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Clarify Your Job Target

3/11/2019

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To prepare candidates for launching their job search campaign, I encourage you to clarify your focus and job search target. To do so, I encourage candidates to complete the following:

Develop SMART goals that clarify your job target, including job title, industry, and location (this will clarify the messaging you will use when tailoring your resume, constructing interview responses, and scheduling networking conversation.
Identify at least 10 companies to target when building your job search pipeline with plans not to allow the number to diminish to less than 7.
Create professional branding documents including resume, LinkedIn profile, tailored cover letters, and follow-up correspondence (schedule a coaching session to uncover your strengths, talents, skills, and values).
Strategically tailor your resume towards specific roles.
Formally conduct salary research to understand your current worth in the market.

To develop a strategic action plan to accomplish these objectives, please schedule a complementary discovery session with one of our certified career development practitioners or transition specialists. You may also visit the Help Center, call 866.827.7302, email us, or use the "Feedback & Support" link located on bottom right side of the page. We also invite you to continue the conversation by sharing your suggestions for advancing in the selection process by adding a comment below.

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Best Practices Checklist for Job Application Follow Up

7/9/2018

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When possible, maintain control over your resume by asking if you may send your email directly to the contact. However, if they refuse to provide you with the contact information, simply ask them to pass along your correspondence to the appropriate contact.
Locate a contact name and email from your target company to follow up with.
Maintain records to track application status and document any conversations held with decision makers or company contacts.
When preparing correspondence, emphasize your fit for the role you apply for by focusing on where you can make an impact, add value, and solve problems. Remember to include a quantified example of how you've done this in the past.
Suggest next steps for future follow ups and ask permission to check back with them

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Tailoring Your Resume Towards Specific Job Targets

10/14/2017

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To immediately support your efforts to strategically customize your resume, the following resource can be employed to quickly align your resume with the target employer's specifications: Resume Optimization by Jobscan. Both now and for future job searches, I encourage you to tailor your resume to each position you are targeting using the checklist below:

¨ Review the job description to examine employer requirements, essential job functions, and cultural cues (supplemental research topics may include the company and/or industry).
¨ Decide how you are going to sell yourself – what are they really looking for?
¨ Look at the job posting of interest and highlight key words and phrases; use TagCloud.com if needed.
¨ Tailor the "Job Title" to match the title of the job posting (if appropriate).
¨ Tailor the "Qualifications Summary" section by weaving in the highlighted key phrases into this small paragraph – but be sure not to make this section too long.
¨ Tailor the "Skill Set" by adding in field and industry-related “buzz words” as well as the key words from the job posting of interest.
¨ Review the entire resume to see if there are other skills, responsibilities, or achievements that should be highlighted, prioritized, or emphasized based on the employer requirements and essential job functions.
¨ As an extra level of review, you can copy and paste your new resume into TagCloud.com to see if the resume’s keyword cloud matches that of the job description.

Before you apply to an applicant tracking system (ATS) via job board, search engine, or company career page, take a moment to customize your resume towards a specific job target. To learn more about the above process, please schedule a complementary discovery session with one of our certified career development practitioners or transition specialists. You may also visit the Help Center, call 866.827.7302, email us, or use the "Feedback & Support" link located on bottom right side of the page. We also invite you to continue the conversation by sharing your suggestions for advancing in the selection process by adding a comment below.

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Resume Standards and Best Practices

8/14/2017

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General guidelines to follow as you evolve and refine your resume in response to new opportunities:

The standard and recommended length for a resume is one full page or two full pages (avoid quarter or half pages). There may be an exception if you are in a highly scientific/technical field and require a CV. An addendum may be used for additional experience beyond these recommendations.

Margins of a resume should be no less than .5” all around.

Use a common font to avoid compatibility issues. Common fonts include Times New Roman, Arial, Calibri, Tahoma, Verdana, Cambria, Garamond, and Book Antiqua. Font size should be 10 pt. to 11.5 pt.

Include active language and high-impact words throughout. Keep the tense consistently in present for current positions and in past for prior positions.

Use implied first person or third person throughout; avoid using personal pronouns (I, me, my).

Incorporate basic design elements (e.g., bolding and lines to separate section titles), but never a picture.

Avoid listing years for positions or education that go back more than 15 years (use “Prior to XXXX” instead).

Avoid using very long lists of bullets or large blocks of text; break them into categories to provide a visual break.

Don’t use text boxes or tables to list information (i.e., summary statements, key skills, etc.) to ensure it's picked up by the company's applicant tracking system.

Consider partnering with our team to develop a career marketing communications that demonstrate the value you've delivered throughout your career. Please schedule a complementary discovery session with one of our certified career development practitioners or transition specialists. You may also visit the Help Center, call 866.827.7302, email us, or use the "Feedback & Support" link located on bottom right side of the page. We also invite you to continue the conversation by sharing your suggestions for advancing in the selection process by adding a comment below.

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Planning a Strategic Job Search Campaign

7/10/2017

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To quickly land your next opportunity, career experts suggest that job seekers set aside time to:

1. Tailor your résumé towards specific job postings. Whenever possible your resume should be customized for a specific job, however if this is not possible, your resume should be targeted for a specific “type” of position. Also, if you’ve absorbed additional responsibilities in your current or previous positions, or you’ve completed new training or educational requirements, share this information with your resume writer for inclusion in your final draft.

2. Develop — or update — your LinkedIn profile. A LinkedIn profile should complement your resume...not duplicate it. A recruiter or hiring manager looking for a candidate with your background may conduct a search on LinkedIn and find your profile. Or, a friend may forward your LinkedIn profile URL to someone they know interested in your particular skill set. So make sure you have an updated LinkedIn profile.

3. Know what you’re worth: conduct salary research. One of the most often-cited reasons to consider a job search is to increase your salary. But how do you know what you’re worth? There is more salary research data available than ever before. Websites like Glassdoor.com and Salary.com can help you see how your current salary and benefits package stacks up.

4. Build your network. It’s estimated that 40-80 percent of jobs are found through networking. Networking effectiveness is not just about quality — although that’s important. It’s also about quantity. It’s not just about who you know. It’s about who your contacts know. Many times, it’s the friend-of-a-friend who can help you land your dream job. Grow your network both professionally and personally. You never know who will be the one to introduce you to your next job opportunity.

5. Manage your online reputation. What will hiring managers and recruiters find when they conduct an online search for you? Do you have a social media presence established? How does it align with the professional image you wish to convey?

6. Define your ideal job. What does your dream job look like? What types of companies employ this position? What job title and responsibilities are you interested in? Do you want to work independently, as part of a team, or both? Do you like short-term or long-term projects? Who would you report to? Who reports to you? Answers to these these questions help define your ideal position and job functions.

7. Create a target list of companies you’d like to work for. Like your ideal role, you probably have a preference for the type of organization you want as your employer. Things to consider include: company size, industry, culture, location, and structure (public, private, family-owned, franchise, nonprofit, etc.). Once you’ve identified your preferences, generate a list of companies that fit your criteria.

We invite you to partner with our team to develop an intentional campaign by scheduling a complementary discovery session with one of our certified career development practitioners or transition specialists. You may also visit the Help Center, call 866.827.7302, email us, or use the "Feedback & Support" link located on bottom right side of the page. We also invite you to continue the conversation by sharing your suggestions for advancing in the selection process by adding a comment below.

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Skills to Include in your Resume

6/12/2017

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Below is an approach I suggest to identify soft skills you possess that speak directly to a target employer:

Identify one or two of the biggest projects you’ve worked on in your current and previous roles.
Pinpoint the challenges you had to overcome to successfully complete the projects identified.
Record the each of the steps you took to overcome those challenges. What did you do specifically? What soft skills did you use? Be specific.
How can you clearly describe theses skills to demonstrate your abilities and how they were essential to the project's ultimate success? How can you refine this description to emphasize those competencies that relate to the employer's specific requirements?

(e.g., "Did the team disagree about how to pursue a project? Did you play a role in helping your coworkers arrive at a common vision? If so, you’ve developed skills in mediating disputes and building a collaborative environment. Or did you have to take a poorly defined problem and turn it into a series of discrete challenges that you could tackle with individual projects? If so, you’ve honed your skills in project design and implementation, not to mention your team communication skills.")

How can our team help you advance in the selection process? Please schedule a complementary discovery session with one of our certified career development practitioners or transition specialists. You may also visit the Help Center, call 866.827.7302, email us, or use the "Feedback & Support" link located on bottom right side of the page. We also invite you to continue the conversation by sharing your suggestions for advancing in the selection process by adding a comment below.

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Clarify Your Job Target

Best Practices Checklist for Job Application Follow Up

Tailoring Your Resume Towards Specific Job Targets

Resume Standards and Best Practices

Planning a Strategic Job Search Campaign

Skills to Include in your Resume

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