Thursday, May 28, 2020

Cover Letter For a Resume - Do I Need a Cover Letter For a Resume?

Cover Letter For a Resume - Do I Need a Cover Letter For a Resume?The cover letter for a resume is the first thing that many people see when they go to a job application. This is why you must get this right. There are a few tips that will help you get it just right.First of all, you want to make sure that your cover letter for a resume is not more than a page long. Many people use it as a way to get a job. Unfortunately, employers have very little time to read through thousands of resumes. So, try to keep your cover letter for a resume under four pages.Secondly, you should not write your cover letter in an informal or conversational tone. Remember, your goal is to appear professional to the employer. You do not want to come across as someone who is trying to be fun or quirky with your resume cover letter.For most job applicants, this does not include writing poetry. Most employers prefer to hire someone who seems well-spoken and reliable. Therefore, you do not want to come across as having poor social skills.Thirdly, you want to make sure that the cover letter is brief, but at the same time has a good length. If you do not take the time to give an employer a summary of your personal history and education, you will find that they get very little from it. They do not want to read through your entire resume anyway.You also do not want to overwhelm the employer with too much information. Keep it short and simple. When you can get it all down in one line, you will help yourself in the hiring process.Lastly, you want to make sure that you follow the format of the cover letter. Most employers use the standard format. However, some may not be as specific as they would like.In any case, if you do not provide your personal information, you will want to include that information as part of your resume. When you put your contact information on the resume, it makes it easier for the employer to contact you in the future. So, make sure that you go over this with your self and put in your full name, address, and phone number.

Sunday, May 24, 2020

5 Must Have Resources for Passive Income - Classy Career Girl

5 Must Have Resources for Passive Income Recently, there was a ton of interest in our article about how to create passive income. We explored three different ways you can create passive income online. Today we wanted to dive even deeper and share what tools and resources you need to have in order to actually create passive income. Here are 5 Must Have Resources for Passive Income: 1. Wishlist Member This handy tool allows you to take your WordPress  site and turn it into a private membership site to create a course or  training program. All of my training courses use wishlist and it’s just a  little work to set it up and then it can drip content to your students and clients each day, week or month. You  can also send out usernames and passwords to your clients automatically so they can get started as soon as  they buy your program. Anything that can run automatically is FABULOUS for me and my business! I love it  because I am crazy about making sure my clients are taken care of and receive the content that they signed  up for immediately. 2. Bluehost and WordPress.org These two go together because they  are the only way that my websites function at all. I always get asked  by people who want to start a blog where they should start. I would  highly recommend buying your own domain and getting hosting  yourself through Bluehost. Then, create a WordPress.org account  which you can easily do through Bluehost. 3. Leadpages This is another tool that has made my blogging life so much easier over the last year. Now I use Leadboxes so I can put my own optin forms on my blog and don’t need to outsource it every  single time. If you have a blog or website, definitely get over there now and start creating simple pages and  optin boxes to start growing your email list of people you can help. One of the BEST things someone told me when I started a blog 5 years ago was to start my list and create an autoresponder series. So now I am passing along the tip. Do it now. Don’t wait one minute longer. Thank me later. 4. PayPal By far the easiest and quickest way to get started. Plus, it’s basically free except for a small fee. You can start taking orders today. This is where I started when I created my courses and products. If you are short on funds, the easiest way to get started building your business is to just to use mailchimp (free list building) and Paypal to process payments. AS SOON AS YOU CAN, I would recommend jumping to 1shoppingcart to make your life easier though. 5.  1shoppingcart This is what I used to collect payments and  manage my online store when I was ready for a step up from PayPal.  I used it to accept credit cards and track orders. This is also what I  used for many years to manage my email list and send out  autoresponders. Note: I may receive a commission if you use my links above. I only recommend products and services that I have used myself!

Thursday, May 21, 2020

Resume Checklist for Executives

Resume Checklist for Executives It should come as no surprise that many executives are strategic, sharp, and savvy top professionals. Many of them will pursue a job search with precision and leverage deep qualifications to stand out as the candidate of choice. Are YOU prepared to sell yourself, with confidence in your resume, to compete? To be considered for a top position, your resume must promote you with purpose! The very best executive resumes convey strategic value with supporting metrics and rich results   Resumes with too little information cause the document to pale in comparison next to strong leaders, and too much information suffocates value. Position yourself as a strong and qualified leader, showcasing how you can helm an organization and drive a business forward, applying these 5 steps in the following resume checklist: Brand Yourself to Stand Out You likely understand the value of branding a business, so treat yourself the same. If you are the commodity what is going to motivate others to buy what you are selling? What strongly positions you as a leader? Identify your specific value and share it with confidence throughout the document.   Tell your story. Start the resume with a branded statement that sets the stage for upcoming content.   Immediately engage the reader.   Seeking value proposition ideas or headlines?   Check out this post on top executive resume strategies with branded headline examples or gain inspiration from these: Senior VP, Operations: Transportation, Healthcare, Manufacturing PL: $500M |   Global Teams of 100 | Global B2B Operations |   Fortune 500   Chief Executive Officer / Chief Financial Officer:  Growth Strategist 20+ YEARS OF DRIVING IMPRESSIVE ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, REVITALIZATION, and GROWTH ACROSS PUBLIC and PRIVATE COMPANIES:   Grew Revenue 600% in 6 Year |   Increased EBITDA 350% YOY   | Managed up to $150M PL CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER (CTO) Technology Innovation Management ~ IT Leadership Strategy ~ Project Direction Delivery Introduces innovative technology solutions and drives forward projects in global companies to  enhance efficiencies, align business needs, and raise organizational performance   Think Quality over Quantity A long and solid work history is expected for positions at the top, yet readers dont want all of the details. Roles held over 20 years ago, or earlier positions where direct leadership was not prevalent, should be kept off the resume or minimized (ie: your early management days are not as exciting as your recent VP, EVP, or C-Suite positions). Keep content refined.   Everyday tasks are a snore and will do NOTHING to set you apart from competitors, so be strategic with your resume offerings. What impacts can you showcase that will capture and keep the eye of the reader?   A select sampling of measurable impacts will speak volumes over everyday responsibilities and keep content from rambling on and on and on….. Watch the Length! Keep resume length in check by strategically aligning chosen content with position needs. If work history or examples do not directly speak to your value to perform well within the role at hand, keep it off. Well-written executive resumes need not be longer than 3 pages.   Yes, just 3 and often even less. A resume is not a career chronology, it is a marketing tool.   Succinct and tight content is easier to absorb and packs more punch. Unsure how to write a resume that is just 3 pages long but still delivers purpose?   Check out these award-winning  samples here.   Maximize Metrics and Wow with Results High-impact career stories need proof of skill.   Skill is best demonstrated with rich results.   Laden your executive resume with solid metrics to support abilities and position you as an expert. You’ve likely heard the saying ‘actions speak louder than words’ â€" this applies in your resume, only the actions are the impacts! Start bullet points with the achievement and succinctly weave in the story about how end results came to be under your leadership and direction.   These are wow factors. At the executive level, lots of wow is needed to promote personal value and position someone as an above-average candidate. Examples of solid, front-loaded impact statements include: Slashed $13M in costs over 2 years with efficiency improvements. Spearheaded development processes for 235 projects, from concept to closeout, valued over $2.4B. Helmed $13M acquisition negotiation that produced 8 times the return on investment within 3 years. Continue the above bullets with the skills you applied in the situation and infuse storieskeeping readers engaged. Finally, Keep Presentation on  Point You are not ordinary and your resume shouldnt be ordinary either. Basic, bland, black and white text resumes written with Times New Roman font are old-school. Prove that you are keeping with the times and showcase your career in a resume that includes distinct presentations, layouts, and formats. Infuse your resume with appropriate keywords and employ colour, charts, testimonials, or graphs to better demonstrate expertise. Again, a sampling of top tier resumes can be seen  on Career Impressions website. Keep in mind that at the executive level you should have several versions of your resume ready to go: a human-eye-friendly resume for applying in person, via email, or at networking opportunities. and a stripped-down version for ATS applications. If you don’t know what ATS is you need to educate yourself: find out more on ATS here.

Sunday, May 17, 2020

Why a Holistic Approach Can Help You Win the Best Talent

Why a Holistic Approach Can Help You Win the Best Talent We speak to Will Staney who is the Founder and Principal Consultant of Proactive Talent, a modern talent strategy consulting company based in Austin, TX focused on recruiting optimization, employer branding, and on-demand recruiting as well as the Co-Founder of Talent Brand Alliance, a professional community for employer branding and recruitment marketing professionals. So we wanted to speak to him about why his experience and background as a talent brand practitioner is helping other companies nail their own talent brand strategy. Why should clients work with you and your firm? Our company is made up of a coalition of freelance Recruiting and Talent Brand practitioners. As former Talent Acquisition and Talent Branding leaders, every one of us has been in the position of our clients and we work with our clients as an extension of their team, in order to help them attract and hire the best talent. Our ability to scale and partner closely with clients as an extension of their team is what really sets us apart from our competitors. We have a holistic approach and we don’t want clients to become dependent on us. Our goal is to help clients build a modern recruiting strategyor “Recruiting Machine” as we call itand empower them to become self-sufficient in the long run. Why should candidates work with you? We earnestly have the candidate’s best interests in mind. We aren’t a third-party recruiting agency that is going to make money off the placement of a candidate at one of our clients and we aren’t throwing their resumes to every company we are trying to work with. Another factor that sets us apart from our competitors is that some of our recruiters also act as career coaches preparing them to put their best foot forward. We consistently receive positive feedback from candidates we’ve placed about the experience. We’re a staffing firm but also a Talent Brand consultancy and we take the candidate experience seriously it’s a core value to who we are. What are some of the biggest challenges that your clients are facing when it comes to hiring talent? The biggest challenge our clients face right now is competition. The economy is strong; unemployment is currently at a 17-year low. Companies are growing, and they are having a hard time finding talent to fill their open positions and need to build out a proactive approach. Another challenge companies face is simply having a lack of awareness of their employer brand. Companies need to change their mindset and realize that they have to put effort into hiring and retaining their talent now. On top of that, it can also be a challenge for companies to attain the necessary skills and provide the internal resources for what it takes to hire today’s talent. What are the most common mistakes you see recruiters make? The most common mistake I see recruiters make is sacrificing their company brand and their effectiveness to save (perceived) time. They take short-cuts, such as mass-emailing candidates the same template rather than sending out a customized one. Instead, if they tried selecting 20 top-tier candidates and created a personalized outreach they’d enhance their brand with 20 people at a time rather than ruin it with 100 people at a time. Another mistake I see recruiters make is resistance to learning new skills, strategies, and technology. Don’t be a one-trick pony. If LinkedIn Recruiter is your only way of finding talent, you will be left in the dust. The best source of hire? (job boards, career site, social, referrals etc)? The best source of hire depends on your talent strategy and whether you value quality over quantity. If you’re looking to maintain the culture you have and want to focus on candidate quality and culture fit, employee referrals are always your best source. However, if your goal is to shift your culture and attract more diversity in regard to the backgrounds of your candidates, referrals may not be your best source. If you’re looking for diverse people in order to change your culture (and profitability) for the better, it requires a very proactive outbound recruiter-led sourcing approach. In that case, directly sourced candidates are likely your best source. What hard lessons can you share with us? Don’t over complicate what should be simple. It’s easy for us as recruiters to get too wrapped up in the latest tech: artificial intelligence (AI), open web sourcing tools, etc. As a recruiter, sometimes a simple well thought out process and a little bit of automation can really help you be more productive. Think of it this way: the tech you use is the vehicle you’re driving, but process and best practices are the road you’re riding on. Whether you’re driving a Cadillac or a broken-down Ford, you’re moving, but if there’s no road paved before you, it’s going to be a bumpy ride. What are your top 3 tips for recruiters? Shared Learning. Join online forums, open-source communities and networking happy hours to share your knowledge and learn from peers. There is power in community. Stay humble. No one is an expert. Even people who are seemingly on top of their game are there because they are constantly building a network of people they can learn from and test out new ideas with. Always do right by the candidate. At the end of the day, this is a human business and we are helping human beings make life-changing decisions, so focus on the candidate experience. It’s an honor to help get people excited and passionate about their future. What’s your tech stack? I’m a bit of a tech junkie, but a few of my favorites are: Clinch, Smashfly, Entelo, Greenhouse, SmartRecruiters, Lever, Hootsuite, Mixmax, and VideoMyJob. My favorite tool right now is an AI gift bot: EvaBot. It’s a great way to send gifts to a referral, employee, or client to show appreciation. Who inspires you and why? Personally, my wife inspires me. She makes it possible for me to pour myself completely into my career and always has my back. As a stay-at-home mom, her job is much harder than mine and I run two companies! Professionally, I’m inspired by Bryan Chaney, Director of Global Employer Brand at Indeed. As both friends and colleagues, we’ve grown in our careers together for nearly 10 years now and we’re always pushing each other. What’s up next for recruiting? I can tell you what’s not up next: AI is not going to take your job, it’s going to enhance it. These tools are enabling recruiters and human beings to focus on the things we’re uniquely good at â€" being creative, managing candidate and client needs, the human touch our industry needs and leaving the machines to do the repetitive, monotonous things that we don’t want to do and frankly, are pretty terrible at. As a whole, the technology landscape is changing rapidly, and most companies haven’t figured out some of the things we’ve been saying will be coming next for the last 5 years or more, like how to build the right talent attraction strategies, and are still depending on the old, outdated model of “posting and praying”. Adding AI and automation to a reactive recruiting process and strategy could just amplify your problems. Connect with Will on LinkedIn.

Thursday, May 14, 2020

12 High-Powered Slack integrations You Need to Try CareerMetis.com

12 High-Powered Slack integrations You Need to Try Slack makes our professional life easier, and reviews about the latest Slack integrations give us tips on how to be more productive.In this article, we’re going to do an honest review and give you a list of our all-time favorite Slack integrations you need to try before this year ends.Slack integrations You Need to TryVacation TrackerObieNotifyTatsuTime DoctorWonderSalesforceStatsbotDonutGiphyAsanaAdvanced Poll1)Vacation Trackerâ€" A leave tracking Slack integration every HR will loveevalevalVacation Tracker falls under a list of most useful Slack integrations both for small to mid-sized businesses and enterprises. HR managers feel relieved about the slightest mention of this tool: the most dreaded and time-consuming task is finally off their to-do list.Vacation Tracker made leave tracking easy: requesting and approving leave takes only seconds to make. Employees need to type /vacation in their Slack account, and after filling short forms, they are good to go. On the other hand, ma nagers are instantly notified whenever the employee makes a request, and they can approve it immediately.What we especially love about this Slack integration is the ability to configure leave types through the “Settings” page. Even though default leave type is “Vacations and Days Off,” organizations can choose among plenty of others ranging from Sick day, Conference, Remote work, and PTO policy.Photo Credit2)Obieâ€" A solution for successful onboardingThe employee onboarding process is super important. Companies lose a lot of money by replacing workers â€" that’s why the best strategy is to retain them. In fact, some statistics state that companies with successful onboarding processes have the highest chance of retaining employees You shouldn’t underestimate the power of meetings. Even though most of them are pretty dull, there are times when they are crucial for a business’s survival. However, holding a meeting rarely comes without distractions.Photo CreditTatsu is am ong our most preferred Slack integrations because it helps us hold our weekly standups and meetings without leaving our desks. What’s more, all we have to do is type “start” in our Slack chat, and all members are instantly notified about the meeting.eval5)Time Doctorâ€" A software that made time tracking perfect.How you’ll know how you spend your time at work if you don’t track it? Time Doctor is one among many time tracking Slack integrations you need to try! Like Hubstaff, for instance, Time Doctor measures time employee spends on each task and takes screenshots to monitor their time-spending patterns.Even though we’re able to admit that the idea of taking screenshots is pretty scary, it might be a very insightful tool towards higher productivity. Beware what you’re doing at work! Someone might be watching you.Photo Credit6)Wonderâ€" The elephant of Slack integrations. Because it never forgets.evalWonder makes us think a lot about Neville Longbottom and the famous †œHarry Potter.” We might not be into witchcraft, however, we do have our remember all â€" Wonder.A Wonder is a reminder tool turned into the chat. You just have to open a chat and tell it what you should remember, and it will remind you.Photo Credit7)SalesforceEvery sales rep using Slack should be familiar with Salesforce. This Slack integration enables the sales team to share important information about accounts with a whole team and within a Slack chat.Photo Credit8)Statsbot â€" A software every geek will love.Geeks will love this analytics tool! This Slack integration enables teams to integrate the essential data within a Slack and track them quickly and effortlessly. What’s more, this tool allows teams to connect Statsbot with their database for more accurate insights.Photo Credit9)Donutâ€" A Slack integration every team will love!“Happy teams are all alike; every unhappy team is unhappy in its own way.” Leo Tolstoy. Or did this say that? Anyway, we’re happy to present you with the highest-powered among Slack integrations so far.Donut is designed to enable teams to create meaningful bonds, become more productive, and engaged at work. What’s more, it achieves that by making team share donuts. Well, that’s a dream of every cop.Donut enables the team to meet new team members, get reminders for meetings, create Slack pairing channels, etc. It even eases up the onboarding process by meeting new employees with the rest of the team.Photo Credit10)GiphyAll work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. This is so true. So it’s time to level up your office convo with some amazing GIFs from the Giphy gold mine of exciting GIFs.Has it ever occurred to you that you want to say something to a team member of yours, but it seems that you just can’t put it into words? And an emoji is no better? You need something great. Well, that’s what GIFs are for. Whether you want to be funny and share a hilarious GIF with your team member, or feel that the entire Slack c hannel could use some humor, use the Giphy Slack integration.evalIt’s without a doubt the perfect integration for any situation. Feeling sad? Send a GIF. Feeling excited? Send a GIF. Any situation can be a GIF situation.via GIPHYSometimes you just need an integration that makes you laugh. You might not be able to schedule a meeting with it, but it will surely brighten up your day.11)AsanaAsana is by far the easiest way for teams to coordinate and manage their work. It’s every project manager’s dream as you can easily create new tasks, assign them to different team members, add due dates and so much more.evalBut, now, Asana is also available for Slack. That’s right. You can turn your conversations into action and create new tasks in Asana without even having to leave your favorite communication tool.Asana for Slack lets you take action on tasks right from notifications or Asana link, check the task details, change the assignee and/or due date, add a task to a project and more . The integration also allows you to turn Slack messages into tasks or add them to existing tasks in Asana.One of the best things is definitely notifications, as you can be notified of everything that’s happening in Asana, which is assigned to you. Simply use /asana and you’re one step closer to closing your tasks.Photo credit:12)Advanced PollAdvanced Poll is a great integration that lets you easily create polls right within Slack. Whether your team is trying to decide on what feature to work on next, or which restaurant you should go to for your New Year’s Eve celebration, Advanced Poll is here to help you out. It takes out all the stress of hour-long meetings where you discuss what you should choose, and makes it super simple.In order to create a poll, you can either use the simple one-line-syntax to instantly post a poll /poll “Question” “Option1” “Option2” “Option3” with up to 44 answers options.Or you can create a poll template with a poll create and confi gure your question and the answer options, schedule it to be posted later or post it right away.Advanced Poll has some advanced settings which will help you automate your process and customize it per your liking. You can schedule the poll to be posted at a specific time, set it up to be posted recurrently, notify everyone when a new poll is up, enable anonymous voting and so much more. And in a few clicks, you’re all set.Once you post a pool, you can have a full overview and statistics through the Advanced Poll dashboard.Photo creditThere are plenty of Slack integrations to try out…What we love about the Internet era is the massive growth of tools that make our personal and professional lives easier. Slack has become one of the most powerful and most used tools on the market, and we definitely see why.But what makes it even more special are these great integrations that make working processes a lot more comfortable than before. HR tools, sales tools, productivity tools â€" you n ame it, Slack has it.

Sunday, May 10, 2020

Research to Make the Information Stick

Research to Make the Information Stick There is a funny thing that happens when you have to research and write a reportthe information sticks. I still remember a report I had to write in 4th grade about Polar Bears. I also remember a report I worked on in 5th grade on the state of Texas. We all have had to write numerous reports over the course of our lives. Do you remember anything about the topic you reported on? Chances are you still remember some of facts. Why is that? Perhaps the topic was interesting. Perhaps your immersion in the subject was all it took. When you are seeking employment, the recommendation to select 40-50 target companies is loosely based on this same idea. As you begin to compile your data from the research of these companies, the information will most likely stick. You might feel a connection or a greater interest in some of those companies. This increased interest is visible on the outside. It is one of the most attractive qualities to future employers. It has been my experience that job seekers dont research companies completely until the interview has been scheduled. They cram to soak up all the information they can in a very short time period. Why not start today conducting your research on the companies you would like to work for. What harm can it do? Will you learn more about your industry in doing this? Will you gain insight and begin to recognize key names of people in that industry? Become a SME (subject matter expert) in your industry. This is bigger than your occupation. You will want to be a SME within your occupation as well but understanding the bigger picture will benefit you in the long run. There are many good resources for conducting research and compiling data. Do you have a favorite list of questions or areas of investigation you use to research?

Friday, May 8, 2020

Sick Days (and 3 years of organized archives!)

Sick Days (and 3 years of organized archives!) Sick Day by Doodle and Hoob Ive been sick since last Sunday night (yes over a week ago!), when my throat started hurting and I hoped it was just because I was yelling my face off for the marathoners. But it got worse, and while I worked through it on Monday and Tuesday, by Wednesday I was sleeping til noon and just doing The Bare Minimum (aka client sessions). Thankfully my posts from last week were written and scheduled the week prior, but this week I got nada con nada. So, instead of pushing myself to post on my usual schedule, Im gonna take a blogging break this week to make sure I rest and, when (not if!) I feel better, catch up on everything else Ive missed. But I wont leave you high and dry! Thankfully I have over three years of archives in this bad boy, and thanks to my amazeballs assistant, I categorized the crapballs out of them and even added Top Posts to my sidebar based on what youre looking for. So, if youre in a Reader, click on over and explore the sidebar and all the new tags/categories, or just follow these links: Not sure what you want to be when you grow up?  Start here! Top 5 Posts 5 Reasons I Got Off My Ass Discovered a New Passion Ask The When I Grow Up Coach: Why do you think you never made it “big” in musical theater? Living in the Questions 5 Ways to Stop Passion From Scaring the Bejeezus Outta Ya Safe is a 4 Letter Word Know what you wanna be but not sure how to get there?  This section will help! Top 5 Posts The Dreaded Question An Open Video to Those Who Don’t Like Hearing That We’re Quitting Our Jobs ( Following Our Bliss) 8 Ways to Get Through Your Day Job Without Shooting Yourself in the Face I Quit My Day Job. Are You Next? Come Out, Come Out, Whoever You Are…. Already doing what you want to do but it isnt quite working?  Try this! Top 5 Posts Your Win Book: What It Is, Why It Rocks, and How to Make Your Own The Benefits of Being a Beginner (or, Why It’s Awesome to Not Know What The Heck You’re Doing) The Uh-Oh Feeling An Exciting Afternoon / An Announcement / The Kindness of Strangers / When It’s Not Hard (that’s what she said) The Secret (OK, MY Secret) You can also go through all of my Series posts, learning about some never-heard-of/never-thought-you-can-do-as-a-living careers in Grown-Up Gigs, get 19-ish months worth of Woman of the World updates through I Quit My Day Job: The Updates, and over 150 Tough Questions for your Tuesday. Theres also my advice series, Ask the When I Grow Up Coach as well as  my thoughts on lots of products/books over on Rousing Reviews. I promise to be back next week, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed (much like what that cute squirrel above would look like once (s)hes all better, too!) with all new posts!