Tag: resumewriting

Handling Gaps in your Work History

How prepared are you to respond to questions regarding a Gap in your work history? Being laid off or fired is infuriating, especially if you are dumped by an organization that you were thinking of leaving anyway.

Maybe the timing is terrible, but consider yourself rescued and liberated, PLUS you get to keep your “I am not a quitter badge”!

Is there is a plus side? Yes indeed!

You are being forced to reconsider your career options and proactively restructure the next phase of your career. If you got a decent severance package – HURRAH! You are being paid while you make this career upgrade.

Here are some recommendations for processing and handling the work gap in the initial phone call with a recruiter or hiring manager:

1)   Develop a concise non-emotional explanation for the gap. Was there a company-wide layoff, did your department fold, was there a personal health issue, or did you move to a new city?

2)   Do not fudge the truth. Do not change a full-time tenure at the company to a contract or temp role. Lying about your employment can be damaging. The wise among us realize that being dumped can be a good thing. So, evaluate what you have gained from working at the company that set you free.  

3)   One of the funnier moments in my coaching history is a candidate explaining that she was fired, but not really.

In response to my quizzical: Say What? She said that she was the only one laid off in her division, so she felt she was fired. Too much info…. Was the severance reasonable? I asked, she said yes. I suggested that we will call it a “dissociation.” It is incredible what language can do to improve one’s view of things!

4)   Explain what you were doing during gaps between jobs. Think hard. Did you volunteer, take classes to upgrade your skills, travel, or use the time to take care of a relative. Did you attend webinars take online courses etc.? In short, were you productive?

5)   Unless you are good at disassociation, try to subdue your maverick go-it-alone approach. Consider engaging a professional to help you sophisticate your resume and prepare for this and other tricky interview questions.

6)   Invest in yourself and your career, and above all, do not wait until you are at the interview itself to craft a response to what you have been doing the last three or six months. Above all, do not slime the people at your previous employer; they can be excellent sources for referrals.

Why over-using Buzz Phrases in your Resume is a bad idea!

In one resume I read this recently, the candidate described herself as an “extremely qualified team player,” a “self-starter,” and a “proactive worker” who will to “take it to the next level” with her “ability to multitask and prioritize.”

She did not explain what she was going to prioritize.

Very few of us can exercise distance and restraint when creating a career portrait, that highlights details of our skills and achievements. There is some pride in writing one’s resume and seeing our career history documented in word.

It can be exhausting work.

Now, I am not rubbishing the effort candidates put into creating a professional narrative of their work history and achievements. But (and I am struggling to be generous here), if the use case for your resume begins and ends, at you being the only person meant to read it, I would say go for it. Otherwise – Don’t do it!

Work with a professional resume writer whose job it is to make you look good, qualified, and hirable in two pages or less.

The problem often starts with the job description. If companies stopped using buzz phrases in job descriptions, perhaps candidates will stop cutting and pasting them into their resumes. Competencies and attributes that are not related to or referenced to achievements in the resume’s body may dissuade a reader from inviting you to an interview.

1. Perennial winners in the resume writing useless phrase derby include – “a demonstrated ability.”

2. Or the even worse phrase, “a demonstrated history.” How do you demonstrate your work history?

3. Battling for third place are the cringe-worthy twins “forward-thinking” and “drill down.” It appears that “forward-thinking” people tend to “drill down,” too.

Candidates add buzz phrases to their resumes hoping to increase interview invites. But it has the opposite effect. The professionals reading your resume are real people, and there is no benefit to adding nonsense jargon to your resume.

Finally, be wary of others who tell you that investing in a quality resume does not matter, because other important things do not matter to these folks either, like referring you and rooting for you at THEIR place of employment.

But I digress.

Why Franklin Paterson Company Inc. uses a Resume Questionnaire

In response to your inquiries, regarding creating a resume appropriate to your skills, capabilities and potential, here is some useful information, about using the Frank Paterson Company Inc.Resume Questionnaire as the first step, towards creating a powerful keyword rich resume.

The Resume Questionnaire will have significant input into the data; you need to collect in drafting your new resume, identifying your skills, and accomplishments. It will help you to highlight your employment achievements; including relevant skills and achievements.

The Franklin Paterson Company Resume Questionnaire©™ will help you gather information about your work history, skills, education, specialized training, awards, and accomplishments; in a format that will allow you to describe the most essential information about your skills, or experience in an easy free flow fashion.

We recommend that you complete it in your own time, then put it away for a day or two, re-read, make corrections or additions then sent it back. Use the Resume Questionnaire later for interview prep

1.) Review and fill out the Questionnaire in your own way using your own words; do not worry about tone, style, grammar etc. Take as much time as you need, leave out areas that do not apply.

2.) The filled out questionnaire will give a feel for how you would answer questions in an interview or business proposal meeting. The final resume has to reflect a bit of your style so it looks like YOU wrote it. It is also an excellent tool for prepping for an interview or meeting with a client!

3.) Once the questionnaire is completed, please return the complete document for review, update, and recommendations from your career Counsellor at Franklin Paterson Resumes.

4.) Set aside time to go over the Questionnaire via the phone to tease out skills, accomplishments etc., please set aside at least 30 minutes or more for this review.

5.) Your writer will craft your the questionnaire, and notes from the review review. Generally your writer will start writing the resume immediately, (within a day) of the review while all info is immediate and fresh.

6.) You will receive a draft of the resume for your review and comment. Once you send it back, your writer will make corrections and updates, and send your completed resume.

7.) Once invited to meet with someone to discuss a particular job or project, please let your writer know, and your writer will tweak the completed resume here and there to highlight areas of skill in your resume related the job or project.

About the Franklin Paterson Company Resume Questionnaire©™

We recommend that you complete it in your own time, then put it away for a day or two, re-read, make corrections or additions then sent it back. Use the Resume Questionnaire later for interview prepping.

Thanks,
Jpransom
Principal Resume Writer, Interview Coach, LinkedIn Profile and Career Strategy Consultant.
Franklin Paterson Company Inc. – https://franklinpaterson.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/janis-ransom/

Getting Past Resume Gate Keepers

Just a reminder that we are in the biggest hiring period of the year, especially for new grads! Managers are beginning to list more jobs and the interviewing pace has picked up. But, as mentioned in our last update, there are more candidates are on the market – so the jobs are filled quickly, and the competition is stiffer.

 

New Job Alert
This no time for the faint hearted, budgets have been approved and the jobs that are available are part of a company’s long term strategy, so there will be competition. You also need to get by a natural adversary, the resume gatekeeper, whose sole purpose it appears is to decide whether your resume will be seen by the hiring manager.

A few tips to get past the resume gate keepers:

1. Do not address a resume to: “To whom it may concern”, the answer to that intro is – nobody. Use Dear Hiring Manager, Dear Recruiter or the person’s name if available, or a simple Hello, I am seeking a………. position (add the remainder of your cover letter here).

2. If you are going to be a Confidential Jobseeker please indicate that you are actively seeking a new position, somewhere prominent in your application. Confidential resumes are generally less likely to be read, the word confidential can be off-putting to a manager, so you must make the extra effort to invite them to read your resume.

3. When posting your resume on the job boards, follow the job application directions when applying for a position, before calling a recruiter. You cannot charm a busy recruiter, no matter how great your phone skills. A recruiter will do a better job at qualifying you if the resume is at hand and the is information is in a format they can use.

What does all this mean – create fewer online applications and do them properly, follow-up a day or two later with a mid-afternoon phone call.
This could just be your year!!!!

Franklin Paterson Resumes – October 21, 2019