Dear Annemarie:

I was in Public Relations for seven years and then transitioned into Human Resources Management. How can I incorporate that experience with my Human Resources experience? If I list every job, my resume will be three pages or more. Also, no one wants to see a job from 28 years ago, I hear.

– Jodie F.

Hi Jodie,

This is a great question and will depend on how you intend to use your new resume. Remember, your resume is a marketing document that should showcase relevant experience and accomplishments to the specific job to which you are applying. Prior experience that does not relate to the position should not be included, especially if it dates back many years.

I am assuming that your intention is to remain within the HR field so you will want to keep the focus of your professional profile and employment within this area. Your recent experience and accomplishments are related to the HR field and will be of most value to the prospective employer, so these should be highlighted in your document.

From the information you provide, I am also assuming you have been in the HR field for approximately 21 years, which is quite a considerable amount of time. The timeline that is generally recommended in a resume is around 10-15 years maximum as this is generally going to be the most relevant to your current goal. So there is no need to reflect each and every position you have held within your resume, particularly not from 28 years ago.

You could also consider identifying the last 10-15 years of employment within the professional experience section and conclude by incorporating a brief statement (of one or two sentences) that summarises previous employment without specific dates or company details.

All the best!

Annemarie.

Employers are now more than ever placing greater emphasis on a candidate’s employability skills than they are on a candidate’s grades in the selection process. While Australian employers have been following this principle for some time – interestingly international employers (who were, up until some time ago, focused primarily on grades) now too are far more interested in a candidate’s employability skills than just their grades alone. So students beware – if you think top grades alone are going to guarantee you a role, you could be sadly mistaken. 

The Australian Bureau of Statistics early this year stated that youth unemployment levels had risen to 24%. This means that all students should be implementing sound career management strategies whilst studying to ensure they are able to differentiate themselves within a competitive market.  

And, according to the feedback I’ve been receiving, being able to demonstrate employability and transferable skills is critical and will allow a graduate to have the upper hand in the job market.

So what are employability skills and how can you develop these?

The Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST), the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) and the Business Council of Australia (BCA) have developed the following list of employability skills, which can also be referred to as ’soft skills’:

- Initiative

- Communication

- Teamwork

- Technology

- Problem Solving

- Self Management

- Planning

- Learning

While studying it is important to continue developing your employability skills. Here is a list of activities you can consider to increase these important skills:

- Voluntary work – even if the work is not necessarily in your field of study.

- Part time/casual work – again, either in your field of study or any other environment that will allow you to demonstrate development and growth of the above-mentioned skills.

- Join school groups, societies, committees and any extracurricular activities and ensure you are an active participant in their events.

This information is extremely valuable when developing your personal marketing document – your résumé. The fact that you will probably have limited experience in your field of study, including the information from your extracurricular and other involvements as detailed above, will allow you to create a document of substance, while demonstrating key employability and transferable skills to a potential employer.

Consider including these sections when developing your résumé:

- Extracurricular involvements: memberships and sporting involvements are always a great way to highlight employability skills;

- Volunteer work;

- Work Experience, completed either through your tertiary or secondary schooling years;

- Awards and other areas which have recognised you for your contributions and achievements;

- Technologies and understanding of computer applications, specifically if they relate to the industry/role you are targeting;

- Special projects and assignments that you received impressive marks for to demonstrate your understanding of the information. Include information about the projects, your specific involvement (especially if this was a team-based assignment) and the outcome of the project;

- Academic achievements, including the subjects you have successfully completed, especially the subjects you received top marks in to demonstrate a solid grasp of the information.

As you can see, the list is quite extensive and should provide you with some impressive information to include in your résumé, in order to highlight your transferable and employability skills to a potential employer.

All the very best!

Dear Annemarie

Due to family-related circumstances I had to give up my job some 18 months ago and am now looking at re-entering the workforce. Is it proper to put on a resume "Sabbatical" or should it be explained more?

– Susanne.

Dear Susanne,

An important point to remember is that your resume is a marketing document with the sole purpose of promoting your skills, achievements and overall value you offer an organisation. A resume is not so much a chronological history that has to account for each and every movement you have made in and out of your career.

So in your case Susanne, I would not dwell so much on the issue of your ‘career break’ but rather on developing a powerful, results-driven resume that communicates your expertise, qualifications and contributions within the workplace, specific to the role for which you are applying. Concentrating on these areas should detract the reader’s attention away from your short career break, while understanding exactly what it is you are offering their organisation.

Your aim is to demonstrate not only how you can fit into the role, but also how you can contribute to the organisation’s ongoing success. I’m sure you have heard the phrase “sell it … don’t tell it” when developing your resume. However not only is the wording and content imperative, but also the way in which your document is formatted and presented. Strategic advertising concepts can also be used within resume writing, successfully detracting the reader’s attention away from your short career break by highlighting your expertise and therefore catapulting your candidacy to the top of the pile.

If you’d like to try your hand at developing your own resume, step-by-step instructions on how to develop a powerful marketing document are outlined in our Powerful Resume e-course.

All the very best, Drop me a line at info@a-e-c.com.au and let me know how you go.

Annemarie

With a window of opportunity often as little as 10 seconds for the résumé to spark the reader’s attention, this demands a well-written document that outlines the candidate’s expertise and overall value offered. Gone are the days of a tasked-based résumé with an inventory of a position’s responsibilities, coupled with a standard list of personal aptitudes. This has been replaced with a results driven document that highlights solid results through examples of achievements and contributions for which you were responsible.

Read more…

Mobile post sent by AnnemarieCross using Utterli.  Replies.  mp3 ]]> http://career-coach.com.au/blog/is-your-resume-interview-worthy-3/feed 0 http://career-coach.com.au/blog/considering-a-career-change http://career-coach.com.au/blog/considering-a-career-change#comments Thu, 17 Aug 2006 04:49:20 +0000 Annemarie Cross http://career-coach.com.au/blog/?p=51 A recent poll conducted by Web Portal Yahoo of 2,600 workers found that 47% of them were actively looking for another job or planned to begin looing within the next 12 months. Quite a significant proportion! To read the article: http://www.jobbankusa.com/News/Jobs/jobs70604a.html

If you are considering a career move make sure that you have a professional and up-to-date resume prepared before you start looking as this will be a crucial element in your career marketing campaign. Remember, avoid focusing on your job functions but rather highlight achievements and contributions you delivered to the organisation. Some questions to get you thinking about your accomplishment statements:

- Were you instrumental in suggesting or implementing any new processes? If so, what and how did this impact the organisation?
- What challenges did you have to overcome? How did you achieve this? What was the overall outcome for the company?
- Were you recognised for any outstanding contributions, perhaps through an award? What was this for?
- Did you play a key role in boosting revenues/bottom-line profitability and if so, how, and by how much?
- Why were you hired? Was it to contribute your expertise in order to overcome issues within the company? Were you successful in achieving this? How?

Recruiters and more importantly, potential employers will be far more impressed in learning how your expertise contributed to the overall organisation’s success than having to read through a long list of tasks and functions (which could quite easily have been copied from a job description) and is frankly BORING!

If you want to develop your own resume and want to make sure you don’t get screened out of the running a great resource you may want to check out is:

Powerful Resumes: EXPOSED! 6 crucial writing strategies to Secure that Interview!

In our Beware Your Blogging Posts [March 2006] post we cautioned people with personal blogs to keep their posts at a professional level due to the possibility of current (or future employers, key stakeholders and influential people) stumbling across it. For those of you with a personal blog we suggested that before posting a comment you ask yourself “Would I want my boss to read this?” or more importantly “How does this post continue to position and build on my professionalism and credibility – how can it enhance my personal brand and overall value?”

Well, for those of you who are blog enthusiasts that may not have heeded the above caution, here is another statistic that may very well have you curbing your comments to a level that is far more professional.

Acording to Execunet (a career and job search advancement company) after a survey they conducted on a number of executive recruiters regarding their candidate research practices, they discovered that 77% use search engines (such as Google or Yahoo!) to uncover and further details regarding prospective employees. Thirty-five percent of those executive recruiters termed this as ‘cyber reference checking?”

So, how would you feel if a recruitment company ‘googled’ your name and came across your personal blog. Would your posts support you as the best candidate for the role?

In fact, have you tried ‘googling’ your name on a few of the leading search engines? It may be something you should do to ensure that you are not eliminated during the cyber reference checking.

Web logs (other wise known as ‘blogs’) have been around for some time, however, lately there seems to have been a sudden surge of people, (young and not-so-young) setting up personal blogs.

Branding specialists worldwide advocate the use of blogs as another medium and potential opportunity to communicate your personal brand and overall value you offer. In fact, many recruiters and potential employers are opting to perform an internet search on suitable applicants to see what they can uncover, so you can see how a professional blog and/or career web portfolio could certainly support you in getting known and elevating your overall professionalism and credibility.

However, be cautious in the comments and on the topics you post (write about). While it may be tempting to post about your ‘bad day in the office’ experience, or ‘what you really think about your boss’ or about ‘what really went on behind the scenes at your last Christmas office party’, that this is an online medium that allows access to anyone and everyone on a global scale, and what you post, may just come back to haunt you and dash any hopes of securing a new role.

If you’re not convinced, read this article “You Are What You Post”

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_13/b3977071.htm

Remember to keep your comments and topics on a professional level. Before you begin writing, ask yourself:

• Would I want my boss (or future boss) to read this?
• Does this post continue to support me on a professional level?
• How can this post continue to build upon my personal brand and unique promise of value?

Happy posting!

A recent study completed by Manpower surveyed approximately 33,000 companies from 23 countries with findings confirming their HR departments were experiencing difficulties in locating suitable staff in all of these areas.

If you are considering a move and believe that because you have talents that are in demand you won’t require a professional overview of your experience – think again. You’ll still need a powerful marketing document (resume) to showcase your talents, contributions and overall value you bring to the table.

If you choose to write your resume yourself, beware that you don’t develop an uninspiring accountabilities-based document that does little to position your expertise from your competitors. Rather, highlight special projects, obstacles overcome, initiatives implemented and quantified impressive outcomes you have secured to really ‘wow’ the prospective employer.

Not sure how to develop a powerful resume? Check out our resources at: www.aresumewriter.net/resources.htm or drop me a line at: info@annemariecross.com

to register your interest in our upcoming Powerful Resumes: 6 Essential Writing Strategies to elevate your expertise and fast-track that job offer! Online workshop.

As a job seeker, you naturally want your qualifications, skills and expertise to be read correctly – but beware, as not all candidate management software scans resumes in the same way. When listing names of colleges, universities, associations, companies, software and even business processes try and use the full name or term within your resume where practical.

While common abbreviations such as ATO, ANZ, NAB should be interpreted correctly by screening software, you cannot be sure about other abbreviations less common ones. Even though abbreviations may be universal in your workplace or profession, if in doubt it is best to be cautious and type out the entire word to avoid confusion.

Don’t be caught out!