Posts Tagged ‘resumes’

If Your Jobs Have Mainly Been as a Contract Worker

Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010

Temporary (contract) employees are the wave of the future. Companies no longer have to worry about benefits or keeping someone on who doesn’t fit in with the corporate culture. Of course, that leaves many individuals with ten or more short-termed positions to detail on a resume.

Although it seems daunting and impossible to attract a hiring manager’s attention with that kind of data, it can be done.

1.  IF YOU’VE WORKED SIX JOBS THROUGH ONE TEMPORARY AGENCY, LIST THE AGENCY’S NAME AS THE EMPLOYER:

Technically speaking, the agency – not the company where you actually do the work – is the employer and should be listed as such. If you’re like most contract workers, you do the same job for a number of companies, and you should detail those duties one time only beneath your job title, which will also include the employer list. For example:

FIRST STAFFING AGENCY, White Plains, New York, 2001 – Present
Administrative Assistant
(XYZ Company, RRT Company, ABC Company, & CDF Company)
* Generate correspondence for staff and senior executives.
* Answer telephone inquiries.
* Maintain inventory of office supplies.

The above is organized and provides relevant data without repetition.

2.  USE THE OPENING SUMMARY TO PROMOTE THE SKILLS IT TAKES TO SUCCEED AS A CONTRACT EMPLOYEE:

Showcase your time management skills (especially if you’ve been asked – at the last moment – to accept a position because of an emergency staff shortage), how you thrive on change and meeting new people, what a quick learner you are (every company has its own policies and procedures that new staff must adhere to), and the range of your skills, which have to be comprehensive in order to move from company to company on short notice. In other words, show the hiring manager that you can make a quick, seamless transition from your contract job into a more permanent position at the targeted company.

3.  SHOWCASE ANY CONTRACT JOBS IN WHICH THE CONTRACT WAS EXTENDED OR YOU WERE ASKED TO STAY ON:

Detail why you were offered a permanent position, and where it led – either to a promotion or to increased responsibility. The key is to show the new hiring manager that you have what it takes to get the job done.

The Most Important Section of Your Resume

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.

Overcoming Age Discrimination

Tuesday, June 8th, 2010

You’ve heard the saying, “You’re not getting older, you’re getting better.” Well maybe so, but employers don’t necessarily think that way when scanning resumes. Unfortunately, many of them shy away from hiring seasoned people because these pros are perceived as inflexible, over-trained, and worst of all, too expensive.

Your resume can overcome this obstacle in subtle ways that establish your capabilities. For instance, to overcome age discrimination, consider limiting your experience to 15 years for a managerial job, ten years for a technical job, and five years for a high-tech job. Leave other experiences off your resume or list it without dates.

Your goal is to only use information that is directly relevant to the job you are seeking. This is honest as well as fair to your prospective employer. After all, if you’re a 50-year-old applying for a job in accounting, why would your prospective employer care that you worked as a counselor for five-year-olds at Camp Gichi-Goomi when you were 16 years old? That’s exaggerating the concept, but you get the point.

Being Realistic

Tuesday, March 16th, 2010

In this economy, it’s not enough to craft a stellar resume and to submit it to countless recruiters and hiring managers. No matter how terrific your background is, no matter your outstanding accomplishments, the reality is there are dozens, perhaps hundreds, of equally-qualified candidates out there all vying for the same position.

Does that mean you should throw up your hands and give up?

Not at all.

What it does mean is that you need to remain realistic. Gone are the days when a candidate could send out five resumes and receive four calls for interviews and a bidding war for the individual’s services. Today, each of us has to realize that even with a hundred resumes sent out, there may be no call backs. So, we have to submit again and again.

We may also have to take a lesser position to get our foot in the door. We may have to transition to a growing industry if ours is contracting or being outsourced.

A great, accomplishment-based resume is always a terrific way to begin the job hunt. But it’s no longer the be-all and end-all. It’s only one part of a very long process.

The key is to keep submitting your resume, keep looking for opportunities and to recognize an opportunity when it arrives. It may not be what you dreamed about, but it could be the chance for something better in the future.