5 Things to Look for in a Great Resume Template

5 Things to Look for in a Great Resume Template When they apply for a job, the majority of applicants use a template to design their resume, rather than building one from scratch. Some templates are good enough to land an excellent job because they expertly showcase your skills. But there are thousands of templates, both online and in your Word program. How do you know which to choose? The answer depends on such variables as your job type and your years of experience. Not all resume styles will match your job posting, nor will they be flexible enough to meet your needs. Despite the differences, all great resume templates have certain features. Here are some details to look for when you choose yours. 1. Flexibility There’s no such thing as “the perfect resume.” An expert can take a good template and make tweaks here and there to match his or her needs. It may require adjusting some of the formatting or inserting longer sections than the resume was designed for. This kind of flexibility allows more creativity and specificity in the text. For example, most resume experts recommend you ditch the objective statement, but templates still include one at the top of the page. When you can adjust the formatting, lead with a modern, captivating summary instead of an old-hat objective statement. 2. Design toward the job As a general rule, resumes tend to be fairly plain. Most are written with black text, 11-point Times New Roman, and very little color. This style is recommended for regular office jobs, writers, the medical professions, and many other no-frill career tracks. But that doesn’t mean a template with a little more color and character won’t perform well in the right setting. If you’re applying for a graphic design position, it’s one thing to state you’re a creative designer and another to show it with your resume. Choosing a template with a little more pizzazz for a position in the creative field could land the job for you. As you look for a resume template that will best reflect the position you’re applying for, consider using a free resume builder. These offer guidance, tips, suggested designs, online options, and more so you deliver a resume that’s best suited for the job in question. 3. Actionable guides Good templates will also guide you through the resume-building process, which is especially useful if you’re new to the process of building an effective resume. The guide will walk you through the process, with captions that tell you what to write in each provided field. It also provides a toolbar that provides tips as you go along. It might suggest quantifying a statement or using stronger verbs. It should also provide links to further resources both online and in your word processor. Not all resume templates will have this advanced feature, but those that do are incredibly handy. 4. Stand-Out features According to studies, the average job posting receives 200 applications. In order to sift through all the candidates and make a qualified hire within a reasonable time frame, the average employer allots just six seconds to scan a resume. If it stands out or seems like a viable option, the sifter put it in the “maybe” pile for a second review later on. Others get trashed. If you hope to merit further review, something on your resume has to catch the eye in those six seconds. This doesn’t necessarily mean a huge font for your name or bright-colored water in the foreground. When used in the wrong setting, such features can get your resume shredded instantly. Stand-out elements include uniquely shaped bullet points, a power-house font like Georgia for your name, maximized space, and applicable design features if you’re applying for a more creative position. 5. Formatting options In high school, you were probably taught to create your resume in reverse chronological order. You start with your career objectives, followed by your level of education. Then you list your most recent work experiences in reverse chronological order. This can be a useful format for your resume, especially if your experience correlates directly with the field you’re applying for. But it’s not the only format, and you don’t want to limit your options with a template sticks to this style. You may have work experience that’s best suited for a functional resume, which lists professional accomplishments and work experience in order of their relevance. You might also benefit from a combination of the two, which focuses on your strongest skills while promoting your most recent experience. Any template with advanced options for formatting is ideal because it will give you the necessary flexibility to format a successful resume. About the author:  Larry Alton is an independent business consultant specializing in social media trends, business, and entrepreneurship. Follow him on Twitter  and LinkedIn.

First 90 Days at Work Success Plan - Classy Career Girl

First 90 Days at Work Success Plan If you just got hired at your dream job, you want to make sure you have the best first 90 days as you possibly can! What you do from the first day matters most. Your new colleagues and your new boss will form opinions of you based on limited information and it’s hard to change their minds after the first impression. So here’s what you can do to shape their impressions to be the best they can be: Step 1: Build key relationships early Ask your boss, “What is critical in my job that I need to know? Invite key people in your company to lunch or coffee and pick their brains. Focus on your managers and your colleagues who are the same level as you. You will need support at all levels! Step 2: Observe the office culture Try your best to blend in and always listen before you speak. Don’t give your opinions too fast right away. Your time will come but in the beginning you want to listen as much as possible. Step 3: Do what you say you will It’s so important to start building trust from the beginning. If you show you are trustworthy you will continue to get additional responsibilities which will help you achieve your career goals. Step 4: Focus and Hustle You might not have a ton of work life balance in the beginning. You want to be that person who is willing to stay late and get in early to learn and grow and get started on the right foot. It might take you more time to do something but you want to prove you are dedicated and will get it done no matter what! You may have to get some cleaning support around the house and extra childcare or ask your husband for more help around the house for your first 90 days to get off on the very best foot possible! Step 5: Seek out a mentor Find someone who was once in your position to be your mentor. This does not have to be formal. Enlist that person’s help and offer your help in exchange! Step 6: Be proactive with your new boss It’s up to you to make this relationship work. Your boss is busy so ask him or her what is the easiest way to be contacted. Go out of your way to check in with him or her and report updates on your accomplishments and tasks. Step 7: Improve your weaknesses in your new role As you go through the first couple of weeks, you will notice that you prefer some things about your job but not everything. It’s important not to just focus on the things you are good at in the first 90 days and to work hard learning and growing your weaknesses too. Eventually you may be able to delegate those to someone else but in the beginning it is extremely important to show you are well rounded and can pick up anything you are asked to do. Later on, you can have a conversation with your boss about training someone new on the task you dislike or how you want to focus more on a certain area. That is only after you have proved yourself and they see how valuable you are to the company because you can do a lot of different things and they need you. Step 8: Try to have an early win See what project is really important to your boss or co-workers and focus hard on it to make it your early win. Make it a priority in your to-do list and do a little everyday to ensure you complete it as quickly as possible. Early wins will help you make a great impression and help you get yourself set up for future promotion, raises and of course happiness! Just follow these steps and you will be well on your way to reaching all of your career dreams and loving your career for life! How did your first 90 days go?

Avoid These 3 Resume Mistakes - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Avoid These 3 Resume Mistakes - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career According to Dictionary.com, the definition for resume is a summing up; summary; and, a brief written account of personal, educational and professional qualifications and experiences, as that prepared by an applicant for a job. With this somewhat broad definition in mind, job seekers often get consumed by understanding the details of what to do when building a career summary. However, the conundrum is that youre not sure which details to consider, and which to toss so your resume lands on the hiring managers desk. In these instances, it may in fact be best to begin with just a few rules of thumb regarding what not to do when building your new resume (versus getting bogged down in a bunch of rules). To get your resume jumpstarted, consider these three things: 1. Dont marry your resume to a template. As with anything personalized, when you put your stock in a templateâ€"mirroring format, words and content strategiesâ€"your results will look like a me-too story. A shiny, pretty, buzzword-polished resume may make your eyes light up and feel good about you initially, but over time, lackluster responses from hiring decision makers will dim that light. Instead, if you are determined to use another resume as inspiration, leave it at just that, using the other resume (or template) as a launch pad for yours. Other resumes and design strategies may serve as guides but should not be the primary premise for your unique resume story. 2. Dont make your resume all about you. The bottom line is this is YOUR story, so initially, you want to focus on what your goals and dreams are. Once you have nailed those down, however, you want to identify the types of companies and roles that will leverage your talents in a way that you can reach your destination. Uncover your target audiences needs. What types of products or services do they provide? What types of clients do they serve? What types of problems might they typically encounter? Next, weave together career stories that imply your greatness through results that benefited your future company and your future boss within that company. Make sure the results pop not only with metrics but also with your strategic thinking and solutions-building skills. Show your how and your why, and get the reader emotionally engaged to you, feeling that you understand their needs and can resolve their areas of struggle. In other words, the next boss you are appealing to must feel you are their champion, their hero who can come in and help THEM look good to their bosses and reach the next level of their career. 3. Dont worry about the rules. Read 10 articles on resumes, and you will get 10 different opinions. Some say never to exceed two pages; others instruct never to use first-person; some say never to go back further than 10 or 15 years; and some indicate that employing a chart or graph in a resume is an absolute no-no. Scrap those rules for a moment, and just begin writing, with this primary rule in mind: FOCUS. Focus on your goals wedded with your target audiences wishes. At first, you may find that a brain-dump resume unfolds, one that appears leggy and lumbering. Of course, you wont want to stop there. Instead, take a scalpel and begin editing your story down, layer by layer, until you unveil the targeted message â€" a pithy short story that draws your reader in, hungry to know more.

Personal Branding Interview Brad Tuttle - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Personal Branding Interview Brad Tuttle - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Today, I spoke to Brad Tuttle, who is a contributing editor at Budget Travel, and author of How Newark Became Newark. As a freelance writer, he has written for The New York Times, Newsweek, Newsday, and American History, among other publications. In this interview, Brad talks about how he got started in the media world, freelancing versus working for a company, and more. How did you get started in the media world? I started off as a stringer for my local newspaper. I was a year out of college, living with my parents and heading off to a day job in NYC that I wasnt crazy about. I never worked on the school newspaper or anything not in college, not even in high school. After getting in touch with the local weekly in my area, I began covering school board meetings and small-town stuff. I got a few clips this way, and learned the basics of reporting and writing on the go. But I knew I wanted to be more of a writer, and for me that meant magazine-type writing. With that as a goal, I landed an internship at a progressive magazine called City Limits, which led to me getting a full-time job at a newspaper (writing full-time seemed to make the most sense, career-wise), which in turn helped me to get into the Columbia School of Journalism. It was and continues to be a rambling ride, with one gig leading to another. Is it better to be a freelance writer now or work for a media company? For me personally, right now I prefer freelance for a lot of reasons. Though benefits and all would be nice, freelance is where the most opportunities are nowadays, and Im busier than Ive ever been (fingers crossed). At some point, Id be interested in trading the freelance life in for a regular job with benefits and stability, but those jobs just arent around in the numbers they used to be and no one I know in the media world would describe their position as stable. When did you decide you wanted to write about money, technology, travel, etc? One of the reasons I enjoy being a writer is that it gives me an excuse to be curious and nosy about stuff that interests me. As odd as it may seem, many journalists (myself included) arent naturally outgoing social butterfly types, but the work gives you the excuse to ask questions and indulge interests that you might not have otherwise pursued. So to answer the question, I like to write about whatever interests me, and whatever topics have pertinence in my life. Ever since I studied abroad in college (in Italy), Ive been fascinated with travel, and remain so. Everybody is interested in money, but Ive become especially obsessed with the topic since the recession hit, I lost my full-time job when Wondertime, the magazine where I was a senior editor, folded, and I suddenly found myself with three kids and no steady income. I find its really difficult to cover a topic youre not interested in but luckily, Im a pretty curious guy, and I love storytelling. If youre good at this, youll realize theres a story to be told even when youre dealing with a topic that seems completely boring. In what ways have you marketed yourself to get new freelance gigs? Occasionally, I put myself out there and pitch stories to publications Ive never worked with, but mostly, Ive found that work begets work. The vast majority of my gigs and assignments are the result of contacts Ive made in the industry. For me, the way to get work is by doing good work by proving yourself as a pro again and again and again. At some point, if youre good, the editors will be coming to you. What are you looking to do in the future? Another book? Oh lord only knows. Right now, Im happy to be working steadily. I really enjoy the immediacy and interactive nature of the web, though Im constantly worried that we (meaning me and all bloggers) are sacrificing quality for the sake of quantity and immediacy. Id be interested in writing another book, but that kind of project requires a huge commitment Im not ready for at the moment. Ill wait for an idea that really grabs me that I simply HAVE to write. As I mentioned above, its difficult to cover a topic youre not interested in, and the bar is way higher when it comes to writing a book. My advice would be: Unless youre obsessed with both the topic and with writing books, you shouldnt bother writing a book. Who wants to read 100,000 words from somebody who is only sorta-kinda interested in the topic? Brad Tuttle is a contributing editor at Budget Travel, where he was a staffer for six years. His most recent full-time gig was as a senior editor at the Disney-owned parenting magazine Wondertime, one of the many print outlets that kicked the bucket in early 2009. As a freelance writer, his work has appeared in The New York Times, Newsweek, Newsday, and American History, among other publications. He is the author of two books: The Ellis Island Collection: Artifacts from the Immigrant Experience (Chronicle Books, 2004), and a gritty narrative history of urban America entitled How Newark Became Newark: The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of an American City (Rutgers University Press, 2009). He lives in Massachusetts with his wife Jessica and their three sons, and he desperately hangs onto every dollar that comes his way. Read more about him at bradrtuttle.com.

How to Frame Writing and Editing Experience For a Business Resume

How to Frame Writing and Editing Experience For a Business ResumeWhen the time comes to write and edit your business resume, you want to make sure you have written the entire experience using the proper techniques. Although experience is an essential element, you can't neglect to emphasize your qualifications as well. Writing and editing experience can be quite difficult if you don't know how to frame writing and editing experience for a business resume. Let's take a look at how to do this and what elements you should focus on.For those who don't know, the idea of how to frame writing and editing experience for a business resume is to emphasize the skills that are required of the person that you are hoping to hire. If you have the skills required, then you are qualified. As you will find out, experience is only part of the equation.The biggest mistake that most job applicants make when they write their writing and editing experience for a business resume is they don't emphasize their skills. You need to be able to describe the skills that you have in an objective and simple manner. In other words, your abilities should not be listed with phrases like, 'responsible for'supported,' but rather, you should list your skill sets in what you have done. In addition, this will help show employers how they should view you as an employee.Make sure you highlight each of the different aspects of your skills. Make sure you emphasize your management skills, technical skills, leadership skills, interpersonal skills, sales skills, and even organizational skills. It is important to make sure you write each area of expertise properly so your employer knows exactly what you can do.You want to be able to list all of your skills. This includes the technical skills and leadership skills you have developed within your organization andin your work experience. You want to emphasize these while explaining how these skills were developed within your organization.You want to emphasize how your organizational skills have been developed because these are the key skills that are required for a successful organization and helps to demonstrate the strengths and values of your organization's culture. You want to emphasize that you have taken steps to develop the skills that were required of you in your work experience. From here, you want to take things a step further by elaborating on the areas of expertise you developed.In addition, you want to highlight the experiences that have helped you develop these skills. This can include your professional relationships, written reports, meeting minutes, personal networks, travel experiences, and volunteer projects. As you can see, you are going to need to write a very detailed format to highlight how your skills have developed within your organization.When you know how to frame writing and editing experience for a business resume, you have a much better chance of landing the job you've always wanted. You will also be able to get noticed by companies that you have been wanting to work for.

TSA Test Types (Thinking Skills Assessment) - How 2 Become

TSA Test Types (Thinking Skills Assessment) - How 2 Become There are 3 main TSA Test Types, and the one you take will depend on the university that you are applying to. Let’s take a look at the different TSA Test Types: Oxford, Cambridge, and UCL.The Different TSA Exams â€" TSA Test TypesThe exact content and structure of the TSA will change depending on the university you are applying to. Here are the three main TSA tests, as well as how they are structured:The Oxford TSA Test â€" TSA Test TypesThis is the TSA that you will sit if you apply for a course in Economic and Management, Experimental Psychology, Human Sciences, Philosophy and Linguistics, PPE (Philosophy, Politics, and Economics) Psychology and Linguistics, or Psychology and Philosophy at Oxford University. The Oxford TSA is divided into two papers:• The Thinking Skills Assessment â€" Here, you’ll answer 50 questions in the multiple-choice format. Each question will have five answer options. The time limit for this paper is 90 minutes.• The Writing Task â€" In this paper, you will have 30 minutes to write a response to one of four essay titles provided in the test paper.The Oxford TSA usually takes place in late October or early November each year. Most candidates will sit their exam at 9am. Generally, candidates taking the Oxford TSA sit the exam in their own school or college.The Cambridge TSA â€" TSA Test TypesYou will have to sit this test if you are applying for a place on a Land Economy course at the University of Cambridge. This test consists of a single Thinking Skills Assessment paper, which contains 50 questions with a time limit of 90 minutes.The University College London (UCL) TSA â€" TSA Test TypesApplicants for courses in European Social and Political studies at UCL will be required to sit the TSA. Like the Cambridge TSA, this consists of a single 90-minute test with 50 questions to answer. This test is usually sat at an assessment day.The Structure of the TSA â€" TSA Test TypesAs you can see, all three TSA exams consist of 50 questions to be completed within 90 minutes. This gives you just under two minutes to answer each question, so you have to work quickly!Something to consider is that most TSA exams are designed so that the questions increase in difficulty. So, while you have about 1 minute and 50 seconds to answer each question, you should try to work as quickly as possible so that you have more time for the tougher questions towards the end. Since the test gets progressively more difficult, you need to think strategically about how you will manage your time.How Your Test is Marked â€" TSA Test TypesThe TSA is marked in a straight-forward manner. Since you’re answering multiple-choice questions, your answers can either be right or wrong. This makes the entire test relatively clear-cut, making it perfect for practising using past papers and mock exams. Since the answers are either correct or incorrect, you can quite easily mark your own practice papers.There are 50 questions in the TSA, and each question is worth the same amount of marks. So, even though the later questions in the test are typically more difficult than the earlier questions, they are still worth an equal amount of marks. Take this account when planning your strategy for sitting the test.While there are 50 marks available in the TSA, you will receive a score between 1 and 100, to one decimal place. This is because the raw marks are converted depending on the difficulty of the questions and the test overall. Generally speaking, the test is marked automatically, rather than by a human examiner. Additionally, re-marking is usually not permitted for candidates sitting the TSA.  If you’re interested in more TSA test tips, advice, guidance, and practice questions, check out our guide: TSA Test Practice Papers. This entry was posted in Education, Testing. Bookmark the permalink. Jacob Senior Thinking Skills Assessment Question TypesFemale Train Driver Roles: Addressing The Gender Imbalance

Join our first international conference on happiness at work May 18+19 in Copenhagen - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Join our first international conference on happiness at work May 18+19 in Copenhagen - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog Big news: Every year since 2009 we?ve held a conference on happiness at work in Copenhagen. The events have been incredibly popular but also limited in scope because most of the talks were in Danish. That?s about to change, because this year?s conference will be international, with all the talks and workshops held in English. We have a great lineup of speakers and sessions. May 18 is a full conference day and May 19 is in-depth workshops. Check out the full program here. The conference is for leaders, HR people and others who want valuable knowledge and effective tools that they can apply right away to make their organizations happier and more successful. So grab this chance to visit the world?s happiest country for a truly unique, fun, valuable and intense conference experience. To get a sense of the event, watch this video from our 2013 conference: Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related