Why you’ll never get ‘that’ flexible job on a job board
From the title you may suspect that I’ve shot myself in the foot here. Yes hmp has a job board but not the type I’m talking about.
I was reading Seth Godin’s blog post Career fairs… and how they are the last resort for companies and job-seekers alike, and I realised that the giant job boards on the internet are just the same. A company needs to fill some drone position so they get HR to just throw up a description and chuck $400 at monster.com or careerbuilder.com. They don’t have to put any effort in, as long as you can string a sentence together you’ll do. Hell, all these big job boards even share the same database – stick the job on one it goes to the many.
Telephone Interview Secrets
Telephone interviews are becoming increasingly popular as a means of narrowing down candidates for a more traditional face to face interview. In the ultra competitive society we now live, a job advertisement can attract hundreds of resumes from candidates with similar set of skills and backgrounds.
The recruitment process is all about finding the one perfect candidate among the basket full of candidates. The phone interview has become a popular, flexible, inexpensive and speedy way of finding that one person:
Win a Professional Resume & Cover Letter
Our friends at redstarresume.com have kindly offered to write a free professional resume and cover letter to the winner of our twitter based competition this month. I won’t repeat the deal as you’ll find it all on the hiremyparents contest page – so give it a go and thanks again to redstarresume.com
Resume Tips – Something to think about…
How many times have you picked up a magazine while waiting for an appointment and flipped through the hundreds of pages of articles? How long did it take you to decide whether or not to turn the page? Studies show that most people make this decision in less than 5 seconds.
This is the exact same scenario with your resume—it can be discarded within a matter of seconds. An example I always use to highlight this reality came during my experience as a recruitment agent in London. I was to fill a new job opening as an equities trader for one of the most prestigious investment firms in the UK. I was asked to select the top 10 resumes to forward onto the hiring manager. I advertised the job on a Monday and by Thursday I had over 300 resumes sitting in my inbox. I did not have the time to sit and read through every line of each resume sitting there, let alone the hundreds more that would follow. I had to “scan” the resumes and eliminate the weak or moderate ones right away. This is a very typical scenario, especially in this current economic climate. Your resume needs to be convincing from the start.
When applying for jobs, you can bet that 50% of all the other applicants have similar skills and knowledge. So how do you make your resume stand out from the others? How do you ensure that you’re at least given the chance to present yourself in person?
Your resume is a marketing document, a convincing reason to want to meet with you for an interview. Without an appealing and marketable resume that contains information employers require, you will not get the job you want. Of course, never forget the complementary role a cover letter plays. A cover letter goes hand in hand with the resume. Good resume and bad cover letter end up in the same place—the trash bin.
Remember, your resume is the greatest asset you have—don’t forget this!
Find below a list of my top 10 resume tips:
- Professional
Keep it professional. Your resume is a business document, so it must be professional. Your resume is no place for gimmicks, pictures, or funny email addresses. Although you may think you look great in your picture or that your email address is funny (yes, I have seen love_homersimpson@hotmail.com), this is not required on your resume. You may think it looks great, but your employer may disagree. Stick to the facts and keep it professional!
- Targeted
The more targeted your resume is, the better you have at landing an interview. Employers want to know exactly what you can do for their company. It is important that you tailor each resume to each job (it will only take a few sentences to do this). Get rid of any information that is not required for a particular job. This will alleviate the tendency to overcrowd your resume with too much irrelevant information.
- Well-written
A well-written, concise resume will make a greater impression with your employer than a long winded “padded” resume. Use positive action words such as: enhanced, influenced, restructured, and attained. This will add that extra boost to your resume. On the same hand, avoid everyday buzz words. Remember, your resume needs to focus on your key skills and achievements. Words such as “hard worker,” “reliable” and “ambitious ” can have a more detrimental effect on your resume as these words are seen as adding no value to resume.
- Self-promoting
Your resume is a marketing document. Promote and sell yourself! Do not be scared to sell your skills, accomplishments, and abilities. If you don’t tell the employer, no one else will. Focus on what you can offer the business rather than what the business can offer you. Emphasize your skills, especially the ones the job is asking for. An employer wants to know that you have the relevant skills for that particular job. If a coffee shop is hiring a barista, and you’ve already worked as one, make your skills stand out and take centre stage. Just like with the example of skimming over the magazines, you need your employer to take one glance at your resume and want to read on.
- Tailor your resume
Very important – one size fits all approach does not work here. Every job is different, and depending on what the job is, you need to make sure you tweak your resume (and cover letter) for that particular job. Ask yourself, “What job am I going for, and does my resume have the skills and strengths required to present to my future employer?” Tailoring your resume to the specific job you’re going for will show the hiring manager that you are serious about working for their organization.
- Quality, not quantity
Quality not quantity! Your resume is not a life story. Stick to the facts— using irrelevant data, waffling, and padding your resume are detrimental. Let your skills and experience do the talking for you.
- Simplify
Forget about fancy fonts or clever uses of italics. Keep it simple. Your resume is not meant to be a work of art to be displayed on the wall. Not only can it be hard to read, but there are multiple scanning software programs that might be unable to read it, meaning it will end up being deleted before even being opened.
- Spelling /Grammar/Punctuation
Every word program these days has spell check—USE IT! Poor spelling and grammar will immediately land your resume in the “deleted items” box. It is a hard enough to get an interview—do not let yourself down with basic spelling mistakes. Re-read every word yourself, and get someone else to read it as well.
- Consistent
Be sure that your resume is written in a commonsense way—in order, logical, and easy to read. Be consistent throughout your resume with your margins, fonts, and line spacing. Don’t be scared to accentuate your skills or achievements with a different style of font or by using a bold font (but remember keep it simple. There is a fine line of going overboard when using different font styles). Consistency shows professionalism.
- Do not mention money
Unless you are directly asked about money, do not mention it. Keep your cards close to your chest. Do not rule yourself out before you even begin because of money.
Gavin Davis is the owner of RedStarResume and one of the hiremyparents experts.
More Resume Resources…
Hold That resume! 5 Red Flags in Online Job Listings | Wise Bread
A job listing says as much about the company as your cover letter and resume says about you. If a job listing has errors or looks extremely unprofessional …
Tips To Write Elegant Resume Without Lying at Career Advice
Tips To Write Elegant Resume Without Lying. December 4th, 2009. Preparing elegant resume without lying: Preparing resume by putting some untruthful facts is the most terrible thing a person can do for his or her career. …
Keyword Tips for Resume & Online Profile | Blogging4Jobs
Keywords should be an extremely important component of both your online social media profiles as well as your resume. These keywords can be a difference maker.
Related Articles…
- Ten Resume Mistakes You Must Avoid (bargaineering.com)
- Thank You Letters Can Make An Impact (timesunion.com)
6 Work Life Balance Tips for Chronically Overwhelmed Parents
If you’re working from home, you’re probably accustomed to the steady stream of interruptions and emergencies from your family. Here are 6 work life balance tips for chronically overwhelmed parents.
1. Schedule Uninterrupted Work Time
Set aside hours when the kids know that you’re working, and they can only interrupt if it’s a real emergency. You may have to explain to them exactly what constitutes a “real” emergency. If the house is on fire: emergency. If Timmy won’t share his toys: not an emergency.
2. Explain the Importance of the Family Business
If you launch your home-based business and you’re off and running, you suddenly have less time for the children. If you don’t take the time to tell them why the business is important and why it takes so much of your time, they’re bound to interrupt a lot. Sit them down and explain the many benefits of the family business, and how they can help by minimizing interruptions. With that said, being a parent is a higher priority and the most important job you have.
3. Take Turns
If you and your husband are working together in the business, you may have to take turns giving your children the needed and desired attention they require. Work in shifts and take turns managing and playing with the kids, while the other one is working on the business.
4. Involve Your Children
Even if you have very young children, they can still be involved in the family business. Young children can learn to stuff envelopes or help clean the office. Older children can learn simple bookkeeping tasks and even answer the phone for you. Pay your children for the work they do, and it will help them to learn to appreciate the family business (and understand the importance of it all). You can also assign household chores as part of the “business” tasks that they complete. Every dish that’s washed and put away is time that helps you work and contributes to more family time together at the end of the day.
5. Set Up a Rewards System
If you meet all your business goals for the week, take the family out for some special time together. Let the children know that they can help earn these treats for the whole family by being responsible, completing all their chores on time and minimizing interruptions while you’re working.
6. Schedule, Schedule, Schedule
Your schedule doesn’t have to be set in stone. In fact, it can’t be since you’re working from home. However, having an overall schedule for the whole family can help balance work and life issues. Post the schedule in an area where everyone can see it. Have a set routine for each day of the week, and include times for each child. It can list everything from independent coloring time to chores and more. No matter what subjects go into the schedule, setting a routine for the kids will help teach them responsibility, and it will keep them occupied.
Remember, you’re running a home based business for the benefit of your entire family, not just yourself. Keep this in mind and remember that there has to be a degree of flexibility when you implement these work life balance tips. If there’s a short-term family crisis, be prepared to lose a little sleep if you have to in order to continue meeting your business goals.
Love this post, originally written by Daphne Mallory at wahm.com
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