Have you been stumped on how to explain why you left your last job during an interview? In today's episode, J.T. O'Donnell shares her advice on how to correctly answer this question without sounding overly negative.
December 13, 2018
Learn how to land a career you love
Yup, these shenanigans are sure going on. But, then, these employers complain that they cannot find good recruits. Well, sure: these systems seem perfect to ensure they never find anyone.
But truth be told, not all organizations out there are resorting to these failed systems. Many people read resumes every day the good old-fashioned way, using the sensors Mother Nature intended us to use: a pair of eyeballs.
That should be a fun process. It is anything but. Because some candidates seem to be hell-bent on ensuring they cause your eyes to bleed.
Here are a few ways they use to do it.
Write Your Resume And Cover Letter Like Egyptian Hieroglyphics!
textPhoto by Jeremy Zero on UnsplashSome resumes and cover letters seem to be designed with information security in mind: they are self-ciphering documents.
Sure, some of these texts may be Shakespearian in quality. But they come in small fonts with one block of text. Paragraphs are for chumps, superfluous adjectives abound, and commas with following spaces are a scarce resource.
Wait! Didn't you say you wanted to read about me? So then, what are you complaining about?
Well, perhaps you should put yourself in a recruiter's shoes for a second. They get bombarded with TONS of resumes. Because, you know, sending a resume is arch-easy. Press one button, and voilĂ .
So, in front of information overload, what do most people do? If they find what they are looking for quickly, they keep on reading. Otherwise, they don't.
Now, imagine this. You show up to a trade show. You are hunting for a solution to a specific problem.
It turns out, on the trade show floor, two companies can answer your need.
Company A has a pretty bland booth with no keywords in sight, only a beautiful logo (which happens to mean nothing to you). So you grab a leaflet while the salesperson is looking somewhere else, and you see a long, drab (but technically correct) description of their solution.
Company B has a smaller logo, sure, but keywords posted on the walls. So you know at a glance what they are about. And their leaflets have bullet points with a crisp, concise message.
Question: who is more likely to get your business?
In fact, it is quite possible you will not even find your way to Company A.
Your resume and cover letter are just like the walls of a booth and leaflets. They are speaking volumes in the absence of the salesperson—that would be YOU.
The Aspirin-Grade Resume: It Will (Not) Fix Any Ailment An Employer May Have
People are complex beings. It is IMPOSSIBLE for a document, even the snazziest of resumes, to capture the entirety of their essence.
Fair, right?
Now, employers understand this. That is why they don't recruit without interviews.
But again, in our day of age when anyone can fire a resume at a click of a button, for free, they usually get too many resumes.
So, they pick and choose. They cannot interview everyone. The folks doing the interviews often have other duties; interviewing is something they do on the side. They simply don't have the bandwidth to interview everyone!
How do they pick? Well, predictably enough, based on their needs. They peruse resumes in search of a few requirements. And if they find evidence that the person may fit the bill, they choose to invite him or her to an interview.
Now, we all know this is anything but a scientific process. And truth be told, some recruiting managers are doing a bad job. They choose people strictly based on experience instead of potential (just watch my video above).
But then, some candidates don't help their cause by sending a generic resume.
Wait! Customizing a resume? Isn't that a time-consuming process?
It can be. But there are tricks around it. You don't need to customize 100% of your resume. Have an intro section listing keywords, and ensure these match the requirements of the job.
Of course, there must be some evidence you can genuinely claim these skills. Don't outright lie. But do put forward some arguments in favor of your candidacy.
Or don't. And let other candidates win. It's up to you.
Adopt A Call Center Approach To Resumes (i.e. It's A Numbers Game!)
Finding a job by yelling to the market
Photo by Icons8 Team on UnsplashWhile looking for a new occupation, you need to decide what type of individual you are. Are you looking for "just a job"—any will do—or are you trying to build a career?
If any job will do, then I guess the call center strategy of resume and cover letter manufacturing will do. You know what I am talking about: these folks calling us on the phone reading a script as FAST as they can in the hopes of closing a sale, not caring one bit about actually solving a problem we may have.
In their world, sales is a number's game. So is your job search. You will be successful by MASSIVELY inundating recruiters with bland, off-the-shelf resumes and cover letters that are generic enough they don't mean much to employers.
Better yet, don't even bother writing a cover letter—hey, it is all about "efficiency," right?
I guess this is great for certain types of positions. Just not the ones I want or recruit for.
The other way is to understand that resumes and cover letters are what marketers call sales collaterals, such as websites, leaflets, and slides. They either help salespeople during the sales process and, in some cases (like websites), they are your virtual sales force, attracting prospects into a high-grade sales funnel.
That strategy is more deliberate, and as a result, it requires more time.
But it is the only way I know of to get career opportunities, not "just a job."
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If your office hasn't made team-building activities a priority in the workplace, don't worry. With more sunshine and nicer weather, summer is a great time to bond with your co-workers.
Here are five fun summer work activities that will bring your office together.
1. Ice Cream Party
Everyone loves ice cream! While it may not be the most unique suggestion for a fun workplace activity, an ice cream party doesn't require a lot of planning (or funds) and it's always guaranteed to be a hit.
On a hot day, bring the office together with some sweet treats. Sit outside and soak up the rays while cooling off with a cone. To make sure no one feels left out, take note of any allergies or sensitivities your colleagues may have and offer enough safe options.
The great thing about this fun workplace activity is that it can easily be something you do regularly. Make it a monthly tradition to celebrate your co-workers and all of their hard work!
2. Office Bake Off
One of the best things about summer is the fresh food! Have fun and bond with your co-workers with an office bake off (or cook off) using whatever is in season. Whether it's from a local farm stand or a personal garden, this activity will not only make you feel connected to your colleagues but to your whole community.
Want to make it more interesting? Make it a competition! Encourage everyone to bake or cook something, and then have people vote on their favorite dish or dessert. The winner could get a gift card, an extra vacation day, or just plain old bragging rights. You can even set some rules for everyone to follow—depending on how competitive your co-workers are.
Lots of fresh summer food and a fun competition to bring the office together? Sign us up!
3. BBQ And Lawn Activities
Keeping with the food trend, a classic BBQ is the perfect activity to get to know your co-workers better. You could either do this at work or at someone's house and have everyone bring a dish and their favorite lawn games.
If you decide a weekend day is the best time for a summer work party or BBQ, you can also invite family members to join in on the fun. While this type of activity requires more planning and resources than most other summer activities, it's also probably the best way to bond with your co-workers outside of the office.
Think you might want to host a work party this summer? Don't hesitate to send out your invites! Your co-workers won't want to miss out on it.
4. Photo Contest
Most people take a vacation during the summer months. So, why not use that as an opportunity to start a photo contest?
Whether it's pictures of animals, family, nature, beautiful cities and landscapes, or adventures, have your co-workers submit a photo or two from their vacations this summer for a chance to win the office photo contest. Winners could receive a monetary prize or (with their permission) have their photo posted somewhere in the office or on the company website.
A fun activity like this lets employees show off their creative side, and it might even compel them to travel more and use up those vacation days they've been hoarding all year.
5. Start A Company-Wide Team Sport
No other activity can help you bond with your co-workers more than playing a team sport together. If your company doesn't already have a few sports teams you could join, start one yourself!
Common team sports like softball/baseball, soccer, basketball, and even dodgeball are all great options. Not only will playing on a team sport with your co-workers strengthen camaraderie, but the physical activity will help everyone stay in shape, which might in turn help job performance and employee health. Depending on how big your company is, you could form different teams for each department and play against each other, or battle it out against other teams in your community.
Sound like fun? Grab your sneakers and gym bag and get your team together today! You won't regret it.
Summer is the perfect time to bond with your co-workers over seasonal activities and fun competitions. If your office could use some fun team-building activities to boost morale, try one of the five summer activities above. Your teams will be stronger because of it!
Need 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!
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Struggling to find the right job?
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So, what are the most confusing words on a resume? You've probably come across these tricky words in your resume writing...
Compound Modifiers
A compound modifier is simply a combination of words that you place hyphens between and use as a modifier to describe something. The reason we're discussing compound modifiers is because they happen to be some of the biggest problems on resumes, and I believe they are used more on resumes than anywhere else in writing. I say it's a problem because of the tremendous number of usage mistakes.
If you review a lot of resumes, it quickly becomes apparent that many people don't understand how to use compound modifiers correctly. Some people throw a hyphen in between certain words no matter where they fall in the sentence, and others universally ignore hyphens.
The name gives a clue as to when and how to use them properly. A compound modifier is a string of two or more words that modify a noun. They usually consist of adjectives, but can also contain adverbs and nouns. Examples of compound modifiers are "hands-on manager" or "high-volume manufacturing."
It's Not All Bad News
If you're confused by all of this grammar talk, don't worry; there is an upside. Most HR departments don't seem to mind mistakes made with compound modifiers. Perhaps it's because they don't know the rules of when to use them and when not to. That's understandable. The rules seem to change depending on who you ask and where you work.
There are a few general rules though, and they're easy to learn. If you follow even the primary one, you should be okay.
Basic Rules
​Hyphenate a compound modifier when it comes before a noun, and don't hyphenate it when it comes after a noun. Here are common examples found on resumes:
- Hands-on
- High-volume
- High-precision
- World-class
- Close-tolerance
- Long-term
- Leading-edge
- Self-motivated (but not highly motivated—see exceptions)
Examples
Here are some examples of compound modifiers in a sentence:
- The couple was in a long-term relationship. (Long-term is hyphenated because it comes before the noun. Long-term functions as a compound adjective describing the word relationship.)
- He was a hands-on manager.
- The product was produced in high volume. (No hyphen because high volume comes after the noun.)
- We need experience with high-volume, close-tolerance manufacturing, and we prefer someone who is self motivated. (Note that high-volume and close-tolerance are hyphenated, and self motivated is not.)
Sometimes the missing hyphen changes the meaning of what you're trying to say. Consider the following sentence, with and without the hyphen:
- My cousin is a high school teacher.
- My cousin is a high-school teacher.
Exceptions
As always, especially with the English language, there are exceptions to the rules. I'm only going to list the ones that come up on resumes. If you're interested in digging deeper into the others, consult a good style guide or one of the many wonderful grammar sites on the internet.
- Don't hyphenate if you use the word very, or if you use an adverb ending in -ly.
- Don't hyphenate if one of the words is a single letter.
- So you would write highly motivated manager, or very intense negotiations, with no hyphens.
- And you would write class A license with no hyphens.
Bottom Line
Resumes are critical tools for securing an interview. Making a mistake with a compound modifier isn't the worst you can do, by far, but doing it right gives you another chance to shine and stand out from the crowd.
It doesn't take long for you to learn how to do them right, or to find someone who does. The decision is up to you. You can go with the crowd and make mistakes and hope it doesn't matter. Or, you can get it done right, and show them you're serious about this opportunity.
Need more help with your resume?
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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"Companies have moved away from the 'command and control' decision-making style," says Marie Holmstrom, the Charlotte, N.C.-based director of talent management and organization alignment with Towers Watson. "Managing day-to-day decisions takes away [leaders'] perspective and capacity to focus. Leaders must lead through others. You don't accomplish that only with technical skills. You have to have [those skills], but to achieve the next level of success, you have to be able to lead through others."
Research from HBR states, "Once people reach the C-suite, technical and functional expertise matters less than leadership skills and a strong grasp of business fundamentals." In a nutshell, soft skills.
Female traits are winning.
There are a lot of experts jumping on the bandwagon of the evolving leadership model. Soft skills have always been at the heart of great leadership. With the research that John Gerzema and Michael D'Antoniove published in their recent book, we need to take note that two-thirds of survey respondents felt that "the world would be a better place if men thought more like women."
I always associate the softer side with female traits. However, I can't tell you how many times I have been told I wasn't "warm and fuzzy" enough as an HR leader. That's insulting to say the least, as I am sure a man in a similar position would not be given that feedback. However, I did embody loyalty and intuitiveness—both feminine traits and in the category of soft skills.
I am relieved of this renewed focus on the softer side. It allows women to lead as an authentic woman, and men to exude some of their innate qualities that otherwise might stay hidden.
Here are three soft skills every leader should be demonstrating on a daily basis to raise their game, lift up their teams, and help their organizations reach their goals.
1. Strong Communication Skills
Whether in speaking or in writing, communicating up, down, and across is always important. How you communicate is even more crucial.
Those who know how to articulate their point with influence, directness, and compassion are demonstrating a real ability to raise their organization's game.
2. The Ability To Influence
In order to influence your customers, vendors, board of directors, team, and other management, you need to be savvy. Influencing takes a soft touch, time to understand your audience, and the ability to bring them to your side of the table.
3. Humility
Yes, I put this in the top three. Humility can be defined as the quality or state of being humble; a modest opinion of one's own importance or rank.
In today's environment, leading with power and authority, albeit effective at times, are going by the wayside. Leaving your ego at the door and allowing others to lead with you is paramount to the future growth of your team and organization.
This, my friends, is humility.
There's nothing warm and fuzzy about these skills. They're just the softer side of the skills we all need to be a game-changing leader. If you want to be a great leader, focus on developing and practicing these three skills on the job today. The success of your team depends on it!
Want to land a leadership role? We can help!
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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As a certified and award-winning resume writer, I face this dilemma on a daily basis. Most resumes contain a lot of "fat" in the form of run-on sentences, unwieldy skill descriptions, lackluster branding, and unnecessary details. By trimming these problem areas, your resume can become a lean, mean, brand communication machine.
But isn't it better to include more content so you can weave in more keywords throughout your resume? No, actually.
When it comes to resume writing, less is generally more. Here's why:
- Recruiters, HR professionals, and hiring managers are, like most of us, overworked and inundated with information overload. Crisp, lean sentences filled with the right details will stand out more in a sea of candidates.
- Too many keywords in a document can actually be a negative thing because it may make it appear that you are stuffing your document for the sole purpose of ranking high in resume searches. The database systems, or Applicant Tracking Systems, that recruiters, companies, and job boards use to store and analyze incoming resumes are sophisticated enough to identify which documents have the right range of keywords specified in applicant searches—enough to meet their needs but not too much to raise eyebrows. In other words, keyword density is important, but too many keywords is a red flag.
- Important details stand out more when there is less text, especially if those details have been whittled and shaped wisely. Clogging up your resume with unnecessary information and vague details impairs its ability to communicate your brand in the four to five seconds it is screened by humans.
Let's take a look at a few length targets to give you an idea where your resume is out of balance. While there are few hard and fast resume rules, these are general guidelines that most highly experienced and credentialed writers and career coaches follow.
Resume & Content Length Guidelines
Resume Length
Most recruiters expect resumes to be two to three pages in length, with a strong preference for two pages in North America. While this varies from recruiter to recruiter, most like to see two-page resumes for job seekers with up to 10-15 years of experience. For those with considerably more experience, a three-page resume may be necessary to capture and present all relevant details.
One-Page Resume Rule
There is (and never has been) a one-page-only resume rule, though. Those with limited experience may find that length most appropriate for their needs.
Career Summaries
Career summary statements have shortened since the 2008 recession and now trend at three to six lines of text. In mid-career, mid-management, and executive resumes, it is often appropriate to add branding content to this section of the resume, though generally such material is best restricted to up to the first half of the document's first page. Work It Daily recommends ditching the career summary entirely and focusing on a headline instead—a short summary of the problem you solve that highlights your personal brand.
Core Competencies
Core competency sections are best limited to six to eight skills. At Work It Daily, we call this the "Experience Summary," which is a list of any skills and requirements you possess that are needed for a certain job and are relevant to the position you're applying for.
Bullets Per Role
Too many bulleted statements in a resume overwhelm your reader. Limit bullets to five per role if possible, but don't list fewer than three, either.
Bullet Length
Ideally, bullets should be limited to two lines of space. If additional critical details must be included, consider separating content into different bullets.
Amount of Work History to Include
Recruiters typically are most interested in the last 10-15 years of your experience, so this is the amount of experience you will want to profile on your resume. Older relevant experience can be briefly summarized in your "Additional Experience" section at the end of your resume. In most cases, any irrelevant work experience can be safely eliminated altogether. The usual exception is recent college grads and young professionals just starting out their careers who already have limited work experience to quantify and show off.
Resume Shortening Strategies
1. Say More with Less
Cut out words that aren't needed and delete words that are repeated. When you're fighting a two-line bullet length, every word counts.
2. Leverage Action Verbs
While all verbs convey action of some sort, some contain more energy and action than others. It may be accurate to say you wrote the company's five-year plan, for example, but it's more powerful to say that you strategized, authored, and executed the company's first-ever five-year plan.
3. Eliminate Passive Language
Passive language on a resume masks the true role you played in the task you're describing. The sentence, "I was exposed to different cultures, people, and challenges" is weaker than, "Gained cross-functional and cross-cultural exposure to 5 ethnicities in 12 countries," for example.
4. Be Specific
Avoid vague descriptors and phrases such as "a variety of," "many," "others," and "successfully." Replace them with specific details that add value and meaning to the text.
5. Use Numbers Whenever Possible
Numbers talk, so it's imperative to use them in resumes to quantify key achievements and context information. Don't tell your reader that you exceeded sales targets. Show them how much you surpassed goals year-over-year. Every bullet point under your "Work History" section should contain at least one number. If you only follow one tip in this article, this should be the one.
6. Reformat
Many old-style resumes and built-in MS Word templates don't use the most effective format to get a hiring manager's attention. In your resume, make sure you're using a clean, 11-18 pt. font (Arial, Calibri). Also, don't shrink your margins to fit more text on a page. This will sacrifice white space and make your resume harder to read. Finally, place your titles and employer names on one line if you held only one role with the company, and eradicate widows and orphans (stray paragraph lines and single words on a line by themselves).
7. Categorize
Some content can be categorized or sub-categorized to convey information in more powerful ways. Subdividing a long series of bullets, say, into three to four categories that emphasize the cross-functionality of your skill set will not only make your achievements easier to read, but it will also showcase your multi-function brand while adding industry-specific keywords to the resume.
8. Contextualize
Give your readers the right quality and type of detail to help them understand the full scope of your impact. For instance, if you turned around an operation, that's a critical accomplishment to include. But including before and after context details will automatically strengthen the presentation. How much money was the business losing per month or year prior to your tenure? How much profit or revenue was it generating by the time you left?
9. Focus on Results
In real estate, it's location, location, location that is critical; in resumes, it's achievements, achievements, achievements. Numerically quantified statements communicate volumes of information in fewer words while conveying your accomplishment in specific, measurable terms. Here's a sentence from a client's original resume: "Managed multimillion dollars business and IT initiatives from inception to implementation to increase productivity, reduce operational cost, and improve service quality by collaborating with IT staff, C-level executives, business users, and external healthcare service providers." Here's a revamp that shortens the sentence from 35 to 25 words while adding content to dramatically improve its results focus: "Ramped productivity 15%, cut operational costs $7M, and strengthened service quality 14%, leading $25M to $50M cross-functional business and IT initiatives from inception to rollout." Notice that the original bullet spanned three lines while the revamp needs just two.
10. Ditch Extraneous Details
Choose carefully which details you include and how you do so. For example, in the original client sentence included in the prior bullet, you'll find a list of folks this person collaborated with in his position. The results he achieved are more central to his brand so I substituted the word "cross-functional" to cover my client's list of four groups that required 11 words to describe. A distinction that underlines many of the above points is to recognize the difference between resume content that is important versus that which is critical to include.
There simply isn't room for all of your skills and entire work history on a resume, so sooner or later you have to choose which important details are must-haves. By following the 10 tips above, you'll know exactly what to include and omit so you can successfully condense your resume without losing value.
Need more help with your resume?
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.
