#resumecontent Archives - Page 7 of 10 - First Sun Consulting, LLC | Outplacement Services and Career Transition Firm

Posts

#CareerAdvice : #ChangingCareer – Considering a #CareerSwitch ? Here’s How to Write your #Résumé …Making the Decision to #ChangeCareers is a Huge Undertaking, so Here’s How to Make Sure you Get the Job you Want.

August 14, 2018/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

Making the decision to change careers is a huge undertaking. Not only do you have to be willing to acquire new skills and step outside your comfort zone, but you also have to be able to sell your past experience to recruiters and hiring managers.

DO YOUR RESEARCH

“It’s critical to talk to those who are in the careers you want to go into to find out what they would want to see in a resume,” says Denise Riebman, a career development specialist. What are the hot terms in the field right now? The most in-demand skills and relevant knowledge? These are things you need to find out, then incorporate into your resume where you can.

HIGHLIGHT TRANSFERABLE SKILLS

“When you’re changing careers, it’s assumed that your recent work experience will not perfectly align with the role you’re now targeting,” says Amanda Augustine, career advice expert for TopResume. “To ensure your resume isn’t immediately trashed by the ‘bots’ or a recruiter, you need demonstrate that you possess the skills necessary to do the job well, even if this new job isn’t a natural next step after your previous role.”

That’s where transferable skills come in. “Some transferable skills are universal, regardless of the field: leadership, communication, analytical skills, and many others,” Augustine says. But to find industry-specific ones, you’ll want to conduct informational interviews and review the job descriptions you’re targeting. Look for commonalities between the postings, and you should get a good idea of what skills hiring managers are looking for.

“If you need help, create a word cloud out of the job descriptions using a site like Wordle to identify which skills are emphasized the most across multiple job postings,” Augustine suggests.

Like this Article ? Share It !You now can easily enjoy/follow/share Today our Award Winning Articles/Blogs with Now Over 2.5 Million Growing Participates Worldwidein our various Social Media formats below:

FSC LinkedIn Network: www.linkedin.com/in/fscnetwork

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/First-Sun-Consulting-LLC-Outplacement-Services/213542315355343?sk=wall

Google+: https://plus.google.com/115673713231115398101/posts?hl=en

Twitter: Follow us @ firstsunllc

Question: Want the ‘the best/current articles/blogs on the web’ on Job Search, Resume, Advancing/Changing your Career, or simply Managing People?

Answer: Simply go to our FSC Career Blog below & type(#career, #leadership, #life) in Blog Search: https://www.firstsun.com/fsc-career-blog/

What Skill Sets do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

Continue of article:

SHOW, DON’T TELL

This is good advice for any resume, but it’s especially important for career changers. Why? Well, you’ll be able to not only highlight transferable skills, but also prove that you’re excellent at them.

“Use statistics and numbers to show concrete information about the value you bring,” recommends Dustin Polk, president and executive resume writer at Oracle Resumes. “Instead of just saying ‘developed and implemented innovative process improvements,’ say ‘increased operational efficiency and annual revenues by 13% by developing and implementing innovative process improvements.’ Show the value you bring, don’t just claim to bring it with nothing to back it up.”

LEARN THE LINGO

“Each industry has its own jargon–terminology, acronyms, and initialisms that only make sense to people who are familiar with the field,” Augustine says. “It’s your job to figure out how to translate your experience and past successes into terms that will resonate with your new target audience. Subscribe to industry-specific publications and follow their social media accounts, set up Google alerts for some of the major players in the space, and attend trade shows and other events that are relevant to your target field to gain this insight. Then update your resume accordingly.”

USE YOUR SPACE WISELY

“You don’t have unlimited space,” Polk points out. “You get one to two pages to fill with your most impressive accomplishments and qualifications.” Especially if you have a long job history in a previous career, this can be difficult to enforce.

“Many people will turn into a sort of hoarder when writing their resume,” Polk says. “You can’t fit 18 bullet points of details for a job you had in 2002. It’s barely relevant, and a busy hiring manager won’t read it. If they want extreme details on the things you’ve done, your resume has already done its job, and you’ll be getting a call for an interview. Keep it clear, concise, and as relevant to your new industry as possible.”

PUT EDUCATION IN THE RIGHT PLACE

Most resume advice tells you that once you’re a few years out of school, you should move your education down to the bottom of your resume. This is true for the most part, but there’s an important exception career changers may want to consider. “If you recently earned a degree relevant to your new field, place your education section before your experience section,” Polk recommends. “Make sure they see that new degree. If it came with a designation, put that with your name at the top of the page, i.e. ‘John Smith, MBA.’ ”

CHOOSE YOUR FORMAT WISELY

Sometimes, a functional resume–one that highlights skills above job history and is generally not chronological–is recommended for career changers, as it allows candidates to showcase what they choose. “While I strongly discourage professionals from using a functional resume format, some career changers find it easy to present their marketable skills in this structure,” Augustine says. “A word of caution: Recruiters despise this resume format and most applicant tracking systems (ATS) have difficulty reading and parsing your resume’s information when it’s presented this way.” That means you could automatically get rejected just for using the wrong resume format.

The consensus among experts? Stick with a chronological format, providing more or less detail for each job, depending on how transferable your responsibilities and accomplishments were.

REMEMBER THAT YOU’RE MORE THAN YOUR RESUME

Having a great resume is no doubt important, but when you’re a career changer, there are things that matter more. “Especially when you are making a career shift, connecting with people in the field through authentic relationship building can give you a leg up, so that someone is willing to take a chance on you–no matter what is on your resume,” Riebman points out.

FastCompany.com | August 14, 2018 | BY JULIA MALACOFF—GLASSDOOR 4 MINUTE READ

#CareerAdvice : #ResumeWriting – 6 Ways to Make the Skills Section Shine on a #Resume …Here are a Few More Tips on How to Make the #SkillsSection on your Resume Truly Shine.

July 28, 2018/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

For many resume writers, the “skills section” presents a unique quagmire. On the one hand, you want to showcase as many skills as you can to show your competence. On the other hand, you don’t want to make it look like you’re padding your resume, and you definitely don’t want to list skills that you’re only half-competent at.

Resume writer Anish Majumdar recommends building your skills section by writing out the skills you need at your current job, and then reviewing your list and circling skills that correlate with your target position. “Finally, underline those circled skills which can be proven on your resume. These are the ones you need to focus on,” writes Majumdar.

Once you’ve done that, here are a few more tips on how to make the skills section on your resume truly shine:

1. Give it all you’ve got

Don’t be shy about layering on your skills – both hard and soft skills. Just because you’re a software engineer doesn’t mean you don’t need to showcase your communication, cross-sector collaboration, and time management abilities. In fact, listing those skills alongside your competency with Java and Python will make you stand out from the crowd. Layering your resume with skills can serve to give recruiters a well-rounded, multi-faceted image of you.

2. Only include the good stuff

That being said, you need to make sure you’re not putting skills on your resume merely to bulk it up. Certain skills, like knowing how to use Microsoft Word or email, are too basic to distinguish you from other candidates. These competencies are obvious to recruiters, and should not be placed on your resume. If the answer to the question “can every other applicant to the job write that they have this skill?” is yes, you might want to reconsider taking up precious resume real estate with the skill.

Like this Article ? Share It ! You now can easily enjoy/follow/share Today our Award Winning Articles/Blogs with Now Over 2.5 Million Growing Participates Worldwide in our various Social Media formats below:

FSC LinkedIn Network: www.linkedin.com/in/fscnetwork

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/First-Sun-Consulting-LLC-Outplacement-Services/213542315355343?sk=wall

Google+: https://plus.google.com/115673713231115398101/posts?hl=en

Twitter: Follow us @ firstsunllc

Question: Want the ‘the best/current articles/blogs on the web’ on Job Search, Resume, Advancing/Changing your Career, or simply Managing People?

Answer: Simply go to our FSC Career Blog below & type(#career, #leadership, #life) in Blog Search: https://www.firstsun.com/fsc-career-blog/

What Skill Sets do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

Continue of article:

3. Bulk your skills up

No, this doesn’t mean by padding your resume with skills you don’t have! If there are certain skills that you find would be helpful to have for the jobs you’re applying to, but you don’t currently have, it might be time to take a class or do a training on these skills. It also might be a question of brushing up certain skills, so that you can show them off, like upgrading your “intermediate proficiency” in Spanish to “professional working proficiency”. Investing time and money in these skills now can have big payoffs in the future.

4. Be straightforward

The skills section of your resume is not the place to sugarcoat. What you see as a rose-colored picture of a certain skill might simply be seen as a fib by a recruiter. Let’s take the Spanish example again. Suppose you say you have “professional working proficiency”, when you really just spent a semester abroad in Spain when you were in college 10 years ago, and haven’t practiced the language since. A portion of your job interview is conducted in Spanish – yikes! Or even worse, you get the job, and your first assignment is to interface with an Argentinian client – completely in Spanish. Chances are you won’t be at the job for much longer. Even little resume fibs can cause big trouble.

5. Showcase your transferable skills

Especially if you’re transitioning careers, showing off your transferable skills is critical to fleshing out the skills section of your resume. Transferable skillsinclude things like leadership, analytics, communication through writing, public speaking, mathematical reasoning, or organizing meetings. These type of skills can give you the boost you need in showcasing your experience.

6. Back yourself up

Soft skills like “coordination with sub-contractors” can sound intangible and airy – which is why you shouldn’t be afraid to back yourself up with a few examples and numbers. “Coordinated weekly with 12 subcontractors to drive a project slated to take 6 months to a 3-month completion time” packs more of a punch, and lets whoever’s reading your resume visualize better your abilities.

GlassDoor.com | July 27, 2018 | Posted by Lillian Childress

#CareerAdvice : Include These Things in your #Resume to Get the #Recruiter’s Attention…Don’t Give Them a Reason to Say No. Instead, Wow Them with Reasons to Advance your Application.

July 23, 2018/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

Did you know that–on average–recruiters and hiring managers spend only seven seconds reading your resume before signing you up for an interview–or tossing that precious piece of paper in the trash?

That’s not a lot of time to impress a potential employer. But the slush pile doesn’t have to be your job-search fate. Dawn Rasmussen, certified resume writer and founder of Pathfinder Writing and Career Services, along with Glassdoor’s own tips from its Ultimate Guide to Resumes, will help you craft a resume that’ll grab a recruiter’s attention.

1. CLEAR AND CONCISE FORMATTING

You may think that adding graphics or other infographic elements will make your resume stand out. But before your resume makes it to a recruiter, it will most likely have to pass through a computer scanning program, and those fancy shapes and symbols can confuse a computer. “If you’re sending your resume as an online submission,” Rasmussen explains, “those sexy graphics won’t make it through the software system that is set to scan through your document. In that case, it is important to have a graphic-less document so you can get through the software.” Another tip to get your resume into the right hands, literally? Scan the job description for keywords you can add to your resume, our guide instructs. If the job calls for a “self-starter,” a “leader,” or someone “eager to learn,” be sure to add those in.

Like this Article ? Share It ! You now can easily enjoy/follow/share Today our Award Winning Articles/Blogs with Now Over 2.5 Million Growing Participates Worldwide in our various Social Media formats below:

FSC LinkedIn Network: www.linkedin.com/in/fscnetwork

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/First-Sun-Consulting-LLC-Outplacement-Services/213542315355343?sk=wall

Google+: https://plus.google.com/115673713231115398101/posts?hl=en

Twitter: Follow us @ firstsunllc

Question: Want the ‘the best/current articles/blogs on the web’ on Job Search, Resume, Advancing/Changing your Career, or simply Managing People?

Answer: Simply go to our FSC Career Blog below & type(#career, #leadership, #life) in Blog Search: https://www.firstsun.com/fsc-career-blog/

What Skill Sets do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

Continue of article:

2. ORGANIZED INFORMATION

According to Rasmussen, “ask any recruiter or someone tasked with looking at resumes day after day, and they’d say that most people do a horrible job organizing information.” By organizing your resume in a clear way, you’ll already be steps ahead of the competition.

There are many ways to organize a resume, but two good formats suggested by our guide are the chronological resume and the functional resume. In a chronological resume, you focus on “your recent work history above all,” our guide instructs. “List your positions in reverse chronological order, with the most recent positions at the top and the oldest ones at the bottom.” In a functional resume, your aim is to “emphasize the relevance of your experience,” according to our guide. “To create a functional resume, you’ll prominently feature your professional summary, your skills, and a work experience section organized by how closely the positions relate to the one you’re applying to. This format is best for those who want to minimize resume gaps, or are transitioning into a new industry.” You can also do a mixture of these styles, which is called–surprise!–a combination resume.

3. DEFINED SECTIONS

No matter what kind of resume you decide to create, whether a chronological or functional resume, you will want to make sure each section is defined. “Guiding the reader through what you are going to discuss next is key,” Rasmussen explains. “They don’t want to be left guessing what you are discussing.” Mark each section of your resume in bold, she suggests.

4. QUANTIFIED RESULTS

Don’t just say you increased your company’s sales–show how much you increased those sales with numbers, our guide instructs. “Use your resume to explain concrete accomplishments,” it says. “Make sure your statistics are consistent, percentages are properly placed and business jargon is used appropriately based on the industry.”

What’s more, you may want to bold those numbers and accomplishments. “Bold and front-load your notable accomplishment stories underneath each employment record,” Rasmussen suggests. “Want to get to the point even more? When you are talking about your on-the-job wins underneath each employer, bold the numbers and outcomes from each story. That makes them pop–especially when recruiters are doing the quick once-through on their initial review of your document. Numbers and results bolded at the front of each sentence make it easy for them to see to what degree you are getting stuff done.”

5. EFFICIENCY

If you go on and on and on in your resume, you may lose your reader–and the opportunity for an interview. “Being efficient in how you move the reader through the document makes it cleaner and easier to understand,” Rasmussen says. “We are now in a skimming economy, so getting right to the point cleanly is critical. So, try this tip: If you have held multiple positions at the same company, stack your job titles and dates worked, starting with your most recent and going down to the oldest, instead of having a separate job entry for each position. This stacking maneuver attracts hiring manager attention because by putting the positions underneath each other, it demonstrates that you were progressively promoted.”

One way to keep your resume short and to-the-point is to “only include the skills that truly make an impact–not ones that are basic requirements [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][such as Microsoft Word or an ability to use email] or irrelevant to the job you’re applying to,” according to our guide.

6. WELL-CRAFTED DESCRIPTORS

Guess what? Everyone is a hard worker on their resume. So our guide advises you to ditch the generic and vague descriptors you might be apt to use, such as “hard-working” and “self-motivated,” which are a dime a dozen, and use more specific phrases. “Focus on the skills and accomplishments that set you apart from the competition,” the guide advises.

7. DEMONSTRATED RELIABILITY

One thing every recruiter will want to see on your resume is reliability. “If you frequently change companies without changing levels or positions, it can be a red flag to recruiters that you are unsure or unreliable,” our guide warns. So that you’re not flagged as a flaky employee, “consider only listing the companies that best align with your desired industry.” If you do that, our guide adds, “you can always add a footnote [that reads like] ‘prior work experience in a different field, more information available upon request.’ ”

FastCompany.com | July 23, 2018 | BY JILLIAN KRAMER—GLASSDOOR 4 MINUTE READ

[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

#CareerAdvice : #JobSearch – How to Get a Job that you’re #Overqualified For…It Can be Hard for a #HiringManager to see an overQualified Candidate as Ambitious. So If you Want to Change Direction, Here’s What you Need to Do.

July 13, 2018/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

Remember back when you were a new grad and applying for every job mentioning your degree, only to be told you didn’t have enough experience? Now, you’ve got years of experience under your belt and the skill set and experience to get any of those jobs you applied for years ago, but you’re faced with one critical problem. You’re now overqualified.

Hiring managers tend to overlook candidates with too much experience. Often they’re worried that the applicant will jump ship as soon as something comes along that they’re better suited for, or that they’ll expect a salary that’s greater than their budget.

“We tend to think of lower-level jobs as a way to pay our dues in order to advance,” says Kim Stiens, hiring consultant and founder and CEO of career advice site Ranavain. When reviewing resumes of individuals who seem to have already put in those dues, employers may be skeptical of why they want to take a step back. They worry the candidate won’t be engaged enough in the position. “Employers want to hire the best candidate, and often, that actually means hiring someone for whom the position is a stretch; they’re perhaps a bit underqualified, but hungry and eager to do the work.” says Stiens. It might be hard to see an overqualified candidate as ambitious.

While there are many good arguments around not hiring someone too qualified for the position, that doesn’t mean you can’t still land that job.

CLARIFY WHY YOU WANT THE JOB

Are you looking for greater work-life balance or a less stressful and less time-consuming job than your existing role? Are you entering a new industry and feel the need to start in an entry-level position? Or are you simply looking to move away from your current company, regardless of whether it’s an upward, lateral, or downward move? Understanding your own motives is the first step to landing the gig.

Like this Article ? Share It ! You now can easily enjoy/follow/share Today our Award Winning Articles/Blogs with Now Over 2.5 Million Growing Participates Worldwide in our various Social Media formats below:

FSC LinkedIn Network: www.linkedin.com/in/fscnetwork

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/First-Sun-Consulting-LLC-Outplacement-Services/213542315355343?sk=wall

Google+: https://plus.google.com/115673713231115398101/posts?hl=en

Twitter: Follow us @ firstsunllc

Question: Want the ‘the best/current articles/blogs on the web’ on Job Search, Resume, Advancing/Changing your Career, or simply Managing People?

Answer: Simply go to our FSC Career Blog below & type(#career, #leadership, #life) in Blog Search: https://www.firstsun.com/fsc-career-blog/

What Skill Sets do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

Continue of article:

FOCUS ON WHAT THE JOB BRINGS TO YOU

Hiring managers want to know that the job is a good fit for you. The last thing you want them thinking is that it doesn’t make sense why you are applying. Tell the hiring manager what aspects of the job are appealing to you and show how the position fits into your career goals. Perhaps you’ve been performing a similar role in nonprofits for a few years, and you want to apply to a big company doing something similar or at a lower level.

DISCUSS YOUR INTEREST IN THE COMPANY

Sometimes individuals are willing to accept a lower-level job because it’s at their dream company. Employers are more likely to want to take a chance on you if they believe that you are truly passionate about the company and are willing to do any position, even if it’s a lower level, because you truly want to work there in whatever capacity, even if it’s a lower position than you’re used to.

FOCUS ON THE EMPLOYER’S NEEDS

Show the employer that you understand their pain points and outline what you can bring to the organization to help solve their problem. Do your research on the company before applying. Employers know getting someone with more experience means the learning curve will be shorter, and that someone with more experience at a lower price can be good for them, but that doesn’t mean you still don’t have to convince them based on what you can do for them. “You have to be able to build a constructive case for your hire,” says Stiens. “The hiring manager has to believe that you’re applying for their job because you think you’ll thrive in it, or else they won’t hire you, no matter how great a bargain you might be.”

ARE YOU REALLY OVERQUALIFIED OR JUST DIFFERENTLY QUALIFIED?

If you’re trying to change careers, you may feel that you’re overqualified for an entry-level position because you have 10 years of unrelated experience. “A company might prefer to hire someone with 1.5 years of exactly applicable experience over someone with 10 years of vaguely applicable experience,” says Stiens. In this case, be explicit in how your skills are transferrable to the new field. “The hiring manager isn’t going to hunt down those details and make the case for you,” says Stiens.

Whether applying for a position you’re overqualified or underqualified for, demonstrating to the prospective employer that you are the best choice will help you land the gig.

FastCompany.com | July 13, 2018 | BY LISA EVANS 3 MINUTE READ

#CareerAdvice : #ResumeWriting – 4 Metrics Recruiters Love to See on #Resumes … If you Want to Make Sure your #Resume Catches a #Recruiter’s Eye, There are Few Better Ways to Do So Than by Adding Metrics to It. Why?

July 10, 2018/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

For one, “we know that the human eye processes numbers faster than words,” career expert J.T. O’Donnell said in an interview with Glassdoor. But beyond that, they also “help me as a recruiter give context to the size and scope of the work that you did,” O’Donnell explains.

In any given workday, though, there’s no shortage of specific numbers you could call out: the amount of emails you send, the amount of meetings you attend, the amount of projects you work on. So how do you know which metrics to include?

We use the following four-step framework in our Job Seeker’s Toolkit to help you decide which numbers pack the most punch. Once you add the right metrics throughout your resume, don’t be surprised if the interview offers start rolling in!

1. Growth: What did you add to the company?

When deciding which metrics to include, it’s important to think about the key performance indicators, or KPIs, for your role. For example, salespeople are often assessed on how much revenue they drive, how many new clients they bring in, how many of their customers renew, etc. Whatever your role, think about the numbers that matter most for you: perhaps they’re ones that your boss brings up in weekly meetings, that you find in your performance review, or even that you see in the LinkedIn profiles of people with the same job title as you.

Of these different metrics, think about which ones represent ways you added to the company and helped it grow. Depending on your role, this might include:

Website visits
Revenue
Deals closed
Partnerships secured
Candidates hired
New technologies/processes adopted

Examples:

Authored 150 articles over the course of one year, driving 500,000 unique website visits
Vetted and reached out to roughly 30 prospects per day, resulting in 20 closed deals in Q1 and $120,000 in revenue (+22% to quota)
Optimized 15 landing pages during the course of the internship, resulting in 17% lift in organic search traffic

Like this Article ? Share It ! You now can easily enjoy/follow/share Today our Award Winning Articles/Blogs with Now Over 2.5 Million Growing Participates Worldwide in our various Social Media formats below:

FSC LinkedIn Network: www.linkedin.com/in/fscnetwork

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/First-Sun-Consulting-LLC-Outplacement-Services/213542315355343?sk=wall

Google+: https://plus.google.com/115673713231115398101/posts?hl=en

Twitter: Follow us @ firstsunllc

Question: Want the ‘the best/current articles/blogs on the web’ on Job Search, Resume, Advancing/Changing your Career, or simply Managing People?

Answer: Simply go to our FSC Career Blog below & type(#career, #leadership, #life) in Blog Search: https://www.firstsun.com/fsc-career-blog/

What Skill Sets do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

Continue of article:

2. Reduction: What did you help the company save?

In many cases, what you help your company reduce or eliminate can be just as important as what you add to it. In fact, certain roles focus their energy entirely on helping companies save or reduce in order to operate more efficiently. Think about whether you have a concrete way to measure how you’ve helped your company save or reduce the following:

Time
Budget
Client turnover
Employee turnover
Website bounce rate

Examples:

Identified three major bottlenecks in the hiring process and spearheaded taskforce to implement new technologies and strategies to overcome them, resulting in 31% faster time-to-hire
Led website architecture redesign, leading to a two-second faster load time and 16.5% decrease in bounce rate
Conducted internal budget audit and discovered five key areas of redundant spending, saving $23,000 per year

3. Impact: How many people did your work help?

A great way to illustrate how much value you can add to a company is by showing them how many people you’ve previously helped. This doesn’t just have to be people outside of your company like users or clients; it can also include those within your company. Look through the following “people” metrics, and think about which ones might be relevant to your role:

Number of team members you’ve led
Number of users or customers your work impacted
Number of stakeholders involved in a project
Number of clients you managed
Number of employees you supported (for a function like IT or HR)

Examples:

Coached, mentored and led a team of seven direct reports on the factory floor to ensure top-notch quality of products used by millions of consumers
Conceptualized and executed a multi-touch blog, social and email marketing campaign that reached 200,000 unique impressions
Oversaw both day-to-day and strategic HR operations for a company of 75 people

4. Frequency: How often did you complete tasks?

Understanding how frequently you performed certain tasks goes a long way in helping recruiters and hiring managers reading your resume understand how well-versed you are in a given area — often, the only difference between being a novice and being an expert is how much time you spend practicing.

To help you figure out which tasks are the most important to highlight, take a look in the job description to see which key responsibilities and skills are listed. For example, a job seeker applying to a position that lists analytical skills as a requirement might want to describe how they pulled weekly site traffic reports using Google Analytics, while someone applying to a PR position that mentions media relations skills in the job description may want to describe how they pitched reporters on a daily basis.

Samples:

Spent 75% of each day utilizing Python, R and SQL to analyze large volumes of data to influence decision-making processes
Analyzed performance metrics, reviewed creative and brainstormed with internal stakeholders to develop and present 4 strategic social media plans per year
Worked with facilities, IT and communications teams to set up and flawlessly execute company all-hands meetings every 2 weeks

If you’re not used to adding numbers to your resume, it may feel a little bit strange at first. But don’t worry — you’ll get the hang of it in due time. Best of all, there’s a real chance it will improve your odds in a job search.

“Numbers make a huge difference. If you can quantify what you did in any way, you should,” O’Donnell said.

GlassDoor.com | July 10, 2018 | Posted by Emily Moore

#BestofFSCBlog : #ResumeWriting – 13 Irresistible #ResumeTemplates to Download Now! Everything You Need to Know About Writing the Perfect #Resume .

June 28, 2018/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

If there’s one area worth investing in when it comes to the job search, it’s definitely your resume — after all, in just about seven seconds of glancing at it, recruiters and hiring managers already know whether or not they want to move forward with your application. Of course, writing a great resume is easier said than done, but at Glassdoor, we’re here to help you every step of the way.

That’s why we combined our job search expertise with Grammarly’s top-notch writing knowledge to create a comprehensive guide on how to write, format and design the perfect resume. With our new Ultimate Guide to Resumes, you’ll learn which type of resume is right for you, what to include in it, how to highlight your skills and more all in one place, so you can create a recruiter-approved resume in no time.

Download the full eBook here, and get a sneak preview with our tips below!

1. Choose the Right Type of Resume

If you thought there was just one type of resume, think again. There are multiple different kinds, and the one you should use will depend on your own unique career circumstances. A chronological resume lists your different positions top to bottom from most to least recent, and is best for those whose careers reflect a clear path to the role they’re applying for. A functional resume emphasizes relevance over recency, with different positions listed top to bottom from most to least relevant, a skills section and a professional summary explaining why you’re a great fit. This is a great option for those who are transitioning into a new field or re-entering the workforce after a resume gap. A combination resume borrows from both formats by combining the professional summary and skills section of a functional resume and the chronological work experience order of a chronological resume. This is a good way to emphasize skills and experience equally, and is a great choice for many different types of job seekers.

Like this Article ? Share It ! You now can easily enjoy/follow/share Today our Award Winning Articles/Blogs with Now Over 2.5 Million Growing Participates Worldwide in our various Social Media formats below:

FSC LinkedIn Network: www.linkedin.com/in/fscnetwork

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/First-Sun-Consulting-LLC-Outplacement-Services/213542315355343?sk=wall

Google+: https://plus.google.com/115673713231115398101/posts?hl=en

Twitter: Follow us @ firstsunllc

Question: Want the ‘the best/current articles/blogs on the web’ on Job Search, Resume, Advancing/Changing your Career, or simply Managing People?

Answer: Simply go to our FSC Career Blog below & type(#career, #leadership, #life) in Blog Search: https://www.firstsun.com/fsc-career-blog/

What Skill Sets do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

Continue of article:

2. Know What You Need to Include

Resumes tend to have six major components: a header and contact info, professional summary, skills section, work experience, education and additional experience. Here’s a brief rundown of what they are, and tips for how to make the most of them:

Header + Contact Info: The top of your resume (or whichever is the most prominent part) containing your name and contact info.
- Pro Tip: Think twice before including your street address. It’s largely unnecessary nowadays, and can hurt your chances of scoring an interview if you live far from where the position is.
Professional Summary: A brief, one- to three-sentence description that encapsulates who you are, what you do and why you’re a great fit for the job at hand.
- Pro Tip: Avoid descriptors like “hard-working,” “self-motivated,” etc. — those terms are vague and generic. Focus instead on the skills and accomplishments that set you apart.
Skills: A list of the key skills you possess that will help you do the job you’re applying to.
- Pro Tip: Can’t decide what skills to include? Look to the job descriptionto see which skills matter the most.
Work Experience: A list of the different titles you’ve held, places you’ve worked and achievements you accomplished.
- Pro Tip: When writing out your bullet points, use the STAR format (Situation, Task, Action, Result) to not just describe what you did in a previous job, but what sort of impact it had.
Education: Details on the level of education you’ve attained, where you went and what you studied.
- Pro Tip: Only include your GPA if you’ve graduated in the last couple of years and earned a 3.0 or higher — the further along you are in your career, the more recruiters and hiring managers pay attention to experience over education.
Additional Experience: A catch-all section where you can add your volunteer experience, hobbies, awards, etc.
- Pro Tip: Some companies are particularly passionate about volunteering and giving back to the community. If you’re applying to one of them, use this section to describe how you’ve made a difference — it’s a great way to show culture fit!

3. Don’t Forget Design & Formatting

At the end of the day, a well-written resume with relevant experience will win out over one that’s pretty, but light on content. However, if you combine great content with a neat, clean design and proper formatting, you’ve just hit upon a winning combination. Here are a few things to keep in mind if you want your resume to look its best:

Use an easy-to-read font of no less than 11 pt.
Add margins of at least .7 inches.
Make sure there’s sufficient white space between sections
Keep your resume to 1-2 pages max, unless you’re in a field like academia or medicine and must cite papers and publications.
Don’t go overboard with intricate design or decoration — touches of color are fine, but avoid any clashing or visually busy details.

4. Check for These Last-Minute Items

Once you’re feeling good about your resume, don’t click submit just yet. Uploading your resume before giving it a thorough scan can result in errors and missed opportunities to make the best impression. Check off the following items to make sure your resume is ready to be seen by the world:

Verify your employment information to make sure that it matches what you have on LinkedIn. Any discrepancies, even if they’re accidental, might raise red flags for a recruiter
Use a platform like Grammarly to edit your resume. Grammarly can save you from misspellings, hundreds of types of grammatical and punctuation mistakes and words that are spelled right but used in the wrong context, all of which look unprofessional on a resume and can seriously hurt your chances of making it to the next round.
Save your resume with a simple file name to maintain professionalism and to simply keep better track of it in your files. You can’t go wrong with “Lastname-Resume-2018”
Double check capitalization on company names and titles — consistency in your resume is key.
Review your bullet points to make sure they’re focused on showing results, not simply listing your tasks.

Want more details on how to create a next-level resume? Check out the full Ultimate Guide to Resumes!

GlassDoor.com | June 28, 2018 | Posted by Emily Moore

Your #Career : 7 Steps to Rebrand Yourself for a #CareerChange …Just Because you Don’t have Experience in a New Field Doesn’t Mean your #Skills aren’t Valuable in that Field. Here’s What to Do Before you Make a Move.

June 28, 2018/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

Ready for a career change, but worried you don’t have the experience or skills to land a job in your desired field? Filling your resume with your previous work experience that has no similarity to the job you’re applying for is likely to land your resume in the trash can. But that doesn’t mean you’re stuck in a career you hate forever.

Dawn Graham, PhD, career coach, psychologist, and author of the book Switchers: How Smart Professionals Change Career–and Seize Success, says rebranding your professional experience is key to a successful career switch. “When you’re making a switch, you need to be a good fit for the role, and while some of your skills and experiences may be transferrable, many may not be,” she says. Here’s how you can prove that you’re worthy of the title, even when your resume shows no previous experience in the field.

1. CHANGE YOUR SOCIAL PRESENCE

Use social media to your advantage to rebrand yourself in your new career area. Follow thought leaders in your target industry and comment on their posts. Connect with relevant industry groups and associations, share relevant and interesting articles within your online network, comment on posts, attend the biggest industry conferences, and develop a network of contacts in the industry. “Technology makes it easier than ever to market yourself in a way that appeals to the audience you choose,” says Graham. The more you can demonstrate that you’re serious and invested in your new target industry, the more credible you will seem.

Like this Article ? Share It ! You now can easily enjoy/follow/share Today our Award Winning Articles/Blogs with Now Over 2.5 Million Growing Participates Worldwide in our various Social Media formats below:

FSC LinkedIn Network: www.linkedin.com/in/fscnetwork

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/First-Sun-Consulting-LLC-Outplacement-Services/213542315355343?sk=wall

Google+: https://plus.google.com/115673713231115398101/posts?hl=en

Twitter: Follow us @ firstsunllc

Question: Want the ‘the best/current articles/blogs on the web’ on Job Search, Resume, Advancing/Changing your Career, or simply Managing People?

Answer: Simply go to our FSC Career Blog below & type(#career, #leadership, #life) in Blog Search: https://www.firstsun.com/fsc-career-blog/

What Skill Sets do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

Continue of article:

2. FIND YOUR TRANSFERRABLE SKILLS

Rebranding yourself takes time and introspection. Everyone has transferrable skills, even if you think you don’t. Graham gives the example of a recruiter who wants to move into social media marketing. “You can show off your customer research, analytics, and technical savvy skills,” she says. Demonstrating how you can reach new customers using the same skill set you used to uncover qualified candidates is a way to prove that your experience is relevant.

To determine your skills, Graham recommends breaking down achievements. “If you contributed to saving a large client, consider the steps that got you to that result–perhaps problem solving, diplomacy, creativity, and influencing.” Do the same with other accomplishments and you’ll soon notice a pattern of core strengths. Try going through this exercise with a colleague or manager who may be able to see strengths that you are overlooking.

3. DO YOUR RESEARCH

In order to find out what skills and experiences are most relevant to your new career choice, spend time learning as much as you can about your target position. Speak with professionals in your target industry, look for volunteer positions in the industry, take courses, and attend professional events to learn what experiences and skill sets are most valuable in the new industry.

4. DON’T LEAD WITH YOUR TITLE

While most of us use our job title when introducing ourselves, this can be an error when you’re switching careers. Many companies use language that doesn’t translate outside the industry. A title can cause confusion for someone in another industry, and biases their opinion toward your application. They may think right away that you’re not a good fit without reading further into your experiences. Instead of focusing on your title, place the emphasis on your value–the skills you developed in that position.

5. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

In order to highlight your value and position yourself as a good fit for the job, you need to know the challenges the hiring manager is trying to solve. “Many job seekers have incredible accomplishments, but without knowing what is important to your audience, you risk leading off with accomplishments that, while impressive, lead the hirer to think you’re not a fit for the role,” says Graham.

When in a job interview, make one of your first questions about the challenges the company or department is facing at this time. Once you find out the hiring company’s pain points, you can select the achievements from your background that best align with what the hiring manager is looking for in the role.

6. CHERRY-PICK EXPERIENCES

Some of your best accomplishments and achievements may not be impressive to the hiring manager if they have no relation to the job you’re applying for. To be most effective in rebranding yourself professionally, select the parts of your experience that align most closely with your target role. To make your application in this new field stronger, highlight these experiences in your LinkedIn profile. If hiring managers are reviewing your resume and then jump over to LinkedIn and see a whole different type of experience highlighted, they may be confused and cause them to put aside your resume. Rebranding your professional experience may mean dropping what you think are some of your best accomplishments, but by focusing on “fit” first, you will have a better chance of a recruiter recognizing you as a potential candidate for the position.

7. JUSTIFY THE SWITCH

“Every hiring manager wants to know why this job at this company at this time,” says Graham. Your answer to this question will be especially important if you’re a career switcher. Graham argues that switchers can have the upper hand in answering this question because they have most likely spent a great deal of time studying the industry, thinking about what they want in a job when making their career switch decision.

FastCompany.com | June 28, 2018 | BY LISA EVANS 4 MINUTE READ

Your #Career : #ResumeWriting -How to Write a #ResumeSummary That Grabs #Recruiters’ Attention…Here are a Few Tips to Keep in Mind for your Summary.

June 26, 2018/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

To include a resume summary, or not to include a resume summary? The nagging question that has plagued many a job seeker.

Well, here’s some advice to clear the matter up: yes, you should include a summary. Unless you are really pressed for space, have a significant amount of description writing in the body of your resume, or you’re specifically directed not to include a summary, it’s an essential addition to a professional resume. “Most people should have a summary,” says Lynn Carroll — a career coach who writes about authenticity in the job search, gender equity in the workplace, and inclusion — who we reached out to to learn how to create an eye-catching resume summary.

Carroll distinguishes between a resume objective, which she says is what the jobseeker is looking to find in a company or position, and a resume summary, which tells a recruiter what the jobseeker can uniquely offer to a company or position. “The objective is now considered by most recruiters as an out-of-date function because it focuses on the jobseeker… The summary is considered more current and a better way to describe the relationship between the jobseeker and the company because it talks about what they can offer,” says Carroll.

Here are a few tips to keep in mind for your summary:

Keep it Short

There are plenty of opportunities to expound on your qualifications and experience in the job search process, like in your cover letter or the interview. The resume summary is a place to make the resume a bit more personalized, and to frame your resume in terms of the type of candidate you believe the company is looking for. For this reason, it’s important to keep the summary short. Carroll recommends writing a full paragraph at first, and then gradually whittling it down to two or three sentences full of powerful, important words. “By condensing — rather than on the very first pass have a short summary — sometimes you give a lot more thought to what the most important pieces really are,” she advises.

Like this Article ? Share It ! You now can easily enjoy/follow/share Today our Award Winning Articles/Blogs with Now Over 2.5 Million Growing Participates Worldwide in our various Social Media formats below:

FSC LinkedIn Network: www.linkedin.com/in/fscnetwork

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/First-Sun-Consulting-LLC-Outplacement-Services/213542315355343?sk=wall

Google+: https://plus.google.com/115673713231115398101/posts?hl=en

Twitter: Follow us @ firstsunllc

Question: Want the ‘the best/current articles/blogs on the web’ on Job Search, Resume, Advancing/Changing your Career, or simply Managing People?

Answer: Simply go to our FSC Career Blog below & type(#career, #leadership, #life) in Blog Search: https://www.firstsun.com/fsc-career-blog/

What Skill Sets do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

Continue of article:

Tell a Story

A resume summary isn’t a place to re-hash your professional experience, or to list out your soft skills. It’s about giving the reader a brief, vivid taste of what kind of person you are in the workplace, what drives you and makes you tick, and what kind of environments you thrive in. Keep this in mind as you write your summary: tell, don’t list.

Use Relevant Keywords

Keywords are important for several reasons. First of all, they can help you stand out in applicant tracking systems, a type of software that companies use to digitally sift through job applications. Second of all, you can show that you know how to speak the same language as the company. “If you were using the word ‘customer’ for example, and they were using the word ‘client’ in their job description, the idea is the same but they don’t see that you are using their same lingo,” Carroll says. “They might feel like you’re not in touch with where they’re at.”

Use Vivid Language

Carroll says she always encourages her clients to use vivid, descriptive language, that brings their experience and skills to life. “If I describe a meeting I ‘organized’, that seems like I set the conference call up. If I describe a meeting that I ‘envisioned,’ or I describe a gathering that I ‘developed’, that sounds like I had more input into the content,” she says. Using verbs that have active connotations rather than passive connotations can help this, Carroll adds.

Match the Tone to the Occasion

There’s no one tone to strike in a resume summary. It all depends on the type of job you’re applying for and the kind of company you’re sending your resume off to. Carroll gives the example of someone applying to a job at a more traditional, hierarchical Fortune 500 company versus someone applying to a job at a Silicon Valley startup. At the Fortune 500 company, she says, the applicant might want to use phrases like “solid foundation” and “excellent skills” to imply stability and reliability. At a startup, however, one might want to use phrases like “creative,” “innovative,” or “dynamic.” It all depends on the job you’re applying for, and also – don’t forget! – what describes you as a candidate the most accurately.

GlassDoor.com | June 22, 2018 | Posted by Lillian Childress

Your #Career : #ResumeWriting – 64 Action Verbs That Will Take Your #Resume From Blah to Brilliant….Here’s How to Use Action Verbs on your Resume Intelligently to Help you Land the Job of your Dreams.

June 19, 2018/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

You’ve probably heard the advice that action verbs should be sprinkled throughout your resume. By starting each bullet point about your past experience with a powerful action verb, you draw hiring managers in and give them a concrete picture of your expertise. Certain action verbs are also likely to help your resume get past automated scanning tools.

But it’s not as simple as just throwing a bunch of verbs on a piece of paper and hoping something sticks. Here’s how to use action verbs on your resume intelligently to help you land the job of your dreams.

Choose Them Carefully

“It is important to be strategic on the action verbs used to describe your skills and experience,” notes Jessie Czerwonka Roller, Manager of Career Services at Turning the Corner. “Being in the career services field for over a decade, I have seen an abundance of resumes: the good, the bad, and the ugly.” The ones that stand out, she says, are resumes that are tailored toward both the job and the industry, using verbs that feel relevant and targeted.

Shefali Raina, an NYC-based executive coach, agrees. “For maximum impact, use action verbs selectively and convey simple, direct messages. Nothing dilutes the impact of action verbs than being surrounded by many other action verbs!” In other words, you definitely want action verbs throughout your resume, but don’t go overboard.

Like this Article ? Share It ! You now can easily enjoy/follow/share Today our Award Winning Articles/Blogs with Now Over 2.5 Million Growing Participates Worldwide in our various Social Media formats below:

FSC LinkedIn Network: www.linkedin.com/in/fscnetwork

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/First-Sun-Consulting-LLC-Outplacement-Services/213542315355343?sk=wall

Google+: https://plus.google.com/115673713231115398101/posts?hl=en

Twitter: Follow us @ firstsunllc

Question: Want the ‘the best/current articles/blogs on the web’ on Job Search, Resume, Advancing/Changing your Career, or simply Managing People?

Answer: Simply go to our FSC Career Blog below & type(#career, #leadership, #life) in Blog Search: https://www.firstsun.com/fsc-career-blog/

What Skill Sets do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

Continue of article:

Show Who You Are

It’s a good idea to include action verbs that showcase your personality. “Empowered speaks to your ability to give energy, authority, confidence, and power to a group or a team to achieve a certain result,” Raina says. “It suggests that you possess the confidence and the influence to be able to authorize and energize a team or group to have powerful impact.”

“Organized is a wonderful verb that denotes an individual who can prioritize not only the items on their desk, but their tasks too,” says Gabrielle Pitre, Recruiting Team Lead at Coalition Technologies. “This lets employers see that you understand what is valuable to your job. But, perhaps, an even better verb is orchestrated, as it’s rarer and more likely to attract attention.”

“Initiated is a powerful one because it demonstrates that you are proactive and that you spent the time and energy to begin a project or originate an idea,” Raina notes. “To employers and recruiters, it speaks to a positive, ‘can do’ mindset and says that you will be a solution starter.”

Be Specific

One of most key ways to use action verbs effectively is to choose them based on the jobs you’re applying to. “If you are a job seeker who wants to gain a leadership position, you want to describe both your skills and experiences using strong leadership action verbs such as advocated, bolstered, drove, engaged, elicited, and spearheaded,” Roller explains.

To highlight management experience, you’ll want to use verbs like establishedand delegated, Pitre says. “These words can say much more than more common verbs, such as led or oversaw. You want to show how proactive you are and these verbs express that well.”

Try brainstorming industry-specific action verbs, as well. For example, “if you are a job seeker targeting the IT industry, use action verbs such as administered, centralized, configured, engineered, installed, and programmed,” Roller recommends. These show that you know the space inside and out and you won’t need to be brought up to speed.

If you’re looking at creative jobs, you might want to consider the verb designed. “This word tells me that the candidate has built something new that did not exist before,” says Amanda B. Gulino, founder of A Better Monday.

Be Open to Trial and Error

“A job seeker’s goal is to entice the recruiter or search committee member to read more and get excited about their background to elicit an interview invite,” Roller points out. “You know your resume isn’t working if you aren’t getting interviews.” If your current resume isn’t working for you, be flexible in switching it up until you find the right eye-catching combination of words and phrases.

And remember, it’s not just about the verbs. “We love to see candidates stray from ordinary statements,” Pitre says. “It’s not always just about a specific adjective or verb, but everything around it. The best candidates often understand how important it is to share their specific stories, give examples and show how and why they are good at something, rather than just stating that it’s a skill.”

More Verb Ideas

Need a little more inspiration? Here are some of our favorite action verbs to get your resume-updating wheels spinning.

Entry level and above:

Audited, Built, Collaborated, Created, Delivered, Earned, Exceeded, Generated, Identified, Improved, Minimized, Negotiated, Obtained, Outperformed, Planned, Presented, Produced, Redesigned, Reduced, Researched, Solved, Trained, Tested

Manager level and above:

Championed, Coached, Consolidated, Decreased, Enabled, Facilitated, Grew, Hired, Implemented, Instituted, Integrated, Launched, Managed, Mentored, Partnered

Executive Level:

Advised, Aligned, Cultivated, Developed, Evaluated, Founded, Guided, Motivated, Transformed

GlassDoor.com | June 18, 2018 | Posted by Julia Malacoff

Your #Career : 5 Ways to Take Your #JobSearch to the Next Level… There’s No Shortage of Great #CareerAdvice , But One of the Most Powerful Resources you can Tap is Somebody Who Recently Landed a Job Themselves.

May 15, 2018/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

For one, they’ll have a more accurate view of the labor market. (For example: Ever had a grandparent tell you that the best way to get a job is to walk right into the office and ask for one? Not exactly the case anymore.) But for another, the fact that they’ve managed to break through and score a job means that they usually have insight into how you can do the same.

To get some of these invaluable tips, we reached out to Katherine L. from Denver, who found a job on Glassdoor last summer and has been thriving at her new company. Here are five of her tips on how you can take your job search to new heights in order to land your dream role.

Tip #1: Use Job Alerts

It’s no secret that the job hunt can be a slog, so any time you can automate part of the process, you should. If you’re tired of scrolling through job listings to find the right match, you might want to create a job alert. Job alerts do the heavy lifting for you when it comes to finding the job that’s right for you. Just enter the job title you’re looking for, the location you’re targeting and your email address, and you’ll get personalized job search results delivered to your inbox daily.

“I had a saved, filtered search on Glassdoor and I got emails with jobs in travel and tourism that I might be interested in. I saw listings for my current company and thought, ‘I have to check it out — I keep getting recommended jobs from there.’ Once I did, I thought the company looked super cool,” Katherine said.

Like this Article ? Share It ! You now can easily enjoy/follow/share Today our Award Winning Articles/Blogs with Now Over 2.5 Million Growing Participates Worldwide in our various Social Media formats below:

FSC LinkedIn Network: www.linkedin.com/in/fscnetwork

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/First-Sun-Consulting-LLC-Outplacement-Services/213542315355343?sk=wall

Google+: https://plus.google.com/115673713231115398101/posts?hl=en

Twitter: Follow us @ firstsunllc

Question: Want the ‘the best/current articles/blogs on the web’ on Job Search, Resume, Advancing/Changing your Career, or simply Managing People?

Answer: Simply go to our FSC Career Blog below & type(#career, #leadership, #life) in Blog Search: https://www.firstsun.com/fsc-career-blog/

What Skill Sets do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

Continue of article:

Tip #2: Look for Jobs That Align With Your Interests

A lot of folks feel pressured to find a new job ASAP, whether out of financial need after a long period of unemployment or a desire to leave a toxic environment. But if you can take a little bit of extra time to find a job and company that you’re really passionate about — not just one that will pay the bills — it’ll likely pay off in the long run.

Katherine had always been passionate about travel and tourism, and was, in fact, on a career break traveling southeast Asia when she first started searching for jobs on Glassdoor. For her next opportunity, she became increasingly convinced that she wanted to marry her interests with her 9-to-5.

“What really drew me to my current company was the fact that I’m very passionate about travel and hospitality… We do vacation rental management, so we essentially help people earn their maximum possible vacation rental income, so it fit into my whole career curve,” Katherine said.

Tip #3: Research Everything You Can About a Company

Learning as much as you possibly can about a company before you apply will help you decide whether or not it’s right for you. Plus, research shows that nearly nine in ten hiring decision makers(88 percent) agree that an informed candidate is a quality candidate (Source: Aptitude Research Partners, 2017).

Katherine relied heavily on Glassdoor to scope out the companies she was applying to.

“Other sites may provide a job description, but I just love how Glassdoor has reviews, too. They’re very candid, and people don’t hold back. I really appreciate that — it lets you hear the good and the bad,” she said. “I felt the information I came across was very reflective of how it actually is now — I knew what I was getting myself into, rather than being thrown off guard.”

A few other things Katherine recommended looking into were benefits, company photos and, of course, salaries.

“Sometimes, I would see jobs and think, ‘Oh, that’s a really great opportunity!’ But then once I saw the salary, I realized that it actually wasn’t practical for where I am now. Rather than getting yourself all the way to the end of the process and realizing it’s not going to work for you, Glassdoor lets you set opportunities aside in the beginning,” Katherine said. “With Glassdoor, you get the actual jobs, reviews, salaries and benefits all in one spot.”

Tip #4: Discover Which Questions Interviewers Ask

One of the best features on Glassdoor is the interview reviews section. Using this tool, you can explore individual companies to see how difficult their interviews are, whether candidates have had a positive or negative experience, how often candidates tend to accept offers and even which questions recruiters and hiring managers at that company ask. For example, a recently-hired Senior Recruiter at Glassdoor reported that they were asked questions like “Tell me about a time you had to work with a difficult manager?” and “What makes you a great recruiter?”

You can also enter the name of the position you’ll be interviewing for to see which questions candidates for those roles are typically asked. Someone interviewing for an Executive Assistant position could be asked “What’s the toughest job you’ve held so far and why?” or “Describe a time when you had to manage up.”

This was a feature that Katherine made sure to leverage before heading into her job interview.

“I was definitely all over the interview reviews just so I could see what to expect and give myself an idea of what I needed to focus on,” she shared.

Tip #5: Remember — Once You’re Hired, the Work’s Not Over

Even if you nail the interview and land the job, as Katherine did, you can’t rest on your laurels just yet. All of the information you’ve gathered in the research phase and interview process should all be leveraged to help you thrive once you actually start the job. To really wow your new colleagues, take everything you’ve learned about what the expectations for the role are, what success looks like at the company and how you can most effectively collaborate with your coworkers and use it to become a star employee.

Katherine, for one, was able to put all the knowledge she gathered to good use and in just under a year, she was promoted to a new title and a new team.

“It’s neat to see how coming across my initial job on Glassdoor has led to further career opportunities at my current company,” Katherine said. “Thanks to Glassdoor, my current role is by far the best fit I’ve had in my professional career.”

GlassDoor.com | May 14, 2018 | Posted by Emily Moore