Job Search Advice

Stepping Up to a Better Career was created to help job seekers nationwide find fulfilling employment by providing advice on resume writing, interviewing, job searching and more.  For the past year, I have upheld that goal by creating topics that I felt would be interesting to the 100 loyal readers I have each day.

Now I feel it is time to turn over the reigns.  I want to hear your specific questions and concerns and provide you with advice that will aid you in finding fulfilling employment and fast.

Have a question about transitioning careers? Looking for employment while keeping your old job? Networking to find employment? Moving from nonprofit work to the business sector?

Explaining laid-off or fired status? Job searching on the internet? Keeping a job after your company has been bought out or your department is being phased out?

Creating a resume? Formatting a resume? Specific resume samples? Types of resumes?

Following up on an interview? Negotiating your salary? Creating a cover letter?

If you have any questions about your job search…

Contact me!  You can choose to comment directly on this blog or you can e-mail me your questions at Resumes@AyeshaWrites4u.com and see your question appear in my next post.

All I ask is that along with your question(s), you send your first name and an e-mail address where I can contact you to let you know that your answer is being posted on the blog.

As always, good luck on your job search.

Ayesha Long

www.AyeshaWrites4u.com

Let Your Resume Shine WITHOUT You

In a world where individualism, self-criticism, and  self-reflection are encouraged, there are still places where you are not important.  Your resume happens to be one of those places.  When your resume focuses only on you and not on an employer, your previous companies, or the achievements a compnay has received by hiring you, then you will NOT get hired.

If you have ever written a resume before, you know the basics.  Pronouns do not belong on a resume – so there should be no I, you, we, he, she, or they on the resume.  Instead, your resume should begin with strong verbs that demonstrate your capabilities as an employee.  Here is where the fine line is drawn.

How do you know how much of yourself to include and how much of your previous employers?  Simply look at the classified ads and look to see what qualities your prospective employer is seeking.  Then look at your resume and ask yourself if the qualities you project on your resume demonstrate you as the right candidate for that position.

Here is an example.  I once worked with a client.  Let’s call him Jeff.  Jeff had worked in the Human Resource field and had listed every detail required of his job as an executive recruiter.  Jeff, painstakingly described how he went into the field, came up with campaigns to generate candidates, and coordinated with the hiring companies.  Yet, Jeff was trying to transition into a mangement position.  No where on his resume did he demonstrate his capabilities as a manger.  He was perfectly qualified.  In fact, on his resume he was perfectlyqualified as well – to be an executive recruiter!

The problem was that Jeff was more concerned about his past achievements and wanted to show off his success as an employee  – which is something that all employees should do.  Yet, he forgot about the most important aspect of any resume – it is not about you!  Employers do not care about your past achievements because they are well, in the past.  What they do care about is that everything on your resume demonstrates that the achievements you had were stepping stones to ensure that you are capable of handling the job that they are going to hire you to do.

So after six months of using his own resume, Jeff hired me.  Together, we looked at the classified ads of companies looking for Human Resource Managers and were able to find the qualities Jeff was lacking on his resume.  I constructed a job-winning resume that demonstrated his managerial skills, while still leaving his best accomplishments as a recruiter.  Within two weeks, Jeff had received three job offers.

Learn from Jeff.  Look at your resume and make sure that every accomplishment you post is not about you, but is about the needs and desires of your prospective employers.

As always, good luck on your job search.

Ayesha Long

www.AyeshaWrites4u.com

Step Up to a Better Career with Professional Resume Services
*** Also be sure to go to Ayesha Writes 4 You’s website and schedule your Free Resume Consultation. From now until August 15th, you can take advantage of our Summer Discount and get 15% off any resume package. So go to www.AyeshaWrites4u.com to get started now!

Most Common Resume Writing Mistake

It takes an employer thirty-seconds or less to scan a resume before it hits the trash pile.  It takes forty seconds for it to hit the cycle pile, which means it stays in the system, but never gets used.  It takes less than ten seconds for him to look at your resume and know that you are the perfect fit.  So why isn’t it happening to you?

The answer is simple.  Most employees create one resume and send it out to every job opening available.  Employers can easily spot a generic resume and are turned off by lazy job seekers.  If you couldn’t take the time out to create a customized resume, why should they take the time out to interview you?  So if you are looking to get hired, but don’t want to spend the time creating a new resume for every new job opening, here are three options for you to try.

Option 1 – Use your transitional skills.

If you want to change careers, but haven’t found a career that best suits your personality, then you can create a typical functional resume.  In a functional resume, you start off with your transitional skills, as opposed to your work history.

You take a look at your highest skill sets or the skills needed for most of your jobs of interest and group them into categories.  For example, a customer service professional looking to transition into the IT profession can clump her skills into: Technology, Communication, and Collaboration.  Then under each subfield, she would show explicit examples demonstrating that skill utilization during her work or educational experiences.

If an IT hiring manager is looking for those three categories, she will definitely stop to look at this person’s resume.  However, be forewarned, that many employees are leery of resumes that are only functional (see Chronological? Functional? Or Combination?).

Option 2 – Lead with your job sets.

If your current job is less than satisfactory and you want to return to an old career, you can use a career-styled functional resume.  In this functional resume, you group your work history into career sets.

Similar to a standard functional resume, you will have a different section on your resume for each career field.  So someone who has been a medical assistant, nursing assistant, and phlebotomist and is willing to work in either field again could have three sub-sections for their work experience – Nursing Assistant Experience, Professional Medical Assistant Experience, Phlebotomy Technician Work Experience.

Then for each job he applies to, he can lead with the section that best applies. If it’s a medical assistant position, then the Professional Medical Assistant Experience section would be the first section in the work history, followed by the other two career sets.  If it’s a nursing assistant position, he’d lead with the Nursing Assistant Experience.

Option 3 – Create a new resume for every job.

If you have the time and energy to recreate a new resume for every job posting, then this is the best option.  However, this option is the most time-consuming and is generally meant for employees who are looking for positions within the same industry.

For example, an elementary school teacher trying to become a math coach or social studies cluster teacher can use the same resume and add bits and pieces to the objective, summary of qualifications, and job history to highlight her experience and expertise in each field.

This resume will still look like a chronological resume and will include the work history listed in the dates of descending order, but it will highlight the skills necessary for each position.

Using, Ayesha Long’s tips, your job search should be more proactive.  If you need assistance or are still not getting the results you like, Contact, AyeshaWrites4u at (866) 620-2741 or visit the site at www.AyeshaWrites4u.com.

As always, good luck with your job search.

Sincerely,

Ayesha Long

www.AyeshaWrites4u.com

Step Up to a Better Career with Professional Resume Services

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Graduates Need Apply…

Are you graduating this fall?

Have you worked or volunteered in fields not related to your desired field of employment?

Scared of the current employment statistics and where that puts you, the new person on the totem pole?

Don’t fret.

If you are in the educational, medical, or law fields, you HAVE had field experience. Serving roles as assistants, observers, or clinical students, you know the ins and outs of what a typical work day will be. It is your job as a new job seeker to use this knowledge to make yourself sound knowledgeable to a potential employer.

How do you do this?

Typically, when I consult with clients who are recent graduates or more popularly, transitioning employees, there are two resume sections that serve their purposes best…

Highlights of Qualifications, also known as Summary of Qualifications or simply Summary puts your key accomplishments at the very top of your resume.  While every resume should have a Summary of Qualifications, for new graduates, the information that goes in your summary is a little different.  You will lead with the following:

• Awards and Honors as a Student, i.e. 3.0 GPA’s or higher, scholarships, etc.
• Specific industry successes through fieldwork experience, i.e.

-     A graduating Phlebotomy technician might write – Expertly administered 120 venipunctures for 96 patients.

-      A graduating Educator might write – Demonstrated cooperative learning techniques by teaching 3^rd grade math unit utilizing enrichment, ELL differentiation, and remediation.

-      A graduating Lawyer might write – Supported litigation of 10 family court cases through effective mediation techniques.

• Personal accomplishments that demonstrate your work ethic, i.e. Served as Student Government President; Conceptualized and organized mentorships between 150 entrepreneurs and 300 students.

A Professional Experience section should follow your Summary section, unless you are working for a career that requires certification or a certain level of education.  In your Professional Experience section, it will be broken into two subsections.

• Experience related to your desired profession, i.e. Teaching Experience for educators, Nursing Experience for new LPN’s, Law Experience for graduating lawyers.  In this section, you are boasting of the new skills practiced during your externships and/or fieldwork experience.

• Work Experience for all other employment held outside of your career.  In this section, no more than two or three bullets per job are necessary unless you have had substantial success that will be able to carry over to your new career.  Otherwise, a few simple sentences explaining your responsibilities or the fact that you worked the job while juggling a full course load will suffice.

As always, good luck with your job search.

Ayesha Long

Ayesha Writes 4 You

Step Up to a Better Career with Professional Resume Services

www.AyeshaWrites4u.com

(866) 620-2741

Chronological? Functional? Or Combination?

Chronological resumes… Functional resumes… are things of the past.  If you are still using these two formats or trying to decide between them, then you are not giving your resume a chance to succeed.   Now, employees are being advised to use combination resumes. 

What is a combination resume?

A combination resume has become the new format used by resume writers for the past three to five years.  A combination resume takes the positives of both the functional resume and the chronological resume and puts them all into a nice little grouping.  I advise most of of my clients to use a combination resume because it allows them to highlight their qualifications AND their skill sets.

If your resume is ONLY chronological or functional, you might want to ask your resume writer is their a better alternative…