Resume YETI

If you have ever been hesitant about using LinkedIn, allow the statistics to erase your apprehension. It’s no myth that LinkedIn has revolutionized the contemporary workforce, and has provided proof of the powerful interconnectedness of professional networks. It’s estimated that 106 million unique users visit LinkedIn each month, and that every second two new users join the network. It’s not just the number of users that’s increasing, either. From 2016 to 2017, the use of LinkedIn company pages grew from 24% to 57%. If those facts aren’t enough to make you consider creating a LinkedIn profile or using yours more, consider that as of now, 71% of professionals feel that LinkedIn is a credible source for professional content. That means that if you aren’t using LinkedIn, you should be.

Using statistics as a guide, we’ll discuss the ways that you can optimize your LinkedIn use and profile, or create one if you have not done so yet.

Pro Tip: Get Visual

FACT: LinkedIn profiles with professional photos get 21 times more profile views, and 36 times more messages.

If that’s not reason enough to amp up the visuals on your LinkedIn account, I don’t know what is! The simple act of adding a professional headshot increases your visibility by 21 times. On top of that, you’ll be much more likely to receive messages from contacts.

Pro Tip: Flaunt your Skills, literally

FACT: Listing your skills on your LinkedIn profile results in 13 times more profile views than if skills are left unlisted.

Recently, we blogged about the importance of having a Key Skills section on your resume, and how listing your skills can help you rank higher in Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS). Turns out it’s also proven that including key skills on your LinkedIn profile can increase your profile’s viewer traffic by up to 13 times. Remember, the more people see your profile, the more of a chance you’ll have of making productive connections.

Pro Tip: Talk the talk, so walk the walk

FACT: There are 19.7 million Slideshares uploaded to LinkedIn.

Slideshares are LinkedIn’s way of showcasing work portfolios and your past presentations (in the form of PowerPoint, PDF, Keynote, and OpenDocument). We’ve already mentioned how simply adding a profile picture to give your name a face can increase your visibility and interconnectedness on LinkedIn. Apply that same logic to adding visible examples of all the great things you write in your profile. Adding samples of your work makes your project descriptions that much more credible.

Pro Tip: Get Someone to back you up

Fact: There have been over 10 billion LinkedIn endorsements

Endorsements are LinkedIn’s way of adding third party verification of your professional successes, talents and work ethic. People you’ve worked with can testify to how great you are. What better way to make other professionals want to connect with you and share opportunities with you than to have others give testament to your successes?

Pro Tip: Get Creative

FACT: The most overused LinkedIn profile word continues to be “Motivated” – which also topped 2014 and 2015.

We’ve blogged about phrases that will kill your resume. Among them are clichéd phrases that, when you think about them, seem very vague and don’t really describe anything about you. The same philosophy goes with LinkedIn language. If you use the word “motivated” in your profile, take it out and replace it with something else. Same thing goes for any other cliché words and catchphrases.

In closing, we hope you’ve now decided that you need to create a LinkedIn profile. If you’re looking for a job, know that LinkedIn now has 3 million active job listings on the platform. Out of LinkedIn’s 467 million users, you are bound to make some incredible connections that pave the golden way forward in your career.

All statistics sourced from “LinkedIn By The Numbers: 2017 Statistics.”

How to Talk about your Weaknesses in Job Interviews

TestimonialsFind job, Get Hired, Get Interview, Interview, Interview Questions, Job, prepare for interview, Preparing for an Interview, Resume, strengths and weaknessesResume Yeti

Jun 2017

“What’s your biggest weakness?” is one of the most difficult questions to answer truthfully and genuinely in a job interview. It’s one of the most anticipated interview questions; there’s a strong chance you’ll be asked about your weaknesses. Yet many people feel that it’s uncomfortable and near impossible to answer this question. Why is it so hard to talk about our weaknesses?

No one wants to readily highlight their flaws to a hiring manager. But there is another motive behind inquiring about weaknesses. What the hiring manager really wants is to gauge is whether you’re aware of your own work habits and tendencies that could use some improvement. They also want to see if you know how to take the initiative to address your weaknesses.

Instead of viewing this question as the one where you throw yourself under the bus in front of your potential employer, think of it as an opportunity to show both your maturity and desire to grow as an employee. The key is to state what you believe your “weakness” to be, and then immediately acknowledge that you know how to improve upon it, and that when given any opportunity, you take the necessary steps to correct it.

Below are some examples of common workplace “weaknesses,” and Resume Yeti’s Pro Tips on how to improve these answers if the question comes up in your interview.

Your Weakness: “Sometimes I have been late on assignments because I take on too many projects at once.”

Pro Tip: I’ve always been a great multi-tasker, but sometimes I bite off more than I can chew. There are occasions when I misjudge the amount of time I need to complete a project, and that can throw off my whole workflow. I am working on my time management, though. Once I realized that I could juggle multiple projects, I started building in buffer time to my schedule so that if anything should come up during the course of a project, I have ample time to address the issue and still complete the project in time for the deadline.

Your weakness: “I can be disorganized”

Pro Tip: As a creative person, it’s always been hard for me to stay organized. I’ve been working on my organizational skills by implementing color coding in my calendars and files as well as exhaustive To-Do lists. These strategies are successful because they play into my creativity, and I’ve found that the secret to staying organized is staying consistent.

Your weakness: “I’m bad at public speaking”

Pro Tip: I think to a certain extent, everyone struggles with speaking or giving a presentation in front of a room full of people. Public speaking has always been a skill I’d like to improve, and I know one of the best ways to do that is to engage in it more often. Another way to improve is to make sure that I know the material inside and out. Each time I’m assigned with a presentation or a task that involves public speaking, instead of worrying about the speaking aspect, I pour all my energy into making sure I have everything practiced and memorized. I feel with each presentation my public speaking skills improve.

Your weakness: “I’m a procrastinator”

Pro Tip: When I was a student, I used to procrastinate on assignments. After college, this habit carried over into my work life too. However, I realized very quickly that procrastination hindered my workflow and I figured out a system to budget my time accordingly so that each project could be finished not just on time, but before the deadline.

Your weakness: “I prefer to work on my own because when I work with a team, there are always problems with the project’s final outcome.”

Pro Tip: Delegating tasks on a collaborative project has always been difficult. Yet teamwork is such a crucial part of any workplace and any workflow. To make delegating various aspects of the project easier, I started making spreadsheets to visually divide up the workflow. This visual aid helps to envision the breakdown of responsibilities on the project and also helps avoid confusion if collaborators have questions about what their specific tasks are. It also leaves room to include extra tasks so that if anyone finishes their section earlier than the other collaborators, they will know the next item on the agenda to push the project workflow forward.

Your weakness: “I’m a perfectionist”

Pro Tip: I strive to ensure that every detail on a given project is as close to perfect as I can make it. I know that perfectionism often comes at a price; to agonize over each small detail of a project can also put the project behind schedule because of the extra time it takes to go over everything multiple times. As I’ve grown as an employee, I’ve worked out a system so that I’m nearly satisfied with details the first time around, so I only must check once more before submitting the project to be sure that it’s perfect.

Out of these examples, the most important common element is that none of these explanations of a “weakness” are negative. The trick is to express a skill that you’ve been working on or you need to work on in the future, and explain how you plan to go about doing that.

Remember, the best way to have a successful job interview is to practice and prepare for any questions you anticipate. Make a list of questions you think you’ll be asked, and practice answering them in front of the mirror or with a friend. Another great resource is to check www.glassdoor.com/ and see if anyone has listed the interview questions they were asked at the company you’ll be interviewing for.

Image source:#WOCinTechChat

5 Phrases that will kill your Resume (And how to replace them)

TestimonialsFunctional Resume, improve resume, Job, Job Application, perfect resume, Resume, Resume Advice, Resume Builder, Resume TipsResume Yeti

May 2017

Employers are often shocked at how many job applicants include outdated language on their resume, regardless of their age or level of career experience. In today’s hyper-competitive job market, you cannot allow employers’ first impression of you to be shaped by archaic words, writing styles, or catchphrases. Luckily, these buzzwords are easy to spot, if you know what to look for. What follows is a list of ResumeYeti’s Top 5 outdated resume phrases, with our Pro Tips on how to replace them if they appear on yours.

1) Personal Pronouns

Using the pronouns “I,” “my,” “me,” etc. comes off as overly informal and thus, unprofessional. Employers automatically assume that everything on your resume is related to you and your experience. Think about the lessons you learned early on about writing academic or scientific essays. The most authoritative voice is the one that remains objective. The same goes for resume language.

Pro Tip: Find ways to express your career experiences without pronouns. The phrase “My responsibilities included training my interns to use the digital asset manager,” could be reworked to be, “Trained a group of 5 interns to use Portfolio Digital Asset Manager.” The new sentence is preferred because it is direct and objective, and it also quantifies an element of your job (resume readers love this), AND it specifies a computer program/system you are skilled in using.

2) Address

You should not include your full address in the “contact” section of your resume. In the past, the address was typically included as a formal gesture, but today, your personal address is seen as unnecessary information that visually clutters the top of your resume.

Pro Tip: DO include your phone number and email address. You should use dashes, periods, or parentheses (for the area code) to format your phone number. When you list your e-mail, be sure to use a professional address with your name, rather than a silly account that does not identify you.

3) Exceedingly formal or wordy language

The flip side of making your resume seem too informal by using personal pronouns would be making your resume seem so extraneously proper that it comes off as silly. Some examples of this language are phrases like “responsible for,” “duties included,” “oversight of,” and “references available upon request.” Apart from taking up precious space on your resume document, these phrases complicate the details that you are trying to convey to employers. Today, advertisers are lucky if they catch our attention for 5 whole seconds before a YouTube video plays. If your resume language is complicated and verbose, you can count on it being buried in the pile and overshadowed by other applicants.

Pro Tip: Be direct and concise. If you’ve gotten to a point where you’re stuck and you don’t know where to start, have a friend look it over. Instruct them to edit every sentence as if each one had a word limit. Every character counts. Try to pare down your language so that only the most crucial points remain. Think of it this way: for every overly wordy phrase you remove, you can use a bit of the extra space to specify or quantify a detail of your experience (thus improving your resume).

4) Vague Expressions

What do you think of when you hear the phrases, “out-of-the-box,” “dynamic,” “win-win,” or “team player?” Having a hard time envisioning something meaningful? Employers reading your resume will have a hard time, too. Clichéd phrases like these are vague. They emit a gimmicky, sales pitch-y tone, and should be left off your resume.

Pro Tip: If you do spot these phrases on your resume, zoom in on the context in which you used them. What exactly is it that you are trying to express about yourself? If you describe yourself as an “out-of-the-box, dynamic team player,” try to imagine a time when your innovative ideas or actions were successful in a team setting. Did the success occur because you were resourceful? Enterprising? Efficient? Assertive? Isolate the clichés and either eliminate them or find a more expressive way to convey what you mean.

5) Everyday, general skills

It is assumed that most adults in the U.S. know how to use Microsoft Word. You do not need to assure employers (and waste space on your resume) of your proficiency in this common program. Other “skills” that are frequently listed on resumes are problem solving and being detail oriented.

Pro Tip: These are qualities that are essential not only to being an employee, but also to just being a human. Life is problem solving. If you pay attention to details, you’re more likely to get what you want or avoid situations where precautions were in the fine print. You’ll need to show, rather than tell, your future employer that you possess these qualities. To begin with, show your employer how detail oriented you are by spell checking your resume and cover letter. Go the extra mile by handing in your gorgeously designed ResumeYeti resume, complete with matching letterhead for your cover letter, and business cards to make a great first impression.

3 Resume Old Wives Tales Debunked!

TestimonialsApplicant Tracking System, Application, Chronological Resume, Functional Resume, Job, Photo on Resume, Resume, Resume Advice, Resume Builder, Resume Keywords, Resume Photo, Resume Templates, Resume Tips, White Font, White Font on ResumeResume Yeti

Feb 2017

Writing your resume is no easy feat, especially with all the resume rumors flying around out there. Watch out for resume advice that can actually hinder your chances of getting the job!

Three common misconceptions that will lead you astray and likely get your resume trashed include:

Using white-font-keywords on your resume to get past an applicant tracking system,

Using a functional resume format, and

Placing a photo on your resume.