Resume Ideas

Get Your Resume Noticed by Recruiters

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The average corporate job posting attracts 250 applications, and less than 3% of those resumes lead to an interview. On top of that, recruiters spend just 7.4 seconds scanning a resume before deciding whether to keep reading.

Those numbers are not meant to discourage you, but rather to give you an honest understanding of the labor market. Remember, the goal of your resume is not to say everything. It is to make the few things that matter impossible to miss. Here is how to do just that.

Step 1: Build a Resume Recruiters Notice

Get the Fundamentals Right

Before thinking about optimization, make sure the basics are solid. A well-structured resume does not need to be fancy. It needs to be clean, consistent, and easy to scan.

  • Lead with Experience, Education, and Skills
  • List experience in reverse-chronological order
  • Use a professional email address
  • Keep it to one page unless you have 10 or more years of experience (two pages is fine at that point)
  • Proofread punctuation and grammar carefully
  • Leave out personal information like age, photo, and marital status

Know What a Strong Resume Looks Like

A strong resume has four sections, top to bottom: Header, Experience Summary, Skills Summary, and Professional Work. Your header should repeat on every page.

In the experience section, think A→T→R:

  • Action: what you owned
  • Task: the tools and methods you used
  • Result: the outcome, quantified

Every bullet point should start with an action verb (drove, built, streamlined, oversaw), describe the value you added, and land on a measurable result. Aim for three to six bullets per role, and stay consistent with format, tense, and punctuation.

A useful shortcut is the WHO Method, a quick formula for a bullet that lands:

  • W: What you did
  • H: How you did it
  • O: Outcome, quantified

Show Both Hard and Soft Skills

Recruiters are looking for the full picture. Hard skills are the specific, teachable abilities you can measure: coding languages, data analysis tools, certifications. Soft skills are the interpersonal strengths that are harder to quantify but essential in any role: problem-solving, leadership, communication.

Both matter. Both belong on your resume.

Read More: https://www.careercircle.com/blog/post/candidate/get-your-resume-noticed-by-recruiters

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job search slump

Job Search Slump? Here’s What to Do…

Blog, Job Search, Resume Ideas, Set Yourself Up For Success

So your job search has hit a wall. Every job you’ve applied to hasn’t panned out (or they flat-out ghosted you), and every time you go looking for new opportunities it seems like there’s nothing out there for you.

It’s easy to lose hope and motivation in moments like this. I wouldn’t fault you if you just wanted to check out for a bit. However, if you’re still up for it, there are plenty of things you can do during this slow period to stay in the game, find under-the-radar roles you might be perfect for, and set yourself up for success when the market picks up again.

Job Search Slump

First, is it you or the job market? The job search slump can be caused by two factors: the job market and the job seeker.

While it’s hard to predict exactly when companies hire heavily and when they hold off on expanding their teams, Ricklyn Woods, a Muse career coach with 20 years of experience working in HR and recruiting, says the latter half of the year tends to be a slower period for growth.

Also, fewer job opportunities tend to pop up, and the hiring process often takes longer, over the summer and during holidays when HR or certain departments go on vacation. If you’re job searching during these periods, it could be the job market that’s leading you to come up empty-handed.

If you’ve only just started your job search, you’re likely not in a slump—yet. “Clients that I work with take on average three months to land a job offer,” Woods says. Past that amount of time, however, she’s inclined to believe it’s something the job seeker is doing that’s affecting their prospects, rather than seasonal trends.

For candidates who are making it to the job interview but not getting past the first few rounds, she adds that it’s possible their technique needs work. Maybe you’re coming across as overly anxious, or lack preparedness. Running your application or interview answers by a friend or trusted colleague can give you a sense of whether it’s you that’s holding you back.

Let’s say you’ve done everything right—your resume and cover letter are highly personalized and well written, you go into interviews with concise and confident responses, and overall it feels like you have a good handle on your job search, except for the amount of jobs available to you.

Here are six additional productive things you can do to weed out opportunities and impress hiring managers now and in the future.

1. Circle back with recruiters from old job applications

Think back to roles you applied to months or even a year ago—the ones you felt you were perfect for and even made it to the final round before getting rejected. Did the hiring manager and other members of the team seem to like you? Was it clear you were rejected not because of your skill set or fit, but because someone else was a slightly better candidate, they hired internally, or the role was put on pause or changed course? Chances are there’s an opportunity waiting for you at that company or on that team that hasn’t been considered yet, or will pop up when there’s more budget.

Following up with recruiters you’ve met with in the past is a great way to stay on a company’s radar when hiring picks up again, as well as build valuable connections that could be useful down the road. Guess what? This strategy has worked for me and others in landing jobs after being rejected.

Read More = https://www.themuse.com/advice/slow-job-search-help

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5 Ways to Make Your CRE Resume Stand Out

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You know the job you want, and you’re ready to start applying and interviewing. But hold up just a minute. In a high-stakes field like commercial real estate, you don’t want to just be one of the pack. You want to shine. So, how do you make your CRE resume cut through the background noise and really pop?

Whether you’re just beginning a career in CRE or you’re a highly experienced veteran in the industry, you’ll face stiff competition. So, the old practices of listing your previous jobs along with some references and a blurb about being a “self-starter” just won’t cut it.

Let’s look at five simple but powerful ways to improve your resume and land the interview. These are tried and proven methods to make you stand out. Of course you want to be the most qualified for the job, but the way you present your qualifications can give you the lead in a close race. So, follow these helpful tips to write a highly effective CRE resume that will turn heads and get hiring managers to pick up the phone.

1. Make It a Tailored Fit.

It’s absolutely essential in the CRE industry that you customize your resume to each role. I know it’s extra work. But it’s worth it. Why? Because it absolutely works. Instead of blasting out the same resume to 30 different jobs, identify the handful that matter the most, and target them hard.

Align your specific skills and experiences with the specifics in the job description. Think of the JD as the question and your resume as the answer. Show exactly how you are the candidate who meets their unique needs and can hit the ground running.

2. Design Strategically.

If 5-10 resumes are sitting on a hiring manager’s desk, which one is most likely to get picked up first? The one with the most attractive design, of course! But just what makes for an attractive and effective design?

No, we’re not talking about full-color graphics and pie charts. Think strategically. Your resume should have a clean and tidy look, so it’s easy to read. But it should also emphasize key achievements and skills by sparing use of bold fonts, bulleted lists, and proper spacing that sets things apart. If it’s easy to read and absorb, it will stand out and make an impression.

3. Emphasize Education.

It’s simply not enough to list where you went to school and what degree you earned. Everyone does that. What truly stands out is continuing education. It not only shows you’re an expert, but it shows you care about growing.

Whether it’s a course in property management or a certification in commercial investment, list any and all ongoing learning activities or certifications you’ve invested in. This communicates to a hiring manager that you’re proactive, you adapt, and that you have the traits to stay on top in the fast-paced world of commercial real estate.

4. Always Be Branding.

When crafting your CRE resume, always think about your professional brand. After all, brands have value. And thinking of your resume as a tool to brand yourself for your dream CRE job will help you write in such a way that associates strategic messaging and value propositions with your name.

And really, everything contributes to or detracts from your brand. The educational choices you listed say something about you. Your clean and neat resume layout and design communicate something, as well. The words you use, the attention to detail, the skills and traits you include – all of it – sets you apart and defines your unique brand.

5. Network, Network, Network.

Not only should you network in your job search, asking everyone, “Who do you know?” or working with a recruiter. But you should also list all of the key network groups and associations you’re in to give your CRE resume the strength of numbers.

You aren’t just you. You’re a member of peer groups and professional pools that amplify and compound your value and demonstrate how much potential you as a professional really have.

So, there you have it! A well-crafted resume is so important in commercial real estate and any industry. Don’t just wing it. Implement these steps to give your job search the best possible chance.

Sources:

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employment gap

Explaining the Employment Gap On Your Resume

Blog, Interview Tips, Resume Ideas

You took some time away from your career, and that’s OK. Maybe you tended to a sick family member, catered to your kids, pursued another degree, or traveled the world. Whatever it might have been, you’re now ready to jump back into the workforce.

Not so fast.

If your resume reveals an employment gap, expect hiring managers to inquire.

Of course, what seems like a simple question will be paired with a simple answer … right? You know why you took that time away from your career. But can you clearly explain your decision and how it worked to your advantage? After all, you’re vying for a job against candidates who might boast more recent experience.

Instead of getting caught in a bind of stress and fumbling your words (we’ve all been there), enter your interview prepared to master your employment gap explanation.

Here are six tips to help you overcome the inevitable “What have you been up to?” interview question.

1. Exercise Discretion

If not properly prepared, a moment of panic could lead to you to divulging way too much information.

Does someone who’s been sitting behind a desk for 10 years straight, want to hear every detail of your six-month adventure through Asia? Does he or she need to know how you afforded it? Or that a brutal breakup sparked it? Probably not.

Nor does the hiring manager want to know the nitty-gritty details of the diapers you’ve changed or how awful little Tim is before bedtime.

If you’ve faced challenges and were forced to take a gap in employment due to tragedy or hardship, be careful here too. Sometimes people — especially mere strangers — don’t know how to respond when it comes to grief, so spare them. And you certainly don’t want to break down in tears during your interview. Try to keep those details to yourself.

2. Provide Clarification

You definitely don’t want to overshare, but don’t cloak yourself in mystery, either.

Instead, find the right balance. Explain you took time off to spend with your kids, needed to decompress after several high-pressure years in your field, or that you faced little choice and owed it to your mom to help her out. There’s no shame in that.

By explaining why you elected to call it quits for a while (without oversharing), a hiring manager will likely feel more comfortable knowing what happened — and that you didn’t just run away.

Important note: Remember there’s a difference between explaining and justifying. Don’t get stuck feeling like you have to justify why you stepped away from your career. You’re not out to prove anything.

3. Tell Them About Your New Skills

Unfortunately, changing a diaper in under a minute doesn’t count as a new skill set (though that is a commendable feat).

Be sure to mention any volunteer work, classes, certifications, or even conferences you attended during your employment gap. If none of those options are relevant, know you probably picked up a new soft skill.

General soft skills to discuss during an interview include communication, adaptability, problem-solving, and critical observation. Remember to show, not tell. Offer concrete examples and situations that show how you learned to better communicate or how you became more comfortable adapting to unexpected situations.

Being able to show you’ve grown during your employment gap is respectable, so don’t forget to highlight it.

Read More: https://www.topresume.com/career-advice/simple-explain-employment-gap-without-oversharing

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How To: Present Leadership Skills on Your Resume

Leave a Comment / Blog, Job Search, Resume Ideas, Set Yourself Up For Success

Leadership is an essential function of successful management that helps to maximize work efficiency and to achieve organizational goals. Regardless of the type of the job you’re looking for or a company’s size, leadership skills are paramount. They belong to the group of the most sought-after soft skills that employers look for in candidates.

Your first contact with a hiring company or organization is through the job application and resume, so how can you demonstrate leadership skills without speaking with an employer or recruiter? It all comes down to the way you write the resume. Here are some top tips on how to optimize your resume with enhanced leadership skills.

leadership skills

Supply Examples of Leadership Skills

An average employer or recruiter gets hundreds of resumes for any given job position. The chances of getting an interview increase for those who stand out. The most important thing you can do when showing off leadership skills on a resume is to provide specific examples. It’s common for applicants to state they have great leadership skills without providing evidence. To stand out, mention some leadership-related accomplishments from a previous job. Ask yourself two questions: what did I do and how did I do it.

Here are a few examples:

  • Coached my team and to adopt a new business strategy (mention details about the strategy)
  • Successfully organized seminars, meetings, team-building activities, and collaborations with other companies
  • Had to quickly adapt to changes (include specific example) and prepare for unforeseen circumstances

Quantifiable Results

Qualities of a good leader don’t stop with the ability to motivate and lead others, they also extend to work efficiency and specific, measurable results. When writing about achievements from previous jobs, always quantify your results with statistics and hard numbers. In fact, avoid vague descriptions entirely. Employers appreciate concise writing and resumes that get straight to the point.

Read More: https://www.jobscan.co/blog/administrative-leadership-skills-resume/

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5 Common Resume Mistakes to Avoid

Leave a Comment / Blog, Interview Tips, Resume Ideas, Set Yourself Up For Success

Effective resumes feature killer content, consistent formatting, and an attractive design. Careless mistakes, lack of detail, and general sloppiness can hurt your chances of making it to the interview, even if you’re fully qualified for the position. Here are five common resume mistakes to avoid – and tips on how to keep them out of your resume.

1. Grammatical Errors and Typos

By the time you finish writing, editing, and tweaking your resume, it’s easy to gloss over misspellings and grammatical errors. However, those mistakes can make you seem careless to a hiring manager. Correctable slipups send the message to potential employers that you lack attention to detail and don’t check your work. It’s a surefire way to torpedo your chances of securing the job you want.

Good writers follow a simple rule: everyone needs an editor. The simplest way to combat spelling and other errors is to have someone qualified give your resume the once-over. You can also ask a family member or friend to read through your resume and look for any errors. To a fresh set of eyes, spelling mistakes and grammar issues will leap off the page, and a second opinion can be invaluable on your resume.

2. Being Vague

When listing your experience, you want to show both what you’ve done and what you’ve achieved. Not everyone has a shelf full of awards, and most hiring managers don’t expect them. However, if you’ve helped create value, reduced inefficiency, cut costs, or increased the bottom line, be sure to say so.

Some people may counsel you to phrase all your duties as accomplishments, but we recommend a more natural mix of what you’ve done and how you’ve helped your previous employers. When in doubt, keep it simple and be specific by using data and metrics.

3. Too Many Needless Details

Knowing which details to cut can be tough. Start by removing any information that is irrelevant to the job description. Extraneous information includes professional and educational experiences that don’t apply to the position. This “padding” won’t help you secure the job, and it can obscure your relevant experience and credentials.

Again, customize your resume each time you apply for a position. Look at the job ad and include the skills and experience it calls for prominently. Doing so will require a few minutes of editing each resume, but the extra time will pay off. A tailored resume shows initiative.

4. Lack of Focus

Employers screen your resume in as few as six seconds, so make sure your professional summary sums up your abilities in a few sentences. Include a short description below your header – one or two sentences is ideal – that draws in the reader and showcases your abilities and talents.

5. Too Long or Too Short

Too often, job seekers with a decade or more of professional experience will cram all that experience into a one-page resume. On the flip side, jobseekers with less — or even zero — relevant professional experience will try to find a way to fill multiple pages. A rule of thumb is to have one resume page per decade of work experience.

Read More: https://www.livecareer.com/resources/resumes/how-to/build/avoid-common-resume-mistakes

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How to Develop Your Soft Skills to Advance Your Career

Leave a Comment / Blog, Resume Ideas, Set Yourself Up For Success

We’ve all heard what an asset it is in the job market to know data analysis, be able to code in C++, and speak fluent Spanish. But what about being able to listen well, to manage your time like a boss, and to lead a team meeting that leaves everybody smiling afterward? While more difficult to measure and quantify, these types of skills – soft skills – are the glue that hold together any workplace.

Being able to identify your soft skills and give examples of them is a critical part of any job interview. Many people choose to list soft skills on their resume to make it stand out. If you’re having trouble identifying your soft skills – or know what soft skills you have, but want to develop them more – you’ve come to the right place. This guide will help you single out and develop your soft skills – which will ultimately lead to more successes in interviews and on the job.

What are Soft Skills?

Soft skills are character traits, personal attributes, and other non-technical abilities that help you work and communicate with other people. To develop your soft skills, some you might have to study and learn, and others might come to you naturally. Listening, communication and delegation are all examples of soft skills.

The opposite of soft skills are hard skills, which are technical abilities like knowing how to code in python, make a graph on excel, or speak a foreign language. While hard skills can be more easily defined and measured, soft skills are more difficult to measure. But that doesn’t mean they’re any less important – in fact, if you’re not a good communicator, you’ll have a difficult time even getting past the first interview!

How to Identify Your Soft Skills

At many points during your education or career, you’ve probably worked on a team. But are you good at teamwork? Are you so good at teamwork that you would include it on the skills section of your resume? Not sure? Let’s talk about identifying your soft skills.

Identifying your soft skills isn’t necessarily something you can do alone, either. Ask friends, colleagues, and even former employers which soft skills come to mind when they think of you. You can also ask them to bring up specific examples of when you used that soft skill well. You might even discover things about yourself that you didn’t know before. For example, if you think you’re disorganized, but everyone you talk to points to your organizational skills as somewhere you excel, you might want to consider changing that perception of yourself – and including it on your resume!

Here is a list of soft skills. Do you identify with any of them? Can you point to examples in your career where you used them to accomplish something?

  • Time management
  • Teamwork
  • Communication
  • Adaptability
  • Ability to perform under pressure
  • Innovation
  • Listening
  • Delegation
  • Problem-solving

Read More: https://www.glassdoor.com/blog/guide/develop-soft-skills/

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How To: Maximize Your Resume Without Being Dishonest

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Your resume has a single task— catch the eye of the recruiter and get you shortlisted from a bunch of qualified candidates. It is not an autobiography, but a sales pitch telling a story in a visually appealing manner, while highlighting key elements to get a favorable decision. It is not based on lies or fiction that can destroy your career. Here’s how you can maximize your resume without being dishonest.

Narrate your Experience

This is a sure way to maximize your resume. The recruiter is interested in what you can achieve and not in the job description of your previous role. So, don’t speak about how you were responsible for sales. Talk about reducing costs by 10% instead of being responsible for budgeting. Use a common XYZ format to share your story—in situation X, I did Y to achieve Z. For example, established the first overseas office, contributing 10% to the company’s revenue in Year 1.

What to Include

Make your story relevant and not comprehensive. Tailor your resume to the job description provided. Talk about latest job first —in reverse chronological order and keep education below work experience. Include your hobbies only if you are a fresher and can showcase your extracurricular achievements instead of professional experience. If you have 15 to 30 years of work experience, club the first 10-20 years under a single heading. To share additional details, include your LinkedIn profile, your website containing your design portfolio or your finance blog that demonstrates your market expertise and reputation.

Read More: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/wealth/earn/7-ways-to-spruce-up-your-resume-without-lying/articleshow/62474072.cms

Contact Us: https://www.buildingrecareers.com/contact

Contact Carly Glova: CGlova@BuildingRECareers.com

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Give Your Resume a Spring Cleaning

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With the current uncharted times we’re all facing and the tremendous shift to the global economy, many of us are feeling the impacts of shakeups in the job market. Whether you have recently been affected by layoffs and forced to think about a new job or are simply taking this time at home to better yourself and reflect on your career and future goals, now is the perfect time to pull your resume out of storage and give your professional image an update.

Top 3 Resume Tips:

  1. Bullets, Bullets, Bullets – Because hiring managers are sifting through hundreds of resumes per job opening, they are forced to quickly determine whether or not a candidate has the right skills for the role. If a hiring manager can’t quickly find what they’re looking for, they will move on to the next resume. Using bullet points instead of paragraphs, helps break down the content into a more easily comprehensible format. It’s a bonus if your bullets reflect actionable verbs and quantifiable successes.
  2. The One Page Rule – Historically a maximum of one page has been emphasized as best practice for a resume but it’s an outdated rule. As long as your job history commands it and your content is aligned and not full of fluff, a strong resume can easily be longer than one page.
  3. Tailor Your Resume to the Job – In some cases, your resume may not align directly with the various jobs you’re applying to. Take the time to read through the job description of your desired position and make notes of the requirements and skills with which you have experience. Ensure that those are clearly spelled out and exhibited in your resume. Having the right key words in relation to the job description is critical!

Whether you’re ready to apply for jobs or simply keeping your eyes peeled for the “perfect” role, I’d love to work with you with you to implement formatting upgrades that will make your resume relevant and appealing and/or content creation that will help you best tell your professional story.

Email me, Julia Turpit, at JETurpitConsulting@gmail.com to schedule an introductory call.

Areas of Expertise:

  • Resume Formatting
  • Resume and Application Content Creation
  • Professional Summaries
  • Cover Letters
  • LinkedIn Profile Building

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6 Ways to Build a Resume That Stands Out

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Customize Your Resume For Your Industry

Whether you’re deciding to switch jobs for the third time, or applying for the first time, the job application process can be overwhelming. Especially when trying to create a resume that stands out. Hiring managers don’t have a ton of time to thoroughly look over each resume, which means you have to be considerate about what to include. From choosing the right font to deciding whether or not to include that internship, creating a resume in 2020 isn’t easy. So how do you make your resume stand out among hundreds of applicants? Consider these six tips from top HR executives Time Magazine interviewed.

People are often encouraged to include personality in their resume, but unless they are applying for a job in a creative industry, they may want to rethink that strategy. “A lot of pictures and fonts and colors and a whole lot of personality just doesn’t align with the jobs we have here,” says Schweikert, whose team recruits for positions in sales, product, and marketing. “If I was in an organization that, for example, was in web design, then I would want to see those design elements in a resume.”

Include Keywords From The Original Job Posting

One of the best ways to make your resume stand out is to use the job posting as a guide. Some companies conduct keyword searches when sorting through resumes. Schweikert adds, “which means those terms are even more important to include if you want to secure an interview. It may sound tedious, but taking the time to customize your resume for each job you apply to is a surefire tactic to stand out among the pack of applicants,” she says.

Learn More: https://time.com/5483970/how-to-write-a-resume-that-stands-out/

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