Skill Set Definition and Examples

Skill Set Definition and ExamplesSkill Set Definition and ExamplesA skill platzset (also spelled as skillset) is a particular category of knowledge, abilities, and experience necessary to perform a job. Specific skill set areas include human relations, research and planning, accounting, leadership, management, and computer skills. You can job-hunt by matching your skill set to a certain profession, or enhance your skill set to further your career progression. Types of Skill Sets Soft skills are interpersonal, or people, skills. They are somewhat difficult to quantify and relate to a persons personality and ability to work with others. Author Daniel Golemans wells of hard skills include computer programming, accounting, mathematics, and data analysis. Some can be learned on the job, while others, such as surgical skills, are first learned in a classroom and then refined through work practice. One difference between hard skills and soft skills is that you can easily list hard skil ls on a resume, while soft skills may come across more clearly during an in-person job interview. Hybrid skills include a combination of technical and non-technical skills. Many positions require employees to incorporate both soft and hard skills in their skill set to succeed in the role.Transferable skills can apply to many different career fields. These include soft skills like critical thinking and problem solving, or hard skills such as writing and math ability.Job-specific employment skills are those necessary for a particular position. For example, a hair stylist must know hair-coloring techniques, a payroll clerk must have payroll skills, and a nutritionist must have diet management knowledge. How to Figure Out What Skills You Have Highlighting your skills is an important part of any job search. However, what if you are uncertain which skills you have? Answering these questions can help you determine your core skills What do you enjoy doing? Identify the tasks where you feel extremely competent. Perhaps throughout your life, youve enjoyed positions where you have knowledge and can patiently answer peoples questions. That might be expressed as communication skills or customer service abilities from a resume perspective.What gets you compliments? In a work setting, what activities lead to praise? Perhaps during performance reviews, you consistently receive acknowledgment for your team player abilities. Maybe your previous bosses have always commented on your timeliness or attention to detail. What have you done at your jobs? Look to job descriptions, both for the job you want and for the jobs youve held and described on your resume. Consider the skills necessary to do the work. If you launched a new app at your last job, you likely know a programming language or have other tech-based skills. How to Develop New Skill Sets If you are looking for a job in an industry that requires a skill set you dont currently possess, one way to gain new skills is through skill sharing. Someone with a particular skill shares his or her knowledge in exchange for lessons from you in another skill. Often, this occurs online through a web tutorial, such as someone looking for a job in absatzwirtschaft that exchanges an online tutorial about web design for a tutorial in marketing strategy. You can also develop skills in other ways, including taking online courses in both hard and soft skills. Matching Your Abilities to the Skills Required for a Job Show employers that you have the skills necessary when you apply for a job, by demonstrating this in your resume, cover letter, and during the interview. Job listings often include a list of skills that employers require of applicants. In your resume and cover letter, reference the skill sets you have that fit the job listing. In your cover letter, mention the computer skills, and provide a specific example of a job where you used those skills regularly, especially if its in a manner that fits your new potential job. For example, if a position requires an applicant with strong computer skills, list the software programs you are familiar with, your level of expertise and any related projects youve worked on, such as software implementation or configuration. When preparing your resume, use keywords that describe your skills to employers so that if you post your resume online, it will turn up in search results for those key terms. Once you land an interview, prepare by making a list of your skill sets that relate to the job. For each skill set, come up with a particular example of a time you have demonstrated or used that skill in the past and practice a brief summary to share during your interview.

Customize this Outstanding UX Designer Resume Template

Customize this Outstanding UX Designer Resume TemplateCustomize this Outstanding UX Designer Resume TemplateWriting the UX Designer Resume TemplateCreate Resume A well-written resume is oftentimes the one element that can make an applicant stand out to employers. Highlighting relevant skills and abilities in a well-formatted resume allows employers to quickly learn the most important qualities that an applicant possesses. The following UX Designer resume template is a great example for this design position. Teri Lane Professional SummaryUX Designer dedicated to design and development to create engaging computer-nutzer experiences. Thrives in a work environment that requires problem solving and innovation. Proven ability to offer highly analytical and creative ideas to the design environment.Core Qualifications Contemporary user-centered design methodologies Interaction design trends research Technology trends data Visual design Interaction design and development Multi-disciplinary teamExperienceUX Designer, April 2013 PresentCunninghams Technical Services Los Angeles, CA Execute interaction design as well as visual design while working as part of a multi-disciplinary team. Consult with the lead architect and clients as necessary to ensure designs comply with client visions. Plan quality user experience by collaborating with the lead architect and researching technology trends to implement most innovative features into design. Directed the visual appearance of all new features and enhancement to software applications while keeping the interface beautiful, clean and easy to use. Designed elegant solutions to complex workouts and acted as the user advocate throughout the development and implementation processes. Provide input and feedback during departmental discussions and board meetings to help further design process.Design Technician, August 2012 May 2013California Information Technology Department Monterey, CA Assisted UX Designer with developing wireframe s, personas and behavioral specifications. Used research-related services, methods and theories to provide interface best practices and standards and to support recommendations.Education2012 Bachelor of Science, Interaction DesignUniversity of California Los Angeles, CACustomize Resume

Sample Cover Letter for Merrill Lynch Internship

Sample Cover Letter for Merrill Lynch InternshipSample Cover Letter for Merrill Lynch InternshipIf youre a student looking to eventually work in the financial industry, you likely consider Merrill Lynch to be a potential new employer someday. Headquartered in New York City, Merrill Lynch is one of the largest wealth management companies in the world, handling over $2.2 trillion in client assets. The corporation employs over 15,000 people. They have repeatedly won awards as a top financial adviser, best institutional investor and best brokerage firm. Merrill Lynch offers many job opportunities for those interested in finance, boasting high levels of independence and an uncapped bonus salary structure that allows top advisers to make many times over their kusine salary. Its a lucrative policy that helps attract the best talent in the field. Because the corporation is so prestigious, internships at the company are highly sought after. Your Merrill Lynch internship application needs to b e as strong as possible to be considered. In particular, your cover letter needs to highlight your strengths, your skills, your passion for the industry and your familiarity with Merrill Lynchs offerings as a wealth management firm. Emphasizing your entrepreneurial spirit and your potential contributions to the company will establish you as a serious and professional candidate. Sample Merrill Lynch Cover Letter Haleigh B. Baleigh 4 Birch CourtSmithtown, NY 23475(Home) (232) 422 2211(Cell) (902) 777 3333hbaleighbrandeis21.edu April 24, 20XX Ms. Doris JonesExecutive Director Finance Divisionl Merrill Lynch238 Seventh AvenueNew York, NY 4321 Dear Ms. Peabody My academic and previous work and internship experience make me the perfect candidate for Merrill Lynchs Summer Analyst Program. Mary Smith, Merrill Lynchs Senior Analyst, recommended that I write you in regards to the position in hopes that I can apply and interview with you prior to the October 31st deadline. In the intern ship posting, it listed strong analytical, leadership and quantitative skills. Through my business, finance, and economic courses I have developed strong skills in unterstellung areas and look forward to the opportunity to further develop my skills through a challenging and rigorous ?internship experience. My previous experience in the financial field includes an internship as an analyst with Smith Barney as well as working for the credit union for the past two years at my college. In addition to my knowledge and skills in the area of finance, I have been commended by my professors and previous supervisors as to my strong verbal and written communication skills. I was a key player in putting together the financial portion of my management and business project and presentation which was highly praised by the executive team that attended. I am confident that I can apply the same skills at Merrill Lynch that have made me successful in my previous educational and career pursuits. I wil l call next week to see if you agree that my qualifications match what you are looking for in a summer analyst. I am available to schedule an interview that could be arranged at a mutually convenient time for both of us. Thank you for your time and consideration and I look forward to hearing from you soon. Sincerely, Haleigh B. Baleigh

How to Write a Sample Business Letter

How to Write a Sample Business LetterHow to Write a Sample Business LetterThis sample includes the formal components of full block business letters. Some of these components are optional for typical, employment-related business letters. You may download or copy samples, examples or templates of employment-related business letters, by clicking on the links below. See business letter image for guidelines on each step of the process. Resignation lettersThank you lettersRecommendation (reference) lettersSalary history and lettersResume cover letters This format is just a guide. Variations and customizations are common. Want to download this sample without the graphics? Click Download Samples here or in the menu below. Full fraktion Business Letter Components Return Address If your stationery has a letterhead, skip this. Otherwise, font your name, address and optionally, phone number. These days, its common to also include an email address. Date Type the date of your letter two to six lines below the letterhead. Three are standard. If there is no letterhead, type it where shown. Reference Line If the recipient specifically requests information, such as a job reference or invoice number, type it in one or two lines, immediately below the Date (2). If youre replying to a letter, refer to it here. For example Re Job 625-01Re Your letter dated 1/1/200x. Special Mailing schreibungs Type in all uppercase characters, if appropriate. Examples include SPECIAL DELIVERYCERTIFIED MAILAIRMAIL Ons are PERSONALCONFIDENTIAL Inside Address Type the name and address of the person and/or company to whom youre sending the letter, three to eight lines below the belastung component you typed. Four lines are standard. If you type an Attention Line, skip the persons name here. Do the same on the envelope. Attention Line Type the name of the person to whom youre sending the letter. If you type the persons name in the Inside Address, skip this. Do the same on the envelope. Salutation Ty pe the recipients name here. Type Mr. or Ms. Last Name to show respect, but dont guess spelling or gender. Some common salutations are LadiesGentlemenDear SirDear Sir or MadamDear Full NameTo Whom it May Concern Subject Line Type the gist of your letter in all uppercase characters, either flush left or centered. Be concise on one line. If you type a Reference Line, consider if you really need this line. While its not really necessary for most employment-related letters, examples are below. SUBJECT RESIGNATIONLETTER OF REFERENCEJOB INQUIRY Body Type two spaces between sentences. Keep it brief and to the point. Complimentary Close What you type here depends on the tone and degree of formality. For example Respectfully yours (very formal)Sincerely (typical, less formal)Very truly yours (polite, neutral)Cordially yours (friendly, informal) Signature Block Leave four blank lines after the Complimentary Close to sign your name. Sign your name exactly as you type it below your signature. T he title is optional depending on relevance and degree of formality. Examples are John Doe, ManagerP. SmithDirector, Technical SupportR. T. Jones - Sr. Field Engineer Identification Initials If someone typed the letter for you, he or she would typically include three of your initials in all uppercase characters, then two of his or hers in all lowercase characters. If you typed your own letter, just skip it since your name is already in the Signature Block. Common styles are below. JAD/cmJADcmclm Enclosure Notation This line tells the reader to look in the envelope for more. Type the singular for only one enclosure, plural for more. If you dont enclose anything, skip it. Common styles are below. EnclosureEnclosures 3Enclosures (3) cc Stands for courtesy copies (formerly carbon copies). List the names of people to whom you distribute copies, in alphabetical order. If addresses would be useful to the recipient of the letter, include them. If you dont copy your letter to anyone, skip it . General Tips Replace the text in brackets with the component indicated. Dont type the brackets.Try to keep your letters to one page, but see page 2 of this sample if you need continuation pages.How many blank lines you add between lines that require more than one, depends on how much space is available on the page.The same goes for margins. One and one-half inch (108 points) for short letters and one inch (72 points) for longer letters are standard. If there is a letterhead, its position determines the top margin on page 1. If you dont type one of the more formal components, dont leave space for them. For example, if you dont type the Reference Line, Special Mailing Notations and On-Arrival Notations, type the Inside Address four lines below the Date.

Property Shipment Weight Allowances for Military Moves

Property Shipment Weight Allowances for Military MovesProperty Shipment Weight Allowances for Military MovesPersonally Procured Moves (PPM), formerly referred to as Do-It-Yourself (DITY)Moves, are done when changing permanent duty stations if you prefer to move your own property, typically within the Continental United States (CONUS).Often, the military member does not have that luxury and will need assistance from the military to move their items.If you prefer to have the military move you, you can opt for that method.When one makes a permanent change of station move in the United States military, the government will hire a contractor to pack and ship the members personal property (furniture, clothes, books, etc.). What Sort of Assistance Can You Expect? This includes the first move, from Advanced Individual Training (AIT), Technical School, or A-Schoolto the members first permanent duty assignment. (It also includes the move to AIT, Technical School, or A-School, if the length of the school at a single location is longer than 180 days.) In the above case, the military will hire a contractor to move property from the AIT/Technical School/A-School location, or any other location where the individual has property stored, or a combination of both, as long as the weight shipped doesnt exceed the authorizations shown on the below chart. If the weight exceeds the authorized limits, the member will be required to reimburse the military for the cost of shipping the excess weight (at whatever rate the contractor charges the military). When you receive written orders for a permanent change of station, you take those orders to the Installation Transportation Management Office (TMO), Outbound Properties Section. They will brief you on your entitlements, complete the required paperwork, and arrange for a day for the shippers/packers to pick up your stuff. You do not have to be personally present when the packers/shippers arrive, however, there must be an adult there, w ho you authorize (in writing) to sign the shipping inventory on the day of packing/pickup. Table of Joint Federal Travel Regulations Weight Allowances (Pounds)Permanent Change of Station (PCS) and Non-Temporary Storage (NTS) Grade NOTES 1 3With DependentsNOTE 2PCS without Dependents O-10 to O618,00018,000O-5/W-517,50016,000O-4/W-417,00014,0000-3/W-314,50013,0000-2/W-213,50012,500O-1/W-1 0-1/W-1/Service Academy Grads12,00010,000E-915,000 (See musiknote 4)13,000 (See Note 4)E-814,00012,000E-713,00011,000E-611,0008,000E-59,0007,000E-48,0007,000E-3 to E-18,0005,000Service Academy Cadets/Midshipmen350 Changing locations, jobs, and moving is a common occurrence within the military.Very rarely does any member stay in one place for several years, but depending upon your job, you can reduce the number of moves you make during your career.

What Everybody Else Does When It Comes to Executive Administrative Assistant Resume and What You Should Be Doing Different

What Everybody Else Does When It Comes to Executive Administrative Assistant Resume and What You Should Be Doing Different What You Dont Know About Executive Administrative Assistant Resume The letter should be quick, nonetheless efficient. You can inspect the letter carefully well before sending for spelling errors, typo complications, grammatical errors and lots of others. Resume writing can be challenging. Pick your finest abilities which mirror the essentials of the work ad. Comparable to time management, admin assistants require the skill of being in a position to plan strategically. Obviously, each job will call for various abilities and experiences, so make certain you read the job description with care and concentrate on the skills listed by the employer. Develop relevant experience and techniques from different jobs. Executive Administrative Assistant Resume - Overview The greatest administrative professionals never quit learning, and The Effective Admin newsletter supplies you with tons of educational and informational ideas and advice to do exactly that. Assistants with an appropriate background may get a larger knowledge of business operations and could make a larger amount of informed decisions. Administrators should be able to hear a number of issues and solve them using critical thinking. Administrative work is growing increasingly reliant on software. Excellent communication skillsExecutive assistants are often the very first person to greet clients, clients and vendors. Please note it is optional to incorporate a section describing your volunteer work. One of the simplest methods to make certain youre highlighting the skills required by the business youre applying for is to have a look at the work description itself. Being a great communicator also means being a great listener. The Advantages of Executive Administrative Assistant Resume As stated above, the responsibilities an executive assistant might face on the job can fluct uate significantly. The anfhrer expects you to perform the assigned tasks seamlessly so they can concentrate on matters that need the executives full and undivided attention. To put it differently, whatever links your top executive assistant resume to the work description. For the very best executive assistant resumes, cover letters are indispensable. Company Websites Administrative assistant positions are observed in practically any business. The Executive Assistant resume objective is essential because this is where your prospective employer will get an idea if it is possible to work with her or him. The Career Objective is intended to provide the hiring manager a reason to carry on reading your resume. If you get an inadequate executive assistant resume objective, then youre off to a lousy start. An executive assistant has to be a jack-of-all-trades as the should cope with many tasks at the exact time is imminent. He ensures that the CEOs job is easier. The ideal executiv e assistant resume is one which can help you land an interview with the chief at the organization of your pick. You will offer high-quality administrative and clerical aid to top-level executives. If youve got an undergraduate level, you might enjoy more job opportunities along with increased salary potential. You could move into a vice president position, for example, which would provide you with more responsibility and superior salary potential. While the forms of tasks that executive assistants perform can differ from place to position, all of them tend to do similar high level tasks and duties. In addition, you can learn more on the topic of administrative careers on Monster. Interviews, however, are the purpose of everyone who would like to get the job done.

Are You Giving Your Employees Enough Work to Do - Spark Hire

Are You Giving Your Employees Enough Work to Do - Spark HireSome employees are experts at looking busy. They may be up and down from their desk all day, or huddled close to their computer screens. Their desk may be in disarray, or their phone constantly ringing. But aside from the sights and sounds, or lack of sounds, what are other indications that your employees are actually being productive? How can you be sure that their activity equals productivity?For many companies, this is measured in the form of performance metrics. Metrics can make alfruchtwein any task measurable, and companies are able to look at the growth and decline of metrics over time to see how employees are progressing in specific areas and further extrapolate the numbers to growth in the business. Aside from the mathematical form of measuring productivity, here are some ideas for getting an honest idea of your employees productivity.Understand your employees roles. What? you say. Of course I know my employees role s. I hired them for a purpose and trained them for specific tasks. While this is true, most likely their job has evolved in ways youre not even aware of. Most likely, their processes have changed andtheyvetaken on tasks that are modified from those you originally gave them. If you understand the intricacies of their jobs their daily tasks, regular projects, typical interactions with team members and other employees youll have a better idea of how much work they do in what amount of time.Have clear expectations and provide accountability.As your employees jobs are changing, your expectations for their role are most likely evolving with it. Are you still being clear about what your expectations are for their job? Use resources that are already available, such as a one on one meeting to continue to reassess and refocus your expectations and then provide them with an adequate amount of accountability. Perhaps accountability is accomplished in a one on one meeting, or perhaps by asking for a weekly detailed report of their progress. Either way, by communicating regularly, you leave little question about what you view as productive and by providing accountability, you can assess whether or not you see that productivity.Give employees deadlines and track them. You probably often delegate tasks to your team as necessary. But when you ask for the task to be done by a certain time or date, do you also follow-up on its completion? Put their deadlines on your calendar as well and ask for written or verbal communication that the task is finished. This will give you a small measure of how long it took your employee to complete a task. Maybe itdidnttake as long as you anticipated. Maybe youdidntallot enough time.Finally, reward productivity instead of busyness. When some of these tactics are put into place, youll have a better sense of your employees productivity. If youre knowledgeable about their positions, youll be able to identify if theyre being productive or just loo king busy. When you see productivity or real triumph in the workplace, reward it, instead of rewarding the employee who flies around the office, sends the most emails, or has the largest pile in their inbox.How do you ensure your employees are actually getting work done instead of just looking busy? Share in the comments belowIMAGE Courtesy of Flickr byAlan Cleaver

How to play office politics at work the right way

How to play office politics at work the right wayHow to play office politics at work the right wayIn his bookAdults in the Room, the economist and former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis reflects on an obstacle lots of people face in their jobs Getting other people to go along with their ideas. Working with fellow economists, Varoufakis developed a plan to get the Greek economy out of its cycle of debt with the euroraum and the International Monetary Fund. But he ultimately failed to gather enough betreuung for these policies to be enacted.One lesson from that experience? Having good ideas and convincing others that your ideas are good as you think they arent isnt enough. What really matters is your ability to navigate your organizations political apparatus. And make no mistake Every organization has one. Playing politics at work isnt a matter of sleazy double dealing, though. Its just about gaining the support of people with the ability to put your ideas into practice. After all, getting a group of people to work together and sweat the details in order to pull off a project successfully takes skill.If you want to improve your organization and make an impact, youll need to master that. Heres the right way to go about it.RelatedFive Strategies Facebook Uses To Minimize Office PoliticsLook for how decisions get made (not just who makes them)Sometimes its obvious who calls the shots. Other times, it isnt. Maybe its not the people with the flashiest titles who are setting the agenda instead, its the key people who influence their choices who have the real power. Theyre the ones who determine the process by which new ideas get filtered up tokey decision makers.Understanding how decisions get made requires a certain degree of access, but a little can go a long way toward providing crucial intel. That means that you want to get yourself invited to meetings where important issues are going to be discussed. If that sounds unlikely, try asking permission to sit in on those talks strictly as an observer,for career-development reasons. After all, you reallyarethere just to learn.Your aim in these meetings is to listen and watch Who talks? Whose words are repeated by others? When someone makes a comment and other key players adopt their way of talking about the issue, you know youre dealing with someone who has quiet influence. You cant even begin to get anyone to pay attention to your own ideas until you know whom to talk to.RelatedHow To Create Your Own Opportunities At WorkBuild up goodwillIdeas are like books. You have to get people to pick them before they can have any impact. How do people decide what books to buy? They often gravitate toward authors theyve already heard of for some reason. Authors present their work in multiple placesby writing op-eds, getting excerpts published in magazines, going on speaking toursin order to familiarize potential readers with their work and drum up interest in it.Similarly, you cant start cultivating p eople with the power to implement your great idea at the same instant you have that idea if your first interaction with someone is a request for a favor, you cant reasonably expect them to grant it. You have to begin much earlier. From the moment you start any job, you need to develop relationships with people who can help you achieve your goalswhich includes but is definitely not limited to your boss.Get to know the people you work with. Offer to help with projects. Show that youre willing to support the teams or the companys goals. And make sure you actually do a good job with everything you offer to take on (offering to help is one thing actually helping is another). Building up this goodwill gives you social capital to spend when you need it.Find common groundEven if you have good relationships with people who can help you implement an idea, they might not be willing to help. Everyone in an organization has goals theyre trying to achieve. Some might be personal (getting a promot ion), and some might be organizational (getting a project funded). So while a colleague may offer to help you because they like you or think your idea is brilliant, theyll only do that in the context of the other goalstheyretrying to achieve. And that means you need to find common ground.Learn what key people are working on. Look for ways to make it easy for them to support you, and explain how what youre trying to do also advances whatever theyre hoping to accomplish. You may need to be creative in helping them to see the overlap, but that doesnt mean stretching the truth (suspected bullshittersarenotgenerally successful at working their organizations politics). But you will probably have to show people that theres a way for themto achieve one of their goals in a different way than theyd expected. If you can find common ground in those end goals, you may be able to find flexibility in the getting-there.No matter what, just dont expect anyone to be so blown away by the brilliance of your idea that theyll abandon their own agendas in order to adopt yours.RelatedSix Words And Phrases That Make Everyone Hate Working With YouKnow when to foldPersistence matters, but so does the ability to be realistic about your odds. One of the biggest mistakes people make while trying to negotiate their organizations politics is sticking in the game too long. Sometimes there just isnt a way to get key people to work with you to get your idea across the finish line. Pushing too far past the point of no return can actually hurt your credibility, your career, and your chances the next time youve got an idea you want to win support for.Instead, you have a few options.One is to live to fight another day. If you had one good idea, theres a high probability that youll soon have another. And just because you werent able to get one idea taken up by people with power doesnt mean youll always fail. Continue to develop relationships so that when you have your next stroke of genius, you can return and try again.Another option is to move on to someplace where your idea will stand a better chance of gaining traction. You can learn a lot about the values of people and organizations by watching how they make decisions. In the process, you might discover that your values differ enough from those of the people around you that this organization isnt the one where you should be devoting your efforts. Maybe its time tofind someplace where you can engage with people who share your view of the world.In the end, people often grumble about office politics when they dont get what they want. The key is to remember that its really about people. Wherever you go, whatever you do, there will be people you need to convince to come along for the ride.This story was originally published on Fast Company.About the authorspecies Markman, PhD is a professor of Psychology and Marketing at the University of Texas at Austin and Founding Director of the Program in the Human Dimensions of Organizati ons. Art is the author ofSmart ThinkingandHabits of Leadership,Smart Change, and most recently,Brain Briefs, co-authored with hisTwo Guys on Your Headco-host Bob Duke, which focuses on how you can use the science of motivation to change your behavior at work and at home.MoreStories You Might Also Like From Fast CompanyHow To Protect Your Work Culture When Political Correctness Is Under FireHow Political Metaphors Are Subtly Impacting Your Decision MakingHow Anger Wrecks Organizations

The Unreliable Narrator in Fiction

The Unreliable Narrator in FictionThe Unreliable Narrator in FictionIn fiction, as in life, an unreliable narratoris a character who cannot be trusted. Either from ignorance or self-interest, this narrator speaks with a bias, makes mistakes, or even lies. Part of the pleasure and challenge of these first-person stories is working out the truth and understanding why the narrator is not straightforward. It also can be a tool a writer uses to create an aura of authenticity in his work. The term originates from Wayne C. Booths 1961 Rhetoric of Fiction, and though it is a key component of modernism, unreliable narratives are found in classics like Wuthering Heights, throughboth Lockwood and Nelly Dean, and Jonathan Swifts Gullivers Travels. The Unintentionally Unreliable Many stories presented in the first-person point of view are told by a child or an outsider who believes he is telling the complete truth. The reader, though, quickly learns the narrator is not fully aware of the circ umstances around them.This is the case, for example, with the protagonist of J.D. Salingers The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield, and with Scout, the narrator in Harper Lees To Kill a Mockingbird. The unintentionally unreliable narrator invites the reader to think beyond the writing and to become an adult observer. What is really going on in Holden Caulfields life? Is he truly the only non-phony in a world of liars? What is Scout really seeing when she describes the behavior of her teachers, classmates, and father? This device gives the reader insight and perspective into how the narrator views the world. The Intentionally Unreliable While unintentionally unreliable narrators can be endearing and naive, intentionally unreliable narrators often arefrightening. Typically, such characters have sinister motives, ranging from guilt, as in the case of Nabokovs Lolita, to insanity, as in the case of Edgar Allen Poes short story The Tell-Tale Heart. Some of the most interesting uses of intentionally unreliable narrators are in the mystery genre. Why might the narrator of a mystery story be intentionally unreliable? fruchtwein likely because he or she has something to hide. Such stories are especially intriguing because when they are well done, the reader is completely unaware of the narrators true character. Creating an Unreliable Narrator A key reason to use anunreliable narrator is to create a work of fiction with multiple layers with competing levels of truth. Sometimes the narrators unreliability is made immediately evident. For instance, a story may open with the narrator making a plainly false or delusional claim or admitting to being severely mentally ill. A more dramatic use of the device delays the revelation until near the storys end. Such atwist endingforces readers to reconsider theirpoint of viewand experience of the story. For this writing mechanism to be effective, readers must be able to discern more than one level of truth. While your narr ator might be an unreliable source of information, it is absolutely essential that you, the writer, understand and eventually reveal the reality behind the misleading words. It is essential for readers to be able to recognize the narrators unreliability and the reality that is being hidden.

Happy Fourth of July The Top Jobs in the 13 Original Colonies

Happy Fourth of July The Top Jobs in the 13 Original Colonies Happy Fourth of July The Top Jobs in the 13 Original Colonies Each July fourth Americans join together to BBQ, set off fireworks, and celebrate American independence. We do this to commemorate the patriots of the original 13 original colonies who stood up against tyranny and battled to found their own nation, based on the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. To celebrate the enduring legacy of those 13 original colonies, we will highlight the top opportunities each of those states offer today. Pennsylvania Truck driver Customer service representative Insurance sales Occupational therapist Sales associate Delaware Business analyst Customer service representative Occupational therapist Project manager Security officer Rhode Island Customer service representative Recruiter Truck driver Sales associate Account executive Massachusetts Software engineer Sales associate Recruiter Financial analyst Physical therapist Virginia Truck driver Physical therapist Occupational therapist Sales associate Software engineer Connecticut Nurse practitioner Physical assistant Truck driver Sales associate Physician Georgia Truck driver Sales associate Customer service representative Physical therapist Project manager New Hampshire Outside sales associate Physical therapist Customer service representative Cashier Physician New York Telemarketing Customer service representative Administrative assistant Sales associate Store manager New Jersey Occupational therapist Customer service representatives Truck driver Project manager Registered nurse Maryland Sport coach Software engineer Truck driver Physical therapist Sales associate North Carolina  Registered nurse Occupational therapist Insurance agent Sales associate Truck driver South Carolina Customer service representative Truck driver Nurse practitioner Insurance agent Sales associate

How to Improve Emotional Intelligence (Infographic) -The Muse

How to Improve Emotional Intelligence (Infographic) -The Muse How to Improve Emotional Intelligence (Infographic) How do you measure emotional intelligence? There’s not one definitive test. At least not yet. But the flowchart below is certainly a start. According to a Talent Smart study, it’s actually the strongest predictor of job performance. In fact, the claim is that of all the people they studied at work, 90% of top performers also have high EQ scores. With that said, it’s not the same as being well-liked or popular, though if you have it in spades, you probably are pretty likable. It’s bigger than that though. So whether you’re looking to impress your boss, improve your work-life balance, or sound more articulate in meetings, there’s one sure thing: EQ matters. Check out this infographic to discover all the benefits of cultivating your emotional intelligence.

56 Resume Tips to Transform Your Job Search

56 Resume Tips to Transform Your Job Search 56 Resume Tips to Transform Your Job Search Creating a resume for your job search should be easy. Download a template, write up your work and education history, then fire it off to eager potential employers. But once you start, the questions start piling up. Are objective statements still a thing? Do I put the company name or my job title first? Which skills and duties do they care about? How small can I make my fonts and margins to fit everything on a single page? And whats this Im hearing about applicant tracking systems? Weve got answers 56 resume tips to guide you through the process.Below youll find: Resume Sections: What Goes Where (1-7) Resume Formatting and Style Tips (8-17) ATS optimization (18-28) Highlighting Your Skills (29-32) Honing Your Experience (33-41) Additions and Subtractions (42-45) Wordsmithing and Resume Writing (46-53) Online Resume Tips (54-56) Resume Sections: What Goes Where? 1. Every Time: Name, phone number, and email address With so much else to consider, job seekers sometimes forget to make themselves reachable. Just ask an experienced recruiter. Ensure that your name is prevalent at the top of your resume, followed closely by a personal phone number and email address. Dont use your work contact information if you have other options. 2. List a professional-sounding email address Your email address is typically at the top of your resume and one of the first things a recruiter will see, so [emailprotected] wont cut it. While its your personal email address, make sure it still strikes a professional tone and is with a modern provider.Forbes once found that 31% of resumes were thrown out due to unprofessional email addresses. Cute or funny usernames dont belong on a professional resume. Outdated email clients like AOL or even your old college .edu email address can also be a turn off. If you dont already have one, set up a free Gmail address based around your first and last name. 3. Include your LinkedIn URL with your contact info These days, you should absolutely include your LinkedIn URL on your resume with the rest of your contact information. The recruiter is going to look it up anyway, so you might as well make it easy for them. Customize your LinkedIn URL by navigating to your profile and clicking, Edit public profile URL. Ideally, your URL is simply firstname-lastname. Some people add a word for their industry or position. If you dont have a LinkedIn profile, get one right away. 4. Set the tone with a headline, summary or objective statement Using a resume summarystatement isnt always necessary but can be a great way to set a recruiters expectations, add measurable results, and pack in additional resume search terms.Executive resume writer Adrienne Tom recommends using a LinkedIn-style headline. For example: President and CEO: Manufacturing Start-Ups and TurnaroundsPL up to $160M | Global Teams of 300+ | 300% Revenue Growth in 3 Years The traditionalresume objective statementis generally considered outdated. 5. Ditch your references to save some space Hiring managers assume that you have them, so you don’t need references on your resume. Do not include a list of references or the phrase, references available upon request unless the job listing says otherwise. 6. Know where your education section should go For most job seekers, the education section should be kept simple degree, graduation year, school name, location and placed below work experience. Recent grads should move the education section near the top of their resume, underneath their contact information. Listing relevant coursework, honors, clubs, extracurriculars, and other job-relevant details will help make up for a lack of professional experience. Be aware that some industries or companies prefer to see education highlighted no matter how long youve been working. For example, Google asks their applicants to lead with education. 7. Mix and match resume sections to highlight your best experience While most resumes should include your name and contact information, work experience, and education, there are a number of otherresume sections that can showcase your most relevant experience. Some examples include: Career SummaryorObjective Statement AccomplishmentsorAchievements Skills Section Volunteer Work Executive Core Qualifications Certifications and Licenses Awards and Honors Hobbies and Interests Resume Formatting and Style Tips 8. Do not add a headshot to your resume Its become trendy for resume templates to include a place for your photo, but this may come back to bite you. Some recruiters automatically reject any resume that includes the applicant’s photograph to keep themselves above claims of discrimination. “[Using a headshot] drives me nuts and immediately opens the door to recruiter discrimination, a corporate tech recruiter told Jobscan, which is obviously something everyone is trying to avoid.” 9. Recruiters dont trust the functional resume format Job seekers with unconventional work history or gaps in their resume prefer the functional resume format because it shifts the focus away from work experience and onto skills and accomplishments. Unfortunately, recruiters are suspicious of it for the exact same reasons. The functional resume tips recruiters off that theres something wrong. Furthermore, it takes skills and accomplishments out of context and makes it harder for the recruiter to figure out what a candidate really has to offer. “Recruiters hate the functional resume,” a recruiter in the healthcare industry told Jobscan. “It’s a waste of time.” 10. Try the hybrid/combination resume format instead If functional resumes are out and the traditional chronological resumedoesnt allow you to effectively tell your story, try the hybrid resume format. Its also known as a combination resume because it combines the best elements of the functional and chronological resume formats. Hybrid Resume Template. Click to Enlarge. Download .docx With the hybrid format, you can create a top-loaded resume using a summary statement or skills section without stripping useful context away from your work experience. 11. Add months to your employment dates When listing your start and end dates in your work experience, failing toinclude months can make a hiring manager suspicious. After all, an employment period of “2016-2017” could mean anything from one month to two years. Stating “November 2016-June 2017” shows the hiring manager you have nothing to hide, even if the employment period was only six months. Additionally, some applicant tracking systems need the months to accurately parse your resume data into a digital candidate profile. 12. Choose the right resume font Recruiters spend mere seconds deciding whether your resume is worth investigating. Make your resume easy to read and skimmable with a straight-forward, common font. The best resume fonts include serif fonts like Cambria, Garamond and Palatino or sans serif fonts like Tahoma,Calibri,Helvetica, and Verdana. Digital applicant tracking systems could also be tripped up by unconventional fonts, which could display in the software as gibberish (like this ????) or cause errors. 13. Keep your formatting consistent Im looking at the logical flow of it, how you categorize the information, how does it read, a healthcare recruiter told Jobscan. The quality of the presentation you did tells me something about you. Beyond readability, your formatting and design choices will impact how a recruiter judges your attention to detail and professionalism. Whatever design or template you choose, ensure that your fonts, heading styles, indentation, and the way you use italics or bold fonts are consistent throughout your resume. 14. Protect your white space Theres a lot of advice saying you should keep your resume to one page at any cost, but you might be better off with a two page resumerather than a single page stuffed to the margins with content. When possible: Keep your margins between 0.5-1 inch Use bulleted lists rather than big block paragraphs Add space between sections White space between sections makes your resume more digestible for a recruiter. Edit out extraneous resume content to maintain white space while keeping your resume as short as possible. 15. Use two or three pages as needed How long should a resume be?The one page resume standard makes sense for in-person networking or people new to the workforce. Once youve been working for a few years, a one pager might hurt more than it helps. If youve had more than five years of work experience, consider adding a second page. If youre accomplished in a project-based field, consider adding a second or even third page to properly detail your accomplishments. If youre a seasoned executive, dont be afraid to show your value across three or more pages. Remove the fluff and keep it as succinct as you can, but dont sacrifice great skills, accomplishments, or readability for a single page resume. 16. Dont hyperlink important information If you are listing a LinkedIn profile, portfolio link, or other important information on your resume, its better to write out the full URL rather than rely on an in-text hyperlink. For example: Bad: My LinkedIn Profile Good:linkedin.com/in/jon-shields-writer/ The first link will do you no good if the resume is ever printed out and might not work properly in whatever software the recruiter or hiring manager is using to view your resume. Save them the frustration by showing the whole URL when possible. Before you add any URLs or links to your resume, be sure they actually work. 17. Creative resumes are for creative industries After a few rejections, you might be tempted to try a bold, colorful,creative resume format. It can be beneficial to show off you creativity, style, and design chops with your resume if the job requires creativity, style, and design ability. If you use an off-the-wall resume design for, say, a corporate sales position, the effort you put into the design could lead a recruiter to the conclusion that youre not serious about the job, or make the information difficult to comprehend. Additionally, custom resume formats are unlikely to interact well with applicant tracking systems. ATS Optimization 18. Understand applicant tracking systems Most hiring companies, including98 percent of Fortune 500 companies, use applicant tracking systems(ATS) tocollect, filter, and search job applicants. There are dozens of ATS, each with their own unique features and bugs. Even if youre highly qualified for a position, failing to optimize your resume for ATS could cause you to slip through the cracks. Learn more: Taleo: 4 ways the Most Popular ATS Ranks Your Job Application 8 Things You Need to Know About Applicant Tracking Systems 19. Tailor your resume keywords Many popular ATS either automatically rank applicants based on how the resume compares to the job description, or allow the recruiter to search applicant resumes for key terms. These search terms are typically job titles or hard skills. For example, a recruiter looking for an administrative assistant might start by searching for administrative assistant to find candidates who has done the job before. After that, they might search for desired skills and experience like Microsoft Office, Scheduling, or Compliance. Matching the job description or coming up for recruiter searches is all about having tailored resume keywords. Identify important keywords in the job description and add themexactly as they appear to your ATS resume where applicable. The keywords most critical to the job should appear multiple times in your resume. 20. Include the job title right on your resume If youre applying for a position and you held that job title in the past, thats great! But if you havent previously held the exact title for which youre applying, add it! This will make a huge difference for your visibility. Its acceptable to put the job title near the top of your resume along with your name and contact information. For example: Jackie RomanoAccount Manager Seattle, WA 98104 (555) 555-5555 The resume summary is another logical place to add the job title. 21. Optimize your keywords with Jobscan Resume keyword matching is easy with Jobscan. You just paste in or upload your resume and paste in the job description to receive an instant analysis that includes a match rate, job title matching, missing hard skills, and many other resume tips and best practices that go beyond ATS. You can try it out right here on the blog: 22. Dont be a keyword cheater Some try to trick the ATS by using white text to either List the top keywords over and over Paste the entire job description into their resume In theory, this creates a great resume for the ATS ranking algorithms while appearing completely normal to a human recruiter. In reality, this is called resume keyword stuffingand is easily detectable. ATS that analyze your resume keywords tend to parse your resume into a digital applicant profile. That means that recruiters can plainly see your raw resume content. Furthermore, some systems, like the Taleo example below, highlight search terms in the raw text. In either case, it will be obvious that youve cheated the system. Recruiters dont like cheaters. 23. Use ATS-friendly section headings Make your resume easily parsable by ATS by using common section headings. For example, Work Experience and Education will be identifiable by ATS, whereas combining them into Work Experience and Education or getting cute with something like Where Ive Been might not. If your resume is not parsed correctly, it could cause a mess that the recruiter wont want to bother cleaning up or could keep you from coming up as a search result for key terms. 24. Order matters in your experience headings Another tip for a parsable, ATS-friendly resume is to use this format for your work experience section headings: Company, LocationJob Title, Tenure For example: Jobscan, Seattle, WAContent Manager (June 2017-Present) This is the most common order ATS expect information. 25. Have to re-enter your resume info? Take it seriously Some online applications require you to upload a resume then re-enter all that information into text fieldsonline. Do not leave these blank or type see resume. In these cases, the resume you uploaded is for the recruiter to glance over or print out, whereas the text fields will be used to create search results or filters within the ATS. At bare minimum, copy the information from your resume into these fields. To create an even more ATS-optimized application, use the extra space to expand upon your work history, skills, and accomplishments. 26. Dont use tables and columns in your resume While tables, columns, and text fields help organize your resume information or create an attractive design, they wreak havoc within ATS that parse your resume information into a digital applicant profile. Jobscans testing has found that many ATS scan your resume text left-to-right regardless of table borders, resulting in jumbled text and lost information. For example, information in a table like this: Work Experience Jobscan, Seattle, WAAccount Manager (June 2017-Present) Education Bachelor of Science: Applied Mathematics, 2016University of Washington, Seattle, WA Could realistically end up like this in your digital applicant profile: Work Experience Education Jobscan, Seattle, WABachelor of Science, Applied Account Manager, 2016 Avoid tables, columns, and standalone text fields to ensure that your resume is accurately parsed within ATS. 27. Dont upload your resume as an image file Because ATS are known to mess up your resumes formatting, some try to preserve their design by uploading their resume as a static image, like a .jpg file. However, this will only puzzle recruiters, cause errors in systems, and make your resume unsearchable. Always use a .docx or .pdf file. 28. File names matter in ATS Your resumes file name will be listed front and center for the recruiter in some ATS interfaces. Keep your resume file name professional. Consider using your name and the position for which youre applying in the file name. For example: Jon_Shields_Project_Manager.pdf Its a small thing, but it keeps your name at top of mind and shows that youre organized. Also avoid special characters in your file name as they can cause errors in some systems. Stick to letters, numbers, spaces, underscores, and dashes. Highlighting Your Skills 29. Create a skills section Having a dedicated skills section near the top of your resume is a great way to show off your most important abilities. This approach helps optimize your resume for ATS by ensuring you have important skills in your resume, but can also catch a recruiters eye and quickly confirm that you have what theyre looking for. An example skills section for a sales development representative might sit below the contact information and read: Top Skills and Proficiencies Marketing Prospecting CRM, Salesforce Business Development Outbound Calling Outreach Inside Sales 30. Back up your skills with context That said, a bullet list of keywords is not enough. It might help you come up in an ATS search or catch a recruiters interest, but they wont believe youre actually skilled just because you put it in a list. All skills must be backed up with context. One way to do this would be by expanding within the bullet list. For example: CRM, Salesforce: 4+ years experience operating daily within Salesforce CRM. Earned Salesforce Certification in January 2018. Also have experience withPipedrive (1 year), and Highrise (6 months). If you dont want to use so much room at the top of your resume, instead work this context into your work experience section. Once a recruiter sees Salesforce in your skills list theyll skim through your work experience trying to figure out where, when, and how you utilized it in your career. 31. Demonstrate your soft skills All hiring organizations want to hire employees with excellent soft skills leadership, communication, creativity, etc. Unfortunately for job seekers, its very difficult to include these on your resume. Just like with a hard skills list, you cant just list problem solving and critical thinking on your resume and expect a recruiter to believe it. Once again, working these soft skills into your resume is all about providing context. Use accomplishments, measurable results, and examples throughout your resume to prove your soft skills. Learn more: How to Showcase Your Top Executive Soft Skills on Your Resume Should You Include a Soft Skills Section on Your Resume? 32. Changing careers? Lean on your transferable skills Being able to clearly demonstrate your soft skills is especially important when transitioning to a new career. Soft skills are inherently more transferrable than hard skills. Before you write your career change resume, take time to identify all your best soft skills and how they will benefit you in your new environment. For example, if you’re a teacher pursuing a career in sales, your ability to communicate and present to others is a huge plus. Honing Your Experience 33. Maintain a master resume Yes, youre supposed to tailor your resume to the job youre applying for, every single time. That doesnt mean you should write your resume from scratch every time. Consider maintaining a master resume or career management document. Think of this as a giant, overstuffedcurriculum vitae. It should contain all your job duties, all your accomplishments, all the tools you used everything you can think of for every job youve ever had. Maintaining a document like this can provide a great starting point for new resumes, ensuring that you dont forget anything important while allowing you to simply delete content rather than rewriting. 34. Dont get precious with your experience That said, cutting things out of your resume isnt always easy. These duties were part of your daily life. You worked hard to develop these skills. It can be hard to come to terms with the idea that some of those skills wont always be applicable. Lets say you had a job atABC Companyin which you spent 70 percent of your time providing customer service and 30 percent of your time fulfilling online orders from the e-commerce site. Now you want to apply for a new jobas a Fulfillment Coordinator. The section on your resume describing your time atABCshouldnt reflect the reality of 70 percent customer service and 30 percent fulfillment. You would have more success flipping it around and focusing more on your fulfillment experience. This isnt dishonest. If you think you can do the job, you want your prospective employer to know that you have the experience required. Getting bogged down in the less relevant customer service duties that you performed well will only distract them from your most important skills for the job. Include both, but flip the emphasis. 35. Know your value You have to know what value you bring to the table. In relation to the job, which of your skills make you the most valuable? To help brainstorm, write down 4-5 reasons why you’d be the right fit for the job then start adding details. Not only will it help build your resume, but it’ll help you excel in interviews. Confidence is everything. 36. Make it skimmable Recruiters are reading resumes all day. Dont make them work for it by cramming 800 words into a single page of big block paragraphs. Top-load your resume. Use short sentences and bullet points. As resume writer Adrienne Tom wrote, eliminate wordiness and excess details and just deliver straight facts. 37. Duties tell, accomplishments sell Duty: Respond to customer service inquiries via email and live chat platform.Accomplishment: Respond to an average of 176 customer service live chats and 203 emails per week, improving response time by 74% and customer satisfaction by 31% between 2016 to 2017. Duty: Write articles for blog according to SEO best practices.Accomplishment: Write articles for for blog according to SEO best practices, resulting in 53% increase in organic search traffic YoY. Most people only list duties on their resume, but what good is that if the recruiter or hiring manager has no idea whether youre good at it? Replacing duties with accomplishments can set your resume apart. 38. Contextualize measurable results Measurable results are worthless without context. Signed $2 million in new business in Q3 could mean wildly different things depending on the business. If each deal is worth around $10,000 and no one had ever sold more than $1.5 million, this accomplishment shows that youre a sales genius. But if each deal is worth $2 million, well at least you got one. Detail your accomplishment as well as why it was a big deal for you and your employer. Using percentages (increased sales 34% YoY) is one way to provide context. 39. CAR and STAR arent just for interviews CAR: Context/Challenge, Action, ResultSTAR: Situation, Task, Action, Result These methods are more commonly used to prep for interviews, both for interviewees and interviewers. They are also a great template for presenting your top skills and measurable results on your resume. You wont have room to address each of these items for every duty and accomplishment, but they can make your top selling points more impactful. What happened? What were you trying to accomplish? How did you deal with it? What was the end result? 40. Align your resume with company values and culture Interviews exist for a reason. Hiring managers want to get a better idea of who you are and how you would fit in with the rest of the company. While details about your personality don’t have a place in your resume, you can demonstrate your cultural fit in other ways. For example, read up on the company’s values and see if any volunteer work or side projects you’ve done align with their mission. Consider removing experience from your resume that conflicts with the companys mission (differing politics or religion come to mind). You can also check out your prospective manager and team members on LinkedIn and find out if there are any skills or passions that tie them together. 41. Fight back against age discrimination The United States government has protections on the books to protect professionals over 40 but age discrimination in hiring is still very real. Some ways to keep yourself in the running against younger applicants: Stay current (and show it) Keep up with technology, training, and modern business practices. Highlight recent experience Depending on your field, you probably dont need to list experience from 10-15+ years ago. Dont be a jack of all trades Silicon Valley recruiter Linda Tuerk: “Get over the generalists point of view. This is a time where specifics matter. Embrace LinkedIn This is where recruiters live.Make sure your photo exudes energy. Use content sharing and status updates to show that youre invested in moving your industry forward. Additions and Subtractions (and Addition by Subtraction) 42. Dont be afraid to leave jobs off your resume Just as you should exclude extraneous and irrelevant job duties, you should also leave jobs off your resume if they hurt your chances of moving forward in your career. A few examples of what to consider trimming: Experience over 10 or 15 years old Fight ageism and focus on your most recent, relevant experience especially if youre in tech Odd jobs The summer jobs you worked before your career took off or your current weekend gig that supplements your income will only distract from your core qualifications. Short-term busts If you started a job and quit after 2 months, it will do more harm than good on your resume. Bad experiences If its on your resume it could come up in an interview. If you really dont want to talk about what went down, consider leaving it off completely. 43. But dont lie There is a line between excluding distracting information and outright lying on your resume. Resume lies like saying you have a degree when you dont, fudging employment dates, or overstating your abilities with key technical skills could be uncovered in the interview and vetting processes. Once that happens, theres no coming back. Instead of lying, try patching up shortcomings in a resume summary statement or cover letter. 44. Fill employment gaps with side hustles You dont need a job to get to work. Add a side hustle to your resumeto add new skills, fill resume gaps, and showcase an entrepreneurial spirit. I could have left a year’s gap on my resume, wrote marketing exec Dina Louie about her layoff and resume gap. Instead, I started some freelance work and my own project the month after my layoff to show I had other things I was focused on. This made a world of difference when I interviewed! 45. Show that youre always learning Continuing your education shows that youre serious about your career and adds value to your resume. This doesnt have to mean heading back to school to get your masters degree. There are a number of free certifications that can be added to your resume, such as Hubspot Academys Inbound Marketing Certification. Wordsmithing and Resume Writing Tips 46. Use active voice and action words Using passive voice on your resume will make you seem insecure and unwilling to take responsibility for your successes. It also tends to be needlessly wordy, using up precious real estate and making it harder for a recruiter or hiring manager to read. For example: Passive Voice:Over 10,000 widgets were shipped each month by the department I oversaw.Active Voice: Oversaw shipment of over 10,000 widgets per month. Use strongresume action words(designed, eliminated, led) at the beginning of your sentences to focus your duties and accomplishments while showing off your confidence. 47. Remove was To make your resume sound strong and deliberate, try removing every “was” and were you can. For example, “Was responsible for maintaining client relationships” can become “Maintained client relationships.” See the difference? 48. Get rid of lazy words Lazy words and phrases such as “etc.,” “so on,” and “and more” just take up space. If there’s more relevant information to be added, add it. If there isnt, then you can lose the extra words. 49. Go easy on the buzzwords and cliches On a resume or in a job interview, everyone is a team player. Everyone is a go-getter who thinks outside the box. Everyone is detail-oriented and results-driven. Of course these are desirable traits thats why theyve become cliches. Avoid empty jargon frequently used on business resumes, likesynergy,best of breed,thought leadership, ordynamic.And please know that therockstar,guru, andninja trend started dying a few years ago. Recruiters sometimes look at thousands of resumes per week. Whenever they see these words, they cringe. Remove the fluff. Show, dont tell. Find ways to show what you accomplished and how you did it. 50. List numbers numerically This is one goes against typical writing rules. In your resume, even numbers 10 and under should be listed numerically rather than spelled out. They will stand out for a hiring manager skimming your resume, drawing attention to your resume achievements. Plus it saves space. 51. Work in your resume keywords and skills naturally When it comes to applicant tracking systems (see resume tips 17-25), its important to identify keywords and then use them in your resumeexactly as they appear in the job description. This leads to one of our most common questions at Jobscan: “Changing the tense of a verb just to satisfy an ATS often creates a resume that appears sloppy to a human reader because adjacent bullet points are in different word tenses,” said Jobscan user Darren W. “I need to make the change to get past the ATS, but end up with a poor resume when presented to a reader.” Its possible to create an ATS-optimized resume that also reads well. Simply move the tense to a different word in the sentence. For example: Current Phrase (Past tense) Keyword Variation Alternative Phrase (Past Tense) Managed team of 15 engineers Manage Brought in to manage team of 15 engineers Manager Served as manager for team of 15 engineers Managing Tasked with managing team of 15 engineers Management Excelled in management role over team of 15 engineers Learn more: Wordsmithing Your Resume for Tenses and Plurals 52. Avoid repetitive language If youre applying for a Social Media Coordinator position and you know social media is the most important skill for the applicant tracking system ranking algorithm, you might fall into thiskeyword over-optimizationtrap: “Led social media marketing efforts which included writing social media content and using social media management platform Hootsuite to schedule social media posts on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media networks.” This will do more harm than good. Seed in keywords as much as you can while still sounding relatively natural. Read it out loud. Also try to mix up your action verbs. This can be easier said than done. If you were in a writing position, for example, the most natural action word is going to to write/wrote. Wrote blog posts. Wrote press releases. Wrote social media content. Wrote marketing copy. Wrote white papers Finding ways to mix up your sentences or bullet points will make your resume more compelling for the reader. 53. Proofread and triple-check Spell check is not enough! Spell check wont always catch the times you you repeat words, or when your typeos spell other words. Quickly reading back through your resume wont cut it either. Your brain knows what you meant to say and will swear to you that you got it right. When applying for an important job: Reread your resume after stepping away for a couple hours Read it out loud or paste it into a text-to-voice reader Change the font and color and read it again Ask your partner or friend to review it Online Resume Tips 54. Become a passive candidate Dont just peruse the job boards and apply for the jobs that catch your eye. Create an account on those sites and upload your resume so that you can be found by recruiters. This may open up job opportunities you didnt even know were available. Some sites where you can upload your resume for recruiter search include Indeed, Glassdoor, Monster, The Ladders,AngelList, and many more. Keep an eye out for sites specific to your field. 55. LinkedIn isnt just your online resume Many job seekers believe that LinkedIn isjust their online resume. They paste their resume info into their profile and only come back to update it when they have a new job. There are a number of ways that LinkedIn goes beyond the digital resume: Room to work with On a resume, less is more. On LinkedIn, more is more. Still strive to make your profile sections easy to read, but feel free to push the word counts to their limits. Your LinkedIn profile can paint a clearer picture of what youve done and what you can do than your one or two page resume. Show of some personality Since LinkedIn is a social media network, there is more leeway to inject personality into your work profile. Write a quippy LinkedIn headline.Tell yourcareer story in your summary section. Inject some industry commentary into your profile or through status updates. Network LinkedIn allows you to interact with thousands of professionals relevant to your career path and interests. Build a targeted LinkedIn network of past colleagues, industry peers, recruiters, and target-company decision makers. 56. Optimize your LinkedIn profile even if your application includes a resume You might be asked to upload a resume when you use LinkedIn Easy Apply, but your resume is deemphasized in the recruiters view. If youre applying for a job through LinkedIn, youll be judged first by your LinkedIn profile. Optimize your LinkedIn profile before you hit Apply. Best of luck with your resume and job search! If youre looking for more, check out these resume tips you shouldnt follow. Paige Doepke contributed to this article.

7 ways to turn your life around when everything falls apart

7 ways to turn your life around when everything falls apart 7 ways to turn your life around when everything falls apart “How do you turn your life around when everything falls apart?”First things first.Before you can accomplish anything in the present you must first eradicate your guilt and shame about the past.In this question, you asked “How do you turn your life around when everything falls apart”Not, “How can I transform my life and achieve my dreams”This question is coming from a place of pain and scarcity and I’ll be honest with you … I get it.Life can be brutal at times and it can feel like there’s no hope.But it’s in times like this where you must shift your focus from the sh*t storm happening around you and behind you and instead focus on the rainbow and pot of gold that you’re moving towards.With that out of the way here is a simple 7 step formula to turn things around when it all goes wrong.Step 1: Double down on your health and fitnessWhenever life gets crazy, the first thing that takes a hit is our health and fitness.When we get stressed at work or at home, it’s ea sy to slack off in the gym, eat more comfort foods, and generally abandon our well being.DON’T.If things are falling apart in your life then THE most important thing that you can do to get your life back on track is to: Lift heavy weights 4X a week and sprint once a week Eat a whole foods diet with only one serving of meat a day Sleep 8â€"9 hours a night Prioritize rest, relaxation, and recovery You won’t be able to find a solution to your problems if you are constantly stressed out, low energy, and lethargic.High achievement (in any area of life) is a direct result of high levels of energy and enthusiasm.Before you move onto the next step, I want you to write down three ways you’re going to prioritize your health TODAY and leave your response in the comments below.You can’t pull yourself out of the rut you’re in without great health. Reclaim your fitness and vitality, and you’ll reclaim your life.Step 2: Express daily gratitude for what you already haveThis response probably pisses you off… And I get it.When the crap hits the fan the last thing anyone wants to hear is “Be grateful for what you have”.But it’s true.The fact that you even have a device where you can ask this question here on Quora shows me that you have something to be grateful for.If you have a roof over your head, food in your stomach, and breath in your lungs, then you have something to be grateful for … Period.Starting today, I want you to commit to 30 days of ZERO complaining and daily gratitude. Keep a journal next to your bed and write down five things you’re grateful for every morning and evening.I promise it will change your life.Step 3: Commit to KaizenWhen life is falling apart around us it’s easy to get so caught up in our own story that we can’t see the forest through the trees.The fact of the matter is that, whatever you are going through right now, no matter how bad… It will pass. It will end and you will get better.And the way it’s going to get better is NOT overnight, but over the course of months and years as a result of a constant commitment so small daily improvements.I know you want to change your life and you want to change it NOW, but be patient.Commit to the long game. Improve your health, finances, and relationships by only 1% a day.Engage in small daily action and over the next 1â€"2 years your life will transform before your very e yes.Step 4: Laugh your butt offWhen life gets hard, we often stop prioritizing laughter and play.It makes sense right?Life sucks so why would we want to be laughing or act happy? Well… You want to laugh because life isn’t going well right now.I’ve found from personal experience that watching stand up comedies and binging on funny Netflix shows is one of the best ways to pull myself out of a rut and get back my enthusiasm for life.Laugh until your stomach hurts everyday and I promise things will get better.Step 5: Commit to a goal and follow the 5-step success formulaI don’t know you and I don’t know how your life is “Falling apart” but I do know that whatever is going wrong can be turned around.If your finances, health, relationships or a combination of all three have been thrown in the gutter, then you need to set a concrete goal for yourself to fix the situation using the five step success formula. Make a plan: Write out what you will do and why you will do it Get professional accountability: Hire a coach, call up a friend you respect, or use a website like this one and get someone keeping you accountable for your actions Get social support: Find people who love you and care about you and ask for their help. Or just put a post up on Facebook Find an Incentive: Pick a reward for yourself when you accomplish your goal. For example if your goal is to get out of debt, your reward could be a dream vacation, an expensive dinner, or a night on the town with your buddies Set a deadline: And give it everything you’ve got until you hit it. This formula is simple … But it works.If you will implement these five pillars of success and apply them to your goal, you will be able to turn your life around in record time.Step 6: Reconnect with old friends and family membersDesperation breeds isolation.This then breeds further desperation and the vicious cycle continues.As soon as you find yourself slipping into a negative state or a period of desperation IMMEDIATELY stop what you’re doing and connect with 5 people you care about.Call up old friends, stop by your parent’s house, connect with someone who cares about you.By rebuilding your social support network you will take a powerful step towards getting your life back on track.Step 7: Relax and take a page from Bob MarleyDon’t worry … About a thing … ‘Cuz every little thing … Gonna be alright.Ok, ok, I’ll stop.But seriously.You can’t take life too seriously. Because, at the end of the day, no matter how badly you mess up or how gloriously you succeed, we’ re all headed to the same place (wherever that is).100 years from now, you’ll probably be dead.All of the things you care about now won’t matter.And this is a freeing thought.At the end of the day, you only have one life to live. So why waste even a second of it lamenting the past and living in a negative state.You have a choice to be happy right now. Even while your life is falling apart.So stop worrying.Put in the work, of course.But realize that, when it’s all said and done, the only thing that really matters is whether or not you made the most of your time here on earth.Did you laugh? Did you enjoy yourself? Did you have fun?If yes, then you succeeded.If not then it’s time to step up, go after what you want, and live your dream life.I hope this helps.Stay strong, Be grounded.This article first appeared on Medium.

The Future of Resource Recovery Generates Career Opportunities

The Future of Resource Recovery Generates Career Opportunities The Future of Resource Recovery Generates Career Opportunities The Future of Resource Recovery Generates Career Opportunities By Srinivasa Jeyakumar, PE, Mechanical Engineering Special with Suncor Energy With seven billion individuals in this world, we produce a lot of trash. In the U.S. alone, we produce 4.6 pounds of trash each day/person. This amounted to 150 million tons of municipal solid waste being discarded in landfills in 2012. This is because only 35% of what we use gets recycled. It might sound counter intuitive but recycling can be cheaper than manufacturing. For example, recycling gold from old computer motherboards is far more efficient and less environmentally destructive than extracting it from the earth, often by surface-mining that risks unspoiled rain forests! However, the United Nations Environmental Program estimates that only about 10% of the millions of tons of electronic waste generated around the world is properly recycled. Recycling can help extract the maximum benefit from natural resources, delay consumption of virgin natural resources, and produce minimum amount of waste by disposing in a suitable, environmentally friendly manner. However, recycling is just one of the means to the end, termed broadly as resource recovery. Resource recovery is the process of building, reprocessing or developing new products such as recycling, composting or energy generation from disposed product/materials. Current resource recovery technologies include reusing wastes directly in the original production processes, turning waste into other valuable products according to their characteristics or even better, upscale them, where your recycled product has more value than the original product. Clothing is one industry which has historically used upscaling, where old out-of-style clothes worth $1-10 are tailored together in bits and pieces into fashionable items that are priced at $100+. Currently, in many countries, its not part of the regular routine to gather our tin cans and plastic bottles, walk to the local recycling center (if one is available), and dump it there. However, new resource recovery technologies plan to change that. Some countries like Scotland, Japan and the US are introducing Reverse Vending Machines. As its name suggests, instead of dispensing canned and bottled drinks, these machines actually take in empty cans and bottles, and dispense out dockets that can in turn be exchanged for cash. If you can recycle cans, why not cars? In Japan, when a car is all hollowed out, the remaining body is pressed into dice-sized chips and processed into metal scrap. At the end of the process, more than 90% of the cars material is recycled, the highest in the country, and as more research and development goes into this field, we could even see 95% of cars there being recycled. Organic waste is another class of material suitable for reuse and repurposing. A new approach of dissolving, filtering and precipitating PVC was used after the London Olympics 2012 to prevent toxic air pollutants to fulfill the PVC disposal policy. More futuristically, organic waste can be recovered using bacteria which could enable newspaper-powered cars in the future. Researchers at Tulane University in New Orleans discovered a strain of bacteria that can turn paper into butanol, a biofuel that can be used in some cars in place of regular petrol. The bacteria called TU-103, which is believed to be the first natural bacterial strain to make butanol directly from cellulose the material available in all green plants, and old newspapers. In the United States alone, at least 323 million tons of cellulosic materials that could be used to produce butanol are thrown out each year. Similarly, scientists at the University College Dublin found a bacterium that eats polystyrene foam and turns it into a useable plastic. Then, it is fed to the bacteria who convert it into PHA, a biodegradable plastic. It can be used to create packaging film and plastic forks. Unlike polystyrene foam, it is able to biodegrade in water and soil. This has created a slew of opportunities for todays engineers interested in participating in this type of research work or adapting this work in the industry. The research showcased above is just the tip of the iceberg and needs further research in the fields of bioengineering to develop these technologies. Engineers with backgrounds in basic engineering such as mechanical, chemical, or environmental sciences can pursue research in this area. This also calls for domain experts in each type of material being dealt with; for example, when you are recycling cans into reusable metal scrap, one would be expected to have skills in metallurgy or materials engineering. Basic research needs engineers to adapt the technology to make it cost-competitive and industrial scale. Project and process engineers are definitely a must to convert lab-scale processes into industrial processes. Some background in environmental sciences is helpful. Early career engineers can get on the job training in process development that gets them exposed to the companys production details. Young engineers with design, process, or project management experience and knowledge can make a career in resource recovery. A Bachelors degree can be sufficient for the process development, plant engineering and operations tasks. However, it would be advisable to pursue a Masters degree to get involved in basic research. Either in industry or basic research, a career in resource recovery is a way to help make this world a better place through your work. - This article has been adapted from a previously published article titled, The Future of Resource Recovery in the Process Industries Division Newsletter (2014 Winter Edition).

How to Write your Resume if you have little or no Professional Experience

How to Write your Resume if you have little or no Professional Experience How to Write your Resume if you have little or no Professional Experience Summer is heating up. For many of this year’s college graduates, the festivities are dying down, and the need to find a job is becoming more pressing. Yet many recent grads or those who have taken career breaks find themselves in a conundrum when they begin their job search: how to write an outstanding resume if they have little or no professional experience. Embarking on a job hunt is never easy, but it can seem even more daunting if you feel you haven’t had the professional experiences that hiring managers look for when screening job applications. Fear not, however, because there IS a way to frame your unique experiences and skills so that they translate in to valid, valuable bullet points on your resume. With a little research, some personal reflection, and determination, you can write your resume and begin applying to jobs within a few hours of reading this post. 1) Do your research Decide which industries you would be interested in working in. Once you’ve picked two or three, use sites like monster.com, indeed.com, and idealist.org to peruse some job postings for entry-level positions in your chosen fields. In each posting, there should be a list of qualities and qualifications that hiring managers desire in potential entry level job candidates. Make a list of these traits and skills. Once you have a good list with quite a few skills and traits, examine any that repeat. If you begin to notice patterns across job postings from various companies, you can get a general sense of what is expected of an entry level worker in that field. For example, if you were researching desired traits for jobs in sales, you might see that customer service, persuasion, negotiation, and diligence are among dozens of skills that are emphasized when working in that field, according to TheBalance.com. Now, analyze your findings. Do you possess any of the qualities that recur across job postings? Circle all that are relevant to you. 2) Do some personal reflection Once you’ve got a sense of what hiring managers are looking for, you can begin to reflect on your own experiences to discover if any work you’ve done over the years would demonstrate your suitability for a position in your chosen field. The trick here is to stop limiting your interpretation of “professional experience” to solely conventional long-term jobs, which you may not have had yet. Professional experience can be anything you have done that utilized or developed your skills. Perhaps you were a TA in college or you volunteered at the writing center or as a tutor. Maybe you gave tours to prospective students or were assigned to have a visiting student shadow you one day. Maybe you worked at the library. For recent college grads, work experience doesn’t necessarily have to be confined to your college, either. You may have worked on a catering team at a wedding, or helped take care of your neighbors’ children. A family friend may have asked you to help with a home improvement project or help fix a car one summer. Even hobby activities can be considered experiences that demonstrate your value as a worker. It may make it easier to reflect on these experiences if you think of times when you collaborated with others to achieve some sort of end. What projects have you completed? What volunteer work have you done? Now reexamine the list of desired qualities in your industry. Focus on the ones you circled, those you possess. Try to think of how  you acquired, developed, or utilized these skills throughout your past work, volunteer, or other project experiences. These experiences will be the bullet points in the Professional Experience section on your resume. For help formatting this section and others on your resume, see Resume Yeti’s “Anatomy of a Perfect Resume” Pro Tips. 3) Make your resume look the part Since  you are searching for employment with few “conventional” job experiences, it is of paramount importance that your resume be as close to perfect as possible. In an article about the most important resume characteristics for an applicant with no experience, Business Insider states that the number one way to make a resume stand out is that, “The layout is clean and easy to read.” Your resume should contain no spelling or grammar errors, no formatting inconsistencies, and it should have a clean, polished design. In order for hiring managers to take your resume seriously, it needs to be visually as good as or better in caliber than those of applicants competing for the same positions. First impressions are key! Once you get over the initial anxiety of feeling like you have no work experience, you’ll be able to crank out your resume and start applying to jobs immediately thereafter. And remember, the employee profiles that hiring managers post in job listings are only desired qualities; they are usually not hard line requirements for every applicant. Show hiring managers that despite not having had conventional work experience, you have had valuable learning experiences in the past, and you are ready to put your skill set into action.

Volunteering Expands Network, Reveals Jobs

Volunteering Expands Network, Reveals Jobs Volunteering Expands Network, Reveals Jobs When Brian Clark needed to extend his network, he turned to volunteer work.Working for a startup requires long hours and a lot of dinners away from home. When the startup Brian Clark was working for - a mobile e-mail platform company - ran out of financing in February 2008, Clark saw it as a chance to take some time off, relax and recharge. At that point, the economy was in relatively good shape and he felt he could afford to spend time with his family. “I was relaxed about the job hunt,” he said. “I thought I should enjoy some time off, because I didn’t know when I’d get the chance again.”He ended up with a longer hiatus than he expected. A year longer.His first instinct: Go to his network. His second: Expand that network.“I was working on the assumption that your network lasts about four months,” he said. “After that, you’ve tapped that contact out. So, you need to keep refreshing it.”Clark’s strategy: to volunteer on local government committees, in Thousand Oaks, Calif., the suburb of Los Angeles where he lives. He used his business-development expertise to assist the investment committee as well as a few nonprofits in the area. This helped the city government make decisions about which events and groups the city should provide funds. “We’d go over applications, make sure applications were complete, and discuss the various options,” Clark said.In doing so, he said, he was able to expand his professional network. “I made a lot of business contacts; people who owned or work at local companies or in Los Angeles,” Clark said. “My goal was to stay in the L.A. area, so it was important to make contact with people in the community.”Clark found that working on community committees helped in other ways.Avoid isolation“Expanding my network was not only healthy from a business standpoint but from an emotional standpoint as well,” he said. “Being unemployed can be isolating. But volunteering, having social interaction, having a full schedule and places to invest your time, is invigorating.”Joining SalesLadder in August 2008 was another part of Clark’s strategy to keep his network up to date. “When I applied to a job on Ladders, I often spoke to recruiters and HR people,” he said. “I was able to add 20 to 30 people to my network that I kept in contact with.”Clark, who was looking for a position in new business development that was either director level or above, was also expanding his options in the working world. “My initial resume was focused on digital entertainment,” he said. “But then, realizing it was getting tougher to get a job, I came up with two other resumes, one for platform sales and another for channel sales. I went in thinking I didn’t need three resumes. I thought my network would come through. But as I had interviews and companies were not hiring, I realized this was a daunting task, and I needed a little more strategy to accomplish this.” Clark said he worked six to eight hours every day on his job search, contacting people in his network, crafting cover letters and doing volunteer work.From media to technologyHe had good response to his resumes, but the economy wasn’t cooperating. “I had final interviews with 10 or 12 companies over the past several months,” Clark said. “I had a final interview with Warner Bros. the day they announced layoffs. They put the position I was interviewing for on hold. It was frustrating.”Frustrating, but not debilitating.He continued doing volunteer work, contacting his network and honing his cover letters. In April, he heard from a recruiter with whom he had developed a good relationship after applying for a position he found on Ladders. While that initial position didn’t work out, the recruiter had another job that she thought would be a good fit.“She contacted me about a business-development role,” he said. “It’s technology based, and they needed a lot of the skills that I had. It’s not content, but it’s setting up client partnerships.“The experience that I was going to be able to leverage was my ability to go out and deliver the core value proposition to clients and get them to sign up,” Clark continued. “It was exactly what I had done in the past, just with different clients. Same process, same sales cycle, same methodology.”And, after going more than a year without a job, it took just one month from first interview to offer. He is now the director of business development for Answer Financial, a division of White Mountains Insurance Group Ltd.A year-long searchWhile Clark was eager to take time off after his last position, he hadn’t planned on taking such a long break. He said it’s good to be working again. But he hasn’t let all that he accomplished while he was looking for jobs fall by the wayside. “I’m still doing the committees. I can’t spend as much time as I used to, but it’s great, I love doing it. I feel more rounded.”Clark said if there’s anything else he’s learned, it’s that during a job hunt, it’s easy to lose confidence in your abilities. “You need to be conscious of doing things to build confidence,” he said. “Joining committees, sitting down with someone who needed help with a business plan, was a good thing for me. It’s important to put yourself in situations where other people value what you say.”Otherwise, he said, it can be hard to go on interviews and convince other people you can offer them something of value, and it causes a downward spiral of confidence. “You’ll begin to wonder, ‘What am I doing wrong? I must not be as smart as I thought.’ It’s not a good place to be.“So, if you’re unemployed, don’t spend your time inside. Get out there; talk to people, and find out how you can be of value. Being involved in my community is the silver lining to being unemployed. But it did take me a long time to see that silver lining.”

10 Tricky Interview Questions How to Answer #LikeABoss

10 Tricky Interview Questions How to Answer #LikeABoss 10 Tricky Interview Questions How to Answer #LikeABoss It’s the question that none of us want to be asked: “ Why were you fired? ” You’re on the edge of your seat, heart pounding, beginning to sweat. You have only a few seconds before you need to formulate a response. How can you give an answer that both honestly explains the situation and still makes you look good? To find out how to answer tricky questions like this one, and more, we sat down with Kerry Hannon , seasoned career expert and author of Love Your Job: The New Rules for Career Happiness . “We know job interviews are incredibly nerve-wracking. You have total strangers grilling you, and they’re scary, and it can be intimidating,” says Hannon. “But you’ve got to have some chutzpah,” she adds. Take a reflective, rather than a reactionary tone, Hannon advises. “Pause before you respond. Even repeat back the questions. Buy yourself some time to gather your response. Don’t just jump off with an answer… And then come out with a confident and calm response.” Here are a few of the toughest interview questions, and Hannon’s advice for blowing them out of the water. Getting fired is way more common than we might think, and that can be a comfort. “The most important thing to focus on is that for your own sanity. Realize that almost everybody has been fired at some point from a job. The interviewer has probably been down this road themselves,” says Hannon. She adds that this question might trigger an emotional reaction in you, even if you prepare for it, so it’s important to be careful, honest and brief. “Position that situation as a positive learning experience,” advises Hannon. She recommends talking about how your expectations for the job were different than what the reality of the job was. Once upon a time, Hannon says she had a very difficult boss, so it’s easy for her to relate to this question. “It was really challenging working with this individual, but what it taught me was empathy, because it made me think about what were his challenges right now.” Maybe he himself was working for a difficult boss, or was having his own struggles with the job, Hannon says. Instead of making a knee-jerk reaction and complaining, this is a time for introspection. “You might say in your interview, it really taught me to take the time to find out what my boss was going through… and understand why we had this communication issue ,” she counsels. Questions like this one aim to prompt you to show your passion and drive for your career - a time to give a full background of why you love what you do. “This is the time where you can tell your story . Interviewers love this. It gives them a peek into who you are, what kind of person you are, what kind of communicator you are, what sort of drive and motivation you have,” she says. This is a tricky question because it can force you to reveal that you don’t plan on having a long-term career with the employer in question. Hannon advises against revealing this, and instead speaking more generally about the type of work environment you would like to see yourself in. “What I like to say is, ‘I imagine I’m going to be working alongside really smart, positive, enthusiastic people, who will encourage me, and who I’m learning new things from, and that I’m being creative,” she says. Additionally, speaking about the specifics of what type of job title and specific responsibilities you want isn’t always the best approach. “Rather, make it a really collaborative answer about [what] kind of work environment you hope you’re in and why,” Hannon adds. Hannon advises against going into detail on these questions - especially if those details are negative. “Be generic as possible, and stay away from real specifics here,” she counsels. “Negative things are never somewhere you want to go in an interview.” This question is not about throwing your old manager under the bus, but rather reflecting on what you learned from working with them. The phrase “my worst boss taught me…” is one Hannon mentions as being a good way to frame a difficult experience you had with a manager. “It’s all about taking the high road and being gracious in many ways,” she says. Again, the blame game is never a good interview strategy. Hannon recommends saying something like: “the job wasn’t quite right because there was a lack of opportunity that I thought might have been there, but didn’t see.” Neither is blaming the “bad job” on your former manager, coworkers and company, or yourself. “Refocus and reframe it, but try to move on as quickly as you can,” adds Hannon. Hannon recommends answering this question in the context of why you have enthusiasm for your broader career. In talking about what about the job excites you, explain how you’ve specifically worked towards being good at it. “If there’s a profession you really love, you can just really fire up and say … that’s why I developed x, y, and z skills. That gives you the chance to zoom, to show your excitement, energy and passion ,” she says. If you’ve left your last job and are looking for a new one, chances are it wasn’t quite satisfactory. But there’s no need to talk about the negatives of the job or the company. “It’s always reframing it into what you learned from that experience, not why it was a bad thing,” says Hannon. “Don’t blame them, and don’t blame yourself, just say it wasn’t a good fit,” she continues. “You need to be asking them tough questions,” says Hannon. It is through these questions that you can figure out whether or not the company is a good fit for you. In addition, the questions you ask can be a means to show that you have thoughtfully researched the company. Don’t ask questions that you can find the answers to on their website, but questions that show a deeper level of thinking, like “What is your long-term vision for the company,” “what are the biggest challenges your team is facing” or “what does it take to be successful here?”