Career Change Isnt An Exact Science

Career Change Isnt An Exact Science How do you find out what you want to do next?   Is it as easy as taking a test and perhaps a couple of classes.   For many, the options can be overwhelming.   Not to mention that new career choices are being created all the time.     Where do you start? STAY OR GO Is it really a career change you need or just a change in scenery?   Perhaps you still like what you do but need to be doing it in a new company or department.   As you go through your day, identify the activities you still enjoy doing. Ask yourself what you like about the people you work with and for, write all this down.   Now, list the things that you dont enjoy.   The more specific you are, the clearer your next steps should be.   As you review your pros and cons list, what does it tell you?   Show it to a trusted mentor or friend and see what they think as well. NEW COMPANY Perhaps you still like what you are doing.   You may not need a career change, just an employer change.   Begin researching and talking to people about similar companies.   Make a list of the top 20 or so and begin talking to insiders about what it is like to work there.   Cautiously let them know that you are interested in leaving your current company. NEW CAREER Perhaps youve discovered you really need to do something else.   Follow these 6 steps to find out what your options are.   You should realize that there is always more than one right answer.   The path of exploring something new is just as important as actually reaching your destination. 1.   Assess your skills (Know who you are and what you have to offer) There are many free assessment tools out there.   Take one or more than one. 2.   Review your results with multiple people The interpretation of your results might be different to other people who know you.   Share it with those you trust and see what they think. 3.   Chose the top several options to explore Several is not specific.   There is no magic number of choices to explore.   Too many choices will overwhelm you.   Can you start with 3-5 and see what happens? 4.   Talk to people in your desired career The BEST way for you to see if the new career is right for you is to speak with people who are actually in that career.   They have the answers to your questions. 5.   Networking not resume spraying Target your job search efforts.   Focus on networking with people who work in the field you are pursuing.   Let them know you are changing careers.   Ask for their guidance in navigating the application process within their company.   Your resume must clearly demonstrate you are qualified for this new career and that can be tricky.   Therefore, you are really going to want to leverage your relationships with company insiders who can grease the wheel a bit for you. 6.   Dont give up AND be open to new lessons learned You may find there are obstacles to pursuing your new career.   What can you do about it?   Ask for help and advice.   Be open to learning new things about yourself and your new industry/occupation as you begin to explore. Who knows what you may stumble upon along the way. It is with great pleasure I introduced to you the posts from my Career Collective colleagues.   This collaborative initiative was started by Miriam Salpeter of Keppie Careers and Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter, a Master Resume Writer and owner of Career Trend.   Below are post from career and resume writing experts on The Best Advice for Career Changers! Are You Ready for a Career Change? @Debra Wheatman Changing Careers? Ask yourself these questions. @erinkennedycprw Changing Careers: Not for the Fainthearted, @GayleHoward The 10-Step Plan to Career Change, @KatCareerGal When it’s Time to Recycle Your Career, @WalterAkana Best Career Change Advice: Target Plan, @JobHuntOrg How social media can help you change careers, @keppie_careers Expat Careers: You Are Not Your Job Title, @expatcoachmegan Changing The Direction Of Your Career, @EliteResumes @MartinBuckland Career Changer: Can You Quell Bottom-line Ache? @ValueIntoWords Top 3 + 1 Tips for Making a Successful Career Change, @KCCareerCoach Changing Careers: Look Before You Leap, @barbarasafani 10 Commandments for Career Changers, @LaurieBerenson

Buses and Wings!

Buses and Wings! While the rest of the country started school long ago, today is the day our district begins! With excitement, nerves and tears (mostly the Moms) these kids head back to school, finally! There have been budget freezes, staff eliminations, programming changes, a new superintendent and new state mandates since school ended last year. Stability doesnt exist anywhere. And so, parents, give teachers and administration the right kind of support.   Be the solution, not their problem. Here is my challenge and hope for kids in K-12 (and parents): Learn to love learning Be inquisitive Welcome challenges Ignore bullies Manage emotions Allocate time wisely Prioritize what is really important Create Speak up when you have to Know which battles are worth fighting Challenge the status-quo Do not ever accept mediocrity Have a sense of humor and use it Help those who need it Be a part of the larger community Be hungry Parents, if we can teach children to be independent and the necessary new-world survival skills, I think weve done what were supposed to. No more coddling, fighting their fights, advocating, stepping in to their stuff. They MUST learn how to do this for themselves. Do you think they need your help? They are tougher than you give them credit for. Set the bar high and give them wings! Every day I hear stories about parents who go on interviews with their college kids or help them negotiate job offers or call their bosses to complain about how their child is being treated. Seriously. This pattern started long ago when they were little and it continues. How does this help? The world is an uncertain and unfair place, the sooner everyone accepts this fact and learns how to manage the emotions of this, the better. Please honor the positive intent with which this is intended. Help them grow to be great thinkers and problem-solvers! That is what we need today!

Is your boss out to get you -

Is your boss out to get you - Is your boss out to get you? You dont want to be paranoid, but youre beginning to think your  boss  has you in his or her cross hairs. Whether or not you always had a great relationship with your supervisor, its troubling at the least and extremely stressful at the worst when you think your boss may be out to get you. What are some signs that you may want to start looking for a new job? You lose privileges. If youve always been able to work from home or come in early and leave late and all of the sudden, things change, you may begin to wonder why youve lost favor. Are you  failing at your job?  Keep in mind, sometimes, these changes are not personal, but if you are the only one experiencing the shift, you should wonder why. The boss pits you against your co-workers. If the office begins to feel a lot like a school playground where your boss is the bully trying to set up fights, its possible he or she is trying to get rid of you. Keep your cool and maintain your composure to avoid falling into any traps that could result in you losing your job. You get a transfer to an undesirable location. If your one hour commute just doubled because you were assigned to a new location, its possible your boss wishes youd quit. You receive a new set of duties that are beneath your skill set and experience.   This could signal that your boss is picking on you if no one else is seeing a change in their work plans. The boss looks the other way when co-workers are abusive or mistreat you. Bullying in the workplace should never be tolerated or accepted. If you dont have your boss support and are experiencing this behavior, its time to learn about the chain of command and understand your rights in the organization. Its difficult for you to take vacation or sick leave. If the boss wont approve your vacation so you can attend a family members wedding, and theres no business reason for the refusal, you may begin to wonder if the boss has it in for you. You cant get permission for professional development. If your company allows you to take classes or attend conferences, but you can not get permission to improve your skills on the companys dime, its not a good sign. All of the sudden your boss becomes a micromanager. This isnt a surefire sign that anyone is out to get you, but it is suspicious. Find out if there is something afoot that would cause your boss to suddenly take an interest in the minutiae of your daily workday, and be concerned if others are not experiencing this change. The boss doesnt take your calls and isnt accessible. Even if you never had a true open-door policy, if you suddenly cant get an audience with your supervisor unless you accidentally bump into him or her in the rest room, its reason to question why. You are excluded from big meetings and decisions. If youre accustomed to being involved in decisions and all of the sudden, you are the last one to know anything, you may begin to worry about your standing at work. The best assignments go to others. This could be a problem if you always won the plumb jobs and now you never do. Dont be blindsided; when office politics and attitudes shift, you need to keep an eye out for how your standing in the office may be affected and act accordingly. You may want to have a heart-to-heart conversation with your boss to try to improve relations, or it may be time to quietly start looking for a new job. More advice Can you make a bad boss better? Bad reasons to change careers Should you ever turn down a promotion? Originally posted on AOLJobs.com

Resume Writing Intro - What You Need to Know

Resume Writing Intro - What You Need to KnowIt is always better to start out by starting out with a resume writing intro. People are usually anxious when they find out they need to do a resume writing intro and often would rather write a resume than talk to a stranger in the grocery store. So, you may want to do this, but as with everything, you should always do research before you start. If you can start with a resume writing intro, you are going to have a much easier time with the rest of the resume writing process.There are a few different ways to do a resume. The most common resume is usually the layout or outline, so you should start with a resume writing intro. There are only three ways to actually get the information into a resume, and it would be better to start with an intro rather than going to a job applicant experience or any other type of informational slide show. The job applicant experience is best for people who need to make a quick connection with the employer.It is very important that you begin by writing a resume introduction or resume writing intro. You need to tell people why you are applying for the job. You do not want to waste anyone's time with any type of resume writing intro.The format of the resume is so important that you should start by getting into the habit of doing a resume writing intro. Also, if you are going to begin by doing a resume writing intro, you are going to want to do a job applicant experience or intro as well. Both types of resumes are equally important. You should really begin by doing a resume writing intro, because this is going to make you much better when you do your job applicant experience or intro.When you do a resume writing intro, it is a good idea to ask some basic questions that are going to be included in the job description. You do not want to ask the following questions to begin with, but if you will be asked for an additional one, you can ask for it. You want to start by writing a resume introductio n and you should think about these questions when you are writing your resume.I think that you should be very honest when you are preparing to write your resume. People are going to be looking at your resume, so you should be honest in what you say. Be careful, because you are not going to be the only one being scrutinized when you are doing a resume writing intro. Do a good job of making the transition of this from resume writing intro to resume writing resume.If you are going to begin by doing a resume writing intro, you should focus on getting information into your resume as early as possible. You should focus on getting the information out of your resume as early as possible. There are many ways to do a resume writing intro, but it would be best to focus on the skills you have and the qualifications you have to be a great employee. This is where your resume writing intro will start.

Why Absolutely Everybody Is Talking About Former Small Business Owner Resume Writing

Why Absolutely Everybody Is Talking About Former Small Business Owner Resume Writing Key Pieces of Former Small Business Owner Resume Writing Writing an effective resume is among the most crucial pieces of landing work. Likewise if you're trying hard to attain the proper tone, aim for professional by employing concise phrases and crystal clear word choices. A little small business owner resume is not simple to write, but adding online content should help your likelihood of landing work. To give the most complete picture, former freelancers should list all their most critical achievements, including improving a customer's SEO position, increasing web conversions or growing social networking campaigns. To compose a resume for the little business owner you are able to decide the format that you want to use. Now, simply because you've titled yourself on your resume as something besides Owner does not indicate you need to completely hide that you owned the firm. To begin with, bear in mind that owner isn't really a work title. To begin, download the company owner resume template we created of you. You may read more here on how to cope with employment gaps on your resume. With every one of the changes happening in the economy today, small small business owners will need to spell out how they can adapt to changes within the business. A resume is still the very first thing that employers look at when deciding whether to seek the services of a candidate, or so the market for a resume writing service is extremely stable. The very first, dependent on the simple fact an employer could possibly be hesitant about even contacting you for an interview, is that you don't disclose that you owned the organization. Whether you're a business proprietor, operations manager, or just a serial entrepreneur, if you're on the lookout for a job you are going to need a resume. Try to remember, small small business owners returning to the workplace cannot hide their prec eding small business ownership. Entrepreneurs and business owners frequently have a challenging time because the possible employer is going to be concerned they are too independent to come back to employment, often over qualified, and they also may worry that the entrepreneur is simply passing time until the following good small business prospect. Having owned and operated his own company wouldn't necessarily be a negative component. It is possible to also share ideas to earn a great resume that work for you. Then keep these must-haves in mind while you customize the resume for your business enterprise experience. If your resume is not correctly crafted, your chances of receiving an interview are dramatically reduced. Working on a startup or small business indicates lots of effective abilities and traits irrespective of your outcome.

How Executives Can Write a Great Cover Letter -

How Executives Can Write a Great titelseite Letter -A great titelseite letter can make the difference in getting a potential employer or recruiter to pay attention to your job application and resume. At the executive level, when you are competing with others who likely also have impressive work histories and plentiful accomplishments, a titelseite letter needs to intrigue a potential employer so that theyll want to spend more time reading your resume and learning about why you are the right rolle for the open executive position.What makes an executive deckblatt letter successful and gets the attention of a hiring manager? It needs to be boldand it needs to be interesting. An executive deckblatt letter needs to get to the point, and it needs to speak to the needs of the person reading it. Remember, yours is far from the only deckblatt letter that a manager, recruiter, or human resources professional will be reading in a day. You want to stand outand stand out in the right way.And if y oure wondering, Why do I even still need a cover letter at the executive level? you can find my answer to that in this article.You can also just trust meas a professional executive resume writer and human resources professionalthat you absolutely do need an executive cover letter for your job search. Keep reading here to get started now with the tips that will help you write a great cover letter.Using a Cover Letter Template Yes or No?How important is it to have a cover letter template to help you write an effective cover letter? Its elend. In fact, using a cover letter template is going to backfireand is not going to help you write a great executive cover letter. Just dont do it. It might seem like the easy, simple solution and a way to get all the ingestaltation in it that you need, but what it will really do is stunt your ability to express your personal brand and signal to a potential employer that you prefer to take the easy way out. Trust me, they can tell when someone has us ed a template to write an executive cover letter or an executive resume.Now, this is not to say that you cant use a sample cover letter, or even a template, as a guide for writing yours. Just make sure that you are using it only to get ideas and help you with formattingand not using it as a fill-in-the-blanks form letter.A great executive cover letter is your ownafter all, it is your career story you are trying to tell and your personal brand you are trying to convey. You want the employer to hire YOUnot the random writer on the Internet who cobbled together a template.So how can you write a compelling executive cover letter on your own? Here are some of my top cover letter writing tips.Tips For Writing a Successful Executive Cover LetterTailor it to the job.The belastung thing you want to do is send out the exact same cover letter and resume to several different employers. Each of themeven if it is for the same job titleis looking for something slightly different in a new employee. Every company has its own goals, its own challenges, and its own values. You want the cover letter you write to convey why you are a good fit for that specific company and its unique characteristics.When youre applying to different positions or titles, you are going to want to highlight the skills that match for that particular job and its required skills.Make it Different From Your Executive ResumeIn your cover letter, highlight the most important work experience and achievements that make you a good fit for the job and the company, and do so in a compelling way that isnt just a repeat of what the hiring manager or recruiter is going to read in your resume.Use your cover letter to tell your career story, and be very clear about why you should be the person they hire. Discuss the things that might not be immediately evident from your resumewhy you fit well with their company culture, which challenges you have overcome that are similar to challenges now facing the company, etc. As a n executive, you would be a leader in the organizationand it is important that you convey a bit of your personal brand so that they can tell why you would be a smart hire and a good fit for a leadership position at the company.Your cover letter is also your opportunity to hook their interest and make them want to read your resume. If they read it, then look at your resume and just see the same information, except in bullet-point format, you will have yperit themand your opportunity for an interview and the job. A successful cover letter gets a potential employer interested in you and what you have to offer.Proofread. Proofread. Proofread.Another way to lose the interest of a hiring manager or recruiter? Typos and grammatical errors. No matter how talented a writer you are, or how careful you think youve been, you simply cannot afford to skip proofreading your cover letter. Even if you have looked it over but not found any errors, take the time to send it to a trusted friend (or prof essional editor) to look it over for you. After youve read and reread the same words and phrases so many times, your eyes and brain can play tricks on you. Plus, although you know what youre trying to say, someone else may notice a word thats being slightly misused, and be able to suggest a better word choice or better way to say something to make your accomplishments clearer.Errors in an executive cover letterespecially typosdemonstrate a lack of attention to detail, and also indicate that you didnt care enough about the position to closely read your cover letter before sending it in. Why would a potential employer want to pay you to take on an executive position at their company if they thought you didnt care about the job?Give Three Reasons They Should Hire YouAs you read through the job description, read about the company, and go over your own skills and accomplishments in preparation for writing your cover letter you should be taking notes about where your work history and achi evements align with the companys needs. Having this information written down will make it much easier to write a cover letter, and it will also be easier to choose those aspects of your careerand your personal traitsthat you want to highlight in a cover letter.Pick the top three from this list, and build your cover letter around them. I dont mean that in your cover letter you should say Here are three reasons you should hire me 1 , 2 , 3 but rather that these are the points you need to work into your letter. Perhaps you know their abverkauf have been dropping and you have a strong sales backgroundyour sales numbers from the last five years might be a point you lead off with.Hiring managers and recruiters dont have a lot of time to read between the lines to try to figure out why they should hire you. You need to be clear and concise. Starting from three solid points is a great way to effectively get your message across in a professional cover letter.Start Strong and End StrongEvery. Single. Word. Matters. in an executive cover letter. Because you are trying to make a strong point in the space of just one page, you need to make sure that every sentence is strong and is in the letter for a reason. When you start a cover letter with a line such as I am writing today to ask you to consider my attached resume for a position in your C-suite, then you are just wasting valuable wordsand their valuable time.Instead, I recommend starting your cover letter with a sentence that not only grabs their attention but provides a reason they should hire you right off the bat.Something like As the CEO of a local company, I helped to expand the geschftlicher umgang by 200% over three years. I would like to help do the same for your business.Here you have an achievementwith numbers to back it upand you are letting the hiring manager know you already have executive experience. Trust me, you have their attention now, much more than if you were to start off with just a cookie-cutter i ntroductory line that says nothing about your qualifications or their needs.How you end a cover letter is also important. You want to leave them wanting more so that they read your resume but, just as with the opening sentence, neither do you want to simply use a boring I look forward to hearing from you.You do want to thank them for taking the time to read your letter and your resume, but dont just leave it at that. ASK for the interview. Include an actual call to action. For example, you can close your cover letter by sayingThank you for your time. I would appreciate the opportunity to interview for this position and further discuss how I can be of help to your company. I can be reached at 555-JOBS.And one last thing never start a cover letter with Dear Hiring Manager or something similarly general. Take the time to find a real persons name to address it to before you begin writing a cover letter.Other Cover Letter ResourcesIf youre looking for inspiration and more cover letter w riting tips, you can find cover letter samples at Great Resumes Fast here https//www.greatresumesfast.com/blog/25-cover-letter-examples-and-samples-for-2014/We also have quite a few articles about writing effective cover letters in the Great Resumes Fast blog archives. Ive included links to a few of those below, but you can also use the blogs search function to find even more cover letter tips.?5 Step Guide To Writing Cover Letters For Executives?Grab Attention With A Compelling Cover Letter?5 Tips For Injecting Culture Fit Into Your Resume and Cover Letter?How To Write A Cover Letter Recruiters Will Read?3 Secrets To Interview-Winning Cover LettersIf youd like help writing your executive cover letter or executive resume, our team at Great Resumes Fast would love to work with you to help you achieve your career goals. Get in touch with us here.Are you tired of your resume being rejected by applicant tracking systems? I know how frustrating it is to submit your resume and receive no response. I hate seeing qualified people never break through the screening process. It shouldnt be that way. Thats why I created this guide and I encourage you to download the FREE PDF so you can start seeing better resume response rates

7 Reasons Jobscan is More Effective than Word Cloud Tools for Resumes

7 Reasons Jobscan is More Effective than Word wolke Tools for ResumesPosted on April 5, 2018October 23, 2018 by Jon Shields Whenever you upload your resume through an online job application, youre at the mercy of an applicant tracking system, or ATS. These systems are used by most hiring companies to manage and filter applicants like you, and many of behauptung systems rely on keystimmt matching to reject or highlight candidates via their ranking and search algorithms.Because of this, word wolke generators like Wordle and TagCrowd have become popular tools for career coaches and job binnenseekers trying to gain a job search advantage. Pasting a job description into a word wolke tool shows which words appear most frequently in the listing and, in theory, tells the job seeker which words are most important to include in their resume.Word clouds can absolutely help job seekers in this way, but they can also further complicate the resume tailoring process. With a word cloud tool, job see kers need to sort through a lot of noise and make major judgment calls on what is and isnt important for their resume.Jobscan has brought powerful tech and efficiency to the resume keyword matching process. Here are 7 ways Jobscan beats word clouds when it comes to your resume optimization.1. Jobscan compares the job description to your resumeGenerating a word cloud for a job description is only one small part of the equation. From there, you have to go back and forth between the word cloud and your resume trying to figure out which words are important, which are underrepresented, and which are missing entirely.Jobscan analyzes the job description alongside your resume to generate an easy to read comparison that will allow you to spend more time optimizing your resume and less time connecting the dots.I used to tell people to do a comparison or Wordle word cloud, career coach Ruth Kunstadter told Jobscan. Jobscan is so much better because it really goes into the specifics of the ski lls that are bedrngnised in the job description and the ones that you are showing on your resume.2. Jobscan shows approved skills and keywordsA word cloud generator like TagCrowd knows to exclude filler words like the or and, but its intelligence doesnt extend to leaving out irrelevant terms or keeping key phrases intact.You can spielblttchen out some important keywords from a word cloud, but youll have to sort through dozens of irrelevant words like job, office, or daily. Furthermore, you might notice that supply is frequently used, but the word cloud tool will not point out that the more important keyword is actually a combination of words supply chain management.Jobscan uses intelligent curation, machine learning, and approval methods to exclude irrelevant filler while delivering real skills and industry-specific keywords.3. Jobscan is easier to understand than a word cloudA word cloud makes it easy to identify a handful of frequently appearing words, but due to irrelevant filler words and the way the information is visualized, it can be a struggle to figure out how prioritize any more than the top two or three words. Comparing your resume only makes it worse.TagCrowd visualizations for a real Distribution Manager resume and job description. How long does it take you to pick out the most important keywords?Jobscan removes irrelevant terms and organizes the data in a way that is easy to read and translate to your resume. It shows the top skills as well as their frequency levels compared to what is already found on your resume. You can even click on a skill to see the context in which its used in the job description.Even though Jobscan is automated, the feedback that you get is readable and accessible and usable, said Kunstadter.One section of the Jobscan Match Report for the same Distribution Manager resume and job description.4. Jobscan categorizes top skills and keywords by importanceAfter excluding irrelevant words and recognizing multi-word phrases, Jobs can places keywords into one of four categories.Job Title Match Jobscan checks to see if the job title for which youre applying is present on your resume. While this might not be the most frequently used term on the job description, it is the most important as a recruiters first round of applicants will likely be people that have done the job in the past. The exact job title is often the first keyword search a recruiter will perform in the applicant tracking system.Hard Skills (e.g. graphic design, customer service, accounting) These are most important to your daily job duties and tend to serve as search terms for recruiters using applicant tracking systems.Soft Skills (e.g. leadership, vision, flexibility) These are unlikely to be search terms and are harder to prove on your resume. Rather than stuffing your resume with these terms, find ways to show that you have them through projects and results and keep them in mind for your interview.Other Keywords These are unapproved skills t hat appear in the job description more often than expected and are worth taking note of (but probably wont make or break your resume).A word cloud would have these three categories of skills and keywords mixed together (plus all the irrelevant words), making it harder to identify top priorities.5. Jobscans matching algorithm is based off of top applicant tracking systemsA word cloud generator can be repurposed for the job search, but Jobscan was built for the express purpose of efficiently creating ATS-friendly resumes.Jobscan continually studies the top applicant tracking systems and has built and maintained its matching algorithm based on how they actually operate. This includes studying how keywords are bildschirmed in a recruiters interface and affect search results, rankings, candidate profiles, and other ATS features. Jobscan takes all of this into account when displaying your top keywords.6. Jobscan checks for more than matching wordsJobscan has analyzed applicant tracking sy stems and surveyed recruiters to come up with a long list of checks that extend beyond keyword matching. The Jobscan Match Report includes findings relating to measurable results, cliche buzzwords, education, industry knowledge, and more.Learn more about the Match Report with this short video7. Jobscan uncovers jobs for you based on your keywordsWhen you plug your desired job title into a job board like Indeed or ZipRecruiter, your results are limited to companies using the exact same titles and vernacular. Your skills and expertise could apply to a number of great jobs that youve never even considered.The bottom of the Jobscan Match Report shows jobs in your area based not on job titles, but on the skills found in either your resume or the current job description.Creative job seekers and career coaches have found a novel way to utilize word cloud tools in their job search, but cutting through the noise might be more effort than its worth. Job seekers can get the desired result, com municated clearly, with additional checks and insights with Jobscan.Try it for yourself?span data-mce-type=bookmark style=display inline-block width 0px overflow hidden line-height 0 class=mce_SELRES_start?/spanspan data-mce-type=bookmark style=display inline-block width 0px overflow hidden line-height 0 class=mce_SELRES_start?/spanspan data-mce-type=bookmark style=display inline-block width 0px overflow hidden line-height 0 class=mce_SELRES_start?/spanspan data-mce-type=bookmark style=display inline-block width 0px overflow hidden line-height 0 class=mce_SELRES_startspan data-mce-type=bookmark style=display inline-block width 0px overflow hidden line-height 0 class=mce_SELRES_start?/span?/spanA version of this article was first published on February 23, 2016. It was rewritten with updated information and republished on April 5, 2018.Facebook Commentswpdevar_comment_1 span,wpdevar_comment_1 iframewidth100% important