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May 06, 2011
Learn how to land a career you love
Apart from just the positive feeling of sowing good actions into a cause you believe in and the impact on the lives of the recipients, volunteering can also help your career.
Here are six ways volunteering can boost your career:
1. It Can Fuel Your Passion
If your current job is not your ideal work, volunteering for something you enjoy is an alternative source of the passion you can't get from your job right now.
2. You Can Practice New Skills
No opportunity in your current job to stretch or learn something new? Find a volunteer opportunity that allows you to explore new roles and skills you'd like to develop. You can add this experience to your resume under "Additional Experience."
3. Volunteer Your Way Into A Potential Job
Maybe you don't have the experience to earn the paid position yet. Signing on as a volunteer gives you a chance to learn the organization, build relationships there, and show you have what it takes to succeed in a job.
4. Volunteering Is An Opportunity To Expand Your Network
Not only will you meet people who support the same cause, you will find people that have personal and professional connections that can help you—especially if you are looking for a job.
5. Exposure To New Ways Of Doing Things
Seeing how another organization runs things, and being exposed to different ways of managing, brainstorming, solving problems, can provide a fresh way to look at the challenges you face in your paid position.
6. You Can Use It As A Team Building Experience
This one goes beyond just you. Do you lead or work with a team? Finding a group volunteering opportunity can be a low-cost way to do good and re-establish positive connections with your team.
Looking for volunteer opportunities? Here are a few links to jump-start your search:
Volunteering is a great way to boost your career while giving back to your community. The next time you're looking for a career growth opportunity, remember these benefits of volunteering and get involved!
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Struggling to find the right job?
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This post was originally published at an earlier date.
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Many job seekers feel lost when writing their resume. What should you include on it? How much information is enough? What do hiring managers really want to see?
If any of these questions have crossed your mind, don't worry. Here's the one thing you need to include on your resume if you want to stand out to employers and land a job.
The Secret To Landing A Job In 2021? Quantifiable Accomplishments On Your Resume!
The most important thing to include on your resume is quantifiable accomplishments. Quantify your work experience, and put those numbers and figures under your "Work History" section in your resume.
Not sure how to quantify your work history?
Follow these 3 tips to effectively quantify your work history on your resume:
1. Add numbers to your bullet points
You should have at least one number for each bullet point you include on your resume. If you want to show your depth of experience in certain areas, you need to show those numbers. By doing this, an employer can see how much experience you have and how often you use a certain skill. So, it's really important to add as many numbers as you can to these bullet points.
Go through an average day at work and list all of your responsibilities and tasks and ask yourself, "Okay, so if this is what I was doing every day, how often was I doing it? How much did I do? How many people did I work with?" By asking yourself these types of questions, you'll be able to pull out those numbers and add that depth of experience to your bullet points.
2. Include 3-7 bullet points per role
For each role you list on your resume, you should write three to seven of these quantified bullet points to showcase the skill sets you have that are related to the position you're applying for. Any more than that, and you'll likely overwhelm the reader. The hiring manager may think you're overqualified, or that your experience is all over the place, or that you wouldn't be happy in the job.
So, be careful how much you put on your resume because too little text sends a message, but so does too much text. You need just the right amount of information, and three to seven bullet points is the sweet spot.
3. Choose accomplishments that support your relevant hard skills
You need to be intentional with what you're choosing to put on your resume to make sure you're supporting your specialty, that service you say you provide to employers as a business-of-one. The key is to only choose the accomplishments that relate to the skill sets you're showcasing in the top fold of your resume, the skill sets that directly support your specialty.
Make sure you're intentionally pulling these things and including them on your resume as opposed to listing every accomplishment you've ever had in your career. This is going to be very important in terms of showcasing that depth of experience, because you don't want hiring managers to get distracted. You don't want them focusing on an accomplishment that doesn't support a relevant skill set. Make it clear what your specialty is, and how you've provided value to employers with those skill sets in the past.
Why Quantifying Your Work History Is Essential
Quantifying your work history is usually the hardest part of writing a resume for job seekers. It's simply just not something we learn in school. Recruiters and hiring managers don't want to know how you did your job or what your tasks were. All they care about are the results.
What did you make happen as a result of your work? How did you add value? When you quantify your work history, a recruiter can look at the hiring manager and say, "This person has done this, this, and this. And here are the numbers to prove it." That's why your resume needs to be quantified. It's proof that you're a qualified job candidate and a valuable potential employee.
What Does "Quantifying Your Work History" Look Like?
There is always a way to quantify your work experience. You may think that you have nothing to quantify on your resume, but you do.
If this is your first time trying to quantify your work history and you can't think of anything that counts as a quantifiable accomplishment, write out what you did at a specific job, circle every noun, and ask yourself, "Can I quantify that?"
For example, a receptionist may not think they have any quantifiable accomplishments or any type of work history that can be quantified. But when they asked themselves the right questions, they realized they accomplished a lot more than they thought, and they could assign numbers to these accomplishments. They asked...
- "How many people work at my company?"
- "How many calls did I take a day?"
- "How many phone lines were on the system?"
The result? A few bullet points listing their quantifiable work experience.
- Receptionist for a 500-person firm
- Handled over 100 phone calls a day
- Managed a 12-line phone system
You can absolutely quantify your work experience. You will find a way. Circle every noun and quantify them. Look for percentages. If you can't come up with exact numbers, you can use your best guess, erring on the conservative side. What was the percentage of growth? What was the percentage of savings? What were the revenues? There are always numbers. You just have to look for them.
In order to land a job in 2021, your resume must have quantifiable accomplishments. It may be difficult at first, but once you get the hang of quantifying your work history, you'll never go back. Quantify your work history on your resume and start seeing results in your job search today!
Need more help with your resume? Attend Work It Daily's Resume & LinkedIn Bootcamp!
Join Work It Daily's founder and CEO, J.T. O'Donnell, and head career coach, Ariella Coombs on Tuesday, July 27th, 1pm-3:30pm ET and learn everything you need to know in order to optimize your resume and LinkedIn profile, for just $5!
Interested? Sign up here!
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If you feel as though you've been mistreated by your employer and they are in breach of your employment contract, you can take action. With the right knowledge and the proper foresight, you should never need to worry about being swindled by your boss or company.
It's a sad fact, but most workers are simply not aware of their contractual rights. They very rarely take the time to read through their employment contracts. This is a dramatic oversight that is easily rectified by employees simply taking the time to read what they are agreeing to.
What Is Classified As A Breach Of Contract?
As with any formal contracts, contracts of employment are legally binding documents with the express purpose of establishing a written agreement between you and your employer. If any of the terms of that contract are broken, then it's considered a breach of contract.
The problems arise, however, when the breaches are against terms that were not written down as they are far more difficult to prove. For this reason, it is always advisable that you make sure every term you negotiate with your employer is written down in your contract. It might seem a little paranoid at the time but it's better to be safe than sorry.
What Can I Do If My Contract Has Been Breached?
If you think your employer is in breach of your contract, first check the hard copy over and make absolutely sure. There could be clauses written in "legalese" that you may not understand (indeed, that's essentially the point of legalese) so you might need to hire a lawyer or ask a friend from a legal profession to help. Then, you should take the problem to your employer and attempt to sort it out face-to-face. If this fails, you may be forced to take legal action. Common breaches of contract that you could be able to claim compensation for include (but are not limited to):
- A non-payment of wages or travel expenses owed
- A non-payment of holiday or sick pay that was negotiated in your employment contract
- Changes to the terms and conditions of your contract that you didn't sign off on (For example, if a term of your contract is that you are given a company car and the car is taken away from you.)
- A non-payment during your "notice period" (the period between handing in your notice and leaving a job)
Remember that not all of the terms of your employment will be written into your employment contract. Some of the terms of your right by law and some of the terms such as work hours and the job description itself might be found on the initial job advertisement, so remember not to delete or throw that away! Pay slips, staff handbooks, and other particulars can also be used as legally binding documents in the case of a contractual breach.
Loopholes
It's rarely straightforward when you're dealing with matters such as these and, as you would expect, there are numerous commonly held misconceptions and "loopholes" that employers can and will use in order to legitimize their contractual breach. You may (for example) think that it is not in your employer's power to force you to relocate against your will but there could be something called a "mobility clause" in your contract that states your employer has the right to move you and avoid paying you if you refuse.
There are also workarounds that they'll use when it comes to bonuses and countless other specifics, so make sure that you have at least a vague knowledge of what you're signing before you sign it. Really, it's as simple as looking before you sign, something far too few people appear willing to do.
If you're not familiar with the terms of your employment contract, get on it! Familiarizing yourself with it will make dealing with your employer far less stressful and, if you're really clever, you might even be able to renegotiate terms in your favor! Stranger things have happened in business.
Need more help with your career?
Check out our FREE resources page and Live Events Calendar.
Or, join our career growth club today and get access to one-on-one career coaching, resume and cover letter reviews, online tutorials, and unlimited networking opportunities—all in your back pocket!
If you want FREE career advice in your inbox, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily Dose!
Struggling to find the right job?
Check out Work It Daily's Incredible Companies page to see snapshots of companies hiring. Work It Daily also highlights job opportunities on a daily basis on TikTok.
This post was originally published at an earlier date.
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In 2021, there are a few things you should pay extra attention to on your LinkedIn profile. If you're looking for a job this year, make sure your LinkedIn profile includes the following three things.
1. An Optimized Headline
Don't let your LinkedIn headline default to your job title and your job title only. Optimize it by packing your LinkedIn headline with intentional keywords, too. Incorporate your top four to five hard skill sets that directly support the service you provide, and then separate each skill with a vertical line. This will make it very easy for recruiters and your connections to see where you add value.
Why does this strategy optimize your LinkedIn profile? Well, keywords increase your chances of showing up in search results. Because recruiters search for skill sets, those are technically your keywords. The more skill sets you have (and the better your LinkedIn profile is optimized) the higher you'll rank in relevant search results. If you're not incorporating the right keywords, you'll have a hard time standing out against the competition. You might not even show up in a search result at all.
It's also never a good idea to put "looking for new opportunities" or "currently unemployed" in your LinkedIn headline. Your headline is prime real estate. It's a valuable piece of your profile. Don't waste space including these phrases. It won't help your job search, and it'll only make you look desperate.
So, to optimize your LinkedIn profile, you can keep your job title, but make sure to include some of your top skill sets that support your job title, too.
2. A Brief (But Compelling) "About" Section
Your "About" section, formerly known as the summary section, is not where you write an epic novel about your career story or where you talk about yourself in the third person. It's where you write a brief, yet compelling story about yourself in the first person. You'll also want to include your personal branding statement here.
After your personal branding statement, make a keyword-filled list of your top 10 skills and a list of any technologies/software you're proficient in at the bottom of your "About" section. These should be vertical lists because that will allow recruiters to use them as checklists. They'll clearly see what your skills are and have a good idea whether you're qualified for a certain position or not.
Like in your resume, it's important to leverage white space in your "About" section. Paragraphs don't get read. Recruiters skim LinkedIn profiles, and if they see something they like, then they'll go back and read a little bit more. White space makes it easier to read your "About" section, so avoid big blocks of text at all costs.
To catch an employer's eye, follow this format in your "About" section. It should prompt them to review the rest of your LinkedIn profile, which brings us to your recommendations.
3. Recommendations
When you're looking for a job, what you're really doing is marketing yourself to an employer, and LinkedIn recommendations are a great way to sell yourself.
LinkedIn recommendations are essentially testimonials to your character and ability. They're a testament from a credible source saying that you're able to do what you claim you can. This is why they're essential to your LinkedIn profile.
If you don't have any recommendations on LinkedIn yet, don't worry. You can get recommendations using two different strategies: proactive recommendation seeking or passive recommendation seeking. The proactive strategy involves reaching out and asking someone to recommend you. The passive strategy involves recommending someone, at which point LinkedIn asks them to recommend you back (this way is actually a bit more effective).
Having recommendations on your LinkedIn profile makes you so much more attractive to recruiters and hiring managers. If other people are recommending you for the service you provide as a business-of-one, you must be an incredibly valuable employee, someone who could help a company reach their goals. Make that impression with lots of recommendations on your LinkedIn profile.
If you're looking for a job in 2021, you can't afford to have an incomplete LinkedIn profile. So, don't forget to add these three things to yours!
Need more help with your LinkedIn profile? Attend Work It Daily's Resume & LinkedIn Bootcamp!
Join Work It Daily's founder and CEO, J.T. O'Donnell, and head career coach, Ariella Coombs on Tuesday, July 27th, 1pm-3:30pm ET and learn everything you need to know in order to optimize your resume and LinkedIn profile, for just $5!
Interested? Sign up here!
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Why Do Your Brand Values Matter?
Brand values, when taken seriously by executives, are important because they influence how consumers and employees view and engage with your brand. Here are 12 ways that brand values can positively impact your brand:
- Lets Your Audience Know What To Expect From Your Brand
- Builds A Memorable Brand
- Improves Brand Consistency
- Drives Brand Authenticity & Uniqueness
- Builds A Connection With Your Customers
- Helps Attract Customers Who Share The Same Values
- Encourages Customer Retention - ensuring you will continue to get their sales for years to come
- Leads To Higher ROI & Customer Loyalty
- Increases Sales & Awareness
- Sets Your Business Apart From The Competition
- Attracts & Retains Top Talent - 47% of active job seekers cite company culture as their driving reason for looking for work
- Boosts Employee Motivation & Engagement - 76% of employees believe that well-defined business goals help cultivate a positive work culture
How To Develop Your Brand Values
The goal is to have your brand values reflect the reality of who you are as a business. It's easy to use brand values like "customer service," "quality," "integrity," and "teamwork," but keep in mind these are overused values. You want to stand out from the crowd and differentiate yourself.
While figuring out your unique core values can be challenging and time-consuming, it's critical to do the work upfront to reap the benefits on the back end. Here is my 4-step method for developing your core brand values.
Brands As Inspiration
Look at brands you love (and hate! I'll get to that later...) for inspiration. Draw from your personal experiences to list what made them so special. The goal is to capture the following...
- Think about what resonates with you and this brand.
- How do you feel when interacting with this brand?
- Have you purchased from this brand before? If so, what was the experience like?
For any brand where you have had a negative experience, it's important to capture that and identify how that altered your perception of the brand and your future purchases with that brand.
With all of this information, see if you can identify any consistent themes, qualities, experiences, and/or values that emerge that can help guide the development of your brand values.
Research
Gather all past consumer research and customer feedback that the company has had in the last two to three years. Pull together and analyze the following:
- Customer reviews/feedback
- Social media comments
- Live chat sessions/support
- Recorded sales calls
- Online community forum conversations
- Customer service call feedback
- Polls and surveys
- Focus groups
- Quantitative research/testing
Once this data has been analyzed, look for consistent themes, qualities, experiences, and/or values that emerge that can help guide the development of your brand values.
Brainstorm
Gather a team of senior leaders, key stakeholders (i.e. founders, board members, investors, suppliers, customers), and/or employees. You should only include those individuals who truly understand why you are in business, not what your business is. There's a difference.
Get a moderator to run this brainstorm. The moderator...
- Facilitates the discussion
- Remains neutral during discussions
- Has the ability to control group politics
- Is the administrator: welcomes/intros, keeps time, delegates duties, keeps everyone on task, etc.
- Establishes a trusting relationship with participants
- Encourages all members to participate
- Is a good decision-maker
As a group, start brainstorming your brand values. List them up around the room for everyone to see. Here are a few ideas to get your brainstorming started:
- List of 600 core values to get you started: Templates
- Questions to ask the team:
- What do you value most about your brand?
- What do you think your brand stands for?
- What values do you appreciate that are exhibited among your current employees?
- What's important about the way you run your business?
Once you have your exhaustive list developed, you're ready to start narrowing it down to the top three to five. Give people colored stickered dots that represent their top 1 through 5 choices. Have everyone go around the room and put their colored dots next to their top five brand value choices (i.e. first choice represents red, second choice represents green, etc.).
Once you have your top three to five brand values, compile them, share them with the team, and sit with them for a while. It's important to see if the company is living these brand values. You may need to go back and make some adjustments as a team.
Make Unique
If you want your brand to stand out from the competition, it's essential to develop unique brand values. Utilize the tips above to draw on your brand's DNA as you begin to develop your core values. Here are four additional tips to ensure your brand values have the intended effect:
- Be specific: Be sure your core values are clear and specific.
- Prompt action: Use verbs to prompt action.
- Short phrases: Easier to recall and more likely to trigger a response.
- Multisensory branding: Leverage as many of the senses as possible to communicate your brand values (i.e. music, video, sound, visuals, etc.). Raja Rajamannar has a great book on Quantum Marketing that talks about this.
In today's marketplace, it's not enough to be good at what you do—you have to be exceptional! There are a ton of competitors out there who are great, and they are chopping at your heels. To be exceptional, you need to spend the time and effort developing your brand values. Show your audience exactly who you are, what you stand for, and why you are unique. You've got this!
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