Archive for December, 2009

Federal Resume Misconceptions

I’ve been assisting people with their federal résumés for eight years now. It is clear to me there are several misconceptions about the federal job search and résumé, in general. This article is going toclear up a lot of confusion about the federal application, but if you would like to learn more about the federal job search process, look at my website at www.resume-and-job-search-help.com

A few weeks ago I attended a workshopfor the National Résumé Writers Association where there was a panel presentation of human resources representatives. One of the gentlemen on the panel had worked as an HR official with the Department of Defense so he fielded the questions referring to federal applications. What he said was entertaining to the entire audience of seasoned résumé writers. When he was asked about the length, he said if the résumé is not at least three pages long, the HR department will consider the applicant under-qualified! This is the main difference between a civilian and federal résumé. A federal résumé canoutline your wholecareer. You need not limit yourself to 10 years, nor do you have to edit your duties sections. Write EVERYTHING you have ever done.

Yet another differenceis the kind of details you add to your résumé. For example, you are required toindicateyour salaries, your citizenship and at least the last four digits of your SSN. Occasionally clientsget concernedabout the salary because they feelit limits their opportunity to negotiate once the job offer is made. Well, there is no way to get around this. You are required to reveal your salary history and since you will know, when you study the job announcement for the jobyou are applying for, the range of how much your prospective careerwill offer you, you can negotiate within that range.

A very irritating piece about the federal job search process are the KSA’s (Knowledge, Skills and Abilities). Many automatically assume that if they are interested in a federal career they will have to write KSA’s. This is FALSE. Should you apply for a DoD position with the Army, you will never have to write a KSA. In fact, the Office of Personnel Management has been studying this entire application process and a lot has been noted about throwing out the KSA completely. They discovered KSA’s discourage applicants due to the fact that the instructions on what is required when writing a KSA are vague and actually composing them is time consuming. In addition they realized that KSA’s are not really good at predicting best qualified applicants. So, let’s cross our fingers they throw them out altogether, but until then, you may be wondering what are KSA’s anyway.

KSA’s are the specialized knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to perform the particular job. An example might be, “Able to communicate orally and in writing.” If the job announcements you are interested in applying for had this KSA, you would have to address this in your résumé or application package. There can be anywhere from three to eight KSA’s. per job announcements. Every KSA response should be at least ½ a page to a page. It’s a good idea to arrange your KSA response in the CCAR format (Context, Challenge, Actions, and Results). This will guarantee you stay organized and focused in your response. If you’re looking for more information about KSA’s check out my website, I’ll be posting additional specific advice there from time to time.

Once you haveyour résumé and all of your data gathered, the application process is another challenge to overcome. As you can see from what I’ve written here the actual federal résumé itself isn’t THAT scary or different. If you’re looking for suggestions on how to set up your federal résumé for greater readability, I’ll also be covering that on my website soon.

If you have moe questions or issues about federal applications, feel free to email me or check out my website at www.resume-and-job-search-help.com for additional articles or information.

 

When you’re searching for a job, you can easily run out of energy and motivation. Many people ignore the rigors of a job search, thinking that it’s easy to simply submit a few resumes and handle a few interviews, but when a search goes on for long periods of time you’ll inevitably get some fatigue. This is especially the case when your search for a job begins to wear on, lasting more than several months.

If you have been searching for a job for a while and are tired, feeling discouraged, and just want a break, it’s time to employ some rules that will help you to stop overextending yourself. Before engaging in a job search, it’s vital to take some time to develop good habits that will help you stay motivated and optimistic.

 

Remember that Job Seeking is Job Within Itself

Many people take for granted the amount of energy required to conduct a job search. You’re doing something you’re not used to, something you haven’t really been trained for, and it may feel foreign. You’ve got to get used to searching for a job each and every day until you’re successful. Eventually, you may get bored with a job search, just as you’d get bored with a day-to-day job that didn’t change. Taking time off is as important as the job search itself, and it lets you get used to job searching as a sort of temporary “career.”

 

Take Care of Your Entire Self

You may be used to thinking of yourself as a “worker” and now that you’re out of work and searching for employment, you’re struggling to regroup. A job search can be a great time to get on-the-ball physically and mentally.

For instance, you might have been accustomed to physical activities before you started your last job, but let those die down as you traded them for hard days at work. Now that you have some time again, build yourself back up physically by participating in an activity you love whether its aerobics, basketball, tennis, or even bowling. You should also pay attention to diet. You’ll feel much better if you eat good foods, including vegetables, fruits, and lean meats. When you exercise and keep your diet up to snuff, every part of you will feel better.

On the emotional side of things, it’s good to pay attention to how you’re feeling during your job search. If you feel down-and-out or emotionally drained, it’s good to journal about your experiences to help get them out of your system and provide a way to encourage yourself through the process. Being mentally drained is also a common occurrence during a job search, which is why it’s a good idea focus on activities like yoga and meditation to calm the mind.

Conducting a job search for a long period of time is definitely a tall order. Don’t ignore the strain you take on during a job search if you want to have any chance of landing a job and staying optimistic during the period. This makes it important to watch all aspects of your health, so take occasional stock of how you’re doing physically, emotionally, and mentally. This will help to prepare you for not just the job search, but also interviews, and essentially your first day on your new job.

Not many people know where to start when looking for an acting job. Sometimes when in your search, you just need a point in the right direction.

You’ll need some experience in acting such as TV commercials, films, or some theatre acting to get acting jobs. The thing about acting jobs is that it may be short-term and you’ll need to keep searching for new ones. Auditions and casting calls will be part of your daily life as an actor looking for an acting job.

Click here to find acting jobs in your area.

It’s better to have acting jobs lined up than trying to find one every time.

Make sure that you have plenty of headshot photographs ready to distribute. Generally, your headshot picture should be a black and white photo that shows your head above your shoulders. It goes unsaid to keep the headshot photo updated.

No more having to go everywhere to find acting jobs.

Make sure you and your agent both have at least 50 headshot pictures on hand at any given time. Also be sure that your full name is on the headshot with your agent’s information as well.

Always be working on your acting skills by joining acting classes. If you can’t get an acting job, start by working on a movie set as the crew. You’ll need to earn your ranks in acting from somewhere. Even jobs that are non-paying is some place you can start.

I know it can be tough bouncing from one acting job to another, but don’t get discourage and keep on chugging.

In the workplace of today, you need good writing skills. No matter what work you do, you are likely to need to communicate in writing at some point. Whether you write to customers, colleagues, your boss or the general public, it’s in your own interest as well as those of the company that you do it well.

There are many examples of people who held themselves back in their chosen careers just because they couldn’t write a decent business letter. Hardly surprising, considering senior managers are just expected to communicate effectively.

Unfortunately, too many people avoid writing because they know it’s not one of their strengths, while others do write, but do such a poor job it doesn’t do their professional reputations any good. Fortunately, writing skills can be learned with good information and practice.

Click here for lots of great information about business writing.

If you need reasons to improve your writing skills, here are five good ones:

1.    Well expressed ideas are more likely to be accepted. You’ll get better results from a well written memo than a rambling story.

2.    Good writing creates a good impression on readers, whether they are customers, colleagues or bosses – and, of course, the opposite is true for poor writing.

3.    Customer service depends on communication, which means your customers must be able to read and understand your messages easily.

4.    If you write well you’ll stand out among the crowd of poor souls who can’t string a grammatically correct sentence together.

5.    You won’t put off important writing if you write well and easily, and that in turn will affect your professional reputation.

When you write badly, it’s not only your own reputation that suffers, but also your company’s. And remember, every time you send a written message outside the company, your are representing your company to others.

A successful career depends on being seen as effective, and excellent writing skills will contribute to this goal.

Click here for lots of great information about business writing.

Becoming an actor or actress is not as easy as it looks. Acting is a tough skill to learn and the people you see on the big screen make it look easy. The first step is get the skill of acting under the belt and keep practicing.

It can be rough at times, but you got to keep trying no matter what. The thing with acting jobs is that they are short-term and may last from a few days to a few months. Having an agent helping you find work is what’s needed because you need to be constantly looking for a new acting gig. It would be better to choose between a line of jobs instead of struggling to fine one. You’ll be a lot more prepared if you have a black and white head shot photo and resume highliting your work when you attend auditions.

One of the best ways to get into acting is to be on the set working for something else. While you’re waiting for your next big break, be sure to keep polishing your acting experience. Treating your career in acting as a business is the best way to go. You need to market yourself and sell yourself at auditions and open casting calls.

It can get tiring trying to promote yourself all the time. Go here to find audition free casting calls.

You’ll need to check this out to get your next acting gig.

An important thing to keep in mind is to relax and be yourself in an audtion. Be sure to dress to comfortly and check out the weather before you go to see if it’s too hot or raining. Good luck with your next open casting calls

Objective Statements are Outdated

 

Mostly I dislike the objective statement because I have hardly ever seen anyone use it correctly. If you know specifically which job you are applying for, then it could be acceptable to formulate an objective statement aimed toward that exact position. For example:

 

Objective: Financial Specialist, IA-0501-B03/B03, Job Announcement Number:
F09-024233-02-CM

 

In this example, the objective statement is targeting a specific federal position. This is acceptable and often even required for a government application.

 

However, here is an example of how I usually see objective statements composed:

 

Objective: To use my 15 years of experience to receive a position offering promotion potential in a secure company.

 

The problem with this statement is that it is totally focused on what is best for the applicant. What employer really cares about any of this? When you write your resume, it’s most effective to put yourself in the role of human resource official and ask yourself have you succeeded in selling yourself? Have you demonstrated what you have to offer?

 

Another way to ensure you have adequately marketed yourself, is to compose a professional summary and get rid of the objective statement completely. A professional summary can be written for the career you are interested in and serve as a two minute commercial about yourself. It’s very clever in that it is placed in the upper third of the paper, which is where the eye naturally goes first.

Aprofessional summary should highlight any information about yourself that the HR officials should be aware of when considering you for the job. This could range from years of experience to knowledge level or abilities. Compose this section as if you are aware whoever reads it will not read anything else on the resume. Below is an example:

 

Resourceful and empathetic special educator brings 15 years of autonomous teaching and intervention experience. Proven concise and considerate communicator, able to reach parents, administration and students with insight and tactic. Certified in behavior management techniques and accomplished expert in positive discipline.

 

In some cases, I have highlighted the points that directly correspond to points in the job announcement. Just keep in mind it is entirely possible that the whole paragraph will change depending upon which position this person is applying for. For more examples, or for assistance with your own professional summary, check out this site aboue resume help.

 

 

Executives are very aware of the concept of a ROI, or return on investment. Returns need to be visible and definite in the business world, and every investment and venture must be carefully considered.

It’s the same thing for employers when they’re trying to fill an opening. Their investment in you needs to be validated by significant returns. When a return isn’t guaranteed, you won’t be hired. Given that, how can an executive prove to a prospective hiring company that he’s worth the money? Here are a few ideas to consider …

 

Look at Your Revenue

If there were quantifiable parts to your previous job, you want to make sure to put them into numbers on your executive resume that will help illustrate your success. For executives, businesses often look to revenue, so show what you were responsible for with your previous employers, whether this means accounts you brought in, sales prospects you’d sold to, or other elements of revenue.

For instance, you might note that you not only were able to slash hiring expenses by cutting advertising costs (advertised on free websites), but you were able to create a stellar staff that increased revenue by X amount of dollars over a year’s time. Showing numbers that correlate with the success you brought a company clearly shows your value to said company and makes you a safer hire.

 

How Productive Was Your Staff?

Businesses are often very concerned with productivity, as you probably are as an executive, and they look for ways to ensure that their employees are earning them as much as possible. If you can look at productivity in practical terms, this is a good idea.

For example, you can look at the amount of time it took to complete a major project that resulted in a revenue increase of 3 percent for the year. Here’s a simple example; consider that you employed twenty workers for twelve weeks at a cost of /hr and forty hours per week shifts for a certain project. Employee time, then, accounted for costs of ,000. However, you invested in a new training module that cost 0 per employee, as well as updated software for ,000 that cut the project time down to 6 weeks, including paid training time. If the cost of the project you undertook totalled ,000, the company saved about ,000 with a 3 percent revenue increase, and process efficiency improved, allowing your employees to tackle other work projects.

 

Other Numbers to Think About

If your segment of the company didn’t work in terms of revenue, you can still note numbers that represent progress. For example, if you’d managed customer service, use the metrics that you used in your old department to show improvements in customer satisfaction. You might also look at the number of calls your department took, and the number of minutes spent on each call, to quantify your results.

Remember, just like on your previous jobs, prospective employers want to know their potential ROI when looking at candidates. As an executive, you know how to consider and decide on an investment, so use that knowledge to improve your chances of being hired.

Resume writing is most likely the most important hurdle for people who are on the lookout for a job. Although it may seem straightforward, there are distribute of sophisticated things that actually count. Potential companies are flooded with resumes replying to their opportunity listings, and you only have 1 or 2 short moments to make it or your resume will finish up in the trash. So, how does one optimize your resume to make it certain to get read? Here are three great suggestions to get you started. One. Be Total, yet Succinct. While your resume should contain a meticulous account of your qualifications and achievements, you must keep on subject precise to the job you are signing up for. First of all, if you are signing up for a position as an office manager, as an example, you do not want to incorporate references to your stint as a rodeo clown. The possible employer will probably be interested only in the talents and work experience that relates right to the position they try to fill. Do your best to give them what they are looking for. Take an inclusive account of your work history and skills and choose to highlight what's important and relevant, and eliminate or downplay the items that are irrelevant. This technique of niche resume writing keeps your resume focused and gives you the benefit of seeming to be the most qualified applicant for the job. Secondly your Professional Resume Should be Formatted Nicely. Kooky fonts and such might be O.K for private communications, but your resume should be more ‘standardized’. You would like it to appear as neat and clean as.. Well, yourself, right? A typewritten resume using standard fonts like Times New Roman and Arial on prime quality plain white paper will be a winner each time. You also must pay attention to your spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Nothing would be more humiliating than a resume with typos, grammatical errors, and misspellings. Not only shaming, but presenting a resume with blunders won't inspire potential bosses and will probably land your resume in the rubbish can. Do not rely on PC based spelling and grammar checks. A lot of times, you'll lose your careful formatting to find it replaced with the incorrect margin, unusual fonts and worse. Before you send it, check it! Finally, show Eagerness Your resume and cover letter shouldn’t be something you write resentfully. You are proud about the job you are making an application for, correct? Well, then show it! Your enthusiasm will be very evident in both the resume and the cover letter and will help to win you good standing in the eyes of the bosses. Whenever it is smart to, use action words to explain your career history and goals. If this sounds too complicated then perhaps you could consider employing a good professional resume writing services company

Keywords used to be called buzzwords. My customers often ask me about keywords as if there is some secret group of human resource managers who secretly plot to trick job seekers by disqualifying candidates who, although qualified, are missing the magic combination of keywords. It really is easy to figure out keywords. There are many options to do it.

The easiest way to determine which keywords you should have in your résumé is to look at the job announcement itself. This is especially true of federal government job announcements. You should pay particular attention to the area that details the duties. As you read, highlight all of the technical terms used. For example, here is an excerpt of a federal government job announcement with the keywords in all caps:

"Monitors progress toward ORGANIZATION GOALS, ANALYZES and makes adjustments to IMPROVE THE PROGRAM. IDENTIFIES PROBLEMS, determines accuracy and relevance of information and uses SOUND JUDGMENT to generate and properly evaluate alternatives and to MAKE RECCOMENDATIONS to improve programming.

If this is the job you would like to apply for, you need to ensure you have mentioned these keywords somewhere in your résumé.  You can find more examples of résumé tips here.

The next best way to find the keywords that are prevelant for your career field is to peruse one of the following websites: http://online.onetcenter.org or http://www.bls.gov. Both sites are very user-friendly and will walk you through the knowledge, skills and abilities necessary to perform any position. There is tons of information on these two sites to use for your résumé, you should never again be stumped for words, but if you need help, check out this helpful résumé web site with tons of other tips

Another place to find keywords is on the website of the corporation you are applying to. You may find facts about the organization that would inspire you to add more to your résumé or cover letter. Be especially alert to the Mission Statement for the organization. This is wonderful information to use not only to ascertain if the corporations mission statement is parallel your own interests, but to prepare for an interview, should you be selected for one. It looks great to the employer if you are knowledgeable about the corporation during the interview.

Regardless of where you find keywords, it’s best to weave them naturally into your résumé without copying directly from the source. And, it is NEVER legal to embelish your experience in order to make use of the keywords you found. You will feel very silly if you are asked to explain your experience as stated on the résumé and you cannot.

If you need more help with your Résumé or just general advice about it, check out this résumé service web site

To find something, you have to start by looking, and that process can be applied to landing yourself some employment.  Many people make the mistake of thinking that they can’t get a job, but the truth is, these people don’t actively go looking for one.  Mass communication and the technological world we live in can make job seeking easier, but there are still some basic rules to apply when you’re determined to find employment.

The most common and preventable mistake in the great job hunt is limiting one’s search to a single source, such as the employment section of a single newspaper or a single job search website. It can be hard to keep track of all the places you have applied to, but if you take notes from the start, you should be able to keep track of where you’ve sent your application, no matter how many sources you’re searching.

While job listings, whether in a newspaper’s employment section or an internet job site (preferably more than one of each), are both great places to look for work, never underestimate the power of networking in helping you find a job. Friends, former coworkers, and even previous employers can all give you a lead on a job that’s open, if you’ve remained on good terms with them and ask politely. The easiest way to start networking is to expand the horizons of your search. If you don’t have the time to do an in-depth search, make the time – the efforts will pay off.

Also keep in mind that a lot of online sites such as DataMoneyOnline should not be considered a job search resource.

It can sometimes take a fair bit of time before you do find employment, and you may have to send out many applications or go through a few interviews before landing a job.  You’ll need to make sure you stay motivated to stick with your search, as most people end up giving in to frustrations and quitting the hunt.  Certainly, if you do stop looking for employment, you’ll never gain a job, so you should find ways of making sure you continue looking, by giving yourself small rewards or by applying some guilt to yourself.  Any method that keeps you on the hunt and far away from discouragement is the right one to choose.

In a similar vein, there’s no such thing as a job search where you aren’t actively searching. Though it can sometimes seem like an easy, hassle-free process, particularly with the advent of the online job search, the process of finding employment is something you have to commit yourself to and never trust that a job will simply fall into your lap. You have to go out there and find opportunities rather than wait for them to find you, though if you are lucky enough to have that sort of luck come your way, seize the chance.

For every company you think you’d like to apply to, do a little research into what they really do and their history.  You may find that some attractive-looking places really aren’t what you’re looking for or that they have a poor track record in keeping employees for a long time.  Also, make sure you research your targeted industry of employment to see what the job prospectus for your area is.  Sometimes, saturation can hinder your chances of landing a job in that field, and you may want to look for other employment opportunities based on your skills.  When you’re looking for a job, opportunities are the very things that will open up new doors and land you the employment you’re looking for!