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Archive for October 3, 2014

You Know LinkedIn — Meet The Next Wave Of Startups Trying To Hack Your Job Search

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Aaron Taube/Business Insider

A new crop of mobile-first tech companies are trying to transform the job hunt.

In the past several years, mobile technology has simplified a wide range of the cumbersome, time-consuming, and unpleasant chores required of the professional class.

There’s Homejoy to clean your apartment, Uber and Lyft to hail a cab, and more food delivery apps than you can count. 

But for all of the solutions created to improve the lifestyles of affluent urbanites, finding a job — the initial step that makes such a lifestyle possible — remains a lengthy and universally miserable process.

Sure, massive job boards like Monster and CareerBuilder alert us to an unprecedented number of potential openings — but who wants to give up hours of their precious leisure time crafting the perfect cover letter, only to submit the application into the internet equivalent of a black hole?

And while LinkedIn makes countless powerful people available for networking, the site is not perfect, especially for those who don’t have the time or the moxie to take advantage of it. 

The result is that many would-be job seekers, lots of them talented and capable, choose not to bother until their current jobs become too bleak to bear.

Or at least that is what they have done until now.

In the past year, a new crop of apps has sprung up with the goal of hacking the job search for a new generation of professionals — one that is constantly on the lookout for the next opportunity and never very far from a mobile phone.

Aaron Taube/Business Insider

A job listing for Yahoo! on Switch.

“We’re trying to liberate passive job seekers,” says Yarden Tadmor, founder and CEO of the New York City job-hunting app Switch. “Eventually, what we’re trying to create is an environment that connects people with companies and hiring managers.”

Switch, which went live this past summer, was inspired by Tadmor’s experience hiring for teams at several media technology companies, including the content recommendation engine Taboola. 

In those roles, he became frustrated by the average $25,000 placement fee recruiters claimed every time they helped him make a hire and the problems that came from working with multiple headhunters at the same time.

Switch cuts out the middle-man by asking New York City-based media and tech companies to post jobs directly for job seekers.

The app is described as a sort of “Tinder for jobs” because users, who appear anonymous to companies, are able to swipe left or right to indicate whether they are interested in the jobs Switch recommends to them.

If the company is interested in the applicant based on the LinkedIn profile he or she has uploaded to Switch, the two parties can begin a text conversation.

As it turns out, Tinder’s location-based, double opt-in technology, in which both parties must approve of the other before contact is initiated, has been almost as revolutionary in the jobs space as it has been in the dating realm. 

Switch shares its “Tinder for jobs” distinction with several other apps, including Blonk and Jobr, and there are also several “Tinder for networking” apps, like Weave and Coffee.

“Tinder and Uber have shown that location is important, and that being able to match-make with people near you is a solvable problem,” explains Weave founder Brian Ma. “Taking it to the careers space is a logical next step.”

Poacht

The team behind stealth job-search app Poacht. From left: intern Peter Devine, cofounder and CEO Maisie Devine, and cofounder and CTO Isaac Rothenbaum.

Like all of the new wave of job-hunting apps, Weave makes use of the résumé information people have put on their LinkedIn profile, and yet its existence is premised on the idea that the careers networking giant is at this point fundamentally flawed.

To be clear, LinkedIn is the biggest player in the space, a 300 million-user behemoth that isn’t going away any time soon.

But the effort it takes to identify and message influential people leaves an opening for Weave and Coffee — a similar app aimed at young people looking for entry-level or freelance gigs — to be used by job hunters in a complementary fashion.

A bigger problem with LinkedIn might be the one facing companies looking to hire highly-skilled talent. It’s these entities that will ultimately be asked to pay for services like Weave and Switch, and LinkedIn has become a difficult place for them to reach the people they want to contact.

Maisie Devine, cofounder of the app Poacht, explains that her cofounder Isaac Rothenbaum was so overwhelmed by recruiters seeking his software development skills that he began to tune them out entirely.

On their app, companies pay for the opportunity to connect with anonymous candidates who are passively looking for a new gig.

“I think 7 or 8 years ago, LinkedIn was probably akin to Poacht, but now it’s just a cesspool of salespeople, recruiters, and people you don’t even know reaching out to you for who knows what reason,” Devine says. “What we’re doing at Poacht is getting rid of all that noise.”

Aaron Taube/Business Insider

The author’s profile on Coffee.

Yet it remains to be seen whether Poacht, or any of these apps, will make it in the long run.

At present, none of them have built any sort of major scale. With more than 75,000 users, Jobr is several times bigger than any of the other swipe-for-jobs apps.

And though all of the apps are ostensibly for people in any industry, when we tried them out, most were overwhelmingly populated with jobs and connections in the startup technology space.

Nonetheless, the opportunity  to make money is certainly there.

It’s estimated that American companies spend more than $120 billion every year on hiring and recruiting services, a fact that was no doubt on the minds of investors when the online job posting and applicant tracking company ZipRecruiter raised a whopping $63 million in August.

Eric Liaw of Institutional Venture Partners, the venture capital firm that led ZipRecruiter’s funding round, says that companies in the jobs space would be stupid to ignore mobile users, but he remains skeptical as to whether job-hunting will shift to phones and tablets as quickly as online dating did.

Aaron Taube/Business Insider

A job at Facebook listed on Jobr.

He points out that where Tinder is an almost entirely visual process, hiring requires more text, which doesn’t always look great on a phone. For instance, he says it’s unlikely that many people will update their résumés or LinkedIn profiles from their mobile devices.

The swipe-for-jobs apps also face a hurdle in getting employers to consistently use their platform.

While most have a special feature for hiring managers to let them use the app from desktop computers, they still face stiff competition from the many other channels companies are using to find talent.

Several weeks ago, Tinder-for-jobs aspirant Emjoyment announced it would be taking a new direction because it couldn’t engage enough businesses on its platform.

Still, buoyed by the success stories of their early users, the founders we spoke with were confident that seekers and hiring mangers alike would take to their apps.

If nothing else, it won’t hurt job seekers to have another place to look.

“There are so many antiquated processes associated with changing jobs, and we should be able to use technology to tighten that up,” says Devine, Poacht’s cofounder.

The post You Know LinkedIn — Meet The Next Wave Of Startups Trying To Hack Your Job Search appeared first on Business Insider.

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Employee Confidence in Job Market at Highest Level in Six Years; Glassdoor Employment Confidence Survey (Q3 2014)

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While the job market continues to grow steadily, Glassdoor’s Q3 2014 Employment Confidence Survey reveals employees are feeling more confident in the job market than they have in nearly six years, indicating they may be on the move as 2014 comes to a close and in early 2015. Nearly half (47%) of employees report confidence that they can find a new job in the next six months, a new high since this survey question started nearly six years ago in Q1 2009. Plus, employee optimism for a pay raise has increased, with 44% of employees expecting a pay raise in the next year, matching its highest level in nearly six years.

Each quarter, the Glassdoor Employment Confidence Survey monitors four key indicators of employment confidence: the job market, salary expectations, job security and company outlook.

Job Market Confidence Up

Up three percentage points from last quarter, Glassdoor’s Q3 2014 Employment Confidence Survey reveals 47% of employees (including those self-employed) report confidence that they would be able to find a job matched to their experience and current compensation levels. This is a high in nearly six years, since this question started in Q1 2009. Additionally, 62% of younger employees aged 18-34 (including those self-employed) are optimistic in their ability to find a job, up 10 percentage points from last quarter and significantly higher than employees within other age groups: 35-44 years old: 46%; 45-54 years old: 39%; 55-64 years old: 38%; 65+ years old: 23%.

“With employment confidence reaching a new high, we can now begin to shift our focus back to the dynamics of a healthy job market; pay increase demand and employees on the move filling new opportunities and vacating their current jobs, which in turn creates opportunity for others,” said Rusty Rueff, Glassdoor career and workplace expert. “The high confidence among younger workers should also put employers on notice, as their funnel of prospective talent may be brighter, while they may also be susceptible to quality up-and-coming talent jumping ship. Paying special attention to the changing needs of tomorrow’s workforce will require unique forms of employee retention, as these employees in particular expect their careers to be on track with the positive economic recovery.”

Pay Raise Expectations Rise

With employees feeling more confident in the job market, they’re also more optimistic in receiving a pay raise. Employees’ expectations of receiving a pay raise or cost-of-living increase in the next 12 months are up seven percentage points to 44%, matching the highest level of optimism (Q1 2014) since this survey started in Q4 2008. In addition, 37% do not expect a pay raise, down six percentage points from last quarter. Men (48%) are significantly more likely to expect a pay raise than women (38%).

Layoff Concerns Remain Low and Stable

Fifteen percent of employees reported concerns of being laid off in the next six months, down one percentage point since last quarter and consistent with sentiment over the past year. More than one in five employees (22%) are concerned about co-workers being aid off, while men (18%) are significantly more likely to be concerned about being laid off than women (12%).

Business Outlook Remains Consistent

Two in five (39%) employees believe their company’s business outlook will improve in the next six months, down oen percentage point since last quarter, remaining relatively unchanged and consistent with the past two quarters. Nine percent believe business outlook will get worse, while 51% believe it will stay the same in the next six months.

Check out more from our Q3 2014 Glassdoor Employment Confidence Survey, including our survey supplement which provides a detailed quarter-by-quarter breakdown of results.

¹ The Glassdoor Employment Confidence survey is conducted online by Harris Poll on behalf of Glassdoor.

Employee Confidence in Job Market at Highest Level in Six Years; Glassdoor Employment Confidence Survey (Q3 2014) is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

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‘Not just a mum’ - How to take charge of your career at home in five easy steps

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Originally posted on outienz:

It’s a frightening thing to share a goal. It’s as if once you put something out there, that people might hold you accountable. But in the same breath, they might be able to help you reach it or remind you of it when you are having a down day or if you are feeling like ‘just a mum’.

I thought that becoming a mum would force me to tread water in terms of my career while I stayed home to be with my kids, but instead it has opened up brand new doors. My career path has changed so much that my ‘old job’ is probably no longer the best fit for me.

How can you use parenting to your advantage?

Step one: Find your love.

The great thing about being home with children is that you can try new things every day and nobody can see you trying them…

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What 13 Successful People Do Before Going To Bed

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Sheryl Sandberg

REUTERS/Mike Segar

Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer.

Morning routines are important — but bedtime rituals can have a serious impact on your success.  

That’s because the very last thing you do before bed affects your mood and energy level the following day, since it often determines how well and how much you sleep.

Knowing that, we decided to find out how the most successful spend their nights before surrendering to sleep.

Turns out some — like President Obama and writer Michael Lewis — are night owls, preferring to work while the rest of the world sleeps; while others —like Arianna Huffington and Sheryl Sandberg — know how important sleep is, and force themselves to cool down.

President Barack Obama is a “night owl” and likes to work late.

Unlike Obama’s predecessor George W. Bush, who prefers to rise in the early hours, the current president stays up late, reports Carrie Budoff Brown at Politco. He is said to hold conference calls with senior staff as late as 11 p.m. and reads or writes before heading to bed.

In a 2011 interview with Newsweek, Obama calls himself a “night owl” and describes his typical evening:

“Have dinner with the family, hang out with the kids, and put them to bed about 8:30 p.m. And then I’ll probably read briefing papers or do paperwork or write stuff until about 11:30 p.m., and then I usually have about a half hour to read before I go to bed … about midnight, 12:30 a.m. — sometimes a little later.”

Obama has also said that if he’s home late at night, he’ll try to catch “The Daily Show.” “I think Jon Stewart’s brilliant,” Obama tells Rolling Stone. 

Inventor Benjamin Franklin asked himself the same self-improvement question every night.

In his autobiography, Franklin outlined a schedule that would lead him to “moral perfection.” In this ideal schedule, Franklin asked himself the same self-improvement question every night: “What good have I done today?”

He described his other rituals before bed as “put things in their places, supper, music or diversion or conversation, and examination of the day.”

Franklin tracked his progress on self-improvement daily.

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg turns off her phone at night.

Sandberg might work for a tech company, but she knows when to unplug.

Sandberg tells Jefferson Graham at USAToday that it’s “painful,” but she turns her phone off at night so that she “won’t get woken up.”

“I check my e-mail the first thing in the morning, and the last thing at night,” says Sandberg.

Winston Churchill had an evening ritual that included a short nap, bath, and drinks well past midnight.

The British prime minister kept to a similar daily routine no matter what happened. In the book “Daily Rituals: How Artists Work,” author Mason Currey recorded Churchill’s schedule:

Around 5 p.m., the prime minister would drink a weak whisky and soda before taking a nap for an hour and a half. Churchill said this siesta, or short nap, allowed him to work for 1.5 days every 24 hours. When he woke, he bathed and got ready for dinner.

At 8 p.m., Churchill would eat dinner, which was often followed by drinks and cigars well past midnight.

Due to his irregular sleep schedule, Churchill was said to hold War Cabinet meetings in his bath.

Stephen King’s nightly routine includes washing his hands and making sure all the pillows face a certain way.

“It’s not any different than a bedtime routine,” says King as recorded in Lisa Rogak’s book “Haunted Heart: The Life and Times of Stephen King.”

“I brush my teeth, I wash my hands. Why would anybody wash their hands before they go to bed? I don’t know. And the pillows are supposed to be pointed a certain way. The open side of the pillowcase is supposed to be pointed in toward the other side of the bed. I don’t know why.”

Arianna Huffington only reads “real books” before bed.

Sleep advocate Huffington recommends banning iPads, Kindles, laptops, and any other electronics from the bedroom to unwind.

Instead, she likes to read the old-fashioned way, “real books.”

Michael Lewis prefers to write between the hours of 7 p.m. and 4 a.m.

Author Robert Boynton asked Lewis about his ideal writing routine, as recorded in the book “The New New Journalism“:

“Left to my own devices, with no family, I’d start writing at 7 p.m. and stop at 4 a.m.,” says Lewis. “That is the way I used to write. I liked to get ahead of everybody. I’d think to myself, ‘I’m starting tomorrow’s workday, tonight!’ Late nights are wonderfully tranquil. No phone calls, no interruptions. I like the feeling of knowing that nobody is trying to reach me.”

Former Googler Keval Desai works at night, so he can concentrate.

Desai, a former Google product director and current partner at InterWest Partners, says that staying up is a habit of his. Desai tells Lydia Dishman at Fast Company that he likes to pick one project per night and doesn’t go to bed until the project is done.

“During the day most of my time is spent in meetings with entrepreneurs, and the only time I can find alone to do work that requires some concentration is when the rest of the household is asleep,” he says.

Kate White, former Cosmo editor-in-chief, likes to write while standing up in the kitchen.

As a magazine editor, White preferred to work on her fiction writing in the early morning hours and switch to magazine editing and blogging at night.

“My craziest trick is that I regularly do my work standing up at a rolling butcher block counter in my kitchen. If I were to work sitting down, I’d fall asleep,” White told Dishman at Fast Company. “I know it sounds awful, but I think of it as if I’m tending bar in the evening — a bar of ideas. And I always keep the kitchen TV on so it doesn’t seem too lonely. I drink several espressos at night, which really helps.”

Bill Gates reads for an hour before bed, no matter what time he gets home.

The Microsoft billionaire told the Seattle Times: “I read an hour almost every night. It’s part of falling asleep.”

He enjoys “deeply informative and beautifully written” books (in June he released a list of six books he recommends) and his reading topics range from healthcare to climate change to business and politics.

Gates says he considers himself a very fast reader, despite never taking a speed-reading course.

Vera Wang uses this “peaceful” time to look over materials her staffers send her.

“My bedroom is my sanctuary,” the fashion designer told Fortune in 2006. “It’s like a refuge, and it’s where I do a fair amount of designing — at least conceptually if not literally.”

She said staffers send her stuff at home, “and I always read it at night — the only time when seven people aren’t coming to me at once,” Fortune reported.

Buffer CEO Joel Gascoigne walks every evening right before bed.

Gascoigne takes a 20-minute walk every evening to allow total disengagement from his work before turning off the lights.

“This is a wind down period, and allows me to evaluate the day’s work, think about the greater challenges, gradually stop thinking about work, and reach a state of tiredness,” he writes in a blog post.

Kenneth Chenault, CEO of American Express, writes down three things he wants to accomplish the next day.

Before retiring for the night, Chenault says he likes to write down the top three things he wants to accomplish the next day. This helps him prioritize first thing the next morning.

Now find out which successful people overcame homelessness:

15 Rich And Famous People Who Were Once Homeless>>

The post What 13 Successful People Do Before Going To Bed appeared first on Business Insider.

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3 Rules Of Thumb To Remember On Casual Friday

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It’s Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday! But what to wear?

Related: 5 Tips For A Great Casual Friday Look

Casual Fridays can be tricky SOBs for those of us who are more *fashionably challenged* than others. (I mean, yoga pants are causal, so I should be able to wear them to Casual Friday, right?)

If you’re having a hard time figuring out what’s appropriate for Casual Friday (and what’s not), check out these rules of thumb:

1. If you can wear it to the gym, don’t wear it to the office.

My office is pretty casual now, but it wasn’t always that way. When I first started, we were required to wear business professional clothing to work every day. I’m all about dressing up, but I was still pretty psyched when we voted to make the dress code more casual.

Since then, we have moved from suits to jeans. The only rule? If you can wear it to the gym, don’t wear it to the office. No yoga pants, sweats, or anything else that should be used on an elliptical machine. Fair point!

And, although it probably goes without saying, I would even go a step further and say that anything you can lounge in at home (PJs, old T-shirts, etc) should also fall under the same rule.

2. Ask about your company policy.

Casual Friday means something different in every office. There are some articles of clothing that might be okay to wear to work for some companies, but completely unacceptable in others.

Instead of guessing, get clarification on what’s appropriate from your manager or supervisor. It’s better to be safe than sorry, right?

3. Know how to wear your denim.

Some offices don’t allow denim at all, but some do. If they do allow you to wear jeans at work, you need to be careful what you choose to wear with them. You don’t want to wear something that’s too revealing, has lots of holes, or is bleached out. When in doubt, wear dark wash denim.

That said, you can still have a ton of fun wearing jeans to the office and look professional, too! Check out this article for different ways to wear jeans to work.

Lee National Denim Day

Friday, October 3rd, 2014 is Lee National Denim Day®! Denim Day is a fundraiser created by Lee® Jeans where participants donate $5 or more in exchange for wearing jeans to work. Lee National Denim Day participants have raised more than $91 million for the fight against breast cancer since it started in 1996.

You can make a difference. Join Lee Jeans and the American Cancer Society in the movement to rise above breast cancer by donating $5 or more today!

Win A FREE Pair Of Lee Jeans!

We want to see YOUR favorite way to wear jeans to work! Submit a photo of yourself in your favorite denim-based outfit and you could win a FREE pair of Lee Jeans! Deadline: Monday, October 6.

To enter, please fill out the form below!

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  • Instructions Please enter your name and email address, and upload your favorite jeans-related work outfit!
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This post is sponsored by Lee Jeans®

 

 

 

 

 

 

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9 Ways To Stand Out In A Group Interview

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If you are or will soon be a job hunter, you have to remember that job interviews are not all the same. Some job interviews don’t not only require you to answer somewhat stressful questions directly from your interviewer, but also face a group of co-interviewees and (technically) compete with them by practically standing out among the crowd.

Watch: 4 A’s For Acing The Group Interview

This kind of job interview is (obviously) called a group interview. A group interview is just basically like the traditional job interview with a question and answer portion, and some examinations. However, what adds more tension in the air is the fact that you have to go toe-to-toe with other job seekers, and force yourself to stand out without disrespecting and interrupting your interviewer and co-interviewees. You have to be both smooth and confident here.

9 Ways To Stand Out In A Group Interview

If this is kind of scaring the hell out of you, breathe and just continue reading. After this, you will be as prepared as the ants during rainy season. Here are nine effective ways to stand out in a group job interview.

1. Research Beforehand

It is very important, whether it’s a group interview or a traditional job interview, to do a research beforehand. You should know what you need to look for. Just make sure you know something about the company and any other details they can possibly ask you. Keep in mind, though, that research doesn’t only pertain to Google. Go out and observe, or conduct your own interviews.

2. Arrive 30 Minutes Before The Time And Observe

Don’t just be “on time.” Be there “before” the assigned time. In this way, you can still rest and freshen up a bit. You can also continue on with your research by observing the office, and reading some posters or notes on their bulletin boards. Being early for the interview will do you a lot of good.

3. Prepare A Self Introduction

Most likely, you will be asked to introduce yourself, especially in a group job interview. To save yourself some time and pressure, compose and memorize fluidly a self introduction. Give it all your best essay writing prowess. This will certainly come in handy. Remember, the “first impression lasts” saying is still true.

4. Listen Very Carefully

During a group interview, never let yourself float into nowhere. Always be attentive and alert. Don’t just listen to the questions asked. Listen to your peers’ answers as well. This will help you think and answer better.

5. Answer First Every Once In A While

Make it a point to be the first one to answer your interviewer’s question every once in a while. I repeat, only once in a while. You don’t have to bully out the other applicants. But you shouldn’t appear to be too shy and timid either. Being the first one to answer without obviously trying to dominate the group interview can give you your interviewer’s easy recall and good impression.

6. Support Some Co-Interviewees’ Statements

Since you don’t need to be the first one to answer all the questions, try to be kind and supportive of the other applicants’ answers every now and then. In this way, you may appear to be a supportive leader and a team player at the same time.

7. Smile And Nod A Lot

While someone else is talking, listen, smile, and nod a lot. It is a sign of respect and that you are listening intently to them. It is always better to be noticed because of nodding and smiling, than being all stiff and nervous.

8. Ask Brilliant Questions

As soon as your interviewer asks you if you have any questions in mind, try your best to formulate a good and intelligent one. That’s why aside from thinking sharply, you also need to listen carefully throughout the course of the interview. Once you’ve already formulated a question(s), do your best to keep them in mind and wait until your interviewer asks you if you have any. Don’t interrupt him/her.

Brilliant questions will make you notable. It means you’re listening well and you are eager to learn more. That’s how important good and intelligent questions are.

9. Greet And Thank Your Interviewer And Co-Interviewees

At the end of the group interview, make it a point to thank your interviewer and shake hands with your co-interviewees. This shows you are well-mannered and respectful.

Group job interviews can be terrifying. However, it’s not as bad as it may seem. It can even give you the edge that you need more than a traditional job interview can.

This post was originally published at an earlier date.

Related Posts

How To Ace The Panel Interview
How To Handle Tough Interview Questions
Preparing For An Interview: Step-By-Step Guide

 

Photo Credit: Shutterstock

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QUIZ: Did These HR Moments REALLY Happen?

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Human Resources is an organizational function that deals with issues related to people such as hiring, compensation, and performance management. The hiring process may include several steps. This includes completing a job application, going through the interview process, and coming on board as a new employee.

Related: 5 Ways To Attract (And Keep!) The Best Employees

At BambooHR, we know that the interview process can be grueling in and of itself. There are open interviews, screening interviews, dining interviews, Q&A’s, and many other forms of interviewing. While being involved in pretty much every aspect of an organization, HR can have some pretty amazing experiences.

Whether it’s due to nervousness, ignorance, failing to prepare, or even a lackadaisical approach, interviewees can say, and do, some pretty off-the-wall things. Here’s a few examples:

Why should we hire you?

“I would be a great asset to the events team because I party all the time.” - Bill McGowan, founder, Clarity Media Group

Why are you looking for a job?

“Cigarettes are getting more expensive, so I need another job.” – Pechstein

Is there anything else I should know about you?

“You should probably know I mud wrestle on the weekends.” – Venne

Have you submitted your two weeks’ notice to your current employer?

“What is two weeks’ notice? I’ve never quit a job before, I’ve always been fired.” – Meistering

Why do you want to work for us?

“My old boss didn’t like me, so one day, I just left and never came back. And here I am!” - Matt Cowall, communications manager, Appia Communications

You might think these are too extreme to be real, but these are actual answers provided during real interviews. With so many interviews and jobs, situations like these are bound to happen at some point. So, do you think you could spot a fake HR situation if you saw one? Take this quiz from BambooHR to find out!

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Related Posts

QUIZ: What Type Of Employee Are You?
QUIZ: Should You Quit Your Job?
QUIZ: Do You Have Social Media Career Power?

 

Photo Credit: Shutterstock

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5 Must-Read Resume Writing Tips

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Is the thought of writing a resume as pleasant as having your wisdom teeth surgically extracted? I ask because I was discussing resume writing tips with a client today and she was thrilled I was going to write it for her. As she put it, she was no longer actively involved in the “whole torturous process.”

Related: 5 Things That Make Your Resume Stand Out In Today’s Job Market

I didn’t realize the experience could be so terrible - but then I thought about doing my own taxes and realized what she meant.

5 Must-Read Resume Writing Tips

Here are five must-read resume writing tips that will help you through the process:

1. Keep It Simple

Keep your resume simple yet filled with relevant information and keywords. Sell your skills, abilities, and accomplishments by showing how you are an excellent fit for the job. Remember, your resume is a marketing piece and it’s supposed to generate enough interest to get you a telephone call from a prospective employer. It is your ticket into a telephone interview at the least, so it should make you shine!

2. Don’t Cram

If you have more than five years of experience, it is not necessary for you to try to cram everything into a one page document. Two pages are perfectly acceptable and standard practice. Generally, you want to keep your resume at no more than two pages.

3. Show How You’re The Solution

The employer has a pain, so to speak, so you need to show how you are the solution. Your resume should target the job for which you are applying. If you’re applying for a job as a Research Scientist, tailor your resume toward the position. Go ahead and remove anything that isn’t related. There’s no need to mention a marketing internship on your Research Scientist resume because it’s not relevant to the position.

4. Just List The Years

You don’t need to use months and years on your resume; just use years. This will be especially helpful if you’ve held irrelevant jobs for less than a year because you don’t have to mention them on your resume. For instance, if you were working part-time as a pottery instructor for seven or eight months, you don’t need to add it to your Research Scientist resume. (A caveat: Don’t forget to mention the job prior to a background check).

5. Show The Result First

For greater impact, mention the result first then describe how you achieved it. Take a look at this before and after. Before: Designed and implemented a research strategy that resulted in $30,000 in additional revenues each month. After: Generated $30,000 in additional monthly revenues by designing and implementing a high impact research strategy.

Writing a resume does not have to be torture. These five tips will help you write a great resume and hopefully help you forget all about wisdom teeth extraction.

This post was originally published at an earlier date.

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Your Resume Is A Sales Document

 

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How to Increase Your Chances of Getting a Promotion at Work

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Originally posted on TIME:

Answer by Jason Ewing on Quora.

Most important, best, and easiest way to increase your chances 1,000%: talk to your boss about what it would take to get promoted.

Seriously. Engage in a meaningful discussion about where you currently are with your work, your career goals with the company, and what options are available for advancement.

I watch people who sit in their cubes and watch internal job postings, then apply when they see something they want. These people are often surprised when they don’t get the job and don’t get far in the selection process. There are some big reasons why, but not engaging their boss sets all of them up.

  1. You must know yourself before you can advance. I’m not talking about your honest self assessment of your ability compared to the position you desire either. I’m talking about how you are perceived by the people who…

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What career were you actually meant for?

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Originally posted on AC:

Ever wondered what career you were actually meant for?

Answer these 10 simple questions to find out!

Take the test

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