Princeton Career Experts Say That to Get Your Next Job, Your Resume Should Always Have These 5 Simple Things

By Peter Economy

Not all of us will get accepted into an Ivy League university. But for those of us who still want to benefit from an Ivy League education, listen up: Princeton University is spilling the secrets behind what makes a successful résumé. 

Career Services at Princeton University has prepared a résumé guide for both seasoned candidates as well as novice résumé writers. No matter what your skill level or amount of work experience, résumé writing is, as Princeton University calls it, a "personal undertaking."

Described as a "marketing tool that demonstrates how a product (you) meets the needs of a potential customer (employer)," the résumé is critical for landing a dream job. Here, according to Princeton University career experts, is what you need to do to craft a functional and effective résumé:

1. Be relevant.

Your job is to get an interview with this résumé--not list out every accomplishment you have ever had. Pay attention to the job description--what keywords, traits, or skills are repeated, and how are you reflecting these in your résumé? It's likely that your past experience will have transferable skills that are related to the position you are applying to, so make sure you make a good case for why you should be hired.

4. Use action-oriented accomplishment statements.

Be sure to liberally sprinkle action-oriented accomplishment statements throughout your résumé. Princeton Career Services suggests that to create an accomplishment statement, "Start with an Action Verb to show you did something. Then provide the Context for that action using quantitative and qualitative terms. Lastly, demonstrate the End Result of your actions to show the value of your contributions!"

Here are some examples of accomplishment statements:

• Allocated $1,500 budget to promote annual National Coming Out Day rally, increasing participation 25 percent over previous year.
• Coordinated three fundraising events for local shelters, raising $8,000 and greatly improving community awareness.
• Collaborated with a partner to formalize a 400-page training curriculum, creating a structure that made the progression of material clear and logical.
•  

See all 5 things and the complete Inc article

Google’s director of talent explains 4 ways to make your resume stand out

By Stephanie Vozza

Last year, Google received more applications than any other year—nearly 3.3 million. It’s no surprise that a lot of people want to work at Google, but what’s interesting is that the tech giant doesn’t use a bot to screen résumés. A real person reads every one.

“At Google, we still rely on humans for hiring—it’s the most important thing we do,” says Google’s director of talent and outreach, Kyle Ewing. “We train folks to look at résumés for skills and competency. For the candidate, the most important thing to consider is how that piece of paper can properly reflect all of your dimensions.”

Whether you’re looking for a new job or simply giving your résumé a refresh, knowing what companies such as Google train their HR team to look for can help you stand out. Here are four things to include:

1. Your experience

Look at your résumé as an opportunity to celebrate your accomplishments. “We encourage folks to think about not just where they worked or went to school, but to convey the experience they gained and the lessons they learned,” says Ewing.

If you’re a recent grad, include experiences such as academic research, tutoring experience, and recent student group or class projects, she says. Also, showcase professional accomplishments as well as highlight the intersections of work and life.

“If you volunteer or have a passion project or side hustle, adding those things tell a better story about you beyond work—a holistic candidate narrative,” she says. “At Google what you add to our culture is what you contribute beyond nine to five. We know experience comes in many different forms.”

4. What you can add to an organization

Ewing says she wants the candidate to explain what they bring to the organization, not just what makes them a fit for the role.

“Since your résumé is often your first impression to recruiters, depending on the role and your seniority, consider adding a short summary section at the top,” she says. “Focus on relevant work experience and what you can add to the organization.”

You can also add value by providing qualitative and quantitative examples of previous experience, rather than a list of recent job roles.

“At Google, we’re committed to assessing candidates based on their competencies, not only their credentials,” says Ewing. “And since there’s no one kind of Googler, we’re always looking for people who bring new perspectives and life experiences to help us build stronger teams, products, and services.”

Creating a résumé can feel clinical and like a chore, but Ewing cautions candidates to be careful when they craft theirs. “Don’t do it when you’ve had a terrible day at work, are at the end of your rope, and want a new job,” she says. “Instead, get in the habit of updating it every January. Approach it with a self-care lens so that thoughtfulness can shine through.”

See all 4 ways and the complete Fast Company article

 

5 Steps Guide To Turn Your Job Interview Call Into A Job Offer

By Ayushi Pundir

You made it! Now, the only thing standing between you and your dream job is the job interview round. And, to reach your end goal, you need to show the recruiter that you are the ideal candidate for the job and that you are ready to face the challenges that might come with it.

Although your work experience and educational qualification played a vital role in getting you the interview call, now you need to show the recruiter what kind of employee you will be. So, to help you turn your job interview call into a job offer, here are 5 steps that you should consider doing to get closer to your dream job.

2) Give Mock Job Interview

Before going for the actual job interview, try to give some mock interviews at home. You can ask your friends or a family member to take your job interview under closer circumstances. Take their feedback into consideration and work upon the areas you lack. Doing this will take your interview preparation by a notch.

However, just depending on your friends and family to see you through the interview preparation might not always be the best idea. With so much (your whole future) riding on the interview, it would be advisable to seek the help, expertise and advice of a professional. Mock-AI can really help you here as it conducts interviews in a simulated environment and gives you detailed feedback on your performance.

4) Ask The Right Questions

There is a high chance that the recruiter will ask you whether you have any questions for them, use this as an opportunity to show the recruiter that you are the right candidate. And, to do that you should ask the interviewer at least one interview question. This will show the recruiter that you are a good listener and serious about the job role.

However, when asking the interviewer question, make sure that the question shows that you have done your homework, and it is not a question whose answer you can get by googling.

Read all 5 steps and the complete article

 

6 Ways To Sell Yourself In A Job Interview

Daniel Bortz

Unless you’re actually in sales, the very concept of selling yourself during a job interview can be daunting. You don’t want to sound arrogant or corny, or worse, desperate. But learning how to self-promote in a convincing manner is what the job interview is all about.

The good news is you can learn how to confidently talk about yourself—specifically your skills, knowledge, and career achievements—with a little effort. These tips can help you close the sale on a job offer.

2) Tailor your elevator pitch

Ganesh says you should have a 30- to 60-second self-introduction prepared in advance, but this elevator pitch has to be customized to the job you’re interviewing for.
“You can’t create a single elevator pitch that will work for every audience,” says Stamford, Connecticut–based executive coach Anne Marie Segal. “You have to be speaking to the pain points of the company.” After all, your goal is to present yourself as the solution to their problems.

Look closely at the job posting to assess the company’s needs and the job responsibilities, and then tweak your pitch accordingly. Do your research and find what matters most to the company—go to their website and social media pages and read their mission statement, recent press releases, and any initiatives they’re undertaking—and then tailor your pitch.  

3) Prepare meaningful anecdotes

No matter what industry you’re in, you can expect to be asked behavioral job interview questions. Essentially, these questions require you to come up with examples from your past work experiences—for example, “Tell me about a time when you suffered a setback,” or, “Tell me about a time when you had to deal with a difficult co-worker.” Unfortunately, this is where a lot of job seekers stumble.

“Many people can tell a decent story, but almost everyone leaves off the impact the story had on you, the participants, and the business,” says executive coach Bill Cole, author of The Interview Success Guide. In other words, don’t forget to talk about the results of your actions.

To craft a compelling anecdote, Cole recommends using real feedback to highlight your contributions: “Use actual dialogue of how people raved about your solutions and how it affected the business. Describe any awards or visibility you received. Talk about how your former boss still raves about you on that project to his colleagues and how your project is still in place, years later.”

4) Ask unique questions

The secret to distinguishing yourself from other job candidates is simple: Ask good questions that offer value. “These pointed, yet uncommon questions mark you as an in-depth, curious, persistent researcher,” says Cole.

Make sure at least one of your questions expresses interest in what the company is currently working on and then tactfully weigh in. For example, you might ask, “Will your new product have x, y, or z features and capabilities?” Then, after the interviewer answers, you’d follow up by offering your creative thinking on the subject, says Cole.

See all 6 ways and the complete Monster article

10 Ways to Land an Internship During COVID-19 (It’s Not Too Late!)

by Meredith Pepin

 

The coronavirus pandemic has left very little unchanged, and internships are no exception. The results of a survey released by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) in May found that 22% of employers had revoked internship offers in light of COVID-19. Many companies continue to evaluate the situation and make ongoing changes and decisions about their internship programs. 

For nearly a decade, I’ve worked with students on all things careers, first at Wheaton College and now at MIT. I’ve helped with everything from answering existential questions—like what do they want to do with their lives—to tackling the job and internship hunt. If you’ve found your dream internship unexpectedly canceled—or are on an internship search that’s severely lost its mojo—I can tell you from my conversations over the last several weeks that you’re in good company. 

However, this doesn’t mean there’s no hope! There are still steps you can take to find new remote internships and other opportunities to build your resume during the global pandemic.

1. Take Advantage of Your School’s Resources

Chances are your college or university is thinking about how to help and has a variety of resources you can use. I am admittedly a bit biased, but your career center is a fantastic first stop. Since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, our office has gathered resources for our students still searching for summer opportunities, hosted a virtual career fair, and reached out to alumni to encourage new internship and job postings. 

Your school’s career center is bound to be doing similar things. The staff members there should be keeping up-to-date with the changes happening during this time from both the student and the employer side, and they can share information and point you in the right direction. For example, many career centers have school-specific databases for internship postings, with information about who’s still hiring. (Even if your college’s career center doesn’t have a formal job posting system, a very popular one called Handshake is now available to all students with a .edu address. You can create a free account to check out more than 500 recent opportunities.) As another plus, you might be able to set up an appointment to meet virtually with an advisor on staff who can give you individualized advice for your situation.

Additionally, other offices and academic departments that offer experiential opportunities will be looking into alternative scenarios to support you. The summer research programs at your school may be figuring out how to move opportunities to a remote setup and your public service center may be rounding up nonprofit or volunteer opportunities. So be sure to check in with these offices too!

3. Use Crowdsourced Data to Your Advantage

You can find some useful gems by turning to the hive mind for intel. While there are plenty of places reporting canceled internships and frozen hiring, the trick is to find sources that also have some hope (and leads) to share. 

Candor, a startup that helps tech workers negotiate salaries, branched out and started a user-generated list of hiring updates in response to COVID-19’s economic impact. Using the Airtable format, you can sort by a “Hiring” status tag and pop keywords into the search (hint: try “internship”).

If you need another hiring pick-me-up from the masses, follow HIRING20 on Twitter for the latest on who's hiring interns and new grads. If Twitter isn’t your thing, you can also access the information on Github.

7. Consider a Micro-Experience

Keeping an open mind on where your experience comes from can be liberating and useful. If you’re feeling adventurous, try your hand at shorter experiences that can help you explore different careers and build your resume. Below are a couple of resources you can use to find one or more bite-sized opportunities:

• Inside Sherpa partners with companies to offer (unpaid) virtual work experience programs. It allows students to learn what a role and typical work would be like at those companies, including big names such as BCG, GE, and Citi. The platform is free, and programs usually take about five to six hours to complete. Some of the experiences include human rights law, software design, consulting, and data analytics.
• Parker Dewey offers short-term paid experiences. Once you set up a profile, you’ll be able to see what micro-internships are available, the details of the projects, and how much they pay. Opportunities range from user experience testing to API script writing to social media marketing and usually entail five to 40 hours of work.

8. Opt to Volunteer

Volunteering can be a great way to work for a company or organization, and there may be less competition than for internships. Admittedly, you have to be able to afford to not get paid, which understandably can be a limiting factor. (In some cases, your school may have supplemental funding or grants to help support you, so check with your career center or the public service office.) 

There are volunteer opportunities across industries and for a wide range of interests. Maybe you’d like to help with the copywriting on a documentary film or leverage your Spanish major while working for a human rights foundation. Or perhaps you want to give back to the community during this pandemic. Try searching on VolunteerMatch and Idealist, which have thousands of virtual and local volunteer opportunities listed.


See all 10 ways and the complete themuse article


 

 

The 8 most annoying things you can do during your job search

Lindsay Tigar

Job searching can make even the most confident of professionals lose their cool. After all, going in for yet another interview can often feel like a first date. You worry about impressing the hiring manager or recruiter with not only your skillset but your personality, too. This can cause many otherwise competent leaders to make unnecessary mistakes or exercise habits that well, don’t send the right message. As difficult as it may be when you’re unemployed or unhappy in your current gig, career experts recommend avoiding these annoying practices when you’re job searching:

1) Following up too often

There’s nothing worse than having what you thought was a stellar job interview only to be ghosted for a week—or two or three. To understand where you stand in the application process or to receive critical feedback to improve your future performance, follow-up kindly. But how much is too much? And how often is too often? There is no specific formula that works across the board, but career coach and keynote speaker Carla Isabel Carstens suggests waiting a week to inquire. And another before touching base again. After that, call a spade a spade and consider it a loss. “Sadly, given the sheer amount of candidates applying for any given role, it is difficult for a recruiter to address every email they receive,” she continues. “Take the hint if HR doesn’t get back to you after a follow-up or two. Move on, and open yourself up to other opportunities.” And hey, if they decide to get in touch down the road, it’ll be a happy, welcomed surprise.

4) Applying for jobs you aren’t qualified for (yet)

Especially when you’ve been going through the seemingly endless cycle of applying, interview, and being rejected, you may feel propelled to throw your hat in on any and every opening. This impatience, while expected, can cause a recruiter or interviewer to become frustrated, Carstens reminds. Going through one resume after another that is far-fetched from the opportunity at hand waste their time and doesn’t put you on their glowing list of considerations.

Though it’s okay to dream big and apply for the gigs you’ve always wanted, make sure you’re at least 80 percent qualified before applying. “Take the time to read the job description, thoughtfully consider each position, and if you’re truly a candidate,” she adds.

7) Writing how much you’ve always wanted to work at Hulu … in your cover letter for Netflix

This rookie mistake drives employers mad because it sends the message that you’re carelessly submitting the same cover letter template with all of your applications, rather than customizing the note to each job listing, explains career expert for TopResume, Amanda Augustine. You never know who is on the other side of your email, and while a cover letter might not matter to some, for most, it’s the first chance they have to see your writing ability. And perhaps, more importantly, your attention to detail. “Luckily, you can easily avoid this problem by carefully reviewing the job description and then tailoring your cover letter to highlight your relevant qualifications,” she shares.   ***  I see this one all of the time....

Read all 8 things and the complete TheLadders article

5 Ways To Job Hunt During A Recession

Nicole Lapin

Let’s face it. Nobody likes to job hunt. It’s time-consuming, filled with rejection, and quite frankly, sucks. These feelings are exacerbated by the fact that chances are you aren’t going down a LinkedIn rabbit hole because you want to. Maybe you were laid off or furloughed or realized six months into the job that your boss was a little too Devil Wears Prada (or worse, Office Space). 

Even worse there’s an economic downturn, which is why so many people have lost work recently and job prospects are scarce. It seems inevitable that we’re headed towards a deep recession, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t jobs out there to be had. Here are 3 ways to job hunt now:

1) Look For Growth Industries
Not every industry is tanking. Netflix has seen a recent surge in subscriptions, and even old-school puzzles are having a moment. Do some research into the industries that are on an upward trajectory and are likely to stay that way post-pandemic. Right now, that’s probably going to be the tech sector. The pandemic has forced many of us to embrace new (and old) technologies, such as Zoom and Amazon. Is social distancing going to mean manufacturing workers will be replaced by robots sooner? That might be a good reason to look into AI. We’re living online a lot these days and tech companies will need workers. As with any recession, there are pockets of growth to be found. And if anyone can find them, it’s you.

2) Finding Companies That ARE Hiring
Yes, duh, there are companies not hiring/on a hiring freeze. But there ARE companies hiring like Rosetta Stone, Amazon, CVS, Walgreens, FedEx, UPS, food delivery services, grocery stores, Walmart, and GoJo, the company that makes Purell (!). Candor.co created a database where users can also contribute information that allows you to see companies who are on a hiring freeze and those that are not, in real-time.

See all 5 ways and the complete Forbes article