The Perfect Resume Looks Like This

The Perfect Resume Looks Like ThisThe Perfect Resume Looks Like This Resumes are essential to the job search, but lets be honest creating one is not exactly anyones idea of a good time. With so many conflicting pieces of advice, you might feel like you dont know where to start or what to do. But dont worry - this time, weve done the heavy lifting. We combed throughsome of our best resume advice and compiled it into one infographic to give you an easy-to-follow outline for a resume that will wow recruiters and hopefully, land you the job of your dreams.Ready for a resume revamp? Read on below1.Design Matters Dont go overboard with intricately decorated templates.Look for sufficient white space, margins of at least .7 inches, and a font size no smaller than 11 pt.2. Be Reachable Make it easy for recruiters to reach out to you by providing your contact info near the header.3. Show Off Your Skills Dont make recruiters hunt for the fruchtwein critical information on y our resume - include a table of your key soft and hard skill sets up top. Make sure yourhighlighted skills show why youre a good fit for the job - all the better if these are keywords from the job description.4. List Your Experience This section should include each company youve worked for, your title, the dates you worked there, and several bullet points that describe your key accomplishments and responsibilities.5. Quantify Your Experience Whenever you can, use concrete data points - it helps provide recruiters with the scope and context of your work, and demonstrates how you contributed to the bottom line.6. Include Other Positions Dont be afraid to include positions that arent directly related to the one youre applying for, especially if you have limited work experience. You can still use it to demonstrate the skills and qualities you want highlighted.7. Get the Grade Many jobs require degrees or certifications, so make sure to list yours. GPA is optional, but may be worth including if youve graduated recently with high marks.8. The Extra Stuff Add some color to your resume with a short catch-all Additional Experience section at the end. Include clubs/organizations, volunteer experience, awards youve won, and even interesting hobbies or activities.9. Keep It Concise Limit your resume to 1-2 pages at the most.

Does Your Resume Pass the 10 Second Test

Does Your Resume Pass the 10 Second TestDoes Your Resume Pass the 10 Second TestWe have all been told the same thing, A recruiter or hiring manager only spends about 10 seconds reviewing a candidates rsum before deciding his or zu sich fate. Knowing this, its critical that a job landseekers rsum effectively catches the eye of the recruiter in very short order and that its compelling enough to inspire the recruiter or hiring manager to pick-up the phone to engage the candidate in an initial conversation.But what does a recruiter want to see in those first 10 seconds?As a former headhunter who worked with a national staffing firm in San Francisco, I can tell you what I wanted to see when I first reviewed a candidates rsum. In the initial review of a rsum, I wanted to be able to answer three questions about the job seekersWhat did the candidate want to do next in his/her career?What were the key skills that the candidate was selling me?How successful has this candidate been in his/her c areer? If I could answer these three questions about the job seekerand if the answers aligned with the position for which I was recruiting, I would print out the rsum and review it more carefully and ultimately conduct an initial phone screen. Does your rsum answer these questions?1. What do you want to do next in your career?Although objective statements have now become reisepass, your rsum should be written in such a way that your career objective is clear to the reader. Using the target job title as a heading for the rsum followed by a well-written Professional Summary which highlights your qualifications for the role, is a very good way of presenting your career objective to the potential employer.2. What skills are you selling me?Most job descriptions will define the essential job functions or primary responsibilities and duties entailed in the job for which you are applying. To be considered for the position, it is critical that your rsum shows how your knowledge, skills, and abilities align with the essential job functions.I like to see a summary of core competencies near the top of the rsum. This summary helps the recruiter very easily identify what you consider to be your best skills for meeting the job requirements.Its important, however, that the rest of the rsum provides the necessary supporting evidence to prove you actually have applied these skills in real-life situations.3. How successful have you been in your career?The best rsums are results-focused. At the end of the day, what sets you apart from the other candidates who are applying for the position is your record of accomplishments and your brilliant ideas, those ways in which you did the followingIncreased revenuesImproved efficiencySaved moneySolved pressing problems to save the day.When you can quantify an accomplishment by associating a number with the achievement, employers really take notice.I like to see rsums that include a section of Selected Career Highlights near the top of the first page. Too often, candidates bury their best achievements in the body of the rsum where they are easily missed. Moving these key points to the top of the rsum along with the professional summary and core competencies creates a rsum that leverages the prime real estate on the page.By applying this simple 10-second test to your rsum and rewriting the document so it easily passes the test, you will increase the odds of being included in the small batch of candidates with whom the recruiter is interested in speaking.

13 Ways to Jump Start Your Job Search

13 Ways to Jump Start Your Job Search 13 Ways to Jump Start Your Job Search Are you feeling stuck in a job search rut? One of the most frequent questions Im asked is how can I get people to respond to my resume? I understand the feeling its incredibly discouraging to apply for job after job and never hear a peep back. You start to think it must be you there must be something wrong with you or why would nobody call back?But thats bedrngnis the case. Theres nothing wrong with you although it seems there is something wrong with your job search strategy. After all, youve been doing the same things for a while now and they havent workedSo here are just a few suggestions to shake things up.13 Ways to Jump Start Your Job Search1. Narrow it down Get really specific about what you want to do and which companies you want to work in, and then develop a strategy to make connections inside those companies using your real life network and your online network (through social media sites like Face book, Twitter and LinkedIn). Dont worry if theyre not advertising jobs just now there are tons of jobs filled every day that are not advertised.2. Broaden it out Maybe you have been very specific and it hasnt worked. Well then, try broadening your search. Consider other industries and fields that might need someone like you and research the types of available standorts.3. Revamp your resume Choose 3 vacant job postings that appeal to you. Go through them and highlight key words and themes. Get inside the head of the hiring manager what is he looking for? Now look at your resume does it instantly convey that you have what it takes? If not, rework it to focus on those words and themes.4. Show some personality Call or email friends and people who have worked with you. Ask them what words describe you best. Now look at your resume to see if it includes those words. If not, rework it to reflect some personality.5. Be an expert Giving advice instantly makes you look smarter than other people, so write an article about your area of expertise. Call it The 5 Secrets of a Successful Administrative Assistant or 10 Ways to Succeed at Sales or How to be a Successful Game Designer. Publish your article to the web using Google Knols. Now when you send a resume by email, you can say I have attached my resume but to learn more about how I work, feel free to check out my article on 10 Ways to Succeed at Sales.6. Be more of an expert Create a whole resources page about your profession at Squidoo.com. Include your Knol article, but also provide links to other good resources, recommended books and some quick tips. Again, you can include this link in your titelblatt letter. (Now you can say I have written several resources for other Administrative Assistants, including a web page which you can find at .)7. Be even more of an expert If you like writing, start a blog. Keep it professional and use it as a way to show employers just how much you know about your profession.8. Read re cruiter blogs and newsletters To succeed, you need to understand how recruiters work and what they like and dislike. Reading recruiter blogs is a great way to find out. Just go to Technorati and do a search for recruiting to find some blogs to follow. Also, I recommend signing up for Nick Corcodilass Ask the Recruiter newsletter, which is packed full of good advice and insights.9. Use social media to make connections Read my article on Using Twitter for Job Search. Then get on Twitter and start following people who work at your target companies. Start conversations with them about them not about you and make a connection. Once you know them and they know you, you can ask hey, are you guys hiring?10. Beef up your online presence Recruiters are increasingly using sites like LinkedIn and ZoomInfo to find candidates. Create profiles on both and make sure you do it correctly Check my article on 7 LinkedIn Mistakes for some tips on what to do.11. Check your web presence Google yourself and see what comes up. Check Yahoo and MSN also as each search engine produces different results. Check Pipl, which pulls from information all over the web. If you find things you dont like, take steps to correct that by either (a) removing content from sites, profiles, blogs or forums or (b) replacing search results you dont like with better stuff. You can do this by making smart and thoughtful comments on blogs using your real name, creating profiles and writing articles as mentioned above. This will bump down any negative stuff over time.12. Know who you are This goes back to my 1 point, but sometimes in a long job search, you can lose track of who you are and your unique value. In trying to get a job any job you can start trying to be all things to all people. Dont. It never works. Clarify who you are and your unique value proposition and then make sure that is the focus of everything else that you do (including articles and web profiles). Check out my free resume writing cou rse to learn how to develop your value proposition.13. Stop following the rules When you apply for a position online, they ask you to follow certain steps. Dont. Instead, research the company and then network your way to a real person. Send your resume to that person with a note telling them how excited you are about the vacancy you saw and why you would be the perfect fit. If you can find more than one person, send more than one email. Making the human connection is the key.There are many many ways to get creative about your search. Taking action on one or more of these suggestions will make a difference to your search results and also maybe help you to feel unstuck. In summary, I think all this can be encapsulated as stop doing what you have been doing and do something new.What about you? Do you have any suggestions for people feeling stuck in a job search rut? Have you ever used a creative strategy successfully? Do you know someone who has? If so, please share in the comments.