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!

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.

Part Time Weekend Jobs - Finding The Highest Paying Weekend Jobs

By Suryaratna Chandrashekar

Job Vacancy Indonesia, Employee, Vacancy 

During times of economic turmoil, everybody is in search of ways to supplement their income. But your week is already full and yet your income still seems to be inadequate to put food on the dinner table, pay your monthly bills and send your children to school. This causes people to look for another possible source of income. A word of caution though, most of these weekend jobs are manual in nature and most are not in an office setting so be ready for some hard work. Here are some of the higher paying jobs that are out there for people wanting to work on the weekend.

Manual and Highly Skilled Jobs

Most weekend jobs are manual and high-skilled jobs. These usually include plumbing, electrical work, painting and gardening jobs. Though manual in nature, it is considered high-paying since they are paid on an hourly basis or when they finish the job. The downside is you have to be skilled in performing such tasks. These types of jobs are usually done in private homes.

Property Maintenance Jobs

Another type of high-paying weekend job is performing property maintenance. Property maintenance deals with maintaining the upkeep of properties, commercial spaces or areas inside an exclusive subdivision or village. Property maintenance includes the monitoring and checking the cleanliness of function rooms, pool areas and even landscaping. You may be required to do some painting, minor repairs, shovel snow in the winter or simply change light bulbs that have burnt out in hallways.

Part Time Sales Associates

Among all the weekend jobs, this is the highest paying. You do not just have the basic pay but also the commission you get on a per sale basis. Sales Associates usually are involved in selling real estate, appliances and even cars. These usually require sales skills. Selling might take some time to master as you have to learn to ask for the sale, not just expect people to buy.

Tutorial Services

Another high-paying weekend job is working with school children and high school teens. Tutorials are best done on weekends since during the week the children are in class. These sessions could be tutoring in math, writing skills, science or even music. You have to be competent in the academic subjects that you will be handling, used to dealing with children and most of all, have great patience to go over and over the material if needed.

Think Outside the Box

While you are searching for the perfect weekend job, you can find additional ways to supplement your income. Do odd jobs, sell old clothes and household items you no longer wear or use online, in a yard sale or at the flea market. You can even buy the contents of storage units when the owners fail to pay the rent and sell them.

There is a wide variety of weekend part-time jobs. As long you are dedicated and have the drive to take on a job over the weekend, there is a job out there that will fit your needs. The extra money you earn will help you be able to survive in this difficult economic time we are living in.

Free Job Search Resources

By Melanie Szlucha

Job Vacancy Indonesia, Employee, Vacancy 

Why are some people so resistant to getting help? Why do we think that we are experts in everything? Financial planners are experts at figuring out where their clients should invest, there are people who specialize in organizing homes, and even travel agents who have a wealth of knowledge available to help you plan your next vacation. Yet many of us still feel capable of going it alone. Either because we think it's too expensive to hire a coach, or we don't think there's anything they could tell us that we don't already know.

Same holds true in my line of work. The most unfortunate are the people who know they need help, but it's impossible for them to afford it. I get many requests for free job search and resume resources, so I thought I'd include them here. Are they as good as one-on-one coaching? I'm sure that it varies by program and the number of people who participate but if you're stuck as to even how to start a resume or your job search, these are great places to start.

College Career Centers. These offices are an incredible wealth of information. If you're currently in college, or even an alum, don't hesitate to contact them to investigate what services they offer. Many have access to sophisticated assessment tests that can help you decide what jobs you're best suited to based on your experience, interests and personality. They will help you research and identify some target companies for your job search, or even find other places to search for a job. Want to get into a very specific field, or have a challenging career-related situation that you need advice on? These are the places to go. You've spent 4 years of your life and tens of thousands of dollars, this office is really where the rubber meets the road to get you to the next phase.

http://www.job-hunt.org - I found this site while doing some research this weekend. It's got a pretty extensive listing by state of free resources and job support groups. I live in CT, and saw a few on there that I did not know about. Resources will vary by state, but what I saw included everything from resume writing, job interviewing, networking and company research.

Your local library. There's two in my area who have conducted workshops on using the library in your job hunt. Librarians are a wealth of resources-because that's their job-to help you efficiently find what you're looking for. They can direct you to company databases, books on resume writing, and may be another source of free workshops you can attend. Chat one up, and I'm sure you'll be glad you did. They're there to help you.

I hope that helps. Many of these places offer services such as assessments, company information and job boards that I cannot possibly have access to. When you're ready to improve your resume or polish up those interviewing skills, shoot me an email or give me a call. We can chat on the phone for about 10 minutes (no charge), and I'm happy to offer you an assessment of how I can help you get to the next stage of your career.