With Internet and mobile business applications evolving at a virtually exponential rate, how will you demonstrate you have the knowledge it takes to land a managerial job? Fortunately, as information systems are evolving, so are their user-friendliness. Just keep cool. Don't let the intricacies of field service scheduling or business optimization get to your head. There's a way. A fundamental skill of any potential manager's resume is basic computer literacy. This often just means knowing how to use the Microsoft or Apple operating systems, and how to navigate commonly used software like Adobe Acrobat and the Microsoft Office Suite. These are industry standards. So, when someone asks you for a text document, basically what they mean is: "Can you send this to me in Microsoft Word format?" And there's a good reason why. This software has enormous utility. Microsoft Excel, for example, is used for everything from field service scheduling to inventory tracking. None of these applications are very hard to learn either. If you're not familiar with these applications already, you may want to consider spending the short amount of time it takes to learn how to use them. Since marketing today depends so much on the Internet and mobile devices, it's good to know about these, too. Common blog sites for businesses, particularly WordPress.org, are very easy to use and provide a variety of sleek, professional-looking design templates. Basic blog accounts are also typically free. Being familiar with sites like WordPress looks good on your resume. Not to mention, you can use your blog as a way of promoting your personal brand. If you don't already have one, you may consider investing in a good quality smartphone as well, particularly if you plan on working in marketing or if your business requires any kind of field service management. These days, many businesses depend on mobile devices for minute-to-minute operations. Information platforms and software such as Sales Cloud are now becoming ubiquitous tools for managing customer relations and business operations while in the field. These tools are offered today by companies such as Salesforce.com or ClickSoftware.com. Most companies offer similar tools for decentralized operations like field service management. However, they present these tools in a variety of ways, which often makes the difference. Granted, these operations in themselves are extremely complex. However, decentralized management software and other utilities have removed this problem, so it's easy for you to familiarize yourself with them. Not only is decentralized business software easy to learn, it's also extremely useful for your resume. You don't have to be an expert at understanding the math and theory that goes into implementing field service scheduling and business optimization to be a good manager. You just have to know the right applications and web tools. These are designed to automatically perform all the hard stuff (so you don't have to). Having these basic tools is like having the expertise of a dozen whiz kids and statisticians at your beck and call. It'll also help you land your ideal job. Photo Credit: Shutterstock
