PATHWAYS Leadership for Progress is an international leadership training program open to undergraduate students from Kenya. The program helps students in moving their projects forward and assists them with university fees.
The goals of the PATHWAYS program are to develop the student’s leadership ability through supporting their efforts to improve their community, facilitate the education and encourage career development of
individuals who are highly qualified academically, motivated, and dedicated to improving their country, provide mentoring to establish the future leader in his/her career and to assure the successful implementation of the community project and foster lifelong civic-minded collaborations among youth from different ethnicities.
Course Level: It is an international leadership training program. Along with participation in this program, applicants can pursue an undergraduate program at University of Nairobi, Kenyatta University, Jomo Kenyatta University of Science and Technology and the Technical University of Kenya.
Study Subject: Scholarships are offered in diverse fields to help students in upgrading their education.
Scholarship Award: PATHWAYS offers the opportunity for students to apply for modest annual awards ($500) to help them move their projects forward and assists them with university fees. The program will cover most of the student’s university expenses toward a Bachelor’s degree not covered by any government or private grants for 2 semesters per year contingent upon satisfactory progress each year. The student is also expected to apply to PATHWAYS for a small grant to start the women’s table banking enterprise as well as support for the mentoring program.
Scholarship can be taken in Kenya
Eligibility: Applicants must meet the following guidelines
- KCSE overall grade average of B or higher.
- Demonstrated financial need.
- strong interpersonal, communication and educational skills.
- Be willing to identify a public primary school and offer mentorship to the pupils
- Be willing to identify a local/community women’s/youth self-help group and through PATHWAYS guidance assist them in starting and running a table banking enterprise and be willing to train them on how to start and succeed in running one or more income-generating activities.
- Three letters of recommendation from three different people in leadership positions who are familiar with your abilities and character (e.g. secondary school teachers/educational professionals, local administrators, religious leaders) (attach).
- Copies of KCPE/KCSE official results certificate (attach).
- Recent photo of student (will not be returned).
Nationality: Applicants from Kenya can apply for this leadership training program.
Kenya Scholarships
How to Apply: The completed application and additional information should be sent to PATHWAYS Leadership for Progress (by airmail post or email). Checklist includes
- Completed application form
- Copy of KCPE/KCSE
- 3 separate letters of reference from different people
- Copy of Admission letter from the university
- Photo (smile)
- Good candidate essay 1 page
- Contribution to PATHWAYS paragraph
Application Deadline: The application deadline is August 31, 2016.
Are you scheduled for an interview in the coming week? Doing interview preparation over the weekend? A fact is that no job candidate can guarantee they will pass a job interview; you can be confident enough that you will do well, but that’s it. The outcome is most times out of your control. A job interview can bring surprises, from meeting a panel instead of one individual, to being interviewed by a hostile recruiter.
But one thing that is common across all kinds of a job interview; you need to be well prepared if you are to ace the interview. To help you in the preparation process, here is a list of things you must do from when you get that invite to when you show up for the interview.
6 Steps To Help You Pass a Job Interview
1. Identify what you’ll be wearing to the interview
Not sure how this is the first thing you should do? Read on. Recruiters or the interview panel will begin evaluating your suitability for the job from the minute you walk in, so your appearance is important. Did you dress for the position? Did you take time to look the part?
What you pick out should make the employer or recruiter answer these questions with a positive. This way, the interview can start on a positive note without any negative judgements.
2. Go back to the job description
When searching for jobs, you come across too many positions that keeping up with each and every job description is another task altogether. To ensure you do not prepare for the wrong job, take a step back to the job description as listed by the company. Study it carefully and write down important pointers if need be, also match it up to your CV and see what information comes out as important.
Knowing this will give you a basis for what information to look out for when carrying out your background research.
3. Start on your company research
From the notes you made from step number 2, begin getting even more familiar with the company. Look out for achievements and major milestones that the company has registered recently and be concerned with the figures. You do not want to mention the wrong figures that make the company look bad during the interview.
Ensure by the time you are relaxing back on your chair, you know the company ins and outs like you are already one of the employees.
4. Go through various interview questions and rehearse answers
Anxiety for most candidates looms when you are not sure what questions to expect or what answers to give when these interview questions are asked. To avoid being anxious, take your time and search common interview questions to expect in your profession.
At this point, Google becomes your friend. You will find many career websites or recruitment firms like this one with this information. And to be on the safe side, pay more attention to interview questions focused on the Kenyan job market. Rehearse the answers until you are confident that you understand each one and can answer with ease.
5. Know what attitude works in a job interview
Most job seekers focus their interview preparation around the company background and questions, but forget the other basics that count. Your attitude is a major determinant of how an interview will go, and your body language plays a major role in communicating your attitude. Recruiters will be very keen about your attitude during a job interview, so be very careful how you come across.
No employer wants to work with a bad attitude, so keep yours in check and identify how to market yourself without bragging too much.
6. Pack up what you’ll need and arrive 15 to 30 minutes early
Now that you have prepared the basics and got all the information to keep your anxiety in check, it’s time to impress recruiters in the interview. To do this, always confirm that you have everything that is required by the interviewer; supporting certificates, recommendation letters, copies of your CV just in case and other important documents that you were asked to carry.
Once you’ve ensured you have them all, get directions to the company and familiarize with the different routes you can use. If commuting, find out matatus to use early enough so you don’t have to get lost just before the job interview. And more importantly, if the interview is in Nairobi or its environs, always give yourself a traffic jam allowance. But also remember, if you are running late it is wise to call your contact and let them know so they do not assume that you just don’t care.
You are now ready for that upcoming interview. Oh, and clean up your Social media sites to show you’re a professional, may be change your privacy settings so if recruiters snoop around they don’t see how you partied o Wish you all the best.
The writer is a Communications Officer at Corporate Staffing Services. Visit Website: www.corporatestaffing.co.ke
Applying to jobs can be a tedious process, especially because you need to write a Cover Letter for each and every job you apply for.
Most job seekers in Kenya let the frustrations of their tedious job applications get to them, and for this reason they end up making mistakes that cost them the jobs.
These candidates do not even realize they made a mistake in their cover letter during the application, until someone points it out to them and this is very rare.
To avoid such situations that could lead to a series of frustrations, it is always important to take your time when drafting the cover letter.
Why? Because the cover letter tells the story that your 2 or 3 page CV couldn’t.
Customer Service Job Sample Cover Letter
“Your Name Here”
P.O Box 66600 – 20200
Nakuru
30th July, 2015
The Human Resource Manager
XYZ Company Limited
P.O Box 000 – 00100
Nairobi
Dear Sir/Madam,
Re: Application For The Position Of Customer Service Executive
I am writing in regards to the Customer Service Executive opening at your company. I believe my 4 years’ experience working as a customer service agent has provided me with the problem solving skills and great interpersonal communication skills you are looking for in this position.
In addition to my degree in Business Administration, I have received training in customer relations management, leadership skills and I am currently pursuing a post graduate diploma in Information Management, all of which will come in handy when dealing with difficult clients and coming up with effective organizational policies.
Working at XYZ Company, I was also responsible for handling telephone calls coming in and out of the organization, dealing directly with clients on behalf of my manager and keeping record of major official documents. I believe this experience has given me the skills you are looking for and makes me the best candidate for this job.
Attached is my CV for your review. I look forward to an interview where we can discuss my qualifications further and the value I will be adding to your company.
Yours Sincerely,
“Name Here”
If you are sending your application directly to the recruiting officer and can tell what gender they are just from their email, be specific and address them with their names or as Dear Sir or Dear Madam, not both.
The person receiving your email may be offended or think your cover letter as just another application among hundreds you have sent out and not consider you.
Heading into a big interview can be terrifying, not unlike the feeling I’d imagine you’d have if you were about to jump out of a plane for the first time ever.
Of course, there’s little risk of actual death (unless, of course, you’re improbably applying for head coach at lion-taming school), but it’s nonetheless an anxiety-producing scenario.
Summon your self-confidence and conjure your courage in five easy ways.
1. Stop the Storytelling
Your brain’s primary job is to minimize danger and maximize reward, so in a situation where there’s an unknown outcome—especially a situation where you might screw up—your mind’s going to start telling you stories designed to keep you safe, tales that will help you from feeling the crush.
I’ll never get the job, and I’m about to get called on my spectacular lack of suitability. What if the hiring manager hates me? These kinds of opportunities always go to someone on the inside or someone they already know, I have no chance.
Your brain will always spin stories when it doesn’t know what will happen, so it’s vital that you recognize what your overly analytic mind is doing in creating these works of fiction.
Notice the fear-filled worries and let yourself consider the hilarity of them for just a moment, and then get yourself back to reality stat. It’s the only way you’re going to build the confidence you need for a home-run interview.
2. Return to Your Best
Being at your best means being at the top of your game, the place where you’re buzzing, flowing, and really feeling alive. When you’re in that place, two things are happening. First off, you’re simply using everything you’ve got in the moment (all those skills, all that experience, all your smarts, all your talents, all your strengths and all that instinct) and, secondly, you’re not letting anxiety get in the way of your confidence.
In an interview, these two things combine to give you the sense that this is OK; that you’re OK. It’s sitting in that chair feeling whole and resourceful rather than incomplete and on edge.
To enlist this feeling, try this exercise: Sit and close your eyes, and dive into how it feels when you’re firing on all cylinders. Check in to see where that feeling lives in your body—maybe in your stomach or your chest or your fingertips. Imagine that place in your body being the source of this energy, this flow, this power, this ease. Then, when you need it, just focus on that place in your body, and you’ll return to your best.
3. Breathe
Anxious nerves are a physiological response to risk, a response that gets your heart thumping, palms sweating, and thoughts spinning. You’re pretty much screwed while this response has you in its grasp, so it’s fortunate that you have a built-in stabilizer—a way of anchoring your experience in something steadier and more enabling: your breath.
If, pre-interview, you start to feel the anxiety start to creep in, gently shift your attention to your breath. Pay attention to it as it moves in and out of your body. Keep your attention on the breath, noticing the sensations in your body as you exhale, and even the momentary pause between the in breath and out breath.
Interrupting the script written by anxiety and instead focusing on the breath re-activates your pre-frontal cortex—the part of your brain that allows you to think deliberately, express your personality, and make decisions.
Fully experiencing your cycle of breathing is a way of returning you to a place of acceptance where confidence lives.
4. Normalize Rejection
As experiences go, rejection is a pretty sucky one. Getting dismissed as a job candidate makes you wonder whether you’re really as good as you sometimes think you are. You start to question whether you did something wrong or whether there’s something about you that the hiring manager just didn’t like. The warm wash of shame makes you feel small and insignificant. It’s a really low feeling and no good for your self-esteem.
Rejection doesn’t have to be some big, looming scary thing. If you don’t get asked you back for a second interview, it’s not the end of the world. It doesn’t mean you’re not good enough.
If you get to third round, but ultimately don’t get an offer, it’s OK. You’ll bounce back. Try not to view it as an outright judgment against you personally, but simply as a sign that it wasn’t the right job for you at this point in time.
Try not to let the professional rebuff diminish your value.
5. Humanize the Process
It’s easy to enter into the meeting thinking that the interviewer is only there to judge you. Sometimes you might even cast them as the Big Bad—an opposing force who wants to catch you make a mistake or say the wrong thing.
The reality, of course, is that you were invited in because your resume and cover letter caught the hiring manager’s eye. You were asked to come in because someone at the company wants to get to know you. The hiring manager wants to hear more about the experiences he read about on paper, and I promise you no one is looking to see how much shaking you can do in those boots of yours.
Believe it or not, they’re on your side. They want to see who you are and what you can do, and how well you’ll fit in the team and the culture. Their aim is to offer the job to a decent human being who can add value, so consider them as an ally who wants you to land the job rather than an enemy who wants to see you trip up.
By getting in the practice of summoning confidence with these five tips, you’ll become a stronger, more articulate interviewer. Instead of fearing the inevitable job interview, you’ll look forward to it, knowing you have what it takes to succeed both mentally and physically.
Credit : themuse.com
You can debate whether cover letters are dead as much as you’d like, but that won’t change the fact that some hiring managers will continue to read them, and to those people, what you write still matters. Knowing that, it’s worth taking some time to think about what message you want to send.
And no, the message shouldn’t simply be “Hire me.” Everyone’s application can be summed up with those two words. The best examples always have a “because” attached that explains why you deserve to be hired.
In other words, if you were to distill your whole letter into one line it would be: “Hire me, because I have a ton of relevant experience,” or “Hire me, because you’re a two-person company and I know how to wear a ton of hats as things evolve,” or the ever-popular, “Hire me, because I’m incredibly excited about this position.”
As you may’ve noticed, that last line isn’t quite as strong as the first two—at least not off the bat. While it shares why you’re interested, it doesn’t mention what you’d bring to the role. It only covers your passion for the position. Sure, you’re excited about the position, in love with the company, and obsessed with the industry. But while your goal may be to distinguish yourself as someone who’d go the extra mile because you genuinely care, you end up blending into a crowd of notes that read more like fan mail.
Don’t get me wrong: Enthusiasm can be a strong selling point. But you have to package it correctly so that it speaks to how you’d be a capable hire. Here’s how to reframe three of the most common (and worst) lines:
Old Line: “I Have Dreamed About Working at [Organization] for Years”
New Line: “I Noticed the Company Has Recently Shifted Toward [X]”
Saying you’ve always wanted to work somewhere doesn’t actually mean anything. First, anyone can make that claim. Second, you might have always dreamed of being an amazing cook, but if you never spend any time in the kitchen, you’re not qualified to prepare a banquet meal.
Now, if you’ve actually followed an organization since its website was in beta, that’s a definite advantage. Clearly, you get the target audience, and you have a strong sense of the company’s evolution. These two facts would make you a more valuable hire then someone who just stumbled upon the business.
So, focus on the tangible way that your history with the company would allow you to quickly fit in and get to work. By mentioning that the organization seems to have shifted its messaging, or packaging, or something that only someone who worked there or truly loved the product would know, you’ll make it clear that you could contribute an informed opinion from day one.
Old Line: “I Want This Job More Than You Can Believe”
New Line: “I Was Excited to See One of the Main Responsibilities Is [X]”
A lot of people worry about their cover letters sounding stiff and robotic. So, they err on the other extreme, making it sound like they’re sitting across the table from the hiring manager, telling him or her just how much they really want the role. Not only could this line show up in anyone’s cover letter (i.e., it’s not distinguishing you at all), but you never want someone to be able to switch out the word “job” for “relationship” and have your note read like a speech from The Bachelor.
Instead of professing your love for a role, look for a specific aspect of the position’s description that you’re perfectly suited for. One way to do this is to ask yourself follow-up questions: Why do you want this job so much? What element of it are you most excited about? Why will you be better at that task than other people applying to the same role?
Use the answers to drill down to why you’re excited and what you’d bring and your letter will be much more memorable than one that simply shares overall enthusiasm.
It’s true you follow the company, the founder, or every major influencer in the field on all social media platforms. You get alerts whenever there’s news and your talk about the company so often that people ask if you work there.
And you want the interviewer to know that, to get that you’re already an ambassador for their work, and that you’d be up to speed. However, you never want to look like just a fan. Because that’ll also make it seem like you’d probably be a “yes man” (or “yes woman”); someone who’d be so excited to come to work each day he’d follow any plan—instead of pushing back when there might be better options.
So, highlight all of the good aspects of your close attention to the company or sector. Are there changes afoot that you’re well aware of and would be equipped to help with? Has there been recent growth or resturcturing you’d love to contribute to? Including a specific detail and how you’d fit in shows more than your passion—it also highlights your fit.
The lines that literally spell out how much you’d like to work somewhere are just taking up valuable space. If you take the time to customize your cover letter and share why you’re the best person for the job, your enthusiasm will shine through more naturally—and more convincingly.
Credit : themuse.com
You put so much thought into what should go on your resume—from your best, most impressive accomplishments down to the perfect, classy-but-modern font.
But to make sure all that effort is put to good use, it’s just as important to pay attention to what shouldn’t be on there. From overused buzzwords that make you look just like everyone else to “creative” touches that do more harm than good, there are plenty of resume elements that annoy—and even turn off—recruiters. And because we want your resume at the top of the pile, we’ve pulled them all together in one complete guide.
For the best chances of landing that interview, grab your resume and make sure it’s free and clear of these 45 things.
Formatting
- A Career Objective: That boring boilerplate “I am a hard working professional who wants to work in [blank] industry” is a bit obvious—why else would you be submitting your resume?—and takes up valuable space. Instead? Make it crystal clear why you’re so interested in each specific position you’re applying to in your cover letter.
- A Skills-Based Format: Current recruiter wisdom says to stick with the good old reverse chronological (where your most recent experience is listed first) in almost every occasion. If your most recent experience isn’t what you want to highlight or you’re re-entering the workforce after a long hiatus, top your resume with an “Executive Summary” section that outlines your best skills and accomplishments, or create two experience sections: One specific one, such as “Business Development Experience” or “Editorial Experience,” followed by a more general one.
- Photos or Other Visuals: A recent study showed that “such visual elements reduced recruiters’ analytical capability and hampered decision-making” and kept them from “locating the most relevant information, like skills and experience.”
- Mega Blocks of Text: Studies show that recruiters look at resumes pretty quickly—a minute at best, the blink of an eye at worst—so your goal is to make yours as easy to skim as possible. That means keeping your text short and sweet, and in bullet points, not block text.
- A Second Page: If you have less than 10 years of experience, having more than one page can be a deal-breaker for some recruiters. So why risk it? And with a little formatting prowess, we promise you can get it down to one page.
- All Those Fonts: Stick with one—maybe two, if you have some design skills. Any more than that and you risk the hiring manager getting distracted.
- Orphan Words: (They’re those single words left on a line by themselves.) Instead, see how you can edit the previous line so they can fit—making your resume look cleaner and opening up extra lines for you to fill with other things.
- “References Available Upon Request:” At worst, it makes you look presumptuous, and even at best, you can use the extra space to add a detail about your abilities or accomplishments.
Personal Details
- Your Address: If you’re not local, recruiters might not look any further. And if you are? Recruiters may take your commute time into account and turn you down if they think it would be too long, explains AvidCareerist.
- Your Work Email Address: (And, yes, we see it happen all the time.) Do you really want your future employer to know that you’re job searching on your employer boss’ time and email server?
- Your “Creative” Email Address: (And yes, we see this happen, too.) “I can’t actually share any here without giving away someone’s personal contact info,” says Ryan Galloway of The Hired Guns. “I will say, however, that if you’re a grown person applying for a Director of Marketing gig, the word “Belieber” has no place in your email address.”
- Your “Creative” Hobbies: As recruiter Jenny Foss of JobJenny puts it, “Unless you are applying for jobs that will specifically value these interests (or they’re flat-out amazing conversation starters), leave them off. Decision makers will judge the heck out of you if they spot hobbies that fly in the face of their own personal beliefs or seem odd.”
- Your Birthdate, Marital Status, or Religion: Since it’s illegal for employers to consider this when looking at your application (at least in the U.S.), they can’t request it (and offering it makes you look a little clueless).
Work Experience and Education
- A Regurgitation of Your Job Description: In most cases, recruiters care less about what you did day to day (like answer phones and email) and more about what you accomplished over time (like increased customer satisfaction 20%). Here are a few tips for turning your duties into accomplishments.
- Bullet #8: As a rule, stick to just 6-7 bullets for each section—even if each accomplishment is seriously killer, the recruiter’s probably not going to get through them all.
- Positions Irrelevant to Your Current Job Goals: Unless you need it to fill a gap on your resume or showcase your skills, there’s no law that says you have to include your six months at Burger Shack on your resume.
- “Unpaid:” Who needs to know whether your internship was paid or not? If you got great experience, let that stand on its own.
- Your Parenting Experience: If you took time out of the workforce to raise kids, don’t list your parenting experience on your resume, à la “adeptly managed the growing pile of laundry” (we’ve seen it). “While parenting is as demanding and intense a job as any out there, most corporate decision makers aren’t going to take this section of your resume seriously,” says Foss.
- Your GPA: Unless you’re applying to a management consulting job, or you’re coming straight out of college (and it’s amazing). Even then, it might be better to simply include any academic accolades (like graduating summa cum laude) than the actual number.
- Your Graduation Year: Recruiters only really want to know that you got a degree, and you don’t want them to inadvertently discriminate based on your age.
- Anything High School-Related: Unless you’re a year out of college, really need to bulk up your resume, and did something highly relevant (and awesome) during your high school years, no need to include it on your resume.
- Skills That Everyone Has (or Should): Think Microsoft Word and “the internet.”
Specific Words
- Unnecessarily Big Words: Why “utilize” when you can “use?” especially when the former takes up more precious space on your resume. “Run the ‘would I ever say this in real life?’ test on every phrase and sentence in your resume,” says Foss. “If you find words or statements that don’t read like something you’d say? Change ’em up.”
- Industry Jargon or Buzzwords: You might know what GIA requests are, but the executive, assistant, or even recruiter first reading your resume might not. Make sure everything you include is understandable to the average person.
- Words With a Negative Connotation: Even if you mean them in a positive way, like “met aggressive sales goals,” research has shown that words like problem, mistake, and fault can have a negative impact on a recruiter’s perception of you.
- Vague Terms: (Think professional, experienced, and people person.) They’re chronically overused, and we bet there’s a better way to describe how awesome you are. (Need help? Here are a few great cliché-free ways to show off your soft skills.)
- Any of the Words in CareerBuilder’s Survey of Resume Words Recruiters Hate: Seriously, why annoy them right out of the gate? The list is topped with “Best of breed,” and followed by:
- Go-getter
- Think Outside of the Box
- Synergy
- Go-to Person
- Thought Leadership
- Value Add
- Results Driven
- Team Player
- Bottom Line
- Hard Worker
- Strategic Thinker
- Dynamic
- Self Motivated
- Detail-oriented
- Proactively
- Track Record
And OK, Because We Had To
- Typos: But don’t rely on spell check and grammar check alone—ask family or friends to take a look at it for you (or get some tips on how to edit your own work).
- Anything That’s Not True: Just, don’t. If you’re not sure you have the experience to qualify for your dream gig, don’t manufacture it—go look for ways to get it.
Credit : themuse.com
When you’re searching for a job, it can be easy to get so focused on getting hired that you overlook the red flags that can reveal a job or a company isn’t the right fit for you. That’s a dangerous mindset to have, because it can mean that you end up in a job that makes you dread going to work each day.
Here are seven job search red flags that people often ignore, to their detriment.
The person who would be your boss is rude. Your boss will have an enormous impact on your day-to-day quality of life at work, as well as on things like what projects you get, how visible they are, what kind of recognition you receive, future raises, what professional development you have access to and more. That means that your boss’s character and way of operating is hugely important, and it’s crucial that you use the interview process to assess what kind of manager you’d be working for. If your prospective boss is rude or disrespectful, assume that won’t let up once you’re hired (if anything, it’s likely to get worse). Watch out for the following types of disrespect in particular:
- Seeming put out when you ask questions about the job or the workplace culture
- Acting as if you should be grateful you’re being considered
- Disparaging your skills or past work
- Asking you to do unreasonable things, such as interviewing with only a few hours notice, without any acknowledgement or apology
You feel uneasy about your ability to do the job well. When you’re anxious to get a job, it can be easy to lose sight of the fact that your goal isn’t just to get hired, but rather to get hired for a job that you’ll do well in. Otherwise, you can end up struggling and miserable at work, or even getting fired, which can make getting your next job much more difficult. Even if these worst-case scenarios don’t happen, being in a job that isn’t a great fit means that you’re unlikely to have the kind of accomplishments that will help you reach the next level in your career. If you have real concerns about your ability to excel at the job you’re interviewing for – not normal nerves, but genuine doubts that you can do what the employer is looking for – it’s probably better to withdraw from consideration and focus on jobs that play to your strengths.
No one has been able to tell you quite what the job will entail. If the employer can’t clearly explain exactly what you’d be doing if hired, that’s a danger sign. It can mean that the job is likely to change drastically after you’ve already been hired, possibly to something that you don’t want to spend your days doing or aren’t good at. It can mean that they’ll realize they don’t need the position at all, even if you’ve already quit a previous job and started working for them. And if they’re unable to explain what doing the job successfully would look like or how they’ll decide if you’re doing it well, it can mean that you’ll be left to flounder with no clear direction and be held to vague standards that never quite get articulated.
The interviewer doesn’t interview you. An interviewer who doesn’t ask many questions about your work experience is an interviewer who isn’t equipped to make a smart hiring decision. If you’re offered a job by a company that knows little about you and hasn’t made much effort to learn more, you’re taking a risk that once you’re on the job, it will turn out that the role or company isn’t right for you.
Online reviews of the company are overwhelmingly awful. Sites like Glassdoor.com, where people can leave reviews of their employers, aren’t always 100 percent reliable. People’s reviews are subjective, and a disgruntled employee might paint a very different picture than the reality. However, if a company has a significant number of reviews and they’re overwhelmingly negative, that’s worth paying attention to.
You have a terrible gut feeling. If you feel uneasy every time you think about the job or the manager, listen to your gut. Those alarm bells are often based on things that you’re picking up subconsciously, and it’s far better to walk away now than get stuck in a job that will make you miserable.
You’re pressured to accept the offer on the spot. Good employers will give you time to think over a job offer. They want you to have time to make sure that the job and offer are right to you, because they want to make good hires and not have people itching to leave after a few months. Employers who pressure you to accept on the spot or before the day is over are pushing you to do something that isn’t in your best interest. Be very wary.
Credit : usnews.com
You probably already know the most popular interview questions, like “Tell me about yourself,” “What are your strengths and weaknesses?” and “What are your compensation expectations?” What you may not have realized is that these, and questions like them, have very little to do with the real questions that lie behind virtually every hiring decision.
Memorize answers to these questions to your heart’s content, but if that is all you do to prepare for a job interview, you won’t guarantee success.
Why?
Simple: These questions don’t directly address the underlying concerns of the employer. To get to the heart of those concerns, you’ll need to step back and look at all your job-hunting communications differently. Recognize that your interviewer won’t likely tackle the concerns head on, so you need to, in order to create a strong comfort level for your candidacy.
Instead of preparing for the standard stuff, think about the real issues that hiring authorities must address in order to cross the hiring decision point.
Once you figure out what the employer’s real need is, you are in a better position to market yourself not simply as a bunch of skills, education and experience, but rather as a solution to the employer’s problem.
You’ll then be able to speak to what you can do to solve that problem, based on your abilities and knowledge.
Have you done it before … recently? Every employer wants and needs to know if you’ve done what needs to be done before. What’s the nature of your relevant experience? Employers don’t care, by and large, what you were doing more than 15 years ago, because it likely isn’t relevant to how anything is done today. You might argue the point. You might want to grasp on to that as a point in your favor.
Get over it!
Demonstrate in your cover letter, resume and in your interviews what you’ve done recently that specifically relates to key elements of the job for which you want to be hired. Tell stories about how successful you’ve been, and what you did to achieve those successes.
Can you do what needs to be done here and now? Maybe you haven’t had a similar job with like responsibilities. That doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t land the job. However, in order to do so you certainly need to demonstrate that you are capable of fulfilling its responsibilities.
It might be that you’ve been doing the same kind of thing at a lower level. Or, you might be making a more dramatic career change. Regardless, it is up to you to understand what needs to be done in the role, and convince the hiring authority that you can succeed at it. Don’t just claim that you can do the job. Show how you will be successful doing it!
Make sure you highlight the specific transferable skills, explain how they are relevant and how you would adapt them to your new job.
Or, you might want to explain why you are seeking a greater level of responsibility with an improved rank and salary to go along with it. Highlight this in your cover letter, and be prepared to speak directly to this point when you meet face to face for an interview.
What are the chances you’ll wash out or flee to another better opportunity as soon as one presents itself? When you are looking for a job, it’s easy to forget that the people interviewing you will themselves be evaluated on the quality of the people they hire. If they hire people who consistently fail to work out well, or alternatively are such stars that they are off to another company as soon as “the right thing” comes along, it will be a blot on their record.
That’s why it is often difficult for people who are overqualified to convince interviewers that they want to dial back their responsibilities, and, alternatively, why employers are reluctant to hire you if your past experience and achievements don’t align with the job perfectly.
Again, if this sounds familiar, you’ll want to take the bull by the horns and make a convincing case why this really is a good fit in your cover letter, and throughout the hiring process.
Happy hunting!
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You might be tired of hearing this by now, but regardless, it’s true: Job hopping is the new normal. That means people today are scoping out their prospects anytime, anywhere—including at the office.
While it’s definitely not ideal, sometimes skimming openings while sitting at your desk is a necessity. When you’re balancing work, friends, your health, and life, you need to fit your search in whenever you can—and in today’s competitive market, you have to move swiftly in order to move to the next round.
But make no mistake: Looking for new opportunities at work poses a risk. As a longtime HR leader, I can testify—there’s no better way to burn professional bridges than being caught red-handed doing this. But, if you’re going to go for it anyway, you need to tread carefully.
Fortunately, there’s a number of things you can do to make sure you land your dream position in a timely fashion while still staying respectful to your employer (and out of trouble). So before you embark on your hunt, read up on the answers to all the burning questions you didn’t know who to ask.
What’s the Best Way to Use My Time at Work if I am Job Searching?
With all the information you could ever want to know literally at your fingertips, it can be tempting to do a deep-dive investigation of your prospects throughout the work day. But even if you’re planning to leave, you need to stay respectful to your company (if for no other reason than that a bad reputation can come back to haunt you.)
Anything that can wait—research, cover letters, applications—should be done at home. Keep your time spent on the job search at work minimal, and focus first on urgent matters like responding to timely emails and doing phone interviews.
What Do I Do if the Interview Times Conflict With My Actual Job?
When you’re excited about an opportunity, you may feel like you have to bend over backwards to accommodate the hiring manager’s schedule. But your time matters, too. If a suggested interview date or deadline doesn’t work for you, you’re well within your right to politely push back—just explain that it’s not ideal for your schedule and offer some alternate times.
Remember: Recruiters are just as eager to find the perfect candidate as you are to find the perfect job, and if you show a lot of promise, they’ll probably be more than willing to give you an extension or find a workaround. Hiring managers who offer non-negotiable meeting times are few and far between—and if they’re truly in a time crunch, they’ll likely clue you in.
How Can I Keep This on the DL (for as Long as Possible)?
At the end of the day, your own behavior is more likely to give away the fact that you’re on the hunt for a new opportunity than anything else. If you nervously glance over your shoulder every few minutes or schedule three dentist meetings in a week, people will talk.
That being said, there are other ways you can have your cover blown. For example, anything you do on your office computer can be tracked, so think twice before going to sites that might provoke HR suspicion. Some companies monitor activity less than others, but regardless, there’s still no guarantee that your site history and communications will stay private.
And if you’re serious about staying stealth, dip into your PTO hours. It doesn’t have to be for weeks at a time. If you buckle down and plan in advance, a few hours here and a half-day there will allow you to blaze through multiple applications and interviews.
And, What Happens if I Get Caught?
Letting your employer know that you’re in the market for a new job is a difficult conversation, but if someone catches you in the act at the office, it’s absolutely the right move to make. Most people can recognize a hasty, panicked lie when they hear one, and once they do, your credibility goes out the window.
When you have to come clean about your job search, you likely won’t get a thrilled reaction from anyone, but if you have a good relationship with a management team that genuinely cares about your professional growth, they might just understand and want to hold onto you for as long as you’re willing to stay. And if they don’t? Unfortunately, there’s not much you can do other than admit it and apologize. Oh, and then put your search into overdrive so you’re not stuck in that awkward situation for too long.
Let’s Get Real: Can I Get Fired for This?
Like it or not, if you’re an hourly employee and you get caught prowling for a new position at work, you might as well prepare to pack your bags and leave. When you get paid for your time, each minute you’re on the clock is at your employer’s expense—so doing anything other than what you’re supposed to is effectively stealing from them.
If you’re a salaried employee, however, you have a little more wiggle room. With how connected our society is, it’s nearly impossible to completely separate your personal and professional lives: Sometimes you answer emails on the weekends, and other times you have to leave a meeting to schedule a doctor’s appointment. Job hunting definitely falls into the “personal” category, and at times, it may bleed into your work life a little bit—just make sure you’re using your time judiciously.
Finding your next big opportunity is tough enough on its own—add a full-time job, and it’s made that much more stressful. With only so many hours in a day, it makes sense that you might want to take a chance and cross off some of those to-do’s in the midst of your nine-to-five. But if you don’t want to take the risk, that’s perfectly understandable as well. Ultimately, I can’t be the one to tell you what you should do. But now that you have the facts—the good, bad, and ugly—hopefully, you’re ready to decide what your game plan will be.
Credit : themuse.com
A lot of clients come to me asking for advice on how to get more motivated.
And this is hardly surprising. No matter what you’re trying to get done, it certainly gets easier when you have that nice feeling of motivation fueling your efforts.
But please note that’s exactly what motivation is. It’s a feeling. And the thing about feelings is that they fluctuate.
No one is motivated all the time. So, when you rely on this feeling to take action, you’re essentially leaving your most desired outcomes up to chance. Not a good plan.
So, what should you do instead?
Just Show Up and Get to Work
Painter Chuck Close claims he’s never had a “painter’s block” in his whole life. In an interview for Inside the Painter’s Studio, Close said: “Inspiration is for amateurs—the rest of us just show up and get to work.”
And the belief that things will grow out of the activity itself and that you will—through work—bump into other possibilities and kick open other doors that you would never have dreamt of if you were just sitting around looking for a great “art [idea].”
And the belief that process, in a sense, is liberating, and that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every day. Today, you know what you’ll do, you could be doing what you were doing yesterday, and tomorrow you are going to do what you [did] today, and at least for a certain period of time you can just work. If you hang in there, you will get somewhere.
The “just show up and get to work” motto is a great creed to live by in all areas of life. No matter what you want to get good at, you won’t get there by “getting motivated,” but by showing up and doing the work every single day.
I know this from my own experience, because when I was relying on motivation and inspiration to write, I’d publish less than an article a month. But ever since I committed to writing a certain amount of words every day no matter what, I consistently publish at least one article per week while at the same time making good progress on several other writing projects.
Very rarely do I feel deeply motivated when I sit down to write. But that doesn’t matter, because I’ve trained myself to sit down and do it every day anyway.
And no matter what you’re trying to achieve, you can do it too. All you need to do is put a system in place that makes it second nature for you to show up and do the work.
How to Create Your Own System
There are plenty of strategies you can implement into your system. Here are the most powerful ones I’ve come across:
- Create a trigger to remind you to show up every day. For example, implementation intentions or scheduling.
- Start ridiculously easy. Make your initial efforts so small you can’t say no. Don’t increase your daily effort until you’re consistently showing up every day.
- Track your progress. Measure everything you do and compete with yourself to always get better.
- Reward yourself for making progress. Celebrate even the smallest wins to reinforce your good efforts.
- Create immediate consequences for procrastinating. Raise the stakes by using commitment devices.
- Shape your environment. Make your desired behaviors easy to do and competing behaviors harder to do.
- Surround yourself with the right people. We adopt the goals, emotions, and attitudes of the people we spend the most time with. Choose your social circles wisely.
- Get accountability. Start a mastermind group, join a team or club, hire a coach, or team up with an partner.
- Plan for failure. Conduct a weekly review to track your efforts and readjust as needed. Adopt the view that setbacks are valuable data rather than failures.
All of these strategies are very powerful in general, but you’re going to have to experiment to find out which ones are most effective for you.
Change Your Identity, Change Your Life
I hope I’ve convinced you that relying on motivation is a bad strategy and that creating a system that supports you is a much more reliable way to reach your goals.
The reason this works is because a system helps you show up every day. And when you do that, soon you’ll have some momentum going. Once you’ve got momentum going, you’ll begin to create lasting change. And when you’ve successfully created lasting change, you’ll start to reshape your perception of yourself.
Now you’re no longer the kind of person who needs motivation to make things happen. Instead, you’re the kind of person who, no matter what, just shows up and gets to work every day. And once you’re in that place, you can make anything happen.
Credit : themuse.com
If you’re thinking about taking a new step in your career, your resume’s probably high on your mind. When’s the last time you updated it? How will you transfer the skills from your current job or industry to a new one? How will you set yourself apart from other candidates? How long and horrible will this revision process actually be?
Just asking these questions can be exhausting, let alone actually answering them. And, if you’re not fresh off the job search, the thought of thinking everything through and creating an interview-worthy resume can be exhausted.
Fear not! We’ve come up with the 20 basic rules that will get you that much closer to success.
1. Keep it to One Page
This is a biggie! If a hiring manager’s spending six seconds looking at your resume, he or she might not even get to the second page! Unless you’re applying to be an executive or a partner somewhere, one page will be sufficient and is a widely accepted “best practice.” To cut it down, remember the purpose of it—it’s not to showcase everything you’ve ever done, but rather to show that you have the background, skills, and experience for the job at hand.
2. Avoid Spelling or Grammar Errors
Another biggie. There are some recruiters who will discount your resume the second they see a spelling or grammar error. Although it can be painful, make sure you don’t just read over your resume several times, but also that you have a friend take a peek, too.
3. Watch Your Tenses
This is another common error that can really hurt you in the eyes of hiring managers. As a general rule, if something on your resume is in the past, use the past tense (managed, delivered, organized) and if you are still actively in the role, use the present tense (manage, deliver, organize).
4. Avoid the First Person Pronouns
As a general practice, don’t use words like “I” or “me” or “my.” So, instead of saying “I hit and exceeded company sales quotas 100% of the time” say “Hit and exceeded sales quotas 100% of the time.”
5. Send Your Resume as a PDF
Saving your resume as a PDF (rather than a Word dand yocument) freezes it as an image so that you can be sure hiring managers see the same formatting as you. If you send it any other way, there’s a chance that the styling, format, font, and so on, could look different on their computer than yours.
6. Label Your Resume File Correctly
Too many people save this important document with random or generic file names like sgks123.pdf or resume.pdf. Remember that recruiters can see the name of the file that you send them and also remember that they get tons of resumes every day. Make it super clear whose resume they should click on by saving it under a logical name like FirstName_LastName_Resume.pdf.
7. Format in a Logical Structure
Even more important than naming the file in a logical manner is laying out your resume in a logical manner. How you lay it out really depends on where you are in your career path and what you’re looking to do next. While chronological the default, it’s not always the best way to make your case. Muse writer Lily Zhang lays out the other options that might work better for you.
8. Make Sure It’s Easy to Read
You might be tempted to just shrink the text to get your resume to fit on a page. (Which is funny, because remember all those times in school when you made it 12.5 to make it longer? Life!) While you can adjust the size to some degree, never go below 10-point font.
9. Keep it Organized and Visually Appealing
Remember how hiring managers usually spend just six seconds looking at your resume? Help them maximize that time by making your resume super clear and easy-to-read. You want each section bolded (maybe capitalized) and each job title bolded. Make your life easier by using a template.
10. Keep it Consistent
Just like you want your verb tenses to be consistent throughout, it’s also important that the formatting is, too. If one title’s bold, the other titles should be bold. If one bullet point has a period at the end, the other bullet points should have that as well.
11. Include Context
When you list out your experience, be sure to include context. What city, state (or country) did this job take place in. Did you travel and operate in multiple cities? What dates did you have that experience? Was it for five months or five years? Context matters!
12. Quantify as Much as Possible
Anyone can say that he or she excelled at his or her last job. So, you need to prove to the hiring manager that you truly did. Numbers, percentages, and supporting facts go a long way in showing that you have a track record of success. For example, rather than saying “successfully hit sales quotas” as a bullet point in your resume you should say “successfully hit sales quotas 100% of the time and exceeded goals by 25% in the last 5 months.” You can even do this if your position doesn’t involve using numbers.
13. Name Drop (and Title Drop) Like You’ve Never Done Before
This is your chance to brag. If you got a promotion or a raise because of your performance, you should mention it. If you worked with the CEO of the company or were a point of contact for a large, corporate customer, mention their names! This goes a long way in showing that you can run with important people. It shows that you’re confident. It shows that you’re capable. (Of course, make sure you’re presenting the facts accurately and not exaggerating.)
14. Don’t Include References
Don’t use any of your precious space to include the names and contact info for your references (or to write things like “references available upon request”). This document’s for recruiters to decide if they want to talk to you, not your references. If they get to the point in the application process where they want to speak to these people, they will reach out to you and ask for those names. Until then, no need to mention.
15. Use Your Judgement When it Comes to Creativity
Some industries are more creative than others. If you’re working in digital media or design or elementary school education, it might make sense for your resume to be creative and colored. If you’re applying for a job in finance, operations, or most corporate jobs, you probably want to keep it black and white and structured. Be thoughtful when it comes to your creativity (or lack thereof).
16. Don’t List Everything You’ve Ever Done
There should be a purpose for every word. When you’re writing and editing, ask yourself this question, “Will this sentence help me get the job I want?” If not, you should consider editing that sentence or removing it.
17. Think About the Person Reading Your Resume
It’s important to remember that there’s a real person reading this. And it’s also important to remember that it’s her job to find awesome candidates to interview and present to her boss or team. It’s also not her job to do you any favors. So you should think about her when you’re writing your resume. How can you make her job easier? How can you write your resume in such a way that she gets excited when she sees it, thinks you’re perfect for the job, and is willing to put herself out there by presenting you to her team.
18. Think About What Makes You Different
It’s important that you be yourself during the application process (obviously putting your best foot forward). This includes what you write on your application materials. Don’t hesitate to show who you really are, your likes and interests, your personality, what makes you unique, and so on. While this definitely requires some judgment calls (for example, expressing personality when applying for a traditional role in a traditional industry might not be the best move) it could ultimately be the thing that sets you apart and gets you hired.
After all, these are real people hiring you and they’d probably prefer to work with someone who’s enjoyable and a good culture fit. And if your personality isn’t a fit for the job, you probably wouldn’t have been happy there any way so it works out for everyone.
19. Think About the Specific Job You’re Applying To
One of my favorite tricks to help communicate that you are the perfect person for a job is to read the job description and list out key phrases. Then, when you’re writing or editing your resume, find ways to incorporate those words and phrases from the desired job description into your resume. This can be super useful when a machine or human recruiter skims it.
20. Think of This as a Storytelling Document
Many of the tips that I’ve mentioned all point to the general idea that your resume should clearly and concisely tell the story of “you”—helping hiring managers understand why you’re the right person for the job. This is, in fact, the entire purpose. Ultimately, when you re-read and edit it, make sure that it tells the story of your background, the skills you gained along the way, the experiences that you’ve had, and makes it crystal clear why you’ve ended up where you are today and why the role that they are hiring for is the perfect next step for you.
Yes, this is a lot. The good news is that you’re not alone in the process. The job search is hard, so make sure you’re reaching out to friends and family for support (or, even just for distractions). And, if you think you might want a more professional second set of eyes on your materials, Muse Coach Connect can set you up with an expert who offers resume writing services. Just remember, that when you’re feeling overwhelmed—and 20 rules can do that to you—that following these guidelines gives you a huge head start among all the other applicants.
Credit : themuse.com
“Just take a chance on me.”
It was a common line in my cover letters a few years ago, when I was desperate to make the switch out of management and into marketing—without a related degree or experience. Even so, I was so sure that if the employer just gave me a chance, he or she wouldn’t regret it.
But when an employer has a pool of fully qualified candidates, why would he or she take a chance on someone who’s on the edge of meeting the job requirements?
I’ll tell you this much: It takes more than including a pretty unconvincing pick-up line in your cover letter. Here are a few tips to get your foot in the door.
Don’t Draw Attention to Your Lack of Skills or Experience
The key to this whole process isn’t necessarily to convince the hiring manager to take a chance on you, but to get him or her to actually think you’re a good fit for the role. So the very first thing you have to do is stop apologizing for your lack of skills or experience.
Whenever you include a sentence in your cover letter such as “While I’ve never been in a marketing role before…” or “Although I don’t have any management experience…” or even “If you would just take a chance on me…” all you’re doing is telling the hiring manager you can’t do the job.
“Instead of drawing attention to your weaknesses, a better way to move on to your qualifications is to state your skills and ability to contribute directly,” recommends career counselor Lily Zhang. “Stay positive, focus on your strengths, and immediately launch into your transferable skills and infectious enthusiasm for the position.”
Showcase What Sets You Apart
No matter what you’re transitioning from or to, you do have transferable skills.
For example, while my management roles didn’t involve any true marketing, they did require me to network and form relationships with other businesses in the community, manage multiple projects at a time, and communicate effectively with our customers—all of which would be helpful in a marketing role. (Here’s a great cover letter template that can help you show off your transferable skills.)
Even more important is demonstrating your additive skills, says career expert Sara McCord. That means fully embracing your career background and finding a way to express how that background will uniquely suit you for this job.
“Think about it: If you’re slightly underqualified, there’s a reason why,” she says. “If you spent the first two years of your career in a different sector, you bring experience from that industry.”
For example, when I first wanted to write for The Muse, I had absolutely no writing experience—but I did have management experience, which made me an ideal candidate to write management content.
Take a Risk
To get a hiring manager to choose you out of a sea of other applicants, especially when you may not be as qualified as the others, you might as well take a risk to stand out. Otherwise, you may simply pass under the radar. (And let’s be honest: What do you have to lose?)
For example, just take a look at some of the boldest applications we’ve seen around the web: an action figure resume, an interactive resume, and an infographic resume.
These types of applications certainly get the attention of the hiring manager, clearly conveying that the person just might have something the tips the scale in his or her favor. (Just make sure to follow these tips to make sure you’re not going too over the top.)
But maybe you don’t want (or don’t have the means) to be that bold. You can stand out in plenty of other ways, says counselor and Muse columnist Caris Thetford. For example, maybe you submit a project proposal with your application or compile your writing samples in an online profile. This can help you stand out from the other applicants just enough to show the hiring manager that you may deserve another look—and ideally, an interview.
Do Everything Else Right
You can’t afford to slip up when you think your resume might be on the bottom of the pile. That means sending every thank you note on time, following up in a timely (but not annoying) fashion, and proofreading your resume and cover letter a dozen times over to check for errors.
These may seem like small and insignificant gestures, but the smallest flaws can remove a candidate from the hiring process—and you don’t want that to be you.
By proving your worth in your application materials, you’ll have a much better chance of landing an interview—and then, you can showcase your cultural fit and passion face-to-face. Do that well, and you just may convince the hiring manager to take a chance on you.
Credit : themuse.com
Sure, your resume is important. It’s a piece of paper with every single professional detail about you assembled into one organized list. But when a potential employer wants to see more than just bullet points, the first place he’s going to learn more about you is your cover letter—and you don’t want to disappoint.
We asked 10 entrepreneurs from YEC how you you can stand out from the crowd by writing a top-notch cover letter.
1. Pay Attention to Detail
When we’re hiring, we put an ‘Easter egg’ in the application, and any applicant who includes this special detail in her cover letter will be considered. It helps us identify the applicants who pay attention to detail, actually read the post, and are truly interested in the opportunity—not just sending out generic applications to each job they see.
—Brian David Crane, Caller Smart Inc.
2. Write a Dialogue, Not a Monologue
Our former admissions officers and graduate coaches help folks with cover letters every day, so we’ve seen them from all sides of the table. The worst ones have sloppy mistakes and typos, but many of them also show no theme or ‘application person,’ as we call it. If you aren’t engaging your reader, you’re already far behind in the process. At smaller companies, cover letters aren’t just a formality.
—David Mainiero, InGenius Prep
3. Do Your Homework
I look for cover letters that talk less about the candidate and more about his excitement and knowledge of my company. This tells me you’ve done your homework and that you have the enthusiasm I’m looking for. Yes, I know you really want a job and that this experience will be great for you, but what are you bringing to the table that’s unique to the needs of my company?
—Dan Golden, Be Found Online
4. Lead With Purpose
Resumes do a horrible job of capturing the story behind what drives people. The cover letter connects the dots. It gives you the chance to elaborate on the purpose that has driven you to select a certain company as the place where you want to make a difference. Most good cover letters lead with purpose and show why a candidate truly cares.
—Brett Farmiloe, Markitors
5. Establish an Emotional Connection
The best cover letters are clear about why a candidate wants to be part of the team and how she developed an affinity for the company. This can take a variety of forms, from explaining your industry or business model expertise to how you’re a passionate user of the company’s products or services and simply want to contribute to the future success of the organization.
—Doreen Bloch, Poshly Inc.
6. List Solutions With a Timeline
The best one I ever saw said, ‘Here are the seven solutions I can bring to your company in the next 30 days and the exact way I will execute them.’ The letter itself was more valuable than many consulting calls I’ve done.
—Carter Thomas, Bluecloud Solutions
7. Show How Your Skill Set Aligns With My Needs
Too often, I see generic cover letters that don’t align with the actual job description or the employer’s needs. A cover letter that stands out explicitly states how your skill set aligns with what the company’s looking for. This shows that you’ve taken the time to understand the organization you’re applying for and that you’ve been thoughtful in terms of thinking how you make a good fit.
—Diana Goodwin, AquaMobile Swim School
8. Give it a Human Element
Anyone can write a cover letter that says the right things but still makes you sound like a robot. So one that makes the person sound like a human with personality will always stand out. Achievements, education, and qualifications are nice, but every potential candidate will have that. What stands out the most and captures my attention is personality.
—Marc Lobliner, TigerFitness.com and MTS Nutrition
9. Tell Me How You Can Deliver on Day One
Cover letters that really catch my attention are ones that are not overly formal. I want candidates to be themselves and highlight the experiences that brought them to this point. Instead of focusing exclusively on your education and credentials, tell me a story that clearly reveals why you’re an awesome person to work with and how you can deliver on day one.
—Rakia Reynolds, Skai Blue Media
10. Show Results
Showing statistics on a cover page is a great way to complement a resume. It shows an employer that you can achieve results. It also lets the reader know you take pride in what you’ve accomplished.
