Smart Ways to Invest in Your Job Search

Smart Ways to Invest in Your Job SearchSmart Ways to Invest in Your Job Search1Serious job seekers understand that finding the perfect job requires more than occasionally Googling writing job opportunities and calling it a day. If you really want 2019 to be the year you land a great job, consider investing more strategically in your job search with some of the following ideas.Sign up for a job search site.A really great job search site- like - can take a lot of the effort out of your search by matching you with vetted jobs in areas that interest you. With multiple levels of pricing and membership opportunities, can help you find and apply for great jobs, as well as create a personalized portfolio with your resume and work samples to attract employers. Expert job search tips and other resources on the site will also help you create an even more effective search.SIGN UP FOR Get some career coaching.If youve been searching for a while and you just cant seem to land the job youre lookin g for, some career coaching might help. Career coaches can help you define and achieve your professional objectives based on your past experiences and future goals.In fact, people with FlexJob memberships are now eligible for discounted career coaching as one of the additional perks of joining.Have a professional look over your resume.Even copy editors need a little, well, copy editing, from time to time. Even if youve had friends and family look over your resume in the past, it might be worth hiring a professional resume writer to give yours a once-over to make aya everything looks neat and is formatted correctly, and to be sure there arent any glaring typos or other issues.Take a class.If its less about your ability to search for a job and more about your experience and accolades, you might consider taking a class or online course in a subject that will set your resume ahead of the others. Taking a class might be one of the more expensive ways to invest in your job search, but if it helps you land that gig, it will be well worth it in the end. Try doing some research to understand which skills and traits are most coveted in the positions youre interested in, and then see which courses can help you learn them.Join (or create) a professionals group.Networking is an easy way to get the word out to like-minded career folk that youre interested and open to new job opportunities. Checking out local networking events is a great way to get started, but growing your own intimate network might be an even better way to stay in touch with people in your industry who might be able to help you find a job.Finding a new job can be a stressful time, but if you put some of these systems into place, youll at least know youre doing everything you can to maximize your job search effort.

6 Steps You Need to Do to Create a Successful Team

6 Steps You Need to Do to Create a Successful Team6 Steps You Need to Do to Create a Successful TeamMany times when youre hired or promoted to a leadership role, the gruppe is already there. You have to adapt your ideas and plans to fit the knowledge, skills, and abilities of the existing gruppe. But, sometimes, you get to create your own kollektiv. This can happen on special projects when youre pulling people from different departments or when you are creating a new department. If youre in the situation where you getto create a team from scratch(or have the opportunity to add headcount to an existing group), heres how to make the best team possible. Steps in Putting a Work Team Together 1. Clearly identify the task at hand. If your task is nebulous, you will have a tough time knowing what skills you need to find. Youre likely tempted to jump right in and hire people with the general skills that fit your overall department. (I need marketing people I need creative people) But to paraphrase an old adage, hire in haste, repent at leisure. If you start out with the wrong people, youll regret it. 2. Identify the skills needed to complete the project. You need to identify the soft skills as well as the hard skills you need. Will the employee need to communicate results and progress to senior management? Are there skills that you need that arent going to be obvious to you without deeply thinking through the issue at hand? For instance, if youre putting together a team to implement a new software system, you obviously need system designers, programmers, and project managers. But, you also need a person who can talk to the end users to get a clear understanding of their true needs. You need a trainer who understands the technical side of the implementation and can explain it to the non-techy people. If you know you need super smart and independent workers, you know that you also need a person who can bring those independent workers together. Of course, you do. (Tha ts generally the manager or team leaders job, but knowing your own limitations is critical to team building success.) 3. Identify the people. If you want to build an internal team, you have advantages and disadvantages. The advantages are that you already know the people from whom you are choosing. You know their strengths and their weaknesses. You know who is good at technical activities. You know who is creative. You know who is whiny. You know who can sell ice cubes in a blizzard. The disadvantages are that youve got to pull the team together from your existing staff members, so you cant fix any of the potential team members weaknesses that already exist. You have to deal with the politics of pulling someone from another groups staff. You cant ignore the fact that you can damage relationships if you steal too many of the best people from other departments. Additionally, you may know that John is the best possible person, but John has no interest in being on your team or Johns man ager wont let him join. You may find pulling together an internal team super frustrating. If you have to hire from the outside, youve got to think long and hard about budgets. Sometimes youre tempted to throw all of your money into the superstar but then you have to hire entry-level people for all the other positions. They may not balance out your superstar. Other times, you may think that the best path is to hire cheap help and get as many people as possible for the smallest salaries possible. This doesnt work either. While you have to work within your budget, you may want to hire a superstar, or you may need a whole bunch of worker bees. Give this careful consideration. when you select your team members 4. Hire in the right order. Dont hire the administrative assistant first. You may think, Okay, Ill get this out of the way. But, theadmins job is to help the rest of the team and support them. If you hire this person first, you need to find additional people whom she can work with, instead of the other way around. Start with your most senior person and work down. You want your most senior person to help you with the additional hiring- either internally or externally. 5. Be honest in your hiring. Dont just extol the virtues of working on this team. You need to state the challenges honestly. Well implement a new software system. You will work hard and put in long hours. Well experience pushback from senior managers and I will fight for the team, but it will be difficult. In this way, youll help staff members know what to expect. Dont lie and say the teams task is a bed of roses unless you really think it will be. 6. Remember to manage the team. Once you get your team together, youve got to manage it. Great teams seldomrun well without a great leader. Thats your job. Make sure you work to make the team cohesive and hard working. Dont ask more of them than you ask of yourself. If you do all of this, youll have a great team and a successful project. More About Team Building How to Build Powerfully Successful Work Teams12 Tips for Team BuildingHow to Build a Teamwork CultureThe 5 Teams Every Organization Needs - Suzanne Lucas is a freelance writer who spent 10 years in corporate menschengerecht resources, where she hired, fired, managed the numbers, and double-checked with the lawyers.

5 Simple Steps to Customizing your Resume

5 Simple Steps to Customizing your Resume5 Simple Steps to Customizing your Resume5 Simple Steps to Customizing Your Resume for Each JobYour resume is your resume, right?You may think that once youve edited and tweaked your resume to get the best possible finished product, youre done. Just add a nifty cover letter and ship it out to all those prospective jobs and wait for the interview requests to start rolling in.But then they dont. Your resume is solid. Whats the problem?While your resume may be smartly put together, it doesnt speak to any one specific job. Consider how many applicants each job gets on a daily basis. How does your resume stand out from the crowd?It may binnenseem like a lot of extra work, but taking the time and effort to customize your resume for each job that you apply for is well worth your time and effort. TWEET Heres 5 simple steps to customizing a resume and making it jump out of the slush pile for your dream job.1. Dont lie.Lets establish this right off the bat. Customizing a resume for a job isnt the same as embellishing your credentials. If the job posting says theyre looking for a person with expert level skills in Microsoft Photoshop and you dont really use that program, dont add it to your resume. More often than not, lying or embellishing your resume in such a manner leads to disaster. Think about it. If you get hired based on skills you dont actually have to perform tasks you probably dont know how to do, how is that going to work out?Instead, customizing your resume is about really looking at the job you want and emphasizing your skills that best fit what theyre looking for in an applicant and downplaying those things that may not be as relevant.Tip Think of customizing a resume as dressing up your resume for an interview. You want to wear the right clothes that bildschirm you fit with the company, not a wig because you think they want a redhead.2. Optimize for keywords.It may be less common than it was a few years ago, but man y companies still use applicant tracking systems (ATS) to scan resumes for keywords. This system is a way for companies to weed through the large quantity of applicants by triggering certain keywords or traits theyre looking for in their next hire. The downside to this practice is that excellent candidates can get missed because they used slightly different terminology.How do you avoid being weeded out when youre a great fit for the job? Easy. Look closely at the job posting that intrigued you in the first place. Notice the verbiage they use throughout. Then, go over your resume and see where you may be able to tailor your resume to insert a few of those keywords into your job history.For instance, if a Public Relations job is looking for people with innovative ideas for marketing and media relations and your resume talks about the way you created a new system for integrating social media with existing marketing efforts, you have an easy swap. Take out a new and put in an innovative . Even if the hiring company doesnt use an ATS to screen resumes, theyll be tuned into those keywords that they advertised in the job posting.Tip Dont go overboard. If your resume looks like a mirrored response to the job posting, its too obvious. Youre trying to highlight your best qualifications. Too many matches and theyll think youre embellishing.3. Update that objective bewertung.The objective statement is a thing of the past. Instead, swap it for a professional summary that isnt about what you want in your career, but instead about what you can bring to the job. Its smart to update this part for each job because in some cases, it may be the only thing they read. If you cant capture their interest in your professional summary, they may not bother with the rest of your resume. Its like reading the back cover of a book to see if youd like it.Again, you dont want to lie and say youre looking for career that will allow you to travel the world if you really would prefer to stay clos e to home. That leads to a bad fit down the road. Think about what it was in their job posting that intrigued you the most. Is it the job title or the chance for advancement? Be realistic about how this job would fit your career goals and then highlight those goals in your newly customized value statement.Tip Make sure that your professional summary discusses goals beyond just the current position. fruchtwein employers want to see candidates that have a career path in mind.4. De-clutter your resume.If your overall objective is to highlight the career moves and accomplishments on your resume that best fit the position you are applying for, it makes sense to clear away some of the clutter right? Eliminate or minimize older jobs that may have little to no relevance for the desired position. Even on more recent jobs, keep the parts you want them to see and trim away some of the rest.You want your resume to be clear and concise and customized beautifully for the hiring manager who sees i t. That means that clearing away the non-important features (that may be very valid for your next job application) need to clear the way so your main accomplishments can really shine.Tip Keep your original resume stored and clearly marked somewhere safe. You dont want to lose valuable information during this process. Think of it as your starting canvas.5. Go beyond the job description.Once youve captured the job description and the verbiage they like to use, head to the company website to get a feel for the company as a whole. Are there certain types of projects they focus on more than others? Do they heavily support any charities or local community events? Look for reasons why you might be a good fit with this company beyond the job description and work it into your resume if possible.Again, dont pretend to embrace a charity just because they do. Thats not cool. But, if they sponsor Breast Cancer Awareness events and youve participated in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day Breast Cancer Walk , add that in your resume. If you see that theyve worked closely with local kids sports and youve coached or volunteered, get it in there. Not only could this help your customized resume rise to the top of the pile, its great conversation fodder for that interview.Tip Remember, sometimes there are reasons why youd be a good fit for a company and position that have nothing to do with your previous work experience. Volunteering, parenting, and hobbies create valuable experiences.Why go through all of this work when you already have a resume? You dont have to if you dont want to. If youre happy throwing one resume at 20 different jobs, thats fine. But, by finding three or four jobs that you really want and customizing your resume for each one, you maximize your chances of landing at least an interview. In the end, its all about a great combination of you, your abilities, a great position, and a company that youll enjoy working for every day. Thats worth a little extra effort.Want to se e how your resume stacks up? Try out our free critique today