Which Cola Does Your Resume Brand You As?

As top Cola brands fought to capture and sustain market share in an oversaturated soft drinks market, some very valuable marketing and branding lessons surfaced. What we learnt from the “Cola Wars” was that the fittest brand did not always thrive. On the contrary, ultimate success was the result of a shrewd branding strategy, one that truly differentiated the product from the crowd of “me too” competitors.

To combat 9.5% unemployment and competition from 14.6 million unemployed individuals, professionals and executives, too, are applying cutting-edge branding strategies to position themselves as a notch above the competition. When it comes to branding individuals, a resume is much like marketing collateral; it must be written in a compelling manner to position the candidate as the perfect solution for the employer’s needs.

Consider the following tips to create a brand-driven resume:

Identify your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

Almost every candidate’s resume would convey attributes, such as hardworking, dedicated, team player, and other “everyone-has-them” skills. If all job seekers are hardworking and dedicated, whom should the employer call for an interview? This is where USP comes into play.

Ask yourself and your peers, superiors, team members, colleagues, and family members questions, such as “How am I different from the rest of the employees?,” “What is my value proposition?,” “In what ways do I contribute to the organization?”

Once you have identified your USP, showcase it on your resume. The following two resume examples demonstrate how a strong USP can capture the employer’s attention.

Weak strategy:

“Drive consistent sales growth for XYZ Company.”

Better:

“Top-producing sales professional who leverages relationship management skills to penetrate hard-to-influence Fortune 500 accounts and generate 120% revenue growth every year.”

The second candidate positions himself as a “top-producing professional” who leverages “relationship management skills” to achieve sales growth.

Create branding statements as headlines

Resume objectives, as they are generally written by many job seekers, don’t offer much benefit, especially if the objective statement is a cookie-cutter version, such as “Motivated professional seeking a promising position that offers opportunity for advancement and growth.”

What exactly did this objective convey? Nothing!

Branding statements and headlines are the modern-day equivalents of resume objectives. They pitch your most promising differentiation strategy in a few brief sentences. The following branding statement clarifies this concept:

Technically-proficient project manager who specializes in managing multi-million dollar, cutting-edge green solutions projects!

Over 18 years’ experience in deploying green solutions projects for Fortune 100 companies. Outstanding reputation as a project leader who turns-around failing projects into highly successful initiatives.

Translate benefits for the hiring manager

Take action statements a step further and emphasize the benefits of hiring you. How have you benefited your past employers and in what ways can you benefit your future employers?

As opposed to saying “Offer ten years’ experience in plant management,” translate benefits of hiring you.

“With over a decade of plant management experience, I am able to develop growth-focused solutions for challenging problems. At ABX Company, I was able to develop a powerful assembly line strategy that enabled workers to increase productivity by over 10% while simultaneously cutting production time by over 18 hours and labor costs by 6%.”

The candidate translated the benefits of hiring him -- improved productivity, cost savings, and optimal efficiency.

Modern resumes have advanced significantly from the previous century, when the status of a resume was downplayed to a typed employment chronology. Contemporary resume styles leverage branding and marketing concepts to differentiate and aptly position candidates as unique solutions for twenty-first century corporate challenges.

- Nimish Thakkar, Resume Writer and Career Coach
From www.net-temps.com

How to Mention Unrelated Work Experience on Your Resume

Many candidates who come to us for resume help have the same question. They have years of professional work experience, but a lot of it isn’t relevant to the position they’re currently seeking. On the one hand, they don’t want to waste resume space detailing work that doesn’t relate to their application. On the other hand, they don’t want to omit years of work that developed them as a professional.
THE RIGHT PHRASE
I use a magic phrase to address this issue: “additional experience includes.” It’s perfectly all right to sum up large portions of your career in one sentence that lists previous employers or positions. If you spent the first 10 years of your marketing career performing lower-level tasks, you could say: “Additional experience includes marketing positions with ABC, DEF, and XYZ (1990-2000).” If your previous work was in an unrelated field, you can simply list the companies: “Additional experience includes positions with ABC, DEF, and XYZ.”

THE AGE GAME
This technique can also be very helpful to those who are concerned about age discrimination. I summarized the first 15 years of one candidate’s career into one sentence to downplay the fact that she was 55. Because her experience was relevant to her field, removing it from her resume entirely would have been a disservice, but we did not include the years that experience encompassed.

THE EXPERIENCE ISSUE
I recently worked with another candidate who used this technique to show she was a more experienced professional than her education suggested. This woman had worked for 10 years before going back to complete her bachelor’s degree. From looking at her graduation dates, you would assume she was in her 20s. In fact, she was an experienced manager in her 30s—a fact that was important to show for the level of job she was seeking.

Many of us have work experience that doesn’t fit neatly with our current goals and objectives. If you don’t feel comfortable leaving it off your resume altogether, using the phrase “additional experience includes” can help you mention the experience quickly without wasting precious resume space.

By CAREEREALISM-Approved Expert, Jessica Holbrook Hernandez
From www.careerealism.com

Top 5 Ways to Improve Your Resume

Does your resume stand out? Will employers quickly see you are the one to do the job? Your resume has less than 15 seconds to capture an employer's attention according to our national survey of 600 hiring managers published in the book, Winning Resumes. You must also incorporate effective keywords or the electronic search tools will never put you on the hiring manager's screen. Resume writing is a critical skill to advancing your career so here are some of the top survey results to follow.


1.EMPHASIZE RESULTS! This was #1 with all surveyed employers. Accomplishments get attention, not just job descriptions. State the action you performed and then note the achieved results. Include details about what you increased or decreased. Use numbers to reflect, how much, how many, and percentage of gain or reduction. Stress money earned or time savings. For example: Managed the project implementing a new tracking system that resulted in a 17% decrease in cost overruns, saving $200,000.

2.SPECIFICS SELL. Vague, general resumes don't cut it, employers say. Target each resume to the job sought. Incorporate only the information pertinent to doing that specific job title in the resume. This will alleviate the tendency to crowd your resume with too much non-related information, or too much detail on jobs more than ten years in your past. Start each sentence with a descriptive action verb such as directed, organized, established, created, planned, etc. as they add powerful impact to your sentences.

3.DO NOT LIE! A USA TODAY survey of executives stated that over 50% tried to exaggerate their skills, which was almost always uncovered during interviews and reference checks. Lying resulted in candidates not getting the job, or worse, being fired once the fraud was revealed. Employers are on the lookout for this misrepresentation so be as positive as possible without exaggerating or misstating the truth.

4.BIG MISTAKES MUST BE AVOIDED. The TOP mistake annoying every manager and HR person in our survey was spelling mistakes and typos. Many said: "I stop reading when I find spelling mistakes." Typos scream: "Don't hire me." Proofread -- you cannot trust computer spell checkers. Cramming too much into a resume and using microscopic fonts can result in your resume never being read. Make your resume visually appealing on paper with fonts sizes in 11 or 12 points. Use concise sentences and adequate white space between points. Many online resume-posting programs incorrectly read boxes and graphic designs causing unintentional page breaks, so be sure to avoid using these. Also, many home computers use a mini-word processing program called WORKS, which is not compatible and can't be read by many employers' business computers that use MS WORD. Be certain you only use WORD in any communications you send on to employers.

5.THE FINAL TEST -- IS YOUR RESUME GETTING RESULTS? Are employers calling on appropriate jobs you are qualified for (not over or under) to perform? If not, rework your resume, or get professional help to improve it, since a great resume is the prelude to landing a terrific job.

- Robin Ryan
From www.net-temps.com

POS Analyst

Famous restaurant is in need of an POS Analyst who can work out in the field to help maintain the locations POS system. This position will involve the handling of the administration of each store system, managing and supporting the company's display system rollout, providing level 2 support for store applications and escalated calls from help desk, assisting with developing and implementing support for new initiatives and working on special projects. Qualified candidate must have POS experience within the retail/restaurant industry.

Job-Clinching Interview Secrets and Tips

The entire interview process is designed to sift the average from the extraordinary and to select the candidate who will be the "right fit". To facilitate decision-making, hiring managers often leverage behavioral interviewing (an interview technique relying on past performance as an indicator of future success). Interview success is largely dependent on how the candidate delivers responses.

Consider the following tips:

Communicate effectively, focus on the beef

During many interview coaching sessions, I have observed that candidates often deliver closed-ended responses to interview questions. Brevity is certainly appreciable, but if the response fails to communicate the message effectively, it won’t do much good either.

When asked about clinical research skills, for example, many professionals would frame their responses along the following lines:

Weak Strategy:

"I have excellent clinical research skills."

Better:

"My superiors, including XYZ Pharma’s CEO, have often called me the ‘Prize of the Clinical Department.’ During my 12+ years’ in clinical research, I have provided my expertise to the world’s top three pharmaceutical companies. As clinical research director at XYZ, I not only directed the testing of eight multi-billion dollar, blockbuster molecules, but also spearheaded their approval process from Phase I of clinical studies all the way through market launch. My Ph.D. in pharmacology serves only to enhance my clinical knowledge."

Showcase past results, demonstrate potential value

Wherever possible, highlight results, not just duties. It is very important to demonstrate how you were driving results at past positions and how you can continue bringing value in your future role as well.

Weak Example:

"I consistently generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenues for XYZ Pharmaceutical Company."

Better:

"From a sales force of 900+ at XYZ Pharmaceutical Company, I was ranked in the Top Five. My performance was consistently at 140% to quota and I was instrumental in winning many sought-after deals. It was primarily my leadership that helped the inclusion of three of our company’s products into the formularies of major managed care organizations in our state. I have won 14 ‘top salesperson’ awards in the past seven years."

Translate benefits for the decision maker

Instead of allowing the hiring manager to draw conclusions about your candidacy, provide material that will do the job for them. In other words, it is not enough to say what you have to offer; the response must go a step further and explain how your qualifications will benefit the organization.

Weak Example:

"I am an experienced pharmacist."

Better:

"My eight years’ experience in working for nationally-recognized pharmacies, such as XYZ and ABC, have honed and developed my ability to fill prescriptions efficiently and accurately. My ability to fill over 300 prescriptions per day with 100% accuracy would save thousands of dollars for your organization as it will eliminate the need for having two pharmacists during an eight-hour shift. My patient orientation and communication skills helped build a loyal patient base for my past employers, and I am confident I can do the same for your company as well."

Understand your employer

Conduct thorough research about the employer, including its past, present, and future. This will not only help you prepare for the interview, but will also help you identify and address issues that would be unique to the specific employer. Employees, vendors, customers, Internet research, SEC filings -- there are a number of information sources you can leverage to facilitate your research.

Convey how you are the candidate for the job

Once you have understood the company’s needs, prepare a convincing strategy to position you for those needs. Consider the following example:

Lu was interviewing for a regulatory affairs manager position with a large pharmaceutical company. His research made him aware of some problems the company’s compliance division was facing in Asia. He leveraged this information to his advantage and at every meeting during the interview process, he used past examples and results to showcase his ability to resolve FDA issues in Asian markets. The strategy was a hit.

Anticipate and prepare responses to common interview questions

Prepare responses for common interview questions. I also ask my clients to prepare short, almost commercial-like messages and scripts positioning them for the role.

- Nimish Thakkar, Career Coach
From www.net-temps.com

Single Most Important Career Question to Ask Yourself

Most people are absolutely unaware of some of seemingly subtle points in their résumé that positively screams out certain things to employers. What may seem vague and somewhat insignificant to you usually is one of the first things that an employer looks for when evaluating candidates.

Employers are evaluating résumés and looking to see what you’ve done to keep yourself up-to-date, and many are on a talent shopping spree. This means they are hiring top industry subject matter experts who have demonstrated their understanding of applying new skill sets and ideas in the workplace.

To wit, I jokingly (but not really) say your résumé is not an obituary, but instead, a dynamic, driving career road map.

And there’s one thing that can help ‘wake’ job seekers up more than anything by asking the single most important question that will impact their competitiveness in today’s job market:

“Are my skills obsolete?”
If you ask this question, and realize the skills you offer are just run-of-the-mill abilities or are outdated, this is your red flag cue you need to get moving…FAST.

If you hope to survive what is now being termed the “Great Recession,” which is continuing with no foreseeable end in sight, your ability to navigate the requirements of companies hiring will rest solely on how you have kept up your skill sets.

Being aggressive in stockpiling skills and knowledge will be critical to making your candidacy the best value in the marketplace…and you’ll need to be strategic about how you map out acquiring those skills.

Apply the following questions to your résumé to better see what employers are thinking when they read this document:

■Have I attained any industry-specific certifications?
■Have I taken any classes, workshops, trainings, conferences, conventions, webinars, continuing education units, or gone to any corporate learning university sessions?
■How have I demonstrated the practical application of what I have learned into my work?
■Has there been any peer recognition for my subject matter expertise (as in any awards, speaking engagements, publications, etc.)?
These factors alone are worth their weight in gold to employers. They simply don’t want someone who will do the minimum possible and push papers around their desk from 8am-5pm. Companies today are struggling to optimize every company system while squeezing every ounce of profit out as possible in order to stay afloat in this volatile economy.

Similarly, you need to take the same approach.

Don’t wait for a company to offer to send you to a conference. You NEED to be your own advocate. Identify the key opportunities where you can enhance your skill sets, and present these to your boss as ways you can improve your on-the-job productivity.

Be prepared to provide justification in terms of return on investment.

And if your manager doesn’t approve the expense and your time out of the office, you’ll need to make a life-changing decision and empowering one:

Invest in yourself.

Be willing to pay for additional professional development yourself. If you are currently employed, think of it as a way to become more indispensable. The job may be eliminated, but if you have demonstrated ROI every step of the way, chances are, the company will find a way to retain you.

If you are looking for work, the good news is everyone who is currently employed is so busy doing the work of 2-3 other people due to staff cutbacks, they don’t have the time to go out and take class. You have the time to identify those core skill sets and take classes that add to your value proposition.

Passivity and blatant ignorance aren’t going to cut it today. You need to cast a critical eye to your résumé and look at it from an employer’s view…what have you done to keep your job skills up to date? Is your professional development section blindingly empty? Or was the last class you took over 5 years ago?

If so, you’ve got your work cut out for you…and by updating your skill sets, you’ll improve your viability as a candidate for open positions.

By CAREEREALISM-Approved Expert, Dawn Rasmussen
From www.careerealism.com

Surgery Scheduler- Temp to Hire

If you have scheduled spine surgeries you will love working with this successful, compassionate & growing practice. This practice focuses on working as a team to best serve the patients. Use your experience to schedule spine surgeries for this busy practice and you will be appreciated by your team. Some of your duties will be to manage the surgery schedule by phone & in person, obtain medical records, provide appropriate forms to patients, coordinate office & surgery schedules on physicians' calendar, schedule pre & post-op appointments, work with medical records, plus other duties as needed. This practice is ready to hire.