Job Search Blog

The bottom line is all that matters. Even with your impressive skills, big name companies, and expensive college degree where you graduated magna cum laude, what it comes down to is how you contributed to profit growth or how you saved money. Your resume experience has to reflect in order to stand out from the competition.

Format: check. Typos: check. Highlighting duties instead of accomplishments: Fail. Do better than the basic job description. Go from “all about you” to showing the reader (and ATS software) what they want to see. How do you stand out from the rest? The reader will have a basic knowledge of your job and doesn’t need to be reminded about the mundane details. What they want to see is how you improved on something. The eye is drawn to numbers and action words. The ATS software is

Never assume the reader knows what you’re referring to when you use lingo on your resume. This goes along the lines of don’t make them work when they’re reading it. State what it is and spell it out. Literally. If it’s mentioned more than once, put the abbreviation after the first one and the use the abbreviation.

Put networking on your to-do list every week day in 15-minute increments. Here are you daily tasks: Monday: Email a network contact Tuesday: Write a LinkedIn status update Wednesday: Research a target company Thursday: Introduce yourself to someone Friday: Find employees from one of your target companies on LinkedIn

Crafting an authentic and compelling work story on your resume is a vital goal, and doing so succinctly within one page requires a thoughtful approach. Avoid the temptation to pad it with unnecessary fillers—words that might seem impressive but often fall flat with hiring managers. Here's a snippet of some of the worst offenders: Best of breed Go-getter Think outside of the box Synergy Go-to person Results-driven Team player Hard worker Strategic thinker Detail-oriented The t

Think of your job as a verb rather than a noun. This “is a mental shift that can help to disentangle who you are as a person from how you spend your days to make money for rent and groceries,” from Tim Herrara, NYT Smarter Living columnist. For example: I write resumes, rather than I’m a resume writer. Or: I sell advertising, rather than I’m a sales representative. And one more: I keep people organized, rather than I’m an account manager.

Make it a goal to connect with one person, outside your family, every day. One way to do this is to ask for help. Here’s how: Set a specific goal each day to ask for help. Over time, you’ll have made it a habit. Plan each morning what “the ask” is going to be and who it’s going to. Put a reminder in your calendar with an alert so you don’t forget. Start with your family. You can practice on them with simple things. This has at least two benefits: the first is that it’s an opp

Bullet points are great for breaking up text on your resume. Here are some guidelines on when to use: Contact information Listing expertise Listing skills Education: when it goes beyond school, location, degree For experience, use 2-4 in descriptions; start each line with a dynamic action verb For entry level positions, if you want to change it up, you can use icons as bullets: Personal information icons: mail, phone and address icons Social media icons: Twitter, LinkedIn, In

Follow-up is critical. In sales, it takes 7-10 “touches” with an account to close the deal. Create a system for keeping track of all your job search activities and develop a process for following up. That means following up on every resume you send, every networking contact you make, every interview. Know what you need to do and when and put it on your calendar so you don’t forget. Download this worksheet to get started:

If there was ever a time to hone your skills, a job search is it. And with the vast amount of online classes available, it’s easier than ever. You can start with MOOC.org. MOOCs, or Massive Open Online Courses, are free and available for anyone to enroll. Need more reason? In a 2014 Coursera study of people who have taken its classes, 72% of survey respondents reported career benefits, with 43% reporting improved candidacy for a new job and 26% actually landing a new gig. I