Resume Help Blog

Posts Tagged ‘career changes’

Today’s economic news may be gloom and doom but it needn’t derail your job hunt.   You can still win a great job, even in a lousy economy. You WILL have to get smarter in your job search strategy, though.

Here are 5 tips to incorporate into your job search approach during the recession:

1. Research Your Options

Does your industry or line of work offer little promise of employment in the coming months? If so, now is a good time to step back to identify the projected top performing industries and jobs. The best place to find this info is on the web through Google or Yahoo. Start with “best industries work recession” or “recession jobs 2008″ to uncover articles describing some of the more “recession-proof” sectors to target. If you need training one of the best industries is in the field of nursing.

2. Change Your Focus

Start asking yourself the question, “What’s in it for them?” as opposed to, “What’s in it for me?” Especially in an economic downturn, you’ll want to stay focused on what you can accomplish for your next employer. Show them that you understand the macroeconomic “bigger picture” of the role you play in moving the company forward.

3. Sell Results, Not Skills

Leave behind that old mindset that your job-related skills or length of service are selling factors. The new mindset is to think of yourself as a mini profit-and-loss center rather than just an employee. Employers today buy results and are less impressed with candidates promoting a long laundry list of skills. You’ll want to define the many ways your past and present job performance are assets to your next employer.

4. Start Talking Money

The recession has made the private sector economy even more bottom-line oriented than ever. Hiring managers categorize employees into one of two distinct groups:

a.) those who help make money

b.) those who help save money.

Which one are you?

For example, Barry worked as the human resources manager of a mid-sized company. While much of his work focused on compliance issues, he noticed that the company was paying many thousands of dollars to locate and hire good employees. As a result, Barry developed and implemented an in-house employee referral program that netted three quality hires in a six-month period. This saved the company almost $70,000 that the company would have paid for recruiters and advertising costs.

Barry saves money for his company and this is an accomplishment future employers will want to hear about.

Rethink your current or past job to understand your position in the bigger corporate P&L picture. Here are some questions to ask yourself:

• How did my work improve the performance of my department or company?
• How many roles did I perform that saved the company the expense of added employees or contractors?
• How has my work made the work of others (employees and managers) easier, faster and more effective?

Collect specific examples of the benefits that your company gained from the work you’ve already performed. Clarify the specific benefit your company received by making money or saving money, and write them down. Click here for one of the best job transition sites anywhere. They can help you get started again.

5. Add Achievements to Your Resume

Employers don’t hire employees, they hire problem-solvers. Your new resume should be a hard-hitting sales tool designed to accomplish one goal: get the interview. To demonstrate this, add a specific achievements list to your resume. Take the list that you developed in the previous section and hone it down to your biggest and most notable accomplishments. Now, describe the benefit that your employer gained from each example. This will put you several steps ahead of your job-seeking competitors. Plus, you’ll now have some talking points ready for that next phone interview.

BIO: As a recruiter, Joe Turner has spent the past 15 years finding and placing top candidates in some of the best jobs of their careers.

Out of work for months? Don’t allow your professional skills to atrophy. Here are some things to do to keep that from happening.

In July, five million people in the U.S. were considered long-term unemployed—meaning they had been jobless for 27 weeks or more. Career counselors say that as weeks turn into months, job-hunters need to polish and update their skills to stay current. They should look for ways to network while they do so, and avoid spending lots of money. That’s not news to anyone in this position.  “You want to get the biggest bang for your buck,” says J.T. O’Donnell, a career coach in North Hampton, N.H.

Here are some strategies:

• Stay connected to industry associations. Check out your membership rights with trade groups or unions. Many times, you can continue your membership for free or at a reduced rate if you’re out of work. “That means you get booklets, magazines, all the information that will help keep you up to date with what’s going on,” says Gerry Crispin, co-founder CareerXroads, a Kendall Park, N.J., consulting firm that helps companies recruit.  There are excellent Executive Search companies on the Internet.
• Hit conferences. Attend industry or professional conferences by checking out association Web sites and groups on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.
• Join local interest groups. Local organizations like the chamber of commerce provide good networking opportunities and sometimes offer skills classes. Offer to help run the program committee, which sets the agenda for speakers and events. You’ll get a say in who is invited and network with guests. This keeps your face in front of people.
• Take classes—in person. Taking an online class is easy, but it eliminates that face-to-face networking that often lands jobs and opens doors, says Ms. O’Donnell. “You need something where you physically show up,” she says.
• Consider entry-level coursework. One of Ms. O’Donnell’s clients was laid off from a project management job in banking. He wanted to become a project manager at a software company, but didn’t know the lingo. He took a basic Web design class; his younger classmates taught him industry terminology. “He came back so excited about learning a new industry and was much better prepared for interviews,” she says.
• Add advanced skills. Getting a certification can boost your resume. Auditing a high-level class at a local college can improve skills and help you keep up with new developments. Check colleges to see if they offer free or discounted rates for unemployed people.
• See what training programs your state offers to the unemployed. New Jersey offers grants for non-degree business classes at Rutgers University as well as free community college classes if there are open seats.
• In Michigan, the state’s “No Worker Left Behind” program offers up to two years’ worth of free tuition in the state university system for unemployed and underemployed workers.
• Write about your industry and connect more online. Start a blog about your industry. Or find five people you always wanted to interview and write an article for a local publication or industry blog. That way you keep your name out there, make new connections and continue to learn, Ms. O’Donnell says.

Don’t put it off one minute more! Check out what training is available (it’s almost unlimited) and start today!

Sometimes your resume can hurt more than help you. In today’s job-search market, you are often competing against large numbers of applicants, and your resume has to be good enough to make it past the first screening.

The first people to view your resume are often lower-level staff looking for a quick way to weed candidates out of consideration. You can minimize the chances of your resume being eliminated during this round by following three simple rules.

LESS IS MORE

Don’t tell too much. A good resume should leave the prospective employer with a whetted appetite, a desire to know more. They will be likely to call and phone-screen you. So don’t fill in all the details just yet. Save that for the interview. Do, however, paint a big picture of who you are and what you can offer.

For example, you may have worked several years at your present employer. Certainly you could fill up several paragraphs with all that you’ve done. Instead, think of the one or two most critical projects, duties or functions that you provide. List the most important and give them no more than a sentence or two each.

Here is an example:

EXPERIENCE: Mar 2003 to Present: XYZ Company, Their City, CA Senior staff design engineer. Products designed/Projects involved: A, B, C. Description of Most Important Project and why Description of 2nd most important project and why

Skip the hobbies and personal info. Avoid mind-numbing detail that will cause a reader’s eyes to glaze over. One page is ideal — two pages only if you are a 15- to 20-year veteran with a significant growth and promotion history.

MORE KEYWORDS

You want the computers to flag your resume for closer examination. Do this by including as many keywords as possible that are relevant to your job and your job skills, as well as specific industry words that may be appropriate. A convenient method to accomplish this is to include a separate “Keywords” section on your resume just below the “Objective”. Think of this as an important catchall specifically for the computers to “see”.

Here is an example from a candidate employed as a medical quality assurance auditor:

KEYWORDS: Quality System, QA, QS, Audit, Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP), International Standards (ISO), Corrective and Preventive Action Programs (CAPA), training, QSR, Medical Device, calibration, 510K, TQM, PMA, FDA.

Also, include the names of major companies you worked with or for, as this often is important to employers. Include those in the “Experience” section.

BE SPECIFIC

Don’t just tell them what you did. Move beyond that and tell the benefit of your accomplishment.  A good way to do this is to include several specific ways you helped your employer make money or save money. Remember, the only benefit you can bring to the table is past performance. When you interview (either phone or in person) this is what will be discussed.

Think of all your jobs in the past and bring forth examples of some of your best work. How can an employer think of you as a problem solver? If at all possible, try to “monetize” your accomplishments (state them in terms of money). At the interview, you will be prepared to enlarge upon these successes.

SUMMARY

Building an effective resume doesn’t have to be drudgery. Using the above three guidelines will keep your resume lean and to the point standing a greater chance of landing on the “to call” stack and getting you a phone screen. If your resume still looks like a jumbled mess I would invite you to contact one of our professional resume writers. We have screened them carefully and know they can help you get the perfect job even in today’s tight market. Here is our top pick; contact them today!

Authors Bio

As a recruiter, Joe Turner has spent the past 15 years finding and placing top candidates in some of the best jobs of their careers.  Author of “Job Search Secrets Unlocked” and “Paycheck 911,” Joe has interviewed on radio talk shows and offers free insider job search secrets at: www.jobchangesecrets.com.