Professional History or Work Experience is presented in a standard, reverse-chronological format. This format offers the best of both worlds, and is highly popular with job seekers and hiring managers.
For more information and to see our samples: http://www.resumeedge.com/resume-writing/resumes/resume-types/index.php?nav=rc.rc
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Category: Entry Level, Executive, Job Interview, Job Search, Military, Professional, Resume, Samples, Student, Tips | Tags: Tags: combination, combo resume, functional, functional resume, resume format strengths, resume format weaknesses, reverse-chrono resume, reverse-chronological,
Tuesday, July 14th, 2009
Everyone knows resumes serve as the quantification of who you are, what you’ve accomplished, and what expertise you can bring to your next employer. A professionally written resume is a necessity in today’s business world that no savvy business person would forego.
But today’s business people also need actively managed profiles on the social media sites that recruiters and others are using to find and learn more about potential hires.
LinkedIn is the most popular of these sites. While many people think of it as a Web-based contact management system, it’s so much more. In fact, it’s really a 24/7 personal branding machine.
The first step to fully leveraging LinkedIn is to think about your “positioning.” Since most people will not remember a lot about you, you want to give them one or two nuggets of information to associate with your personal brand. Let’s say you’re a salesperson who specializes in selling widgets to emerging bio-tech companies. Your profile should be constructed around reinforcing that bit of information so anyone reading it knows that’s what you are about: selling bio-tech widgets.
You’ll want to populate your profile with keywords that someone looking for a person with your expertise would use when they search LinkedIn for job candidates. This helps LinkedIn serve your profile to them as an option.
Once your profile is configured, you’ll want to proactively cultivate your image as an expert. An easy way to start is to join LinkedIn Groups where people with similar interests congregate. Resist the temptation to jump into the conversations you find posted there. Rather, sit back and observe for a week or so, getting a feel for the ways people communicate, then start participating in discussions. Eventually you will want to begin new discussions for others to join too.
These are just a few of the ways you can make better use of LinkedIn for business networking. For more on using LinkedIn and Facebook for business networking, order Jump Start Social Media’s reference guides. And if you’d like expert help in setting up your profiles and LinkedIn and/or Facebook, order the professional set-up services which include the guides. You’ll be networking like the pro you are in no time.
