Articles - Page 233 of 257 - The Voice of Job Seekers

12 Most Positive Ways to Help Your Teen Find a Job

Editors Note: This is my guest post originally published at 12Most.com, and republished with their permission.

My oldest is a high school graduate (by the time) with two years of work experience. Not just summer experience, he worked throughout his junior and senior years of high school while maintaining a 3.0 g.p.a, playing sports, and participating in clubs.

As a father, seeing him grow in character was just as important as his high school diploma. Our children become more resilient if we allow discipline to prepare them for life after high school including college.

Teens should work. They will find time for video games or hanging out with their friends. When teens turn 16, they are job seekers, as defined by their parents, and when possible the fathers.

These are my suggestions in creating teen job seekers:

1. Employ them early

Give your three and four year old a job, pay them, and watch them work. Notice and remember his or her enthusiasm and zeal. Think about how you can build on their willingness. Oh yeah, did I say pay them?

2. Teach them how to work

If you don’t work with them and teach them, he or she may never work. The younger the easier, the older the harder —then you’re on your own.

3. Don’t make them fill out 100 applications

Instead, dress them up and take them around to small businesses to talk to adults. If they do not like adults during the teen years, they will with pay.

4. Coach your children in their relationships with adults

Yes, they need coaching and monitoring by YOU the parent. Everything un-taught will appear ugly, so prepare them now. Networking 101 starts with conversations, shaking hands, eye contact, and the parent starring as the loving weirdo. Take a bow. You’re welcome.

5. Explain to them what you do

Show them how you do it and make sure they can explain your career to peers and teachers with clarity. Even if you’re unemployed, provide examples of your work and your career.

6. Be honest about your career struggles

You will connect with them in positively profound ways. I did this with my oldest son. At 18, he has more working experience than his under 30 cousins with two years at the same job.

7. Make it clear that at 16, they are job seekers

No matter what your economic status, your teen should work at a minimum during the summer. They can buy their own school clothes and treat the family to lunch or dinner. The pride he or she displays is priceless. I promise.

8. Show them your accomplishments

Awards, prizes, accommodations, or certificates send a subtle message what you expect of them. If they are not proud of you, your work has just begun.

9. Inspire them

Chastising, hazing, stalking, or harassing doesn’t work. Trust them to the seeds of knowledge and experience to grow over time.

10. Anticipate resistance

It is not a cakewalk for many teens as peers claim to lead the glamorous life on Facebook. Have them think about the job they want, and a target company. Is it that bad to work at The Gap because he or she loves clothes?

11. Allow working peers to influence them

There is nothing wrong with them wanting to work where peers already work, unless it is illegal or the friend is a bad influence.

12. Reveal to them that money is not the only incentive

Restrain your inner Warren Buffett and make experience attractive. Don’t be surprised that relationships sprout from working with people from different cultures, genders, and ages. She may be cute, sure he is charming, but work will cultivate character.

My son works out his budget, understands his financial obligations and responsibilities, and values time. Most of his friends still think money grows on trees and aggravate their parents to pay for everything. My son has imperfections and immaturity like many young adults, but he can experience making a few adult decisions as he treats for family dinner on payday.

Is it tough to get your teen to work? I think teens should work. Do you? Please share, I would love to hear.

by Mark Anthony Dyson

The Resume Objective Question: Useless or Use Less

The resume objective section is useless unless your practicing to write one for a grade in your freshman year in college. A reader recently pointed to me an article that they read on NBC Universal Life Goes Strong blog on how we should blow up the objective statement on résumés. When you read the article, it aligns closely with what I believe:

Leslie Ayres (@JobSearchGuru), The Real Job Guru, wrote the article, “The Resume Objective is Dead, So Why Are You Still Using It?” makes 3 points that are very true:

1) Objective statements are completely about the candidate

2) Companies also ditched the candidate because of it was all about the candidate

3) The competitiveness of candidates who say much more than, “… hire me and I’ll be more focused!”

Three more articles Several more articles on résumé from respectable and knowledgeable career pros:

Resume Objective Statements That Kill Your Hiring Prospects by Jacob Share (@JacobShare)
Why Your Resume’s Objective Statement Doesn’t Work by Phil Rosenberg (@philreCareered)

Is Your Résumé Telling Your Story? by Daisy Wright (@CareerTips2Go)

IS YOUR RÉSUMÉ A CLUNKER? by Melissa Cooley (@TheJobQuest)

Simply, objective statements don’t compete anymore. They don’t say enough about the candidate, nor doesn’t grab the reviewer’s attention. So what should we do?

One suggestion is using the position headline:

(SEEKING PROFESSIONAL POSITION) SOFTWARE ENGINEER

A discussion that I had recently with another career pro is that the head is not appropriate when uploading to a site that the résumé will not scan. The headlines that are suggested:

PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY

SUMMARY

These are two different approaches contingent on whether if the first set of eyes will be human or not. Mind you, that there are college career centers that are still advising their students to write an objective statement.

Traditionally, an objective statement stated,

Objective: To use my excellent organization and discipline to advance my career in finance.

Yes, at one time it was OK to impress an employer with this statement. Now, a career summary or branding statement will compete against the vague “Objective” statement. My current client who gets it and although we are working on the length, she understands the gist:

Enthused developmental Math Subject Matter Expert actively engaged in instructional design programs geared towards diverse student learners. Offer and assert skills and experience as an instructor and a project manager obtained from seven years of teaching, and more than 12 years in Fortune 500 companies. Implement strategies for evaluation and assessment results of classroom instruction to address the needs of learners with a diversity of learning styles resulting in 100% participation and 80-90% passing compliance. Thrive and excel as a project manager who understands the breadth of challenges that require strategic tasking between planning, change management, coaching, mentoring, tutoring, and teaching.

Yes, it is too long, but once a vague summary is now a contribution statement. Once we edit, this branding statement will be lean and mean. Notice how the results are integrated into the statement. Numbers always catches the eye of a potential employer. The lesson here as well is to overwrite at first, then it is easier to truncate as a whole.

By now, the objective statement on your résumé is USELESS. Whether it’s called an “Objective” or “Summary,” think contribution when you write this statement. Even a little attitude would help in writing this statement when based on FACT.

Do you have an objective statement that says nothing? Are you guiltyof a vagueness on your résumé? Please, confess your crime below?

by Mark Anthony Dyson

3 More Resources to Help Proofread Your Resume

Once again, I found additional resources to help anyone proofread his or her writing anything career related (or anything at all). Every communication leaves an impression these days and I hate to see people lose out on opportunities because spelling or grammar! So to help you proofread your resume, I scoured the web and found three more tools you can consider using.

Roadtogrammar.com

This site provides 365 categories of quizzes. Some of the categories are slightly redundant but this tool provides simple quizzes to help you with weaknesses in grammar.

I took the adverb test and scored 14 of 15. Some are more challenging than others, and while it doesn’t do the grammar check for you, a good way of reviving some of the basics learned in school and proofread your resume and other documents in the first draft. There are games and additional challenges to at least help you make a step forward improving your grammar.

Gingersoftware.com

This site is a diamond in the ruff in the scope of Internet tools. It is F-R-E-E.

I downloaded the software which works well with Word, Firefox, Chrome, and Outlook. I tried it with Word (I use 2010, but works with 2003) by entering part of this post. The Ginger box has a small box that appears at the top of the page that says F2 in green, which instructs you to highlight the sentence, paragraph, or complete paper and press F2. I chose a paragraph and Voila! The above graphic appears offering a corrected sentence.

This app does not detect the passive voice phrases. For casual notes, it wouldn’t matter, but for your résumé, too much passive voice makes you sound as if you avoid responsibility (Heeehe!). Just kidding. It’s not a good look.

For you bloggers out there using Windows Live…Sorry! It doesn’t work there but it will work with your Outlook. So if you are writing business letters or letters to employers, this will check your spelling and grammar. This is one of the best free proofreading tools I’ve tried so far.+ Add New Category

Interested in what I reviewed last fall? Here are the two articles I previously written you can check out:

Five Resources to Help Correct Resume Grammar Errors

Three More Resources to Help Correct Resume Grammar Errors Part 2

Spellboy.com

This site, unlike the others that I have reviewed, is strictly a spell check site with a couple of unique features. On the right, it has several sections that the first will check your blog (if you have one) for spelling errors. Of course, I had to try THIS BLOG and the search found 16 errors. Words like uncategorized, javascript, and jobseeker (which I purposely spell the way I do at times). Once I spelled attributes, a-t-r-r-i-b-u-t-e-s, but it does not say which article. I have 97 articles before today, no sleep loss tonight.

The other two interesting boxes feature that the app can be present on your iGoogle page or Chrome extension (by the way, all three apps mentioned today have Chrome extensions). The other suggests that it has a mobile app. I checked my Android phone, no luck.

Please let us know if it is on the iPhone in the comment section.

There is no excuse now to not proofread any written material you author. This will improve your personal brand, and hopefully, produce quality documents. Is this helpful information? What grammar or spelling challenges do you hope to overcome?

Please share in the comment section.

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