Here are suggestions to improve your resume. I review resumes often and these mistakes are very common but easily fixed.
- Use bullet points for easy scanning.
- Keep paragraphs to no more than two to three sentences long.
- Use the title of the job you are applying for as a resume objective.
- Use a strong summary of qualifications. This section needs to be a big picture view about the dynamic and professional person you are.
- Don’t use I’s on resumes. Instead, start sentences with action verbs.
- Use common section headers such as Professional Experience or Related Experience or Education instead of something unique.
- Use year dates for the jobs held throughout your resume…2008-Present; 2006-2007; 2004-2006.
- Use keywords relevant to the type of job you are applying for on your resume.
- Get rid of the responsibility/job duties bullets. Instead use accomplishment statements. One way to do that is to finish the thought by telling, “which resulted in…” at the end of each bullet point.
Have you thought of having your own Virtual Assistant (VA) business? I have had several help me over the years and it seems like a great way to work at home if that is a kind of transition you would like to make.
VA’s can specialize in bookkeeping, clerical, multimedia…whatever they are good at and enjoy.
You can also freelance picking up a project at a time on sites like:
http://www.elance.com
http://sologig.com
http://guru.com
http://odesk.com
Here is a professional association to check out and learn more about Virtual Assistants.
http://www.ivaa.org
I was delighted to receive a review copy of Susan Ireland’s new edition of “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Perfect Resume” because frankly, I needed a refresher. Plus, I have followed Susan on Twitter and her blog and I knew she shares high quality info online so I was excited to see what she would say in her book.
I was not disappointed. Susan does some great teaching in this book. She starts where it all should start, figuring out what job you want next and the keywords that go with it. People often want to jump right to the look of the resume and finding a template. That is not an awful thing except that it often results in a person getting in a mode of doing what everyone else is doing and blandly listing responsibilities. Most importantly by starting with keywords first and encouraging you to customize a resume for each vacancy announcement you respond to, Susan is teaching a critical strategy that is extremely relevant for your resume to compete well and rise to the top for interview consideration.
From there, Susan moves on to resume format and details each section of the resume one-by-one sharing her expertise thoroughly yet succinctly, and giving lots of example resumes to boot. In parts 3 and 4 of the book, you get other important pieces of the resume puzzle like cover letters, thank you notes, and how to get a resume and portfolio online to take advantage of web technology in your job search.
If you are unhappy at work you have a few options.
- Quit right now with no notice, telling them to take the job and shove it as you walk out the door. Feel a few moments joy and freedom until you take yourself to your next money making opportunity (if you can find one) and, most likely, recreate the same unhappiness you had before.
- Stay with a bad attitude. Tell the story everyday of how you hate your job, the people you work with, and how you are underpaid, underappreciated, and have no options. The more you practice this outlook the easier it becomes.
- Stay and tell a different story. Talk about what you appreciate about your job or career. Practice looking at the bright side and you will see more bright side. Heck, your co-workers and boss might even start treating you differently.
- Stay and tell a different story while defining what you want in your next career move. Be on the lookout for the next opportunity all the while appreciating your current position and building more skill and contacts.
O*Net is an excellent site for exploring occupations. They also have a skills search which I linked below. Only put checks on the skills you enjoy using…any skill you are good at but do not enjoy using is a recipe for burnout.
O*Net Free Skills Assessment
Go to the homepage to begin researching careers when you have a career choice you are curious about or just browse careers by clicking the pull-down menu in the “Find Occupations” area on the homepage.
http://online.onetcenter.org/
The process of values clarification is important to career choice and success. Identifying your values is a way to filter down all of the irrelevant junk and get to what really matters to you.
Chances are your values will shift through your lifetime. There are times when a whole new perspective may come into view during major life changes. It is then that you will work to accommodate a new sense of meaning in your life. Those times are when it is especially important to reevaluate your values to help you keep your priorities straight.
If there is one thing that will cause you to quit a job on the spot, it’s when your job or your employer is in conflict with your values. Also, there are few things in life that bring such joy as knowing that you are contributing to the world in a way that meets your unique set of values.
A little exploration and reflection will help you list and prioritize your most important values. A work life with many rewarding experiences is the payoff.
Here is a quick, free values assessment online. Be sure to print the summary sheet to add to your career development file or binder for future review.
Review your summary sheet in times of stress and controversy to help you recognize why a particular situation is getting to you. You will likely find that one of your high priority values has been compromised. Often identifying the value underlying the issue is half the battle! From there you may be able to communicate better from a standpoint of the root cause.
An exercise to build up energy about what you want to achieve in life is to reflect on your value summary sheet then define what you want and record it in great detail. Remember this, it is important to have fun with this exercise! Don’t worry about how you are going to do it or begin to feel bad because you haven’t done it yet. Just enjoy the process of defining what you want.
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) is a personality assessment. It can help you communicate what is special about you and it can give you insight as to how you communicate and learn best. Also research has shown how certain personality types tend to congregate happily in certain career fields. Many people who take the MBTI® begin a wonderful journey of self-discovery. In fact, some describe it as life changing.
We love the Myers-Briggs Personality Indicator (MBTI) for getting at personality types. This is a link to an easy sorter that will show you the basics.
http://www.personalitytype.com/career_quiz?type=1
We can also recommend the book, “Do What You Are” which you will see at the link above.
I encourage you to spend more time tracking your accomplishments than your goals. Accomplishments are actions you have already taken. Goals are actions you intend to take. Make it a habit to log your weekly accomplishments and turn them into bullet points for your resume and power stories for reviews, networking, and interviewing.
You may also want to add a space on your accomplishment log to mention how you felt while working toward each accomplishment. Say a 1 to 5 star rating, 5 being the best. This will help you recognize what activites juice you up so that you can make arrangements to do more of those.
