Do You Want a Standout Resume?

By Edward Turilli

Job Vacancy Indonesia, Employee, Vacancy 

What is considered an effective resume?

An effective resume is a hard copy or an electronic document whose primary purpose is to win the approval of a potential hiring manager who has considered you a job candidate qualified to compete for a position opening. Your resume must be planned and presented in a way to clearly persuade a job recruiter to further investigate your stated and strongly implied potential strengths, related industry experience, proven value, training, education, abilities, potential growth, and best return on investment for the company. This credential should immediately indicate what you can offer an employer through highlighted qualitative and quantitative performance evidence, rather than promises that lack solid and convincing substantiation.

Your honesty in creating this personal document is highly important for, if selected for interviewing, you will likely be judged by total strangers as to the content of your resume against your actual interview performance and appearance. Therefore, your resume must bear a close "resemblance" to you when you are interviewed in person.

To be effective, your resume must be written in the most appropriate format for your total experiences, especially your work history. Choosing the best format is crucial and should be carefully designed by a certified professional resume writer to produce a powerful credential. The three most prominent resume formats are chronological, functional, and the combination, or hybrid, the chronological format being the most used and liked by human resources people for the ease of following applicants' work history and professional focus and development. This format also highlights any breaks, or gaps, in the chronology of employment, sometimes raising a "red flag."

When gaps in employment occur - especially for explainable and legitimate reasons - use the functional format which emphasizes accomplishments in employment rather than indicating when you worked. If you are changing your career or are returning to civilian employment from government work, use the functional or the hybrid format to emphasize your ability to transfer learned skills, accomplishments, leadership, and rigorous training to move into the employment of the profit or non-profit arena. In addition, retired, injured, downsized, and older workers returning to employment may elect to choose the functional or hybrid model.

"Ten Commandments" on Preparing Your Resume

1. Individualize yourself. Since many hiring managers review more than a hundred paper or electronic resumes a day, your resume will have to fit the required, or ideal, position's profile to stand out from most others under review. Does your resume stress unique qualities in your overall value, leadership, and achievements? Challenge the reader to invite you for a face-to-face meeting by aggressively marketing your individual resolve and potential value to the firm while verbally bidding for personal recognition as a standout applicant among the competition.

2. Focus on and quantify your specific accomplishments. Show (do not just tell) what you have achieved in your past employments to increase revenues or improve an organization's effectiveness. For example, "Led innovative research in XYZ project development that resulted in generating $250,000 in new billings in the first six months," or "Spearheaded a manufacturing cost reduction project that saved the division 15% in overall production costs." Use key words to emphasize your specific individual accomplishments in numerical terms to indicate your value, or return on investment. Hirers may scan your resume for industry-related key words. Key word lists for each occupation / job are located in many publications in libraries, stores, and online.

3. Use positive, proactive language. Confidently and credibly promote your attributes. For example, "Ably assisted in saving ABC Company $55,000 during the first 12 months through improved sales training techniques." Rather than just a dull employment history, your resume should reflect a positive show of ambition and pride in your achievements with detailed proof of personal and job related accomplishments. Quantify your contributions with solid evidence and prove your leadership ability in providing planned project strategies and guiding their implementation to reach positive results.

4. Always be honest and truthful. Avoid lies, half-truths, and exaggerations on your resume and cover letter. You can often reverse or "soften" a known or obvious career related weakness if challenged in an interview by admitting that you learned much from this experience which has taught you a good lesson. If you have wide gaps in your employment chronology, write your resume in a functional or in a hybrid format. Accentuate the positive; eliminate the negative!

5. Present a powerful, impressive resume. Recruiters prefer well crafted resumes, for they are impressed by candidates' show of diligence and a high level work ethic in introducing themselves with care. Use only clear, easy-to-read fonts, and avoid overuse of italics, underscores, and bold lettering. Paper resumes must be printed on top quality 24 to 28 lb. white, off-white, ivory, or light gray resume stock, with matching cover letters and envelopes. Use a variety of appropriate action verbs written in the active voice and interweave powerful modifiers. Avoid repetition, and be consistent and brief throughout.

6. Target your resume. Your employment objective may be stated atop the page or, for more impressive attraction, simply bolded without a heading. Examples: "IT manager / Business Process Manager" or "Motivated, highly experienced professional seeks a position as company representative in Pharmaceutical Sales." Your cover letter will indicate a specific job title in reference to your job application. Follow this with a powerful "Profile" of your professional highlights and related skills.

7. Examine other resumes in guiding the assembly of your own document. Locate top level examples in nationally published resume compilations found in book stores, libraries, and the Internet. Software applications can be helpful, but beware of resume templates, for they tend to be generic, pre-spaced, sparse, and unrelated to one's particular needs. Ask a trusted person to react in honest judgment to your completed resume, for your resume is your "occupational fingerprint," a personal credential that should distinguish your unique qualifications from competing candidates.

8. Proofread carefully throughout. Avoid errors in spelling, grammar, English usage, and mechanics. Be consistent in your application of spacing, punctuation, bulleting, and other physical aspects. Be aware that the level of precision and perfection of your resume will likely be a determining factor in a hiring manager's selection of interview finalists for a position. Have another "pair of eyes" read it over and offer objective criticism.

9. See yourself through the reviewer's eyes. Since hiring managers retain ideal candidate profiles for positions to be filled, job candidates ought to "reverse roles," placing themselves in the reviewer's position. Determine what key skills, experiences, achievements, and other criteria that a hiring manager will seek in the ideal candidate. Research as much as you can to locate those company needs to fill the position you seek. Discover the cultural climate, average employee experience, and company working conditions. This vital "breaking and entering" technique may give you an advantage as the hirer cuts through the clutter of hopeful job candidates' resumes in search of suitable employees.

10. Perceive your resume as an opening tool to gain personal contact in an interview. Soon after mailing your resume or submitting one electronically, send a brief follow-up letter or note to the hirer to punctuate and reestablish your keen interest and proactive nature in gaining an interview and ultimately winning the open position of employment. Your resume should deploy confident, high energy language to convince a hirer that you are determined to succeed in a career with this company or organization. Remember, submitting a standout resume can open doors of opportunity along a lighted path of career success. Don't be locked out in the dark!

Winning Resumes

By Mel Otero

Job Vacancy Indonesia, Employee, Vacancy 

One key to a winning resume is defining your career goal. Without a clear career goal, it is impossible to prepare a targeted resume. Assess your interests, skills, education, strengths and work experience. Be sure this assessment is honest and accurate. Write this down and begin the process of organizing your thoughts. You need to focus on the career you really want. As you set your goals and get focused, a sense of confidence will occur. You will have a clear picture of what you want to do and you will be ready for the next step. If your interests, skills, education and work experience fall into more than one career category, you will need more than one resume. Each resume will focus on your skills, education and experience that appeal to an employer for that specific career position. At this first stage of launching a job search, organization is vital. Create a folder for your goal list, thoughts, ideas, copies of the resumes and the cover letters.

Your first decision in writing the resume is whether to use a chronological format or functional format. In general, the chronological format is preferred by employers. However, if you are seeking a career position in a new field, the functional format will allow you to focus on skills, education and accomplishments that can be transferred to the open position. If you select the functional format, it is to your advantage to create a "combined format". The combined format emphasizes the transferable skills, education and accomplishments but includes an accurate chronological work history. You can find sample resumes on the Internet or purchase one of the resume writer software packages. The importance of the resume cannot be overstated. It is worth the investment of time and money to arm yourself with the best tools to assist you in creating an excellent resume.
Keep in mind that no matter what career you pursue, the resume is your first opportunity to sell yourself. Research has determined that a resume is initially reviewed for 10-30 seconds. In other words, you have 10-30 seconds to grab the attention of the reader. Use job titles and skills headings as an effective tool to get the reader's attention. If the job titles or skills headings are unrelated to the open position, the resume will most likely be tossed. Remember that in the current economy, the employer may receive hundreds, if not thousands, of resumes for a single position. To expedite the initial review process, employers will discard resumes that do not appear related to the open position. The final resume should be letter perfect. It should be printed on good quality white bond paper, not on fancy parchment paper. Be sure the resume is not too long or too short; it is suggested that one or two pages is appropriate. After the resume is in final form and before you send it to anyone, read it aloud and then have someone else proof read it. There is only one opportunity for a first review of your resume. You need to convince the prospective employer within those first few seconds that you have the ability to solve company problems. You are the solution!

Mel Otero, author, has worked in management in the mortgage banking industry and title insurance industry for over 25 years. She has started web sites and written articles to provide information, resources and inspiration during this difficult economy. She has also been mystery shopping part time for over five years.

Writing Job Descriptions

Job Vacancy Indonesia, Employee, Vacancy

Staff managers know this to be a fact: Finding the correct employee scheduling software is crucial relative to the operational functioning of nearly every business. Consider the many businesses employing persons on a rotational shift basis and there isn't any way you may dispute it. Retail establishments, restaurants, hospitals, customer service organizations are just a few of the businesses that require automated solutions when performing employee scheduling.

In order to make it easier finding the perfect automated solution pertinent to scheduling emphasis needs to be placed within two very fundamental areas:

a) The employee scheduling software must have the features that improve efficiency as far as scheduling your staff; and
b) There must be built-in functions that are requirements of your operation. Also it is a useful action to consider what it is you intend to accomplish in using an automated solution or moving to a new version of employee scheduling software. In example, you may wish to use a solution that makes it easier to perform scheduling of employees.

The following considerations are important when reviewing a particular scheduling software (solution):

a) The software must improve the way you are able to use employees within different roles inside your operation;
b) The automated employee scheduling should offer features wherein you may customize it to your particular industry;
c) The employee scheduling software must reasonably support shifts and where the employee is assigned within your facility or operation. When you use it, you should be able to save all kinds of time. Additionally, once you purchase a solution, you should be able to access proper technical support and/or documentation.

It is an important task: reviewing employee scheduling software with respect to a buy-decision. You'll want to make certain you can schedule your employees into the future as far as is necessary. Make certain the software used can facilitate employee scheduling up to six months. Using this type of feature you'll be able to comfortably schedule rotations with respect to shifts, holidays, and requests for time-off for your employees anytime it is necessary.

Employee scheduling software that is worth its weight will allow for places where you can record particular notes such as reasons for the time off: vacation or sick day. It is also a good feature to use an automated brand providing the number of persons you require on a particular shift within a certain location. In this way, you may assess whether you are over or under staffed.

Another good feature associated with employee scheduling software is when the automated solution provides the staff manager with a list of employees available to work the shift. This is particularly relative when you are put in the position of filling a position where the employee did not show up for work as scheduled. Conceptually, the list should update instantly once you assign a certain employee to a shift.

Another significant feature you will wish to consider when choosing the right brand of employee scheduling software is assuring it provides you as staff manager with customization. Here is what is meant by the preceding: You'll want to make certain you can put together reports and schedules based on your particular requirements. The customization aspect as it relates to reporting may include:

a) Ranges with respect to date;
b) Types of employees:
c) Various shifts; and
d) Particular locations (as well as other pre-defined data).

When defining shifts the employee scheduling software must allow you to:

a) Define the start and end times of the shift;
b) Break time; and
c) Indicate the start of each work week.

When considering employee scheduling software you must believe that the software scales down on the amount of time it takes to produce the employee schedule. Further, there should be some built-in security feature in order to adequately protect the employee scheduling data.

The software should allow you the flexibility of:

a) printing the schedule;
b) emailing it; or
c) publishing it online.

The scheduling software must come equipped with resources in order that you may attain assistance when necessary. This may come in the way of a) a user's guide; or b) a help file. The appropriate resources will provide information allowing you as user to a) learn how to use the software; and b) solve specific problems or issues as you come across them. Also customer assistance is highly valuable in the way of email correspondence or telephone.

23 Ways to be Happy at Work: #4 - Work Can be Play

Do you have fun at work?

by Lori Grant

Careers , Jobs Indonesia, Indonesia Vacancy

Work can be fun? Really?!?

Yes, it can be. If you think about it, fun is an activity that’s enjoyable or amusing. Surely, there’s something at work that’s fun for you. In my last job, my executive team meetings were always fun. Yes, there were some meetings that were stressful. But most of the time, I enjoyed the company of the team. I admired each member’s contribution, wondering why we worked so well together. Of course, there were a few bumps along the way, but that’s to be expected.

I always looked forward to Friday mornings for this 10:00 am meeting. What do I miss the most? The camaraderie with my colleagues. I had the most fun when we were brainstorming or creativity thinking our way out of problems. The second thing I most fun thing I miss? Working with my direct reports as I shared my experiences and knowledge with them on projects that relied on my product marketing background. 

List the reasons why work is play for you

Make a list of the reasons why work is play for you at your current job. Is it because you enjoy working with your teammates? What aspects of your job is play to you? Is it because of the product you manage or the clients you get to work with? Is it fun because of the people or tasks? How can you do more of the same, allowing you to have more fun at work? Are there some aspects that feel more like play than work? 

List the reasons why work isn’t play for you

Make a list of the reasons why work isn’t play for you, like an unproductive weekly department meeting or a 1-on-1 meeting with your boss. Having a hard time coming up with fun things at your job? What can you do to make changes? Or is it the job that you’re ready to quit? Try to figure out how to make work play; it’s one simple step toward being happier at work

The 23 Ways to be Happy at Work series reflects on 23 ways to help you reflect about the course of your career. After deciding to identify what made me happy at work, my list became this list. Here the are the drivers to my happiness at work that may help you manage your career:

1. Work by your values
2. Love your work, love your career
3. Decide what makes you happy in your job
4. Work can be play
5. Know the big picture
6. Walk in your boss’ shoes
7. What is the problem?
8. Try the same old thing to get different results
9. Try something new to get different results
10. List your accomplishments
11. Don’t gossip
12. Don’t react
13. Don’t worry
14. Don’t be unhealthy
15. Read up
16. Read It
17. Share knowledge
18. Mend fences
19. Be a squirrel
20. Change your workspace
21. Give yourself a gift
22. Let it go
23. Change this!