Career Coach
Life-Coach Consulting
Location: Redlands CA
Specialty: People in career or life transition. Mentoring other coaches. Small business owners and entrepreneurs. Busy professionals who want a life! Scientifically validated DISC and Values assessments. LifeTrek, Inc.
Location: Bexley, OH
Specialty: We work with people in career transition, both up the ladder and out of corporate life. For those seeking new direction, we use an approach developed at the Harvard School of Business. For those seeking promotion and advancement, we use individual telephone coaching over a 3 to 6 month time period. Many clients get great results in that period of time. They often benefit from our relationship with an executive search firm.
Hunter Coaching and Consulting
Location: East Troy, WI
specialty: Career transitions, life balance, Career Planning, Coaching Employees, Decision Making, Getting Organized, Goal Setting, Leadership/Vision, Market Planning, Motivation of Employees, Personal Leadership, Public Speaking, Self-Confidence, Strategic Planning, Time Management, Training and Development
Resume Writing
Written by Kim Kovach
Original Publication Source:
National Business Employment Weekly
From the Publishers of the Wall Street Journal
Jim Pallouras was a senior executive at a national retailer based in the Northeast when he was laid off as part of a downsizing last year. He'd joined the company after leaving the military, worked his way up the ladder and took pride in his contributions as the retailer expanded nationally.
When Mr. Pallouras sat down to update his resume for the first time in years, he was faced with the challenge of condensing a 30-year career full of achievements into an effective one - to two-page document. Yet, he remembers thinking, "How hard could it be?"
He started by listing every important aspect of his life dating back to the 1960's including every job title he'd held at his former employer, as well as his accomplishments from high school through the Army. When he was done, his resume stretched to three pages, starting with an objective statement and ending with his marital status.
Once Mr. Pallouras' resume reached employers and recruiters, they took one look before dropping it into the wastebasket. It was wordy, overdone, and out of touch with the realities of a '90s job hunt. Fortunately, it wasn't long before Mr. Pallouras realized his resume had problems. After gathering critical advice, he revised it to present a more competitive version of himself. The rewrite worked. His new, improved resume generated interviews, which led to another senior-level position.
Red Flags Flying
Executive recruiters, professional resume writers and human resource managers say they've seen more poorly written resumes cross their desks recently than ever before. So before you waste time, money and postage with a resume that will eliminate you from consideration, review the following common mistakes to make sure you avoid them in your documents:
Mistake #1: No Dates Listed
"I can understand that by leaving off graduation and employment dates, the candidate's intention may be to avoid possible age discrimination," says executive recruiter Edward M. Hughes, Vice President of Hughes & Podesla Associates in Somerville, N.J. "But most corporate recruiters use resumes to screen out rather than screen in candidates," and a resume without dates won't be considered, he says.
From a recruiter's perspective, candidates eliminate dates on their resumes for only one reason: to hide information, such as a history of job-hopping or a long period of unemployment. As an alternative, Mr. Hughes suggests focusing only on the last 10 to 15 years of your professional experience.
"It's a double-edged sword," he says. "You want to diminish the negative and do everything you can to get an interview. But the people on the recruiting end tend to be myopic to the fact that the economy has put many well-qualified senior execs into the position of having to vie for fewer jobs, and you have to be somewhat sensitive to that."
Mistake #2: Few Achievements Shown
The most frequent resume faux pas is to fill it "with unsubstantiated claims and too much industry jargon that doesn't sell the candidate," says Alesia Benedict, Executive Director of GetInterviews.com, a resume-writing firm in Rochelle Park, N.J.
"A resume is a marketing document designed to sell your skills and strengths," she says. By including and highlighting specific achievements that present a comprehensive picture of your marketability, Ms. Benedict says that you'll attract many more interview offers.
Mistake #3: Outdated Information
A glaring red flag on many resumes is job descriptions dating back 30 or more years. "A resume isn't your biography," says Ms. Benedict. Employers want to know "what you've done lately, so including information from the 1970s is hardly relevant and can do much more harm than good," she says.
Mistake #4: Calling Yourself a Consultant
Many candidates use the term "consultant" to describe their current work status. But unless you can quantify your consulting activities, recruiters and hiring managers will be skeptical.
"The consultant title tends to be death on a resume unless a specific task and result are stated and the consulting project is for a recognizable concern," says Steven M. Lavender, president of Morgan/Webber Inc., an executive search and consulting firm in Massapequa, N.Y.
Mistake #5: Irrelevant Information
Recruiters and HR specialists agree that listing personal information isn't appropriate or necessary on an executive resume, and including your photograph is the worst offense of all.
"Your resume is the one step in your job search over which you have total control," says Frank Fox, executive director of the Professional Association of Resume Writers in St. Petersburg, Fla. "Based on the strength of that one or two pages of information, you'll either be selected for an interview from among hundreds of other candidates, or passed over." Thus, every word you include should be meaningful and help to sell your skills and experience.
Don't Forget to Network
For unemployed senior-level executives, handing out resumes should be a full-time job. "Eighty percent of jobs are filled through networking, so contact absolutely everyone you know -in addition to head-hunters-who's in a position to hire you" or suggest others for you to meet, says Mr. Hughes.
"Networking can include personal business contacts, people you've worked for, people who worked for you but have moved on, vendors and sales representatives you've dealt with in the past five years, and even people listed in the alumni directory of your alma mater," he says.
With an impressive resume in hand you'll greatly increase your odds of earning a closer look.
While effective resumes get you in the door...successful interviewing skills keep you there. Interviews grant you the opportunity to do in-person what your resume did on paper: sell yourself and market your skills to a potential employer. Unfortunately, most job seekers handle the interview the same way as they always have: they wake up, dress in a suit, drive to the interview and answer the questions the interviewer asks with the first thing that comes to their mind: then they cross their fingers and hope they "got the job."
Interviews
What are the key factors in NAILING an Interview? The difference between going on an interview and nailing an interview can be summed up in one word, Preparation.
Learn about the company, the position and the general business of the corporation for which you are interviewing, the better you can prepare, the more you can impress the interviewer and demonstrate how you can contribute to the success of their organization. By the end of the interview you must answer a key question in the mind of the interviewer: why should we hire you above all other qualified candidates?
Don't Rely on the Interviewer
The person conducting the interview may not always be a good interviewer; they may never have been taught how to properly conduct an interview, they may be having a bad day, or may be up against a deadline. In the end, you don't really know so don't leave it up to the interviewer to ask you the "right questions" and give you the opportunity to get the vital points of your career and achievements across.
Instead, PREPARE for your answers (do not memorize) but review or outline the key points you want to verbalize during the interview.
Know What Points You Want to Emphasize
This means doing your homework. What do you want the interviewer to know about you? Make sure you work those points into your responses.
When asked about their strengths, most candidates will say the first thing that comes to their mind; usually something as lame as: "I'm definitely a people-person and I really work hard." Think about it: how many people will ever say, "I'm terribly hostile to others, I take long lunches, and I really don't like it when my boss expects much from me."
No one, of course, but if you don't prepare in advance for this question, you will most likely say something equally as frivolous as the "people-person" response. Think instead of what you definitely want the interviewer to know: that you successfully developed and implemented your current employer's IT system recovery plan...that you achieved 153% of your quota...that you initiated the recertification of ISO 9000 qualification process, etc.
It is also recommended that you pursue as many interviews as you possibly can, even if you have no intention of accepting the position. This gives you the opportunity to polish your interviewing skills and work through nervousness.
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Atlantic International University is pleased to inform that individual courses are available through the "Interactive Courses Online" link.
As you know, our students' academic progress is the number one priority at AIU, and this new alternative does constitute an excellent option for those students who wish to complement their programs of interest. This is congruent with AIU philosophy based on the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.
Depending on the courses currently available, each and every one of you will be able to select courses of your choice so that they can be incorporated into your self-designed curricula. This initiative symbolizes the profound respect AIU has for your academic freedom and the acquisition of your knowledge, which results in the fact that the content and crafting of your curriculum remain contingent upon what you, the students, actually desire. This is based on AIU Andragogic System of Education which considers the student as the main person in the entire institution.
We invite you to run the Demo we developed so that you can have a taste of both the high academic standing and value of the courses being offered and the top-notch, state of the art platform used for course delivery.
Procedures:
1: Go to our site www.aiu.edu and click on the "Courses Online" option.
2: Fill out the online application and select the course(s) you want.
3: Pay the tuition fee in the amount of US $250.00 per course (for current AIU students) or US $350.00 (for all others). It is recommended to pay by credit card.
4: Within 48 hours after you authorize your payment, you will receive your access codes in order for you to start your course immediately.
5: We ask that AIU students include the titles of the courses and their descriptions in their Curriculum assignments so that such courses become integral components of their programs.
Let it be known also that every course is worth 3 academic credits as assigned by the Academic Department at AIU.
Find a Job
POST YOUR RESUME ONLINE / TARGETED EMAIL CAMPAIGNS
Many job seekers have found employment through this method by stimulating the employer into an action he or she had not intended to take: for example, creating a new position, replacing a non-productive employee, contacting recruitment firms, etc.
Research has shown that 85% of available jobs are unadvertised and direct emailing is a good way to "stumble" into an employment opportunity.
Targeted contacts (not random mass mailing) can be a great vehicle to identify unadvertised opportunities. Well planned, well targeted and well executed campaigns GET RESULTS.
You select the industry, geography, revenue base and other criteria. GetInterviews.com manages all the research, develops your targeted list of contacts and produces/sends emails that look like they were sent by you, not us. Contact lists with specific names, email addresses and phone numbers for follow-up are provided.
Recruiters
Customized emailings to top recruiters in your industry of choice and geography of choice. One contact can result in multiple interviews and introduce you to organizations that hire only through a recruiter.
Targeted Companies
Customized emailings to companies specializing in your industry of choice and located in the geography of your choice. Land your resume directly in the email box of decision makers in companies who hire candidates with your qualifications and experience!
High Growth Companies
Customized emailings to the fastest growing companies in your industry of choice and geography of choice. Growing companies need additional staff to support expansion.
Venture Capital Firms Customized emailings to venture capital firms in your industry of choice and geography of choice. Many of these firms have multiple investment interests and are actively involved in recruiting talent for their portfolio of companies.
Many of the following services allow you to post your resume on their database at no cost to you.
GREAT EDUCATORS HAVE ALWAYS KNOWN THAT LEARNING IS NOT SOMETHING THAT'S LIMITED TO THE CLASSROOMS, OR THAT SHOULD BE FORCIBLY UNDERTAKEN UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF TEACHERS.
BILL GATES
"BEING DOES NOT MEAN ACCEPTING WHAT ONE IS; IT MEANS CREATING ANOTHER SELF THAT DOES NOT EXIST."
J. CHATEAU
