Why is a resume so important?

April 5th, 2012

It is quite interesting how many times we get asked these questions from our clients, our colleagues and our industry peers. A lot of the time it is lack of awareness of the application process and competition in the market place that drives this question, but in many situations, it is having a limited understanding of what the resume document is and what it is used for.

We are actually going to share some snippets from our book in today’s post, and provide some additional information that hopefully will assist in your understanding of how important this document truly is.

So what is a résumé?

A summary of your professional career over a recent period. Most recruiters recommend focusing on the last 10 years, however many look to the last 5 years to determine your suitability to a role.
It is the most important marketing tool for an individual. Just as organisations have websites driven by keyword utilisation, individuals have résumés that should also be driven by keywords.
A professionally presented document that is not overly graphical however utilises bold statements around an individual’s achievements, responsibilities and professional skills.

What a résumé is not?

A simple list of tasks and job responsibilities copied from your previous job descriptions.
A one-page document that simply highlights where you worked, for how long and in what position.
A document that clearly demonstrates everything about you; personally and professionally.
A 10 page document that provides an in depth outline of why you took a position, why you left a position and what that position meant to you whilst you were in it.
A well formatted document with poor or limited content.
A document that focuses strongly on your personal attributes and not your professional career.
A poorly formatted document with limited or no structure and differing formats and styles used throughout.

What is the purpose of the résumé for the individual?

Your résumé should be used as a core marketing tool to assist you during the application process as well as the interview.

It is important to remember when writing your résumé that it should define the outcomes of previous roles. Clearly demonstrating:

Why you are employable?
How you meet the requirements of future positions?
How you can contribute to the broader requirements of an organisation’s future?

What is the purpose of the résumé for the recruiter?

Your résumé outlines to the recruiter, or HR professional, your suitability to the position that you are applying for.

They may use your résumé as:

Confirmation that you meet the qualification and education requirements of the position.
Confirmation that your previous positions have developed the skills required to undertake this role.
Demonstration of your dedication and longevity in positions to determine your commitment to organisations.
Confirmation of your level of English language skills and general literacy.
Identification of your career direction.

Presenting a powerful résumé during the early stages of application is the only way that you will be noticed by the recruiter. Against what many unaccredited professional résumé writers will tell you, a “pretty” document will not get you through to interview stage over a well written document with standard formatting. The content and the information provided is more important than how “pretty” the document appears as many recruiters utilise e-recruitment tools that scan your document for keywords first. Many of these e-recruitment tools have issues with overly graphical documents and do not have the ability to scan any jpeg images which rules out a lot of online resume templates and resume writing applications.

As an job seeker, it is important to spend as much time as possible to get this part of the process correct; without this then you will have limited success when applying for positions. Spending more than a couple of days working with an unsuccessful résumé can put you back months in your job search process which is both de-motivating as well as frustrating as it may have a financial impact on the individual.

The résumé is the most important tool during for all individuals seeking employment or career progression and we cannot emphasise this enough.

For more information or to purchase a copy of our book, please visit: http://www.vividpublishing.com.au/winningresume/.

Introducing Building Blocks to your Future – Part 5

April 3rd, 2012

Building Block 5 – Evolve your Brand

Define what your brand is; your skills, capabilities and benefits

What many individuals forget when they are in the professional world, and personally, is that you are always representing a brand – yourself. Whether you are undertaking a work project, engaging in a conversation or simply walking through the city, you are always, at all times, demonstrating the worth of your brand.

Marketing professionals are some of the most successful individuals when it comes to career progression. This is not always because of their professional strengths however because of their understanding of brand development; and what this achieves for an organisation. What this building block will allow you to do is to take the process of evolving a brand for an organisation, and utilising this to evolve yourself as a brand.

When identifying a brand, there are key steps that you will work through:

Develop your brand pitch
Define the benefits and capabilities of your brand
Align your benefits to your career objective
Articulate your core skills

Once you are able to define and articulate the basics of your brand, you will then be able to develop the marketing collateral to support development of your brand throughout your career.

Your resume
A reactive and proactive cover letter
Key Selection Criteria Responses
Online profiles including LinkedIn and LinkMe
Professional Biographies

Removing the concept of unemployment

March 25th, 2012

The concept of unemployment is very challenging for any individual. With this challenge comes a new mindset that is both confrontational as well as de-motivating; unfortunately this is only the beginning of what at many times will be a very difficult time for everyone.

As human beings, research has proven that with simple changes in the way we perceive a situation we are able to drive a more successful outcome. Here comes that challenge for those of you that are either currently unemployed or facing the prospect of unemployment.

Through research, we have identified for our clients that those individuals that adopt their job search as a “job” for the period of what is normally perceived as unemployment, they are more able to succeed in the job search. What these individuals did differently is something that does not come naturally when faced with the challenge of unemployment; however the results were extremely motivational.

What is it that they did differently to achieve these results?

Continue to work a standard work day. Start your job related activities at 9 in the morning and complete them at 5; with a 1 hour break in between.
Create a work day schedule. Identify certain tasks that you need to undertake each day and allocate yourself in “meetings” or at set times to get these tasks completed. Tasks should include:

Applications
Group interactions within your professional network
Ongoing research on topics related to your industry
Online skills development (Typing skills, interview skills)
Research into industry recruiting specialists
Research into potential organisations for proactive applications

Set the ideal number of positions to apply for each day. Target to meet this amount and ensure that each application is completed on that day; tailoring your cover letter and resume accordingly.
Don’t let yourself be distracted by non-work related activities. These can continue to be performed on your non-work allocated days.
Contact various people in your networks continuing to identify any potential for obtaining a position through the hidden job market
Proactively contact recruiters and HR representatives of organisations that you identified as being potentials for proactive applications or recognised specialists within your industry
Continue to write down and review your successes and contributions in previous positions to allow you to articulate these more effectively in interview.
Practice your interview skills; recording yourself and critiquing your responses or working with someone else to do the same.
Contact previous interviews to request feedback and recommendations for your own personal and professional development.

Motivation is key to excelling in your job search, however it is extremely easy to lose focus due to the lack of routine or understanding of how to approach the job search process. By making your job search your official position of employment during this period, you will not only be able to eliminate your feeling of dissatisfaction with your current situation but develop new professional skills that will make you’re a more successful and motivated candidate.

Introducing Building Blocks to your Future – Part 4

March 20th, 2012

Building Block 4 – Engage Support

Work with specialists to develop and prepare

It is human nature to want to do things independently. This can be because you enjoy the challenge of trying to find the answer or for some individuals it is due to their inability or nervousness around asking for help.

Without support, leaders will never be leaders.

In many instances, the lack of support can result in individuals not progressing throughout their career.

Asking for support during your career and your life can be clearly described through home renovation. There would be 2 scenarios that can be mapped out for you.

The Home handy man.

Self-renovation is a lot of fun for many individuals. It is a new challenge that allows them to be creative whilst also supporting the budget constraints that are always a factor when renovating. The outcome of the home handy man can quickly demonstrate the benefits of engaging support and assistance in areas we are not specialists in.

Use the example of removing a wall in a home to make a larger room.

The home renovator that believes that they have the answers undertakes research online in what they see as the main skill required for the task. Demolition. This home handy man develops their plan and then knocks out the wall. They did the research in how to do it they didn’t need a specialist did they.

But what if it was a structural wall? Woops didn’t see that one coming did you?

Seeking advice and assistance throughout our personal lives is very much the same as seeking advice and assistance throughout our professional lives. As individuals, we do not always have the answers but by asking a question from those that specialise in that field, it may assist us through arriving at the outcome maybe not sooner, however more effectively and with greater success in the end.

Introducing the Building Blocks to your Future – Part 3

March 13th, 2012

Building Block 3 – Research Pathways

Develop an understanding of what you need to achieve your goal

Once your goals have been defined, you need to then work through what commitments must be made to allow you to achieve your goals. Many people gain a lot of momentum and motivation during the goals visualisation process. However this momentum can be lost due to the nature of the researching phase. This building block is core to ensuring successful career development. It is important during this phase that you remain focussed on your goal; that you continue to drive forward and plan accordingly.

Research will entail numerous activities. It is a clarification process that allows you to assess your current capabilities and skills against your goals and visions. During this phase it may be important to discuss your goals and desires with numerous specialists to ensure that you get the right advice. These specialists may include:

Career Development Practitioners
Course Advisors
Industry specialists
Local Organisations
Current employees or individuals that have achieved your goals
Mentors

There are many individuals that can help you in this process that may also be able to support you through the next building block phase as well. The key focus of this phase is to identify any skills or capability gaps that need to be developed. These could relate to your employability skills, level of education, or work experience. The gaps will allow you to then identify the pathways that you need to develop to move forward in achieving your goals.

Introducing the Building Blocks to your Future – Part 2

March 1st, 2012

Building Block 2 – Articulate your Goal

Defining exactly what you what to achieve and by when.

Part of the problem of not moving forward is not taking the time to sit down and define exactly what it is that you want to achieve and the timeframe in which you want to achieve it. Through articulating exactly what it is you want, as an individual you are making a subconscious commitment to find out more about your wants, and to look closer at the process required to achieve this want.

There are numerous ways to articulate what you want to achieve and the timeframe will be dependent on the factors that surround you in your life. For many of us, achieving goals may be a longer term process. This could include completing study, training in a new skill, or even relocating. These are all goals that can be achieved however they may not be able to be achieved in the short term.

It is important to define goals as 2 types:

Short term – goals that can be achieved in the immediate future or medium term that will allow individuals to step closer to their long term goal.
Long term – goals that need to be defined and mapped out. Ones where there is acceptance that there may be numerous other activities (short term goals) that should be completed before being able to successfully achieve your long term goal.

Establishing your goal is an important process. However, if not planned for realistically, it may impact the level of focus and motivation that is needed to remain on track to the long term goal.

When articulating goals, you must ensure that you are realistic about the time frame and accept the process and time frame required to successfully achieve the goal.

Have you engaged your coach?

February 24th, 2012

Article taken from www.hcamag.com 20/2/2012.

From Amateur to Professional?

The notion of executive coaching in the business world has often been written off too soon as just another corporate fad. But thanks to a growing body of research, executive coaching is being seen as a serious business tool.

Anne Whyte, director of the Centre for Coaching at Melbourne Business School said executive coaching has shaken off its bad image as an industry of unqualified people claiming they could do all kinds of things for amazing fees. After extensive research, and looking at global trends, coaching is now seen as an integral ingredient in business success. More than 50% of Australian managers and leaders now engage executive coaches, and in the US and Western Europe the figure is much higher – up to 80%.

While executive coaches used to be brought in to address problematic behaviours, coaching is now used for high-potential people and high-potential teams. If they can behave more skilfully, better understand their impact on others, they are able to perform to higher levels. “[High-performers] find whatever targets they set, if they get coached, they tend to be able to do better. And there’s an analogy to sport.. You hardly would try to be winning the gold medal without a coach.”

In the global top 100 companies for instance, 93% of all senior manager use coaching. “You have a very strong demand coming from the people who actually use it, so we looked at why was it so useful to them, and from the research we were able to [determine] that demand has been driven by busy senior executives in tough jobs – the old saying that it’s lonely at the top is actually quite true,” Whyte said. There are often issues that need to be reflected on with another person, and with sensitive business issues, sharing this discussion with others in the same organisation can have disastrous consequences. “There’s only so much personal reflection you can do. You actually need another person in the dialogue,” Whyte added.

Colonial First State CEO Brian Bissaker regularly seeks advice and guidance from mentor and general manager of HR, Kate Rimer. “It’s lonely at the top. CEOs have got to make a lot of hard decisions and a lot of decisions that may not be popular, but if you try to be popular all the time you end up not getting anywhere. You’ve got to be prepared to make those decisions, and you’ve got to be able to bounce decisions off others, because you don’t want to be out of line and unreasonable – you want to be hard and fair. So I’ve said to Kate, what do you think, what’s your view? I want your feedback, you’re in there, tell me.”

Introducing the Building Blocks to your future – stage 1

February 23rd, 2012

As we introduced the other day, we are going to make available to everyone the stages of our career development model. The purpose for this is to make visible the structured approach we take with our clients as well as to increase understanding and awareness of what career development for professionals should cover and how important it is to your career.

This week we are introducing the first building block, which is the standard entry point for many of our clients.

Building Block One – Create a Vision

Understanding where you are and where you want to be.

Many people wander through life, accepting where they are at and only ever dreaming about what could be; what should be and then coming back to the reality of just what is. What many do not realise is that there is always an option; an opportunity to make a change. The progression that we achieve throughout our careers, and the future that we build for ourselves and our families, is based on the decisions that we make, the goals that we set, and the options that we identify.

‘Understanding your vision’, the first phase of career building blocks, is a process to define what it is that individuals want to achieve out of their career and their life. What is an individual’s true vision? Your career is the basis of your future and the most important aspect of your life. Whether you make decisions for yourself, or whether you are making the decision determined by what is best for your family, it is still important to develop your vision.

In creating your own vision, you are starting the process of identifying what it is you desire to achieve in your future. This can encompass all aspects of your life including family, career, location, friends and qualifications. The vision that you identify here will support you in the next phases of identifying your first goal and then researching the pathways to achieve this goal.

It is important to bear in mind that at this point that your vision may be longer term than the initial goals you identify to undertake right now. A vision is something that will support you long term in your future. The goals that you identify as part of the next building block phase may form the steps that you need to undertake to achieve your vision.

Organisations have a vision for their purpose; as individuals you need to also have this vision to identify your purpose.

RSResumes Publications

enquiries@rsresumes.com.au

1300 72 68 40

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"There’s no need to be daunted by the highly competitive job seeking arena. – Rebecca you are a job hunters secret weapon! If anyone was looking for a professional edge to attain the job of their dreams, or to transition their career, I’d highly recommend you. Rebecca you quickly assessed my skills, education and job requirements to create professional documents that captured the attention of recruitment managers and resulted in strong employer interest and job interviews. I particularly appreciated your ongoing interest and support during the job search and application process. Your enthusiasm, industry knowledge, encouragement and passion for your craft really made all the difference. Sharny, March 2012

"I never thought a professional resume service would be of use to me after 10+ years in IT, however after working with you during a career development task, I was greatly impressed with your professionalism. I would not be happier with the results. Not only did it result in agents contacting me, but your assistance in the KSC response helped me secure a new position. I recommend your services to all my friends." Jason, March 2012