Compelling Summary of Qualifications

You want your resume to shine?

You want an employer to stop glancing at resumes when he gets to yours?

Easy! Make sure your Summary of Qualifications is sound.

Here are a few tidbits to help you make sure the first thing your potential employer reads is eye catching.

1. Be sure to use powerful adjectives prior to your job ocupation and always make sure you include amount of time in the industry.
2. Show how you’ve changed or improved your company’s performance.  Even if all you did was answer phones, there must be something you’ve done that your employer or client complimented you on.
3. List relevant awards immediately.  Do not wait until the Awards Section to toot your own horn, because if your summary isn’t compelling, no one’s going to get that far.
4. Highlight unique qualifications that make you stand out from the pack.  Also be sure to bold relevant items to make them stand out even further at a moment’s glance.  If you highlight the appropriate keywords, the employer may feel you were the answer to his most needed employee prayers.

As always, good luck with your job search.

Ayesha Long

www.AyeshaWrites4u.com

Resumes…

Wow! I cannot believe it’s been two weeks since I’ve posted on this blog.  After the election, time has just been speeding towards the date of our new president’s inaugural address.  I, for one, know that Obama has an uphill battle to climb and am not expecting miracles.  Our economy is in shambles and he may not be able to fix it in one term.  Yet, I know he will work on it.

How about you?  Is your career in shambles?  Are you aimlessly going to work thinking, “what’s the point?”  Are you now on the unemployment line, hoping to get your check for six months and enjoy your mini-retirement?  Or are you being proactive? Your career may not change in one week, but just like Obama, you should be working on it.

You should at the very least have an updated resume in these times of economic uncertainty.  You should have your ear pressed to the ground to hear of possible company lay-offs.  You should make certain, you have some money stowed away in case something does happen.  You should always, always, ALWAYS, be prepared.  You never know what will hit you.

Ironically, I’ve had two clients in the past week contact me regarding updating their resume.  Right after updating their resume, guess what?  They were laid off.  Did they panic?  No!  They went straight to sending out their resume and I’m happy to say, both have been on interviews and one has been hired already.  Would they have had the same luck if they waited for a problem to arise?  Or would their panic have prevented them from behaving rationally?

Whatever, the answer, I’m sure you know what works for you.

As always, good luck with your job search.

Ayesha Long

www.ayeshawrites4u.com

“Faith in America Restored”

Barack Obama was bashed in the last days of his campaign for using these very words.  But I, like most Black Americans, understood what he meant.  I grew up as a child understanding the limitations to black skin and knowing that while we might be citizens and have earned the right to vote, we were still not viewed as equals.  I grew up watching police get away with brutalizing African Americans and seeing our school systems consistently fail poor and black children.  I grew up thinking that it was the norm for all black children to want to be sports figures, actors, dancers, or models.

By the time we were ten, none of us had inspirations to be in politics or medicine or law.  We didn’t think it was possible to be anything more than what we saw on television or in our own neighborhoods.  So if a little nine-year old black child said, “I want to be president of the United States,” his classmates laughed and said it was impossible. 

We were cynics before we even knew what the word meant.  We understood before adolescence that the world was based on an “us versus them” mentality.  We knew that in order to survive in this country and to fit in in our own communities, that we had to conform to our societal restraints.  Yet, Barack Obama showed us differently.  

At 11:17 pm when I saw that check mark appear near Barack Obama’s name, my faith in America was restored.  To see black and white faces band together to vote and celebrate the election of the first African American president was a time for great joy and renewal of the mind.  No longer can we say we are limited by our skin color, because if Barack Obama can do it, so can EVERY little boy and girl regardless of race or creed.

Finally, when I look at the Declaration of Independence and I read the constitution, I will no longer feel like these documents do not represent my history.  I can now say with great emotion that I am proud to be an American.

As always, good luck with your job search.  And may God Bless America.

LinkedIn & Job Networking…

Okay, maybe a lot of people are already familiar with LinkedIn.  If not, let me take a moment to introduce you to the age of Internet networking to find a (drum roll please) job.  Yes, you read that correctly.  LinkedIn is a wonderful resource where professionals create accounts and then find people that they have met either personally or professionally.  Either way, what’s great about LinkedIn is that they absolutely respect your privacy.

In order to contact a fellow member, there has to be an alliance between the two of you.  You have to prove that you onced worked together, went to the same school, or met.  If you cannot do this, then you have to find someone in your immediate network who is connected to that person to introduce you.  Once that introduction is made, then and only then, may you contact the other person.

Hence, no more silly picture messages or the like.  This website is only for the professionally-minded individual looking to get “Linked Up” to other professionals that may further their goals and initiatives.

If you’re interested in moving beyond social networking sites to joining a site that can help you make connections to getting your new job without ever leaving your home, visit www.LinkedIn.com to learn more.

As always, good luck with your job search.

Ayesha Long

www.ayeshawrites4u.com