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Do you impress potential employers?

Do you impress potential employers? Nobody will hire you to just give you a chance. It doesn’t matter if you are hard-working and dedicated unless you own the skills and applied knowledge needed for the employers’ position. A lasting impression is sustainable if there is a pattern of project completion or successful business accomplishments.

Employers want the job done in spite of obstacles, personality conflicts, and bad hair days. The blog, America’s Job Exchange’s article, “What Do Employers Want?” stated, “A good employee gets the job done. A great employee gets the job done in spite of everything – including when priorities and schedules shift.”

What does it take for a job seeker to impress? Among having a great resume, cover letter, an impressive portfolio among other things, here are some important attributes needed:

1. Impress employers with wide range of collaborations and projects

Presently, the workplace excels when employees create and embellish their projects and deepen existing expertise along the way. Job seekers who show creative solutions while partnering departments and businesses establish core competencies attractive to future employers. Even more impressive is offering a range of diverse work relationships across various global cultures.

2.Impress employers with quick and perpetual learners

Job seekers who quickly absorb lots of content in a short amount of time shows you quickly create value from ideas. This often comes from lots of reading and writing in your niche, and finding new ways to apply new learning and theory. Job candidates acutely aware of his or her learning style thrive from taking something from nothing.

3. Impress employers with soft skills

Everyone has virtues that he or she excels in that employers find attractive. Do not discount attributes and virtues such as, patience, tact, and customer service. Interviews are tests exposing weaknesses such as patience, or handling conflict. Other soft skills such as communication, courtesy, flexibility, integrity, and interpersonal skills are still gold and stands out in a crowded field of candidates.

4. Impress employers with initiatives saving cost and time

You have heard numbers on your résumé catch the eye of the reader and demonstrates your accomplishments. Employers want to see step-by-step actions that made project goals attainable. Furthermore, explaining clearly project strength and weaknesses are a plus demonstrating your understanding of how your steps impacted cost/time results.

5. Impress employers with observations and evaluations

While interviewing candidates when I was a manager, we gave a short explanation of how our department worked. After the explanation we asked the candidate learned from the explanation. Whether or not the candidate learned from our spiel, we can successfully assess the candidate’s ability to assimilate blocks of information given in short period. This told us a lot about the candidates learning ability and whether he or she was the right fit for our call center area.

What do you think impresses employers? Please share in the comments section below.

by Mark Anthony Dyson

How Frugality Could Benefit Job Seekers

Editors Note: This article was written by guest contributor Ruth Hinds (@RuthHinds)

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that we’re living in tough economic times. With many organizations cutting back on their spending and looking at ways to slash unnecessary expenses, finding a job can be extremely difficult. You’ll be pleased to know that this doesn’t necessarily mean that you can’t find work. In fact, organizational frugality could be a good thing for savvy job seekers.

Let’s take a look at why.

More freelance opportunities are available

Traditionally, most people spent their days working for someone else. But as the economic landscape changes, more and more opportunities are opening up for freelance workers who sell their services to bigger corporations. Businesses might not have the budget to pay for a full-time member of staff, but there are still jobs to be done. Working as a freelancer, you could secure several contracts with businesses who need skills just like yours, but on a more flexible basis. Whether you’re a copywriter, a web developer, a graphic designer, or an admin assistant, there are probably freelance opportunities out there that are perfect for you.

Employers could be more flexible

The fact that employers could have less desire for permanent and full-time members of staff could actually work in your favor if you have existing commitments. For job seekers to balance around childcare or studies is notoriously difficult, and employers usually prefer workers who can fit in with any schedule. When they’re working with tighter budgets though, there’s often some added leeway. It’s great news for job seekers looking for part-time employment.

If job seekers become proactive, could seek out amazing roles

When business is booming, no expense is spared when it comes to advertising vacancies. They may feature in national newspapers and trade magazines, meaning that lots of people know about them, and of course, will apply for them. If a business is cutting costs, they may just advertise via their own social media channels and websites. In other words, it can be harder to find out about vacancies, but there could be considerably less competition. If you want to take advantage of this, make sure that you’re closely following the businesses you’d love to work with online.

Lower level jobs could turn into something bigger

If you’ve got high career aspirations, frugality could lead to you getting a foot in the door and working your way up. If you’re happy to start at the bottom of the ladder, and are willing to prove your worth, you could really stand out. For this reason, don’t just rule out trainee jobs. Make it clear that you’d like some further responsibility and seek out opportunities to learn new skills and show your employer what you’re made of.

As you can see, it’s not all doom and gloom when it comes to finding work. You can make the recession work for you by thinking creatively and approaching your job search in a slightly different way.

How do you think frugality is changing the job market? Have you found ways to use a company’s frugality to your advantage?

This article was brought to you by Ruth Hinds on behalf of AllTheTopBananas.com. ATTB allows you to search for and browse through UK jobs in one place, from engineer jobs to IT jobs. You can also upload your CV to increase your chances of being headhunted.

by Mark Anthony Dyson

10 Epic Ways to Edit Your Professional Resume to Perfection

Editor’s note: Juliana Weiss-Roessler (@weissroessler) is a freelance writer who frequently covers career advice and job hunting topics. She is also a professional resume editor.

It’s been years since you dusted off versions of any of your resumes, and suddenly you find yourself back on the job market. Where do you start, and how do you make yourself presentable again?

Here are 10 epic ways to edit your professional resume to perfection and get yourself back in the game.

1. Get Current – Now!

The best time to chronicle your most recent job is while you’re still in it. Why? Because the details will be fresh in your mind, and you’ll have access to information if you need it.

When you can, use facts and figures to back up your accomplishments. You didn’t just increase sales – you increased sales by 20% in the first month. You didn’t just manage accounts of industry leaders – you managed the accounts of Apple, Google, and Microsoft.

2. Get Rid of the Old

The longer you have been in the workforce, the more experience sludge you have probably accumulated at the end of your resumes. If it’s longer than two pages, it’s time to give it a trim.

Jobs that you held a decade ago or more can be removed entirely. If you feel they are important to show your qualifications, keep the description to one line, such as, “Coordinated a busy desk for two executives,” rather than detailing out each responsibility you handled.

3. Get Rid of the Irrelevant

That one summer you worked as a lifeguard? Probably not important to an employer looking for a new accountant. While you might be tempted to include everything you’ve ever done, you will be much better served by only featuring what is pertinent to that particular job opening.

But it’s not just irrelevant positions you should nix. Look for job responsibilities and accomplishments that don’t directly apply to your current career goals. Consider cutting or trimming them to draw more attention to experience that is applicable.

4. Keep It Consistent

Read your resumes aloud, and see what jumps out at you. Did you write full sentences for the first job description but then brief phrases for the next? Is one job written in past tense while another is in present? What about font and type sizes? Pick one style and stick to it.

5. Make Sure They Can Find You

Bring your resume up to 21^st Century standards with keywords. Many employers aren’t willing to sift through resumes by hand, so instead they have a computer do it for them. They type in what they are looking for and the computer looks for a match.

That means it’s important to ensure that your professional resume contains the exact skills someone may need. It may seem obvious to you that an accountant needs to know Quicken, but if you don’t include it on your resume, you may not even be considered. A “Skills” heading is a great place to capture these keywords without bogging down your entire resume.

6. Use Bullets

Most resumes aren’t read; they’re skimmed. In fact, on average, recruiters spend just 6 seconds before deciding whether or not to consider you.

Hands down, the best edit you can make is to break up dense paragraphs into bullet points. Then consider the order. Put the most impressive accomplishments at the top, so they’re easy to find. You can even offset the ones you really want to draw attention to by putting them in bold.

7. Reconsider the Objective Statement

If you need a objective statement, it’s likely your resume isn’t quite working. It should be apparent by looking at your past positions or education what type of work you are qualified for.

The exception to this rule of thumb is when making a career change. You still want to make it as obvious as possible about the new direction you are headed, but a objective statement can help further nudge an employer in the right direction.

Never include a generic objective statement, such as, “Looking for a position with career growth opportunities where I can use my excellent communication skills.” It doesn’t tell employers anything beyond the obvious, and it just takes up space that could otherwise be spent showcasing your qualifications, skills, and talents.

8. Consider the Section Order

Many applicants make the mistake of listing their education at the top of the resume. This is great for recent grads, but for most other professionals, work experience should be front and center. The exception to the rule is for IT professionals who may want to consider including their specific skill sets at the top, such as programming languages and other technical areas of expertise.

Not sure if you’re including all the sections that you should? Consider using a resume builder to get you started. You may not need all the sections listed, but it will give you something to start from.

9. Give Yourself Praise

Sometimes it’s hard to “sell” yourself, so watch for a resume that’s all job responsibilities and no accomplishments. Don’t just tell future employers what you did, but also how it helped your current company. It’s great if it’s quantifiable, but it doesn’t have to be. Did you boost morale? Improve communication? What did you do to go above and beyond? Make sure your accomplishments include clear measurements.

10. Be Human

Giving a brief glimpse at your personality in your professional resume isn’t always a bad idea. Consider adding your soccer league under the Organizations heading. Or keeping that internship you had in Brazil even if it’s not quite relevant anymore.

Don’t do so at the expense of including your qualifications, but sometimes it’s breaking the rules that gets you noticed.

These tips, along with the general rule of thumb to keep it simple and not too long, should help get you back in the game, and with some luck, land you quickly and painlessly in a new job of your choosing.

Bio

Juliana Weiss-Roessler is a professional resume writer based in Southern California. She’s written hundreds of resumes and cover letters in a wide range of fields. You can learn more at WeissRoessler.com.