4 Top Secrets of Entry-Level Resume Writing

4 Top Secrets of Entry-Level Resume Writing Before writing your resume you’ll no doubt go online to research a few writing  tips, and end up reading article after article giving advice on what and what not to  put: “do not exceed two pages in length, begin with most recent work history,  highlight your key career achievements in a separate section…” This is all great advice, however as an Entry-Level applicant,  chances are you have limited experience and the first obstacle you face is finding  enough useful information to fill one page. As an experienced CPRW (certified professional resume writer) over the years  I’ve met with thousands of stressed young job seekers, most of which were battling  through the process of writing their first resume in pursuit of a decent job, following  their college graduation. In nearly all these cases, the same four rules helped them  overcome common issues faced by nearly all entry-level job-seekers, quickly putting  them on the fast track to career success. Here’s my top four tips on how to write an  inspiring entry-level resume. 1. Expound your Education: Entry-level resumes often look bare. Most college graduates worry about this  and go to great lengths to fill their resume using complicated formatting tricks and  oversized text fonts. These are not the solution however, and only serve to highlight  your problem. What is important is that you demonstrate your knowledge and ability in the  industry you’re applying for. To help beef up your resume you want to focus on your  education, expounding the specific classes you took that illustrate your knowledge  and expertise relevant to the job and industry you’re applying to, that indicates  you’re a good choice for interview. Always research the company you’re applying to and the specific demands of the  job at hand. Reflect on what classes you sat that taught you relevant knowledge, and  then highlight these under your education section. Job: Junior analyst at Barney Rubble Business Consultancy firm (a major US/Asian conglomerate) Degree: Major in Business administration, minor in Chinese language. Relevant classes to highlight: Business  language in Chinese, oral proficiency, etc. A dull education section briefly summarizing the school you attended and your  major, suddenly transforms into an engaging exposition of your key areas of  expertise, actively marketing your unique knowledge. The additional content will  also help make your resume look more complete. 2. Give Yourself A Professional Title: Branding is a major aspect of job searching. You’re trying to create your own  brand idea â€" one that portrays you as a professional with valuable  expertise and knowledge. Even if you’ve only just graduated, you can still identify  yourself as an expert, and you are! Take into account the field of work you want to  apply for, your major, and build your resume around that.  Top resumes always include a title at the start of the document, usually  incorporated alongside the person’s name. For example: Susan Williams | Administrative Assistant Or Charles Escobar Senior Accounts Executive Sales Manager If you graduated with a major in accountancy and finance then give yourself the  title Accountant and Financial Specialist. If you’re looking for work in,  for example operations management, then title yourself an Operations  Manager. In this case, it would be a good idea to revise your college books  including anything you studied about operations management, but this will certainly  separate yourself from other entry-level applicants and help build confidence that  you’re the right choice. 3. Swap your Career Objective for a Professional  Summary: This is a double-edged sword. First, by removing your career objective and  replacing it with a professional summary section, you’ll help build your personal  brand. A summary section helps portray you as a professional, a specialist, and an  expert. By writing a lengthier summary section you are saying: “I am a  qualified expert in industry X and I have skill and knowledge to offer you”. Additionally, nowadays most resume experts consider a career objective to be a  waste of space on your resume. In theory, the purpose of a career objective is to  show that your interests align with those of the company you’re applying to and that  your goal is to work for them thus benefitting their organization. But this is already  demonstrated, by the mere fact that you’re applying in the first place. This  ultimately renders you’re your career objective redundant â€" redundancy is a big  no-no on a resume! By following my advice, you won’t only be removing  a redundant section from your resume, but you’ll be replacing it with something far  more effective. How to write a Professional Profile A professional profile is a short introductory paragraph that highlights your key  strengths, skills, and areas of expertise. It should be no more than 3â€"4 sentences  long. You want to create an impactful paragraph that markets your unique skill set  it is your 30-second elevator pitch. The purpose of this paragraph is that (as is often the case) if the hiring manager  only reads your resume for a few seconds, they will instantly be impressed.  Incorporate three key selling points: your degree and major, any relevant  experience you have, any key skills you have developed. Make sure you outline your  ambition to perform within the given industry. Include any achievements, use  industry buzz words central to you’re the job being advertised, and use inspiring,  active language. Keep it concise, cut unnecessary language usage; consider it your  â€œheadline”. 4. Only Include Credible Professional Experience: I’ve worked with students, college grads and young professionals that have been  told to incorporate any and all professional experience they have on their resume,  even the baby-sitting jobs they did during high school. They were told to extract the  key skills from these jobs and apply these in their new resume this is wrong. When considering what’s best to put on your resume, think logically. What will  most impress a recruiting manager? Someone telling them that their baby-sitter job  each Saturday night taught them cash handling skills? That their understanding of  logistics is based on delivering papers aged 13? This is more likely to reflect badly  on you, in my honest opinion. Most college students have held a part-time job, worked an internship, or have  been involved in volunteer work. When writing your professional experience section, focus on this type of experience, and develop a structured exposition of the  necessary skills you developed. A professional experience section featuring one well  presented work experience will be far more effective than a lengthy section  detailing lots of minor, far-fetched stories loosely linking teenage gardening chores  to entry level accounting! What if I have no proper experience? If you don’t have any professional experience, then its time to go and get some.  Go to your library, local community center, or contact a career advisor at your  school and ask about volunteer work programs. Consider what industry you are  targeting career-wise, and then look for volunteer programs that will provide  relevant experience. You’ll be able to start in no time, and you’ll only need to do a  few hours a week to gain something that will substantially impact your resume.  What’s more, you’ll be learning real life skills that will become highly valuable once  you get your foot in the door somewhere to begin your career! Finding a job fresh out of college isn’t always easy, it takes perseverance,  confidence and even a bit of luck. There are many factors that will affect your  chances with each application you make â€" the once factor you have control over is  your resume. Make sure you’re doing everything you can to turn the odds in your  favor. Good luck! Author: Howard Davies is a Certified Professional Resume Writer and career coach at www.resumewriterdirect.com, a US leader in  online resume and career services.

4 Tips for Writing a Stellar Sales Resume

4 Tips for Writing a Stellar Sales Resume Top sales achievers need strong sales tools. Your resume is your number one personal marketing tool, designed to capture and keep the attention of hiring authorities. As a sales manager, director, or executive, how can you ensure your resume persuades the reader to learn more?   Read on. Showcase numbers. In the sales field everything revolves around numbers; the greater the better.   When writing your resume for a sales role you must pull out all the stops and well position your best statistics. Be prepared to demonstrate how you increased revenue or profits, exceeded sales targets, secured new business, penetrated new markets, or retained top clients. Write strong SELL points that are succinct, impactful, and easily digestible, similar to these examples: Exceeded sales targets by 190% for two straight years. Increased business revenue by 33% YOY. Captured $17M worth of new market opportunities. Remember to quantify how much and how many as often as possible with exact figures, percentages, dollar amounts, and statistics. Don’t bury key facts â€" emphasize them. Use creative design components (tables, charts, bolding, key performance sections) to draw the reader towards your best outcomes or personal value.  If you conceal your excellent sales figures or unique selling features in heavy blocks of dense text they will likely be overlooked. Help employer’s spot your value by leveraging a visual technique, like a chart: Use appropriate industry ‘speak’ and keywords. To SELL yourself, you need to speak the same language as the reader.   In the sales field it is all about: market gains, revenue acceleration, new business success, needs and market analysis, strategic marketing, cold calling and prospecting, relationship-building, and door-opening strategies. Pepper the appropriate keywords throughout your resume (supporting with quantifiable achievements whenever possible). Some additional sales-related keywords and terms to consider include: Long-term growth Buyer motivation Market penetration Account management Lead generation Product innovation Sales forecasting Profit margin optimization Brand positioning Know what makes you unique. Most sales professionals possess similar skills, so what makes you stand out?   Why should an employer hire you over someone else?   Spend time contemplating your ‘10% difference’ and leverage your specialized value to convince recruiters that you can make a big impact to their business. Areas unique to you might include: Industry awards. Superior industry reputation (backed and supported by statistics of course). Special industry exposure (recognizable clients/customers, select products, or big box name brands). Industry depth and breadth  (niche markets). Raving customer, vendor, client, or executive management reviews  (include  sound bites in your resume). Any or all of the above can be leveraged as your exclusive selling points.As a senior sales professional, you need a resume that SELLS not tells   how you  will drive big gains in the target company.  Convince the reader you have what it takes to bring the organization to the next level; write a resume that is positioned well above the rest.  For more details on executive resume writing for top Canadian professionals, please visit www.CareerImpressions.ca

Are Employee Evaluations Really Necessary

Are Employee Evaluations Really Necessary Employee evaluations, staff appraisals, performance reviews. Whatever you call them, the process of examining your growth and accomplishments over time should be an enlightening experience for you and your boss, yet when it comes to discovering the usefulness and effectiveness of employee evaluations, it depends whom you ask. In a recent  survey, 91 percent of chief financial officers (CFOs) interviewed said formal evaluations are somewhat or very effective in helping employees improve their performance, but only 55 percent of workers interviewed agreed. In fact, nearly one in three workers said employee evaluations are somewhat or very ineffective, and 11 percent said they don’t receive evaluations at all. It’s easy to understand why employees dislike evaluations. Employee evaluations are usually annual events that jam a year’s worth of hard work into a 30 minute interview, skimming old accomplishments and focusing heavily on recent performance. Add to it that employee evaluations always seem to come during the holidays, it’s an inconvenient time of the year when work is piling up and family members long removed continue appearing on doorsteps. Some HR experts advise companies to  add an August meeting to their normal evaluation schedule, so employees can be evaluated semi-annually. But since so many employees already just don’t see the worth in evaluations, is this really enough? From the employee standpoint, are employee evaluations really necessary at all? If employee evaluations at your company are anything like those done by “the Bobs” in the comedy “Office Space” where slacker employees are promoted and hardworking employees are overlooked and even fired, it’s time to protest management to nix employee evaluations. But if employee evaluations at your company are well-thought-out, professional meetings, they really are necessary. Here’s why: They Allow You To Know Where You Stand In Your Company In today’s economy, ignorance in the workplace is not bliss. In order to be successful, employees need to know how their performance stacks up to co-workers’ and if it’s likely their careers will grow within a company or if they should contemplate  searching for a new job. Employee evaluations allow employees and bosses to examine a project or task from the other’s point of view, and they give both parties an opportunity to discuss the employee’s strengths and weaknesses in a nonthreatening way. Employee evaluations also give employees the opportunity to explain poor results or promote great performance. They Give You An Opportunity To Ask For A Raise Or Promotion Employee evaluations are traditionally the most common time employees ask for and are granted pay raises and promotions. While you can ask for a raise or promotion from your boss at any time, employee evaluations are the most ideal for a few reasons. For one, your boss is highly aware of your professional accomplishments and contributions to the company. Two, employee evaluations successfully weed out underperforming employees (as you’ll see below), potentially freeing up money, benefits, and positions. And three, because employees so often ask for raises or promotions during employee evaluations, your boss most likely expects your asking and already investigated what he’s able to offer. They Weed Out Underperforming Employees Underperforming employees or downright  bad hires cost companies huge sums of moneyâ€"between the cost of recruiting, training, salary, healthcare, and benefits, 41 percent of companies estimate they cost more than $25,000, and one in four say they cost more than $50,000. But you don’t need statistics to tell you that underperforming employees affect your day-to-day activities. Their poorly researched ideas take time away from your brainstorming during meetings, and their inability to complete work in a timely manner results in an increased workload for you. Employee evaluations identify and weed out these underperformers, so you can work more effectively in a better environment. Despite the uneasiness or excitement employee evaluations conjure, at the end of the day, they truly are necessary in the workplace. Employee evaluations allow employees to know where they stand in their companies, they give employees an opportunity to ask for a raise or promotion, and they successfully weed out underperforming employees, making the workplace a more enjoyable and more productive place to be. What are your thoughts? Do you think employee evaluations are really necessary? Sudy Bharadwaj is a co-founder and the CEO of Jackalope Jobs, a job seeker focused platform, making the job search social, fast and easy. Learn how Sudy and Jackalope Jobs obsess over job seekers by connecting with them on  Twitter.

Spring Cleaning Challenge Accepted

Spring Cleaning Challenge Accepted Howdy Gals! I have been a busy little Spring-Cleaning-Bee around these parts.  Back in this post, I wrote that I was going to actually select and use a Spring Cleaning list from my Pinterest board.  There were so many cute choices to pick from.  You can check out my favorite options here. I ended up selecting this one: I LOVE!  Heres why: One: I am a sucker for a flow chart.  I am a visual learner, ya know! Two: I wanted my newly adopted plan to be easy to follow.  Nothing says easy like arrows telling me what to do next. Three: I enjoyed the process and flow.  I found that this particular list would lend itself well to life beyond the BIG Spring Cleaning experience.  I feel like I could easily take parts of the comprehensive list and use it to keep up with a more regular cleaning routine. Four: This list included laundry in the process.  I often put laundry in and forget about it.  I like that the list reminded me to swap the laundry around. Five: IT ENDS WITH A COCKTAIL.  Duh. Here are the supplies I used: Not much mystery here, folks.  I used the following items: Rags for wiping, polishing, scrubbing, etc Hand-held duster for the obvious Multi-Purpose spray with vinegar (this brand rocks because it does not stink like chemicals!) Toothbrush for getting into the small nooks and cracks Pretty rubber gloves to protect my manicure. (Not pictured) I used the typical toilet cleaning materials but did not want to set them on my kitchen counter gross Over all I feel great about the use of the check sheet.  I also loved how the supplies were so simple.  I am going to print myself a new copy and laminate it for future uses.  Once laminated I can simply use a Visa Vis dry-erase marker and wipe it off with water.  In the end, I found that I was finished way sooner than I had expected, and I attribute that victory to the list.  Yay! Have you had any refreshing Spring Cleaning experiences?

Using Professional Profile Resume Examples to Generate Your Own Professional Resume

Using Professional Profile Resume Examples to Generate Your Own Professional ResumeProfessional profile resume examples can be very useful in generating a resume that will stand out in the job market. A profile can do this by using the professional background of the person who is putting together the resume to establish their true worth as a professional. These examples can be found and used for free in many places online, including a variety of Internet sites that focus on job searching or career advice.Of course, you may want to search for more professional profile resume examples, but there are several things to keep in mind. First, some resume examples may not be based on your specific needs, so you have to understand what types of profiles can be of assistance to you. This may include educational background, specialized education, work experience, or work experience with specific industries.The Internet is a great source for this type of information. Also, you should make sure t hat the particular career service site you use offers an opportunity to save resumes for a period of time. You will find that a lot of these resume examples are very similar to each other. You can use this resource to help determine what is most important to you when it comes to creating your own professional profile resume.What should you look for in resume examples? First, the examples you will find may offer information about the resume writing service provider's credentials. Some of the examples may be brief and just offer examples of what they can do for you. You may need to read the examples of professional resume examples and identify which of them meet your needs and goals.A good professional resume examples will be tailored to your exact needs and specific needs. Most professionals will give examples that are very clear, concise, and specific. The best examples will be considered professional resume examples.Another advantage of professional resume examples is that they are often included as part of a variety of packages. One way to get a quality resume examples is to use an online service that provides a variety of resume examples to customers. This is a good resource to use because it will often include a range of options, including different formats and different language for the resume examples.When looking for free professional resume examples, try to stay away from websites that offer the samples for free. These websites often provide the samples for no money, but they will make a small commission if you decide to buy the sample services. The free samples will often not be created for the specific needs of your career and you may find that these samples are unsuitable.As you look at professional resume examples, pay attention to how you are presented. Use the samples that are most appropriate for your career. Although most professional resume examples will meet your needs, remember that your unique needs will be part of the resume format and tha t you will be able to customize the information to fit your own personal needs.

How to Inject Some Creativity Into Your Business

How to Inject Some Creativity Into Your Business Being creative might seem like a vague thing to apply to your business, but when you apply creative thinking to business processes, you tend to find some of the most interesting and innovative ideas. That’s why you should work hard to make your business more creative on a day to day basis than it is right now. If you don’t get this right, you’ll soon find that your business becomes tired and boring without any fresh ideas. Encourage Trial and Error Trial and error has a bad reputation because to some people it can seem like you’re just trying things for the sake of trying them, without putting in much thought. But that’s not the way it has to be. Sometimes, trying new things can mean having to take risks and see how the turn out. You can then learn from the experience and aim to try something better next time around. Change the Scenery A change of scenery could be exactly what you and your team need. It’s easy to get too comfortable and too complacent in your office. So you could shake things up by changing the seating plan or maybe even moving to a new office entirely. It could be the spark you need to start doing things differently inside your business. Make Your Marketing a Department a More Creative Place Marketing is one of the areas that can get very stiff and boring pretty quickly if you’re not careful. You shouldn’t let that happen though and you can get this right by looking for ways to engage people in a more informal and at ease kind of way. Be creative and present your company as a laid back and relatable entity. Places like HIVE Digital Strategy can help you with being more creative with your marketing too. Create a Diverse Team of People Inside Your Company Having lots of people from a range of different backgrounds could be exactly what your business requires. After all, when you have people from different backgrounds, you find that they bring different ideas and perspectives to your business as well. It’s something that’s very positive and should work well for you over the years ahead, as long as you combine this with real talent. Don’t Make People Work to the Clock Quite So Much When people feel under pressure to get things done at a certain time, they will feel rushed too. It’s very hard to be properly creative when you’re always looking at the clock and worrying about whether you’ll have all your work done by the deadline. You should relax things and give everyone in your team the chance to work on creative and out of the box ideas. A little creative in your business will certainly take it a long way. You can’t underestimate the impact this will have in the long-term. By empowering your people and encouraging them to approach each new challenge with creativity and bravery, you will put your company in a much better position to find success.

3 tactics for using mobile devices to land your next job

3 tactics for using mobile devices to land your next job 3 tactics for using mobile devices to land your next job Call me old school. As a hiring decision-maker, I didnt care to receive mobile-based messages from a job seeker for several reasons. To me, the strategy came across as the easy way out, something jobseekers were doing while driving or watching TV. There were inevitably typos, use of THX, and no signature block with contact information. I felt that I wouldnt want the using that device to respond to customers and executives. However, Im slowly coming around to the future. To help me learn some of the tricks of mobile job search and recruiting, I asked a pro. Kimberley Kasper, Chief Marketing Officer at Jobvite was kind enough to share some ideas about how job seekers can best use mobile devices to land their next jobs. Here are her top three recommendations: 1. Dont let someone else steal your dream job Imagine that youre in a meeting and you receive an alert informing you of a job opening at your dream company. In just a few taps of your smartphone, you could have filled out and submitted a job application before other candidates vying for the same career change even check their laptops. While I cant condone job searching while at work, you can see how being able to job hunt at all times means edging out the competition. With so many qualified workers searching for jobs, an always-on mindset is critical to edging out the next competitive candidate. The benefits of using mobile in your job search are obvious: anytime, anywhere, you can stay plugged in to your job hunt, beating out those who are loyal to their laptops. But having your smartphone handy isnt enough to have a competitive edge in your job search, you must be savvy with your job searching tactics. Without the ability to quickly upload and submit a résumé or cover letter, theres no way you can get there first. Store a variety of résumés and documents in a Dropbox app or Google drive on your mobile phone for easy access, so you can apply quickly and easily to similar roles that have different titles. In that same vein, keep your LinkedIn profile as current as possible with information on who you are, why youre a fit and what youve delivered in the past. In the end, youre applying to jobs on mobile because it is easy and efficient, so make sure your strategy facilitates that. If youre not prepared, your colleague on their mobile phone will assuredly beat you to it. 2. You can judge a book by its cover Its no secret that were spending more and more hours at work these days. In fact, the average American workday is significantly longer than the traditional eight hours were used to, and were only expecting work commitments to increase. As a result, recruiters are hiring even more for culture fit. If were going to be spending more time and energy at work, it better be with people who have the same priorities, right? As a job seeker, a work environment that aligns with your priorities is essential to a harmonious match. But how can you know what a company is like from the outside? While some questions will need to be answered by an interviewer, take a look at their career site for some insight into the companys commitment to innovation. If the company has a mobile-oriented career site, they are on the leading edge of technology. Spend time going through other pages on their website to learn how forward-thinking they really are. 3. Are you grabbing recruiters attention? In this market, job seekers arent the only ones constantly on the hunt. With such a scarcity in high-quality, qualified people, finding the right candidate is like searching for a needle in a haystack. So when great candidates come along, recruiters are ready to pounce. When getting hundreds of responses to a specific post, the first 20 résumés might be the most notable. If youre not quick, however, yours runs the risk of becoming white noise. After all, most recruiters spend an average of six seconds on your résumé, so finding a way to stand out has never been more necessary. This is exactly where mobile comes in. If getting your résumé in front of a recruiters eyes quickly is the key to nabbing the perfect job, mobile facilitates that tenfold. Many of us already spend over two and a half hours per day on our mobile devices, so if you find yourself checking Facebook mobile or playing Candy Crush, change your routine and be proactive. Be the first one to apply for a job, right when the posting appears, by checking mobile career sites, signing up for alerts, and staying on top of your application status. Also, try applying mid-afternoon since emails tend to pile up overnight. In general, be professional and thoughtful about which device you use for each aspect of your job search. Dont rush to push something unprofessional out on your mobile device when you can shine brighter from your laptop or desktop.