JobSearchAssistant.com - Get instant help with your Job Search and learn about open positions in your local area. Job Search Assistant (JSA) reveals job listings from thousands of web site links, including company career pages, job boards, newspaper classifieds, associations, and blogs. Job seekers may also search job trends and salaries, read and participate in discussion forums, research companies and even find people working for companies of interest through their online social networks.
Your resume is a marketing piece designed to sell you to prospective employers. The most effective marketing materials result in sales, or in this case, a job offer. Writing a resume is like writing a product brochure for yourself. This "brochure" should highlight your resume skills and abilities and emphasize your talents. Furthermore, your resume skills must also be backed up with quantifiable facts. So how do you get started? What if you can't think of resume skills for your brochure? The first step in writing your personal brochure is to write your product manual. Unlike resumes, which are restricted to one or two pages, your product manual can be as long as you want. Shoot for ten pages to start. To begin writing the manual, follow these easy steps: * List every position you've ever held * Beneath each position, describe your duties (what were you expected to do?) * Now describe your accomplishments (what did you actually do?) * Incorporate facts or statistics about accomplishments whenever possible * Outline the resume skills you gained at the position * Describe what you liked and disliked about each position * Tell a story about a difficult situation you faced at each job and how you overcame it * Repeat the above steps for any training or education you possess The product manual will give you a starting point for your brochure. These questions will also help you develop an extensive list of resume skills and quantifiable facts to corroborate these resume skills. Best of all, developing a product manual for yourself will enable you to create custom resumes for each position you apply for, which is important because each position will require unique resume skills. The product manual will also help you answer questions during interviews with employer. Most job-seekers wait to polish up their interview skills until they are looking for a new position. Important interview opportunities, however, can present themselves at any time. For example, Unplanned internal job openings: You encounter a sudden opportunity to advance your career from within, and your boss recommends you as a candidate for the job. Are you ready to communicate your contributions to the company? A recruiter calls: The position sounds like just the career move you've been wanting. Will you say the right things to win the job, or will you blunder your best chance? A former colleague introduces you to his boss: The organization is building an exciting new division and looking for new staff. Can you entice the boss's interest in you as a must-have new team member? Those who continually grow in their careers are always prepared for these situations. Their interview skills are sharp at all times. To know if your skills are sharp enough to handle a surprise interview, see if you can answer the following four questions: 1. Can you concisely state your value proposition in 30 seconds or less? A value proposition is meant to intrigue your listener with a quick overview of your skills, expertise, and industry know-how. If you can offer a precise summary of why you are the perfect candidate for that job, you are more likely to get to the second or third interview. A concise value proposition can make a critical difference in winning you a new position. 2. Can you list your top five accomplishments, and can you communicate their impact to your employer's bottom-line initiatives? A list of your top accomplishments will enable a prospective employer to imagine what you can do for his organization. Accomplishments give employers a way to associate your skills with their needs and a reason to remember you. Be prepared to list your top skills and show how they can help meet corporate needs. 3. Are you prepared to answer your own toughest interview questions, or do you hope they just won't come up? Don‚t leave yourself vulnerable to such questions as: “If you‚re doing so well in your job, why do you want to leave?” A good recruiter or hiring manager will see you sweat and stutter and squirm; you'll lose their confidence and destroy a chance to get your dream job. Think about the questions that will be your biggest pitfalls and be prepared to answer them. 4. Do you know how to find out your interviewer's motivations to understand how best to answer his or her questions? This is a very important question. Without knowing your interviewer's motivations, how will you know if your answers hit the mark of what he or she is looking for in a perfect candidate? Conduct research and determine exactly what that employer needs. Once you have those answers in hand, you can target your interview answers accordingly. A good career coach can help you answer all these questions and more, preparing you for the interviews you plan -- and the interview you didn't expect. With those answers in hand, you can take your career from mediocre to marvelous with “always-ready” interview skills.
JobSearchAssistant.com - Get instant help with your Job Search and learn about open positions in your local area. Job Search Assistant (JSA) reveals job listings from thousands of web site links, including company career pages, job boards, newspaper classifieds, associations, and blogs. Job seekers may also search job trends and salaries, read and participate in discussion forums, research companies and even find people working for companies of interest through their online social networks.