In this Issue:
How Much Time Do You Devote to Your Resume?
New Year's Revolutions
Article: Salary Talk Interview: Questions & Answers
This Issue's Cartoon!
How Much Time Do You Devote to Your Resume?
I review countless resumes at EngineeringDesignJobs.com and am continually amazed that most job seekers seem to throw their resume together in about five minutes. Even the candidates who spend more time than that and produce a slick-looking document with boldface dates and italicized names often fail to produce a resume that will actually help them get a job.
If you really want a job in this economy, you must spend the time to make your resume stand out and concentrate that time on what matters. And I don’t mean correcting misspelled words, formatting problems, and grammar errors.
Your resume has to be more than a road map which tells someone where you’ve been. Employers reviewing resumes typically spend 10-15 seconds looking at a resume. If nothing catches their eye – NEXT.
So what can you do when there are literally thousands and thousands of job seekers looking at the same job in today’s market?
You need to get the employer’s attention. The best way to do that is to have an “Accomplishments” section at the top of your resume. You must emphasize things you have done that have:
- Saved the Company Money
- Made the Company Money
- Solved a Problem for the Company
That is how YOU will get noticed and moved to the top of the resume stack. Companies now more than ever want employees who demonstrate their value – and that declaration of the value you – and you alone – can bring to an employer - starts with your resume.
There are hundreds and hundreds of candidates that have commercial experience building a school with over 5 years of experience. Only a few have listed at the top of their resume facts such as:
“I saved the company $500,000 in costs by effectively managing subcontractors”
or
“I made the company over $300,000 by completing the project 40 days early”
or
“I found a solution to a foundation problem which saved the company 2 weeks of construction time.”
Facts like these are more important than the road map of your career.
If your resume doesn’t highlight your accomplishments, it’s time to throw it in the trash before the employers do and spend some time focusing on what is really important in your job search: a grab-them-by-the-throat-in-five-seconds resume.
Your resume is only the first step in your job search process, but if you don’t produce a great resume – you may never get to step 2.
New Year's Revolutions
We associate January 1 with many things, from Dick Clark to college football bowl games to the Rose Parade to the determination to get into the gym and lose that extra weight we gained over the holidays.
This last item is a time-worn cliché, a burden that rolls around once a year with the regularity of the so-called broken record, revolving endlessly. In fact, maybe those people who manage to make their renewed pledge to lose weight or stop smoking sound sincere every year ought to call the annual target of self-improvement New Year’s Revolutions.
But, for many reasons, that magical date when we open a new calendar does lead us to make our New Year’s Resolutions. And that’s not a bad thing.
The symbolism of a new year inspires us to improve ourselves: revolutions … er, resolutions … usually center on self-improvement: better health and fitness, more time with family, and a more dynamic career. Of course, people want to be healthy and spend time with their kids, but why does someone’s current job suddenly seem to lose its luster just because January 1st rolls around?
In other words, why are resolutions about one’s career always so high on the list?
New Year’s Resolutions regarding one’s career rank high on the list every year because our job affects all the other items on the list. A stressful job affects one’s health … poorly managed jobs can take unnecessary time away from family … jobs with unfair compensation hinder one’s growth and plans for the future.
We chart our position in life in part by how we are progressing in our careers.
So if a career change is high on your list this year - now is a great time to check out the jobs posted on EngineeringDesignJobs.com and to post your latest resume on the site.
Companies look hard for individuals around the first of the year for a variety of reasons, ranging from a need to staff new projects that will be starting to new budgets they are putting in place and into operation.
Apparently the hiring authorities we know in construction have the same determination to hit the ground running every January 1, too!
As a result, our website lists hundreds of job options in all parts of the country - and international options, too – and a real sense of urgency stands behind those postings.
You control your future and your future happiness.
Post your resume (and make sure to read the article above to post the right kind of resume!) and pursue something that could make 2009 a revolutionary year for you.
Article: Salary Talk Interview:
Questions and Answers 
Even though you may have gone through a phone screening that involved answering questions about salary, the subject may come again as the interviewer becomes more interested in hiring you. At this point the interviewer want to know whether they can “afford you.” This is a very tricky part of the interview and could even break your chances of getting the job. Tread lightly and protect your information is the rule.
Here are some sample questions and answers to assist you in formulating your own answers to questions about salary during the interview. Some of the answers are stronger than others and some will fit certain situations better than others. You will want to use your own words to answer this type of question however these examples will provide words to use that may be more affective in answering these difficult questions.» Read Full Article
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Happy Searching,
The EngineeringDesignJobs Team
