Resume YETI

How to Bounce back after losing your Job

Testimonialsfired, Get Hired, job recruiting, recruiters, Resume, Resume Advice, unemployed, unemploymentResume Yeti

Aug 2017

There’s no other way to put it: losing your job is difficult on a number of different levels. It can rattle your confidence and induce anxiety and depression. It messes with your routine; your days are no longer built around your typical work hours, and instead of basking in all that glorious “free time,” you wind up squandering it because you don’t know what to do with yourself.

The Muse has a great step-by-step article on what to do each day following the day you lost your job. The author, Nathan Tanner, details that finding someone to talk to, as well as doing some personal reflection are among the first things someone should do when they lose their job. He also mentions that you may want to take steps to file for unemployment (Career One Stop has a tool that allows you to filter by state to see how to file for unemployment). Tanner leaves off on Day 3, advising people to update their resume because, inevitably, you’ll need to find a way of sustaining yourself in the near future.

In this article, we’ll pick up where Tanner leaves off, with the positive steps you can take to get yourself back in the workforce as soon as possible and as soon as you’re ready. Before embarking on this journey, however, we can’t stress enough how important it is to take a few days off to reflect on the situation, figure out how you feel about it, and confide in a close friend who will be emotionally supportive of you and offer advice if you need it. Once you feel calm and collected and ready to start something new, there are several things you can do to get your career on track again.

The most important thing to do when you lose your job—after taking care of your wellbeing—is to figure out how best to manage and take advantage of this free time you now have. Now that you aren’t buried in work from your previous job, you’ve got some time on your hands. Think of how many times over the last years you’ve thought to yourself, “If I only had the time I would [make new business cards / update my resume / go to this skill-related event to develop my skills.” Well, now is the time to do all those things that you never had or made time for when you were employed.

1) Update your resume

You can start by setting aside a few hours over the course of two or three days to get your resume in shape. Take the time to edit previous work experiences and job descriptions to make sure they really reflect who you are and where you come from professionally. We’ve written in the past about injecting more personality into your resume and phrases that will kill your resume. Now is the time to go through your resume with a fine tooth comb and make it perfect.

2) Get your networking game on

Once you’ve got your resume looking its best, it’s time to start putting yourself out there and meeting new people in the professional world. Make some glossy new business cards and try to find some nearby networking events in your field. Networking can really take place in just about any social situation. You never know who you’ll meet or be introduced to. Alternatively, you almost certainly will be able to find a networking event near you in your field. These days it’s easier than ever to connect with people professionally, once you start looking for events geared specifically towards networking, you’ll realize just how many people share the same desire to reach out to fellow colleagues in their field. This article by Bradley Will details “10 Websites to Find the Best Local Business Networking Events” and this one on JobMob details some helpful tools for finding networking events near you.

3) Write to people on LinkedIn

If you’re not the type to send emails and messages out of the blue, contacting people you don’t know and who you’re not connected to on LinkedIn may seem like a daunting, if not far-fetched, task. However, you may be surprised to find how many people are willing to talk to you. To start out you can check out some tips on “How to Write LinkedIn Messages that Actually Get Read.” You can reach out to people you admire or those who work at organizations you may be interested in working for. Another great place to start is with your alumni network. Find people who share your alma mater and who are in your field. Reach out to them and see if you can meet them informationally. Remember that people do not get to where they are professionally without the help of those who surround them. Even if you’ve never met the person, they may be more than willing to help you out by informing you of open positions or putting in a good word when you apply, for the simple reason that they’re paying it forward. Perhaps their lucky break came when they were in a similar situation and someone helped them out. The bottom line is that you never know what will happen when you connect with someone. The worst that could happen is they’ll ignore your message or will tell you they can’t help you. But they just might be willing to share information, positions, or advice. You won’t know unless you try.

4) Apply for jobs

Once you’ve got your resume updated and you begin networking and making connections, opportunities will begin to arise. Think deeply about what aspects of your job you would like to change or improve for your next career move. Losing your previous job doesn’t have to be all bad. It can also be an opportunity to redirect your career toward a professional path on which you’ll be more satisfied and successful. Do your research and open those doors for yourself. Check out our tips for How to Get a Job in 2017 and How to find your Dream Job.

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Resume Summary Statements and How to Perfect Yours

TestimonialsGet Hired, optimize, professional profile, Resume, Resume Advice, Resume Keywords, summary statementResume Yeti

Aug 2017

Your Professional Profile is one of the first things a hiring manager sees on your resume. Before we get into its function and importance, we’ll explain what it is, and other resume keywords you’ll need to know in order to understand the Professional Profile. If you’re new to writing resumes, to job hunting, or are just unfamiliar with the most current language being used to discuss resumes, it’s a good idea to review these key terms. There are proven ways to improve your resume, but in order to utilize the nuanced advice from expert resume writers, you’ll need to become familiar with the terms they use.

First, we’ll break down the sections in the top portion of your resume. We do so more in-depth in our “Anatomy of a Perfect Resume” module, but we’ll stick to some shorter working definitions here. The Header is the first section of your resume, and it contains basic information about you: your name, contact information, city and state, and often social media links. The Professional Profile is the section just below the header.

The Professional Profile is prime real estate on your resume. That’s why it’s crucial to thoroughly understand its purpose, so you can optimize the material you place there. We liken the Professional Profile to an “elevator pitch” of your professional self to hiring managers. Imagine you walk into an elevator to the top of a skyscraper, and you realize that the hiring manager recruiting for your dream job is standing right next to you. In the 30 seconds of face time you have with that hiring manager, what aspects about yourself do you want to highlight to them? The Professional Profile offers hiring managers a highly condensed glimpse of you, probably their only opportunity to see who you are on paper before deciding whether or not it’s worth it to meet you in person.

One component of your Professional Profile is the Key Skills section, which we’ve blogged about in the past. The section that immediately precedes the Key Skills section is your Summary Statement. The Muse defines the Summary Statement as, “a few pithy and strong statements at the beginning of your resume that help summarize your skills and experience in order for a prospective employer to quickly get a sense of the value you could offer.”

We at Resume Yeti generally believe that there are two ground rules to writing a Summary Statement:

1) Less is more

A Summary Statement should not be longer than a few sentences. As this information is highly condensed, including too much of it will be overwhelming and seem superficial to the hiring manager reading your resume. As The Balance puts it, a good Summary Statement should concisely answer the question “What can this applicant offer the employer?”[LINK TO: https://www.thebalance.com/resume-profile-vs-resume-objective-2063185 ]

2) Customize your statement to the position you’re applying for

Your summary statement does not have to be the same for each job you’re applying for. Sometimes you’ll notice that elements of your statement that seem essential to highlight for one position seem superfluous for another. Additionally, you may find that certain positions will require you to be more specific in your statement. For example, take a look at these two summary statements written by the same job applicant, for two jobs in distinct industries:

Marketing/Business Development/Promotions:
“Highly accomplished, creative and multifaceted marketing and business development professional with comprehensive, managerial experience in corporate sales, promotions, advertising, operations, strategic planning and brand management. Exceptionally focused and results-oriented, supporting complex deadline driven operations with high profile clientele. Extensive background in communications and project management.”

Events and Meeting Planning:
“Highly accomplished, creative and multifaceted event management professional with comprehensive experience in the planning, operations, and sales sides of the industry. Exceptionally focused and results-oriented, supporting complex deadline driven operations with high profile clientele. Detail-oriented with experience in creating and maintaining client and vendor relationships. Extensive background in marketing, communications and project management.”

The first Summary Statement is for a position in Marketing/Business Development/Promotions, and the second is in Event and Meeting Planning. We’ll break down the differences below:

The first difference is the type of professional the applicant is. The marketing summary focuses on her versatility and her extensive experience in marketing and business development. The event planning summary focuses both on her versatility as well as her skills in operations and sales. This would be important to point out in the Summary Statement because not all applicants to event planning jobs would necessarily have that experience in sales and marketing, as this applicant does. Including it in her Summary Statement will make her stand out to hiring managers.

The second difference is how the applicant highlights her professional personality. In the marketing/business development summary, she wanted to feature her ability to focus in complex situations, how she excels even under the pressure of deadlines and high profile clientele, which would be crucial for someone in marketing or business development. In the event planning summary, she wanted to highlight her knack for details and nurturing relationships between clients and vendors, skills that would be essential for event planners.

The last difference is in how she describes her background. The two sentences are identical, with the exception of one word: “marketing.” The marketing/business development/promotions summary does not include the applicant’s background in marketing, while the event planning summary does. This is because it is assumed that an applicant applying for a job in marketing would have a background in marketing. Since the applicant would want to keep the summary as concise as possible, including the word “marketing” in this Summary Statement would be superfluous. However, in the Event Planning summary, she needed to highlight her background in marketing because, again, many applicants for a job in event planning may not have had that experience in marketing.

Now that you’ve learned more about the Professional Profile section of your resume and how to write an excellent Summary Statement, you can put your knowledge into action and begin customizing your resume. Prepare to see a difference in response from hiring managers once you implement these changes and tweaks on your resume!

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It is a well known fact that not all college graduates are able to find work in the field they studied. Many industries within today’s job market, such as finance and marketing, are overwhelmed with job seekers, with not enough positions to employ them all. Some college graduates end up taking trade jobs in other fields apart from that which they studied, but many take low-wage, part time jobs in order to earn an income while they continue to search for work in their field.

In a 2014 report for the New York Federal Reserve Bank titled, “Are Recent College Graduates Finding Good Jobs?” authors Jaison R. Abel, Richard Deitz, and Yaqin Su explore the rate of “underemployment” among college graduates. To examine this sample group of people, the authors write, “we construct two groups of non-college jobs: what we refer to as good non-college jobs and low-wage jobs. Good non-college jobs consist of those occupations—for example, electrician, dental hygienist, or mechanic—that paid an average wage of around $45,000 per year in 2012. While these jobs do not require a bachelor’s degree, they tend to be career oriented, relatively skilled, and fairly well compensated. At the other end of the spectrum, low-wage jobs paid an average wage below $25,000 per year in 2012, and include occupations such as bartender, food server, and cashier.” Since 2000, the number of college graduates in the “good non-college jobs” category has fallen sharply, while the number of college graduates working in the “low-wage part time jobs” category has increased significantly. This is problematic because more than likely, these graduates are facing staggering student debt in the wake of their studies, and part time, non-career oriented, low-wage work will not be substantial enough to begin paying off those loans.

Yet, a lack of these “good non-college jobs” examined in the study by the N.Y. Federal Reserve Bank is not the reason why college graduates take on low-wage jobs instead. In fact, there are vast numbers of these well-paid “blue collar” jobs that are hiring, it’s just that the positions are going unfilled. The Bureau of Labor Statistics defines Blue Collar and Service Occupations as those jobs that include, “precision production, craft, and repair occupations; machine operators and inspectors; transportation and moving occupations; handlers, equipment cleaners, helpers, and laborers; and service occupations.” In other words, blue collar workers can be considered as a class of laborers who earn wages and perform tasks usually associated with skilled trades and manual labor. While a certification or training course may be a necessity for many blue collar trades, an expensive 4-year liberal arts degree is not.

Last month on Marketplace, Kai Ryssdal interviewed Prashant Gopal on high-paying blue collar job positions that are going unfilled. Amidst a discussion on six-figure construction jobs at the company 84 Lumber, Ryssdal and Gopal touched on an important aspect of shifting social attitudes regarding blue collar jobs. Gopal says, “Everybody’s kind of pushing high school kids to go to college. I mean, the whole system used to be more of a track system until the early ’80s where you could work in what was called shop. You should learn about how to fix a car, or to be a plumber, or all those sorts of things, and that vanished. I mean, you have classes here or there, but it’s not really a program. So people come out of high school, most try college, half of them drop out. And they’re left with nothing to show for it but debt.”

Gopal articulates a valid reason as to why these “good non-college” or blue collar jobs are going unfilled. In general, the focus on early education in trade skills (high school courses like woodworking, home repairs/improvement, and shop) has tapered off. While many factors may attribute to the decline in shop classes and education in skilled trades, perhaps the one that is driving skilled labor education into extinction is that it is not a requirement to be admitted into college. For example, in “The Death Of Shop Class And America’s Skilled Workforce,” writer Tara Brown examines the dwindling number of shop classes in California. She points out that, “Shop classes are being eliminated from California schools due to the University of California/California State ‘a-g’ requirements.” These are essentially college prerequisites that high school students must complete before entering college, so that they can participate fully and have a shared curricular foundation with their classmates. While History/Social Science, English, Math, Laboratory Science, Foreign Language, and Visual and Performing Arts are among the California a-g requirements, Shop is not. Brown wrote, in 2012, that, “Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) with 660,000 students in K-12 has already eliminated 90% of shop classes.” While Brown’s focus was on one district in California, schools across the United States are also in the midst of eliminating their shop programs in order to place more emphasis on areas that are required for acceptance to college.

This trend in college preparation is a response to a shift in higher educational values. American academic institutions change their core focuses to mirror the structure and demands of the government, in order to churn out college graduates who are ready for work in today’s market. In an article for New Labor Forum, Sheila Slaughter and Gary Rhoades write that, “U.S. public higher education assigns markets central social value. Public colleges and universities emphasize that they support corporate competitiveness through their major role in the global, knowledge-based economy. They stress their role in training advanced students for professional positions close to the technoscience core of knowledge economies, in fostering research that creates high-tech products and processes for corporations, and in preparing undergraduate and community college students to be malleable workers who will fit into (and be retrained for) new information-based jobs and workplaces.” U.S. academic institutions are moving to formalize education in all areas that could be considered college majors. Students can get a degree in anything ranging from the traditional majors like Finance, Math, or Literature, but they can also pursue formal study of more abstract topics ranging from fine arts to human rights to “Keepin’ it Real” or “Happiness Studies.”

Yet the government structure and university system are not entirely to blame for the avalanche of emphasis that is being placed on formal academic studies for college acceptance and the formalization of of areas that were not previously considered to be academic fields. Parents encourage their children to pursue college degrees and achieve higher levels of education, so that they can, theoretically, obtain higher-paying jobs. But the myth that a student’s level of education is always correlated to their income is deceiving. There are simply not enough positions in the job market to catch up with the exponentially increasing numbers of highly educated college graduates that complete their studies each year. Even with an expensive liberal arts degree in English Literature or Communications, there are very few options for a solid career that a student can build upon after they graduate. The temporary jobs that are available, such as a job as an independent contractor at a literary agency or an internship at an art gallery or nonprofit, will not be enough to pay off student debt or begin saving money for later in life. While these students may have once been able to turn to a career path involving trade skills they were exposed to in high school, a student who was never exposed to a shop, home improvement, or woodworking program may just find themselves stuck.

Both parents and early education institutions must rethink their hesitance to teach skilled trades to youth in America. The decline in the number of high school shop programs is troubling because it signals that there will be a lack of skilled workers to execute the jobs that make up the fabric of society. The number of unfilled jobs in skilled trades teaches us that we should never undervalue the importance of learning how things work and how to fix things from a young age. Blue collar jobs are essential to the nation’s industries, and there is a lot of money to be made in pursuing a career in one of the skilled trades. It’s time to stop thinking of blue collar labor as “underemployment” for college graduates, or as “lesser” employment for non-college graduates.

College Grads: Searching for Your Dream Job?

Testimonialsbest career, best job, dream career, dream job, dress for success, Get Hired, happiness at work, perfect jobResume Yeti

Aug 2017

Many college graduates enter the workforce with the misconception that they will quickly find and be hired to do their dream job. Finding a good job is a long process, and finding a job you can do with both purpose and passion can be an even longer process, with many cumulative contributing factors. Your workplace experience, practice in different fields, and personal growth and maturation all play into what you consider to be your ideal job. We at Resume Yeti do not recommend that job hunters hold out until they find their dream job. Instead, we recommend that job seekers maintain as broad a range of job choices so as to potentially have more than one option when finally deciding to accept a job offer. We encourage those who are already employed, but still searching for their dream job, to constantly reassess their current position, future goals, and ever-changing interests at every stage of their career. Your dream job right out of college will most likely take on a different form than your dream job later in your career. People change, their goals change, and so does the job market.

Apart from identifying a job that you’re passionate about, based on where you are in life and what your goals are, there are several other factors at play while determining what you might consider your “dream job.” In this article, we’ll break down a couple different ways to help you establish what your dream job is, and how you can go about pursuing it.

What do you like?

It may seem quite obvious that your dream job will be something you “like,” but what exactly is it that you like about the work you do? We recommend that you begin your search by making a list of what you have liked about every work experience you’ve ever had. For those who are just entering the workforce post graduation, consider any college jobs you may have had, as well as tasks and assignments you had to carry out for classes.

When you’re working, what kind of workflow do you enjoy the most? Do you enjoy having autonomy to complete your projects, or would you rather work closely with a supervisor or team from start to finish? Do you prefer to work alone or with colleagues? Do you like to interact with the public (i.e. customers/clients) during your workday)? What kind of work setting allows you to be happiest and most productive? Do you like having a flexible schedule or sticking to routine business hours when you work? Answer these questions and any more you can come up with based on your work experiences. Think about the times you were the most successful and the happiest at work. What workplace/process/situational factors contributed to your success and happiness. This exercise will yield a list of not only your best work environment, but also your unique strengths as a worker. Maybe you had never considered being a freelancer before, but if you find that you enjoy autonomy and a flexible schedule, perhaps it’s an avenue you could pursue. Maybe you’re in HR or customer service, but you really enjoy the instances that require technology or workflow problem solving. You might be better off working in IT or even in a management position in your current field.

This article on The Muse analyzes the benefits of playing into your strengths while searching for a job you truly love. Using data from Gallup surveys and the example of a sales-related job, the writer points out that a salesperson who realizes that their daily encounters with rejection really bother them, may ultimately be happier and more successful in a position that is sales-related—thus utilizing the salesperson’s skill set—but that is removed from the grind of making sales pitches. The writer proposes an alternative position in sales operations that may resolve the salesperson’s discontent with their current position in sales. Thus, by isolating what the worker liked and didn’t like about their job, it is possible to imagine a solution for the worker in which they are both happier and more successful in their work.

Where and how do you find your dream job?

A salesperson that might be better off in sales operations is a theoretical example to emphasize the importance of identifying your strengths and factors for success in your work. The real world is usually more complicated than that. And finding your dream job certainly may be more challenging than switching to another position in the same field, perhaps even in the same company. Thus, once you’ve made your list of what you like about working, it’s time to consider how and where you might find a job that encompasses as many of the items on the list as possible.

Late last year, we published a step-by-step guide to how to get a job in 2017. Perhaps the most important step in these guidelines is to keep a job search notebook or spreadsheet. We recommend including fields for company name, company website, important contacts at the company, and the status of your application. When you are searching for a job that meets very specific requirements that you choose (i.e. your dream job), you can add a field in your spreadsheet that makes a note of which positions and companies meet your various requirements. What will result is a list of jobs that visually points to the ones that meet the most aspects of what you consider to be your dream job.

In the Forbes article, “4 Practical Ways To Find Your Life’s Passion And A Career You Love,” writer Deena Varshavskaya makes several excellent points on how to prevent yourself from skipping over what could be your dream job. Among them are, “Don’t make money your primary consideration” and “Don’t set an artificial ceiling for yourself.” If you try to prioritize your success, your happiness, and your personal professional growth in your job search, you may find that in the past you’ve limited yourself from exploring jobs or career paths that were not as lucrative or as professionally recognized as the one you ultimately followed, the one that now makes you unhappy.

Most people think of the concept of “deal breakers,” with regards to relationships. However, the concept applies to finding a job, too. Deal breakers in relationships are dangerous because they lay down negative standards that an individual must “pass” in order for pursuit of a relationship to be considered acceptable. You end up scrutinizing every person you meet, searching for their flaws, rather than allowing their good qualities to shine through to begin with. Many people say they missed out on love and friendships because they set too many impossible “deal breaker” standards and ultimately ended up isolating themselves. The same concept applies with jobs. If you’re having trouble finding your dream job, then perhaps you need to reevaluate your expectations for salary, hours, location, workflow, company hierarchy, etc. When searching for your dream job, try to prioritize your happiness at work, rather than any deal breakers you have outlined for your career.

While these tips may seem simplistic, the point we want to underscore is that discovering and pursuing your dream job will rely heavily on your own introspection. Ultimately, by routinely evaluating your work-related processes, goals, and wellbeing, you’ll be able to detect when you need to make changes, what you need to change, and how to go about implementing them.

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