Have you ever noticed how you feel more positive about your job, and things in general, when you approach life with a grateful attitude? When you stop to count your blessings it takes you away from worrying about your problems.
Have you taken a moment this week to pause and think about what you’re thankful for at your job?
With Express, you choose how and when you want to work. Are you looking for a full-time administrative position? Do you need a flexible schedule? Or are you looking for a career in the accounting/financial arena? You can find what you’re looking for at Express.
You can apply in person or by phone with Express Employment Professionals. To find the office closest to you, click here.
Or to register online, click here.
Your résumé is your introduction to a prospective employee. What it says, or doesn’t say, will be a major factor in whether you land an interview – the first step to getting the job.
To craft a résumé that highlights your strengths and sells your skills, check out the tips below.
1. Tailor your résumé to fit the job description. By rephrasing a few key words and phrases, your résumé will showcase why you’re the right candidate for the job.
2. Find out the hiring manager’s name and send your résumé directly to him or her, instead of just sending it to a generic company e-mail or mailing address.
3. Include specifics such as how big a budget you managed or what percent you increased sales.
4. Use descriptive verbs like “streamlined,” “accelerated” and “oversaw.”
5. Don’t list the reasons you left past jobs. This can be discussed in an interview, if necessary.
6. Be consistent. If you list contact information for one of your past employers, do so for all of them. If you capitalize some job titles, capitalize them all.
7. Don’t use the words “I,” “me” or “myself.” Instead, just start each sentence with a verb. For example, “Oversaw the work of 15 CNAs in a long-term care facility.”
8. Keep your formatting simple. Excess bold, italics or underlining is distracting.
9. If you provide an e-mail address, make sure it sounds professional and isn’t something like hotstuff4ever@email.com.
10. Don’t oversell yourself. Only list skills and training you actually possess.
11. Proofread. Typos and grammatical errors make your résumé look sloppy and may land your résumé in the trash. Mistyping your contact information can also prevent an employer from being able to get a hold of you.
12. Include a cover letter with your résumé. Making the extra effort to create a brief cover letter can do a lot to help your résumé stand out.
A well thought out résumé always makes a better impression than one that is thrown together at the last minute. So, if you really want to grab an employer’s attention, take the time to create a solid résumé.
How do you try to make your résumé stand out? What are some of your struggles in creating a résumé?
Additional Resources:
There’s a lot of discussion right now about work/life balance. Especially during the summer, when family vacations and relaxing getaways are most popular, the issue becomes particularly hot. People want to spend time relaxing, getting away from the grind, but that isn’t always possible.
Small business owners and entrepreneurs often find work and life colliding during vacation time. Steven Fisher at Startup Spark recently wrote a post about how its critical for entrepreneurs to find time to really get away from the pressures of work. We’ve also written about work/life balance for small business owners and tips for how to take a vacation.
But taking work with them on vacation isn’t just an issue for business owners. Eager workers often find themselves logging in to their e-mail or working on projects from home or the beach. Many others are putting time into their own projects and working on vacation.
Ryan Healy’s post “When working on vacation isn’t work” on Brazen Careerist shares his views as a twentysomething on work, personal time and vacation. He says that for him, he “works” on his own ideas while on vacation because its something he enjoys doing and wants to pursue in his personal time.
Do you feel it’s possible to truly unplug from work and enjoy your time off? Do you think how someone spends their vacation time depends more on their personality, line of work, generation or employer?
Even though you may not take vacation time on the Fourth of July since it’s a national holiday, what will you be doing with your time?
How many of your habits and ideas do you think you’ve picked up from the people you work with? Most people pride themselves on being individualistic and independent. We like to think we’re only influenced by the role models we choose, not the everyday Jims and Kates we share a cube with. People may not be lemmings, but we’re not impenetrable brick walls either. Our surroundings and co-workers affect us.
Rebel Dad blogger Brian Reid’s guest post on the Washington Post’s blog On Balance – Juggling Work and Family discusses how the workaholic habits of a former boss rubbed off on the entire organization. Reid used to work for former Bloomberg CEO and current New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, and he describes how Bloomberg’s penchant for long hours and limited family time created a company culture that followed his lead.
Sure, Bloomberg was the CEO of the corporation, so it’s logical that his employees would seek to emulate his behavior. But a CEO alone can’t create a potent culture without a majority of employees buying in to it. In a recent post on Ben Yoskovitz’s blog, Instigator, he discussed how upper management can’t control culture, they can only instigate it and then allow it to incubate.
Peer pressure can be much stronger than “CEO pressure.” While supervisors control whether you get a raise or promotion, co-workers determine if you are accepted and respected by the group – something that many people value more than money.
When a person starts a new job, sometimes they mesh or clash with the culture at their workplace immediately. But more often, over time, they will develop behaviors and attitudes about work that mirror those of their co-workers.
For example, if you start working at a company where the employees rarely use their vacation time and never call in sick, after a while, you’ll probably either adopt these unspoken norms or leave the company. Similarly, if you work at a company where being aggressive and blunt is the way to get noticed, you might find yourself saying “please” and “thank you” less and opting for words like “immediately” and “no offense” instead.
A strong company culture isn’t a bad thing though. Without a united front, a company will struggle to accomplish its mission. But, since we’re all likely to be affected by our environment, it makes sense to work at a company and with people whose values you respect.
How do your co-workers’ values match with your own? How do you think your co-workers have influenced you? Do you feel the influence has been positive or negative?
Job hopping is a common phenomenon these days, and the average worker stays at any given job about two years, according to career blogger Penelope Trunk. A lot of this is because they’re impatient and frustrated with a lack of opportunity.
A recent Wall Street Journal story highlighted the frustrations of young workers who crave more responsibility. They’re dissatisfied with the work they’re given, the responsibility – or lack thereof – they have, and the feeling that the wait to start climbing the career ladder is too long. Especially for entrepreneurial types.
Blogs like Escape From Cubicle Nation and Employee Evolution highlight the frustration of many workers today. Employee Evolution was founded a few months ago by Ryan Healy and Ryan Paugh as a way for millennials to voice their frustrations about trying to move up the career ladder. They’ve been featured in the Wall Street Journal about their efforts. With all they’ve been able to accomplish blogging about their career frustrations, imagine what these people could do if their employers only gave them more opportunities.
Too many job descriptions these days seem to say “experience required” rather than “experience offered.” Now’s the time for employers to step up to the plate and invest in their young, eager recruits, or they’ll lose them to companies that do, or perhaps, to entrepreneurial ventures.
Are you growing in your career? Hopefully, the answer is yes. As your expertise increases, it’s important to keep track of your achievements. A good way to do this is to keep a detailed list of specific projects, deadlines, timelines and accomplishments as you advance in your job. Also, track how you’ve impacted the budget, company goals and other areas that have directly affected the organization as a whole.
Demonstrating that you’ve helped save your organization time or money, or increased profits is a powerful resource for persuading your boss that you’re an asset to the team.
