Top 10 Resume Tips for 2015

Top 10 Resume Tips for 2015As we head into 2015 I wanted to take some time to think about resume tips that will have the greatest impact on your job search in the coming year. Job searching and resume writing are constantly evolving, yet I find so many job seekers stuckverzierung in a rut. Here Im going to provide my top ten resume tips for 2015 to help you jump-start your job search in the New Yearand beyond.Resume Tip 1 Breakaway TextWhen you read a book or a magazine, you will often leidice that different methods are used to guide your attention to important contentthings they want you to remember. For instance, they may print certain words in a larger type sizeor in a different font. Words may be set off by quotation marks, separated by lines, be its own section entirely, or even be in color. All of these serve a purposethey draw your attention to the one or two lines of text the author really wants you to remember.Use this saatkorn strategy on your resume. Consider the most impo rtant point you want the employer to walk away withand capture that in breakaway text within the top half of the first page of your resume. Keep it short. And dont just give any informationmake sure its the most compelling point of why they should hire you.Resume Tip 2 Call-Out BoxesCall-out boxes are along the same lines as breakaway text. The purpose of a call-out box is to bring attention to the information contained within it. These are great for specific keywords or skills you want to bring attention toor for an endorsement by a previous employer that speaks to your value.Resume Tip 3 Chart/Graphs/DesignDont be afraid to utilize graphic elements such as charts and graphs. Especially if you have revenue or profits that you can track over several quarters or years. A picture is worth a thousand wordsand if youve been a powerful revenue generator, this is a resume tip that will serve you well.Revenue generation not an integral part of your position? Thats OK. You can use charts or graphs to communicate other important info such as customer/client satisfaction, membership rates, or cost savings. If none of these apply, then skip the chart/graph and opt for some other visually engaging design elements like color, borders, or shading. The idea is to engage the reader visually to help make the content easier to digestand ultimately remembered.Resume Tip 4 Video Resume LinkVideo resumes may never replace traditional resumes, but that doesnt mean that they wont become a powerful complement to them. More and more job seekers are starting to create 30- to 60-second intro videos so employers can get a better feel for the persons personality, presence, and cultural fit within the organization. Including a link on your resume to your video resume could prove to be an effective competitive advantage over your competition. I encourage you to consider creating oneand including a link to it on your resume and your LinkedIn profile. There are some video formats that you can post to your LinkedIn profile so employers who visit can watch the video right from your profile.Resume Tip 5 Value PropositionsInclude a value proposition within your resume. Your value proposition is the most persuasive reason WHY the employer should interview you. You want them to see theres a benefit to choosing you over another candidate. What expertise or experience can you offer that no other candidate can? This very well may be your value proposition. Use it to your advantage, and communicate that within your resume.Resume Tip 6 Writing to the AudienceWrite to your audiencerecruiter, HR, decision maker. Become very savvy about being focused in your job search. A recruiter is looking for a specific set of elements in a resume and cover letterbut the qualifications and skills a potential employer/target company is looking for can be quite different. Recruiters have a different set of criteria of they want to see in a resume. We always advise our clients to customize their res umes to the specifications of the recruiter with whom theyre workingbecause that recruiter knows his/her clients and what they like to see. There is no one-size-fits-all resume. People who plek up on this and create specific resumes to match targeted positions will see much better resume response rates.Resume Tip 7 Use a Networking ResumePut together a brief snapshot of your accomplishments and value proposition that you can pass out to your network. It should be short, visually engaging, and benefit-laden. A quick snapshot of what you do and the value you offer gives your network a fuller picture of what you do. And it can actually help them spread the word about your expertise to interested employersor cause them to think of contacting you if they hear about a great opportunity that aligns with your skill set.Use a quick, one-page bio-type of document that doesnt necessarily cull through your entire career history but instead offers a glimpse into the value and expertise you can o ffer a future employerand highlights your achievements and successes most relevant to your career target now. Please note this is not the ideal piece to put in the hands of a prospective employerBUT if youre networking with family, friends, or connections, some people are more visually inclined. So being able to *see* what you do can help them to help you even moreResume Tip 8 Include LinkedInBelieve it or not, I still hear from job seekers who are not on LinkedInand I still see resumes that do not include links to profile URLs. This is a wonderful way to engage your audience and to help them learn more about you and what you have to offer. Dont neglect to include your LinkedIn profile URL at the top of your resume where you have your other contact details. And for goodness sake, do elend copy and paste your resume into your profile Give them different and equally compelling information there.Resume Tip 9 Delete GeneralDelete the term general resume from your vocabulary altogether. I occasionally have someone call us and ask if we can create a general resume for themand the answer to that is No. Well, we couldbut it wouldnt do you any good. A resume is not a place to be a jack-of-all-trades its a place to be specific about how youve mastered what you do and how great you are at it. In fact, youre so awesome at it that the employer NEEDS to interview you or theyre going to lose out on some pretty great benefits. So the next time you feel slightly tempted to create a general resume RUN Instead, create a master resumeand then pull information from that master resume to create more-focused versions that you can use to apply to specific opportunities.Resume Tip 10 Jump Off the Job motherboard BandwagonEmployers are jumping shipand its probably time you did too. This year, Ive made it my mission to bust the job search myth that applying on or posting your resume to job boards are the ONLY ways you can find a job. Using job boards should be only 20% of your job sear ch efforts. The other 80% should be invested in other methods such as informational interviewing, networking, cold calling, direct-mail campaigns, targeting specific employers, or researching decision makers.The frustration and hopelessness job seekers feel stems primarily from a lack of knowledge about other ways to job search. They hop onto the job boards, start applying awayand never hear anything back. Then they end up thinking their expertise isnt valued, or that there are no jobs out therewhen the truth of the matter is There are lots of jobs out there. Theyre just not all on job boards.Take some time to educate yourself about alternative methods for job searching. It will take far less time than you think and yield far better response rates than anything youll get from a job board. I foresee a swift decline in the number of job seekers using job boards this coming year.And while Im on that topic, let me just say this about that. I am not against job boards. I am against the misconception that job boards are the exclusive way to find a joband that a job seekers efforts should be focused exclusively online. This creates frustration and despair for far too many people.So there you have it my top ten resume tips for 2015. The last resume tip may have been a combination of resume and job search, but the point stands. These are the tips and trends that I see making the biggest impact on your job search in 2015. Whats your best resume tip for 2015? Id love to hear it Please feel free to share it with me below.As always, Id love to connect on LinkedIn. Please feel free to send me an invitation here.

Your 5-Step Process To Effectively Taming Your Kids Tantrums

Your 5-Step Process To Effectively Taming Your Kids Tantrums If you are reading this, you probably think handling your childs temper tantrums is your weakest parenting skill. I was once like you, desperately Googling anything related to how to deal with and squash a temper tantrum. Everything I read confirmed I was doing it all wrong, and that all I needed was to find my inner peace, count to ten, and Namaste my way through it. None of that ever worked, which made me struggle through this terrible phase on my own, thus presenting me with this wonderful opportunity to impart my pearls of wisdom onto otzu sichs. So, after seven years with a feisty girl and meddling my way through aleidher platzset of tantrums via my three year old, here are the top 5 things I learned about how to or, more like, how to try to handle and prevent temper tantrums.1.Forget about anyone else around youThis is where it all fails apart.in public, when there are people looking at you and you interpret this as everyone judging your parenting style. This is the number one reason why tantrums continue because you cant block everyone out and your own anxiety bubbles up and pours all over the situation like a thick gooey mess from which you cant move. This is me. I am the momwho wants to crawl into a hole and hide when embarrassedin public. The one whopulled her kid back into the car to try to calm her down and made it worse. The woman who was ready to leave the diner after the food was ordered because my kid was screaming about a broken cookie. I am completely aware that I have to change my thought process and have to have faith that no one cares, or they are, in fact, judging me and will never say a word to me, or they, too, are parents and are glad its not them for a change. I try this every time we are in public because its the hardest thing to do, and I know its the first thing I have to personally change.2.Walk away This tactic didnt work with my older daughter. I would walk away and it would make her more anxious and exacerbate the tantrum. This, however, works with my second child. When Im not giving into her need to eat whipped cream for dinner, and I simply walk away, she screams. Minutes later she is composed, comes over and we hug it out. This wont work with every child and may make him/her feel abandoned. But use this technique when you have exhausted all other options or if you know its exactly what is needed.3.Give In - Yes, thats right. You have to give in at times. Tantrums typically occur more frequently in kids from ages 2-5...though my eldest still has her share of meltdowns. How do you know when to give in? It depends on what the tantrum is about, and how your child tends to react when you try to alleviate their tantrums. For example, my older daughter would always throw a tantrum when we had to leave a playdate. As she grew older she could articulate that she wanted time to finish her game or say goodbye. So Id give her time prompts and then she wa s able to control her emotions better. Its more about their lack of ability to communicate and express feelings through the toddler years. So, yes, if your son wants to buckle and unbuckle his seatbelt so he can do it himself, let him. Shoving him into the car quickly because you need to leave may not be the best tactic all the time.4. Get creative-Learn the art of distraction. When my youngest challenges me at bedtime, I hide her pajamas. On the ceiling fan, on the lampshade. I tell her to find them and after each discovery she comes over and gets dressed. At bathtime, when no one wants to get out, I say its a contest. Whomever gets up first gets the pink towel. This is exhausting at times. I wont lie. But, along with my husband, even I get tired of hearing my nagging voice that yearns zero results. 5. Prepare.. to a point - My husband and I feel bad about child 2. She will not experience all the firsts my oldest did, like going to Sesame Place or visiting the zoo in the middle of August. Why? Because we refuse to set ourselves up to fail. We dont push her to her limits when shes tired or hungry. We stick to her schedule and dont often compromise. We dont mention things like oreo cookieswe know she wants when we are out that will set her off into a demanding tirade. We also dont take on activities that we know will exhaust us, like two birthday parties in one day activities that will prevent us from handling a potential tantrum due to our own fatigue. It may not sound ideal, but its what I call toddler purgatory a temporary time when you kind of need to adjust your life to survive this unpredictable phase of childhood.My husband has likely read this far and is laughing to himself because, like I said, Im not great at this. I know what needs to be done, but to execute it in the moment is very hard when you are a tired, working parent. But it happens, and its temporary. We, as parents, have a long way to go, with way more difficult conversations to have, like at 8pm when your second grader wants you to explain what celsius is. Just remember when the tantrum is finally over and you are tired from whatever technique you used, take ten deep breaths, find your inner peace and namaste to the cabinet to sneak a piece of well-deserved chocolate.