How to Make Your (employment sites) Resume Stand Out
No commentsBy Ben Needles
Whether or not youre planning to look for a new job, you should always keep your resume updated. Get into the habit of updating your accomplishments and skills so that your resume is always ready.
Here are some tips:
1. Group your top skill sets into a summary.
2. Create a professional email address (using your name - no nicknames) to include with your contact information.
3. Use past tense - even when describing your current job.
4. If youre posting your resume online, dont encourage identity theft by including too much personal information.
5. Gear you resume towards the job you want, not the one you have now.
6. List your most recent job first.
7. Check spelling and grammar - dont depend on your spelling errors being caught by spell check.
Your resume should not include every task youve performed in every position; instead it should only include your strongest accomplishments. Though its tempting to add all the details about every job youve had, your resume is only a starting point. Use it to get your foot in the door so that you can get an interview. Once you have an opportunity to speak with the hiring manager, then you can go into more detail.
Since you have to catch the attention of the reader right away, stay away from passive-sounding words when describing your accomplishments and responsibilities. Passive sentences are indirect and dont make much of an impression.
Look at this example of a passive sentence: Participated on product development team. Compare that with this example of an active sentence: Created scripts and tested new product.
In addition to using active words and sentences in your descriptions, you also have to show results. Which description would appeal to you as a hiring manager?
Arranged new product development meetings, or Facilitated meetings for new product development team which led to cost savings due to reduced miscommunication between departments.
If you are a freelancer or temp worker, youll probably work for various companies and hold different positions. Even if you had different titles, the skills and accomplishments will show your versatility in different industries and company cultures.
Keep track of the projects youve worked on, articles and documentation youve written, etc. Set aside samples of your work so that you can include them with your resume, if requested.
When youre changing careers playing up your skills is very important. You may not have direct experience in the area youre changing to, but you can show how the skills youve acquired in the old career can be carried over to the new one. Pick accomplishments that show that you are versatile and can think out of the box. Play up training and learning experiences to show that you can adapt to new environments. The person reading your resume is focused on finding the right person for the job. They wont have the time to think about how to fit your skills into their requirements.
Not sure how to show that your skills can be transferred to a new profession? For instance, if youre a project manager and you want to become an event planner, you could play up your organization skills or your communications skills. You could also play up your ability to simultaneously manage different tasks. Look at the work youve done, then find ways to highlight your strongest accomplishments. The person reading your resume should see right away that you can perform the duties the position requires.
Of course if you know what type of job you want, itll be easier to create your resume. However, if youre not sure what you want to do next - or how to update your resume to reflect your varied skills - consider hiring a professional to help. These days you cant take a chance that your resume will be overlooked. If you present yourself to your best advantage, youll have a better chance of being hired for the job you want.
About the Author (text)
Deborah A. Bailey is a professional coach, writer and founder of Deb Bailey Coaching. She specializes in working with individuals as they move through transitions and experience a life beyond their expectations. Learn more now at http://www.dbaileycoach.com.
Your Network For Employment Opportunities Online
The Benefits Of An Education Career
By Tony Jacowski
Today, an increasing number of professionals are getting jobs in various online learning venues, onsite schools and universities. With the increase in the popularity of online schools and colleges, the need for instructors has also doubled. People who are a part of the education establishment are trained to effectively pass on their knowledge to others.
Their strong grasp of material and interest in the subject they teach enables them to help other people learn. This interest helps them to make their students well informed and better human beings.
Goal Oriented
If you want to be a part of the growing education field, you will have to be very goal oriented - because providing knowledge to others is a huge responsibility and it cannot be taken lightly. You should know the educational objectives of your students and the organization you are working for. You should also understand the implications of time management and lesson planning, along with the ability to use the time of your students to the fullest so that they learn more in less time.
You need to be able take on the responsibility to shape your students’ career and lives in the right way to ensure that their future is promising and bright. Your students can progress through a specific education pattern only when they learn certain skills within a specified time period. As a teacher, your knack to gauge student needs should be good. You should be able to create a plan and put it into action for people who require your help.
A Continuous Learning Process
People who are in the field of education, go through a continuous development process in their career. They have to keep learning new things related to their subject as well as classroom legalities and first aid, so that they can be certified. When they learn new things and better techniques to offer knowledge, it directly helps their students to learn more. This in turn keeps their careers moving in the right direction - up.
With computers becoming a part of the mainstream classrooms, many teachers are learning how to operate them so that they can help the students learn better faster. As far as the inventions in teaching tools are concerned, technology is becoming very popular, and in most cases, essential.
When you choose a career in education, you can get help from vast resource databases available in libraries and online. You can get information on new job offers and the requirements for bagging an education based job in a different state. There are various forums available on the Internet from where you can talk to experienced people who have excelled in the field, and gain information that could prove to be beneficial for your career advancement.
Tony Jacowski is a quality analyst for The MBA Journal. Aveta Solution’s Six Sigma Online offers online six sigma training and certification classes for six sigma professionals including, lean six sigma, black belts, green belts, and yellow belts.
Wednesday, July 30th, 2008 at 9:10 pm and is filed under Your network for employment opportunities online. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
