Category: Employment

Employments covers the self-employed business person and/or entrepreneur as well as salaried individuals working on various shifts, including the standard “9 to 5” shift. Transitioning from employed to self-employed is one of the biggest hurdles to folks owning and operating their own business; the others being start-up capital and an operating budget.

Work History Gaps Must be Dealt with Smartly


Fill in all resume gaps

Listing your professional experiences on a resume can be a difficult task, especially when considering the many elements a resume preparer must incorporate into the document, if it is to adequately serve the purpose it is meant to serve. Items like job titles, time frames, key responsibilities, transferable skills, and other such descriptions and attributes must be included and properly listed where and when appropriate. The process becomes even more difficult when these elements are in an individual’s work history.

Potential employers will not have a way of knowing why there is a three and a half year gap in an applicant’s professional experience just by reviewing his/her resume. Moreover, the employer might wonder if you – in the case where you are the applicant – skipped over one of your past jobs because it does not meet the career objective you listed.

It is also not unreasonable for a prospective employer to assume that you did not work at all during the omitted time frame; so it is not in your best interest to intentionally skip any information in your jobs history. Simply (honestly) explain any gaps. There are a few general rules about resume gaps that could help to guide you through:

Rules of the ‘resume gaps’ road

  1. Any unaccounted-for time that is shorter than three months does not need to be explained. Having a 60-90 day period between jobs is not very unusual, and often goes unnoticed within the structure of a resume anyway. However, any gaps extending beyond three months should be addressed in your cover letter or an e-mail. Whether you had personal or professional reasons for not working, the gaps in your employment history need to be explained as you don’t want to leave the employer to make their own assumptions.
  2. Be honest! We can’t stress this recommendation enough. If you are honest with your potential employers, you might not have to worry about them checking your references, doing a background check, or surprising you with questions in an interview.
  3. Don’t exclude months of your employment from the job listing. You are better off explaining the gaps in your resume than trying to cover them up, and you’ll likely discover that honesty is really the best policy when it comes to your resume.
  4. If you have held jobs that are not applicable to your career objective, list them on your resume anyway. Rather than create gaps in your resume, explain why you held jobs outside of your chosen field in your cover letter, or in an email to your potential employer. Again, whether the reasons are personal or professional, explain yourself honestly and don’t leave room for assumptions on the part of your potential employer.
  5. Regardless of the reasons for the gaps in your professional history, it is important that the tone of your cover letter and your resume remain positive. Do not sound apologetic!– Life happens and you don’t need to be sorry for taking time off from work for good and/or justifiable reason(s). Be positive! And show your potential employer that you never lost focus on your career.

Diligence, honesty and education pays off

While we all agree that life often takes unexpected turns and understand that there will be circumstances which result in resume, we can always consider the following actions in order to stay competitive in our field:

  • Apply our time and experience to volunteer positions, community projects, consulting and/or freelance work.
  • Take a class at a community college or at the community center that improves your work-related skills and allows you to interact with people of similar professional backgrounds.
  • Read about new developments in your field, get a subscription to a professional publication/magazine, or get the newly published books that discuss changes or improvements in your profession.

Most of all, be honest and stay positive, because you can’t change your work history, so do your best to show your employer that you are a perfect/best candidate for the job by focusing on your experience and your education, as well as highlighting your achievements and your qualifications.

To Write the Professional Summary of a Resume


Your resume-projected personality

Employers rely on well-written resumes to screen potential job candidates, as well as to determine how they will fit into their work environments; especially in today’s competitive job market where, in many instances, employers look through job search web sites such, as HotJobs.com and Monster.com, to find job applicants with the skills, education, experience and professionalism that fit their staffing needs.

These employment search web sites, along with many of the hiring companies’ own online applications, require candidates to upload their resumes in order to express interest in a specific position. Without an opportunity to send a personal email or a cover letter, a job applicant must make sure that the resume s/he uploads expresses his/her personality in addition to listing professional and educational experiences and achievements.

Adherence to this guideline will mean that the applicant must include a professional profile or summary to begin the uploaded resume. This allows said applicant to market him/herself through a narrative. If, for example, you are the applicant in search of a position that meets your requirements and suits your qualifications; this section will allow your potential employers to learn something unique about you and your career, as well as to get a good feel for your communication skills.

Exclude non-career related personal info

To write an effective summary, you should first understand what information should not be communicated in your resume. While a summary provides an insight into what is unique and competitive about you, it is not a place for you to convey any personal information (PI) that does not relate to your career. Information such as ethnicity, marital status, sexual orientation, religious beliefs and affiliations, etc. should be left out of your resume.

While descriptive of who you are, this information is not relevant to your potential employer for the purpose of pre-screening your qualifications for their opportunity. Additionally, the summary should not contain your previous professional experience, unless you can clearly demonstrate how such background can be of value in your future career development.

Beware of generic statements such as, “I am well organized and detail oriented” since employers want to hear your unique voice and get a sense of your communication skills while reading the summary portion of your resume. So using generalizations about your abilities will lead potential employers to believe that you are either a poor communicator or are using such statements to fill up space on your resume.


Big, bold, well-crafted, professional you!

Your summary should be in the form of a short paragraph, or bulleted statements containing only several sentences; and while there isn’t a sentence limit, as a rule this should not use up more than one quarter of the page. More specifically, your summary should begin by a headline that summarizes your professional title and/or your professional statement, while emphasizing your title by featuring the headline in bold and larger font, as it allows your potential employer to grasp who you are in a direct and succinct manner.

Consider, for example, the following structure:

Financial Planning Professional
Achieved Double-Digit Return for All Clients through Well-Balanced Financial Portfolios

It is also important that this title is well crafted, as it is the first impression your potential employer will have of you. Keep in mind that there are three things a well-written summary should address:

  1. Your experiences and skills as they relate to your ideal job
  2. What you can bring to the organization and the open position that no other candidate can…and;
  3. Your professional goals

Even though your resume summary is written by you, it should be composed in third person vernacular and present tense; and as such it should be thought of as a summary of what one of your best colleagues would say about your professional achievements. It is also important to reinforce your title, and sell only the experiences and skills that meet your career objective.

Customize, review, upload, hook, done!

If you have multiple career objectives such as, you wish to get a position in either marketing or public relations, you should develop separate resume summaries for each of the objectives. A summary can also include a brief bulleted section highlighting only a few vital competitive skills that you bring to the table. An example of an effective summary would be as follows:

Successful financial planning professional with over 15 years of personal and retirement planning experience. Managed a small financial planning firm, achieving double-digit financial returns for all clients by developing personalized investment portfolios. Leader in development and professional growth of four other financial planners in the firm through effective and motivating mentoring strategies.

Key competencies include:

  • Personalized portfolio development
  • Financial forecasting
  • Retirement portfolio management
  • Development on-going professional growth strategies

 

Much like your overall resume, your summary should be well-written and error-free; and you make sure to review your summary and customize it as necessary for the various opportunities of interest. An effective summary will help you “hook” your employer, and it should sell you as a primary candidate for the particular job, while leaving your employer with a great first impression of you.