New Year, Boost Your Career! 9 Strategies For A Successful 2017

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It's the end of 2016. And what an interesting year it's been – please join me in welcoming 2017!

Many people use the new calendar year to mark a new beginning. If boosting your career is part of your agenda, here are X strategies you can use to position yourself for a promotion, or get that new job you've wanted.

1. Maximize Your Annual Performance Appraisal. Most employers do performance evaluations in the beginning of the year. Come prepared with your list of accomplishments. Quantify the value you've brought the company. If you're angling for a promotion, a strong performance appraisal is essential. Go in with your eyes open - if you're surprised by what you hear from your manager during your review, you haven't truly been paying attention to feedback throughout the year. If there are any development opportunities identified during the review, own them and discuss how you have worked to overcome them and plan to correct them going forward.

2. Create An Individual Development Plan (IDP). An IDP is a tool to help you in your personal development. Prepared in conjunction with your manager, it documents your strengths, your weaknesses, and your career goals, explores career possibilities, identifies training opportunities, and provides you with a road map how you plan to get there. Preparing and adhering to an IDP also serves the critical function of reinforcing to your organization's leadership your commitment to your professional development. It's also a good opportunity to ask yourself if you really want a promotion and all the headaches which accompany it. Also, here some specific strategies you can follow to prepare yourself for that promotion.

3. Find A Mentor. It can be helpful to find somebody inside or outside your company who has achieved career-wise what you are looking to do. A good mentor is helpful because they aren't typically your manager (so you can be freer to discuss concerns and personal areas of development) and they can provide you an outside perspective as well as helpful guidance.

4. Benchmark Your Skill Set. It's helpful to know what the job market looks like for professionals such as yourself. Check out the job listings on LinkedIn and Indeed. Take a look at what you could earn with another employer by using salary data on Salary.com or Paysa. You might find out that your current employer is compensating you quite well and above market averages; or, not so much. Do you know some agency recruiters (i.e., headhunters) who work in your field? Pick their brains about the job market, too.

5. Get Your Resume In Shape. It doesn't matter whether or not you're planning to leave your current company. Even if you're applying for an internal opportunity at your employer, or you've been tapped to interview for a promotion, you'll need a resume which reflects your accomplishments and personal growth, and is strategically targeted for the job you're hoping to get. Here are 6 things you can do to strengthen your resume today.

6. Polish Your Interviewing Skills. Again, even if you have no intention of leaving your company, it's become increasingly common to have employees interview with their own organization's leaders if they're being considered for an internal move or a promotion. Learn as much as you can about behavioral interviewing - that's when an interviewer asks you about how you've dealt with a difficult situation in the past to get an idea about how you would handle it in the future. Here are some additional ways to make the interview work for you.

7. Network. Your reputation is only as good as what people hear, and if they're not hearing anything about you, then you really don't have a reputation to speak of. Join the board of the local chapter of your professional trade group. Volunteer with a nonprofit. Attend those college alumni events. You don't necessarily need to work a room to get noticed, either. Often, familiarity breeds awareness of your career and your skills, and you'll often find that people will keep you in mind and recommend you if they hear of any appropriate job opportunities. And yes, connecting and engaging with your peers on LinkedIn certainly counts as networking. Want to get noticed on LinkedIn? Here are some tips.

8. Keep Learning. Considering how quickly the required skills are changing due to technological advances, it's lethal to stop upgrading your skills. Take classes through your trade group. Go back for your Master's degree. Take a course on Coursera or LinkedIn Learning. If you don't know the essential emerging technology in your field, it's guaranteed that somebody else will know it – and they'll be a more desirable job candidate. All other factors being equal, skills trump all.

9. Dress The Part. Your appearance speaks volumes. People perceive your professionalism through your attire. Take the opportunity to upgrade your wardrobe, and reinforce your manager's and your peers' positive impression of you. It might be time to put the jeans away, and wear a nice pair of slacks.

Here's to a prosperous 2017!

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Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, and career coaching services, including a free resume review. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.

6 Things You Can Do To Strengthen Your Resume Today

It's a bird! It's a plane!

This article also appeared on Recruiter.com - https://www.recruiter.com/i/6-things-you-can-do-to-strengthen-your-resume-today/

Building an effective resume can be challenging. There are no hard and fast rules associated with writing a resume, which can make the process something of a guessing game – you're trying to figure out, "What will get my resume noticed by a hiring manager or recruiter?"

Let me start out by saying that everybody has a different opinion on what makes an effective resume; if you'd like to learn more about what corporate recruiters have to say what they like and dislike about resumes, you can find the results of an information survey I took here. Sometimes one person's constructive feedback may conflict with another person's, so be warned. This is what happens when there are no absolute guidelines on writing a resume.

As a former recruiter and a current resume writer, I have my own notions about what might make your resume stand out. But, some of my suggestions may conflict with the feedback of others. I'm just letting you know what I've seen work.

So... without further ado... here are 6 things you can do today to strengthen your resume.

1. Spellcheck and proofread. Typos and grammatical errors will likely kill your chances. If you're using a word processing application, there's no reason NOT to use the built in Spelling and Grammar check feature. But keep in mind, this won't necessarily catch misused words that are spelled correctly (i.e., the correct form of whose vs. who's, or accidentally using the word manger instead of manager). Likewise, your word processing application may flag proper nouns or corporate terms. Manually proofreading the document after letting Word do its stuff will enable you to catch these errors.

2. Consider adding a headline. A recruiter will spend about 15 seconds reviewing a resume to see if it's a match. If you have a clear headline just below your name and address that clearly spells out the solution to their job vacancy, such as "ACCOUNTING MANAGER" for an advertised Accounting Manager role, it may encourage the recruiter to keep reading.

3. Eliminate content that is distracting, irrelevant, or not supportive. What I mean by this is if you've been a help desk specialist for the past 10 years, and you're applying for a help desk job, consider leaving off your jobs from before that time when you were a professional landscaper. This can also apply to listed hobbies that don't support your work. Recruiters and hiring managers want to know what you can do in the job. Including that unrelated work experience may be interesting to you or the reader, but it can also invite questions. For example, What line of work are you really looking for? And, Will you be looking to leave the office at 4:30pm to go surfing (that listed hobby). I've also seen resumes where a job seeker started in a job as an administrative assistant (listed on the resume) and has grown into a senior management role, but the hiring manager wondered if the candidate is truly cut from managerial cloth. It's an unfair bias, but it happens.

4. Pay attention to formatting. Do your columns line up? Are your tabs working properly? Is the resume attractive, with enough pleasing white space (areas without text). Microsoft Word can be a bear. If you don't know how to maneuver the program well, hire somebody who can help you format your resume effectively. A misaligned column, for example, can be interpreted by the reader as careless or sloppy work.

5. Add some accomplishments. Listing what you do on a day-to-day basis in your job is a starting point. But including effective accomplishments for your positions show what kind of value you're capable of adding to an employer. Measurable accomplishments (i.e., increased sales 40%) are great, but also consider including some of the less tangible things you've done which changed your employer's performance for the better. Did you create and implement processes where none existed? Were you able to help develop people on your staff through training and mentoring?

6. Avoid the personal stuff. In the United States, don't include your picture, date of birth, social security number. Likewise, leave out religious affiliation or anything else that invites illegal or inappropriate scrutiny by an employer. If you're applying for a job which may involve long hours or travel, and you volunteer on your resume that you have 3 children, a biased reader of your resume may start wondering, "Geez, is this person going to miss a lot of work days or have to leave early due to day care issues?"

Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. He is a Human Resources professional and staffing expert with almost two decades of in-house corporate HR and staffing firm experience, and is a Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW) and Certified Professional Career Coach (CPCC).

Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, and career coaching services, including a free resume review. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.

Did You Ever Wonder What That Recruiter REALLY Thinks About Your Resume? And What Can You Do About it?

Recruiters review resumes for a living (among other things...). A busy recruiter easily reviews THOUSANDS of resumes every month. Did you ever wonder what recruiters like and dislike in a resume?

I decided to ask them! I conducted a highly informal poll (totally nonscientific - I asked a bunch of corporate and agency recruiters and HR managers in email and on LinkedIn) what they like to see in resumes, and what they don't care for. Here are the results, according to real-life recruiting folks!

FYI, these comments reflect the feedback of 20 or so HR folks, and are listed in no particular order. I didn't leave any out, so there are some recurring or slightly conflicting themes. Ready? Let's dive in!

I LOVE a resume that...

*Has enough detail of actual accomplishments, not just responsibilities. I love when results are indicated clearly.

*Is one page.

*Reads like my job requisition!

*Has achievements/metrics vs tasks.

*Is concise and to the point.

*Is organized and straight to the point.

*Provides clear details of one's work history

*Follows the STAR approach (in other words - details a Situation, Task, Action, and Result)

*I do love resumes that have the last 10 to 12 years of experience, each with less than 15 bullets, and a snapshot of skills at the top with a summary. Much easier to read and evaluate.

*When it is really focused on their expertise and their passion of what they do. Showing immediately their dream job.

*A resume that indicates contract positions and reasons why the person left a previous position. It can aid in pre-explaining tenure issues.

*Is organized and shows me what I am looking for, right away. I also like an executive summary, right at the top.

*Has a relevant work history for the job they are applying for.

*Is a clean, concise, well-constructed resume.

*Catches my attention at first glance. Good me format, experience, industry or education.

*Is visually appealing, in chronological order, has details on job duties, and is grammatically (well-written) proficient.

*Really paints the picture of what they do in their job.

*Easy to read, legible font.

*I LOVE a resume that reads like a menu and not a cookbook.

*Has proper formatting.

*Includes a hyperlink link to LinkedIn (or professional social media) profile.

*Accurate employment dates and specific job duties.

*Clearly highlights skill set.

*Clean, concise with relevant information to the role they are applying to.

*Easy to read, quick to see what you want and what you can do for me. Drolly serious bogs me down and I stop reading.

*I also like it when the candidate provides a brief snapshot of the company they worked for; # of employees, annual revenue, industry, and the title of who they reported to as well as number of direct reports.

*A resume that is easy to read (bullets not paragraphs, no small or crazy font and is set up traditionally in a proper format).

*Nicely formatted and easy to read w/ bullet points

It drives me BANANAS (in a bad way) when I see in a resume...

*An objective line that has nothing to do with the position applied (i.e. seeking a job in marketing when the job is technical).

*Their SSN#, nationality, marital status and # of kids.

*No email/phone, and spelling errors.

*Resumes with typos, gross grammatical errors, and incomplete sentences.  But what really drives me crazy is when candidates include their work history back to the 1970s and the resume is 5 pages long.

*When a title does not stand out immediately.

*When I see misspelled words on a resume

*When I see a resume for someone with 5+ years of experience, but has crammed it onto one page. That is not the way to market yourself. Having two pages does not disqualify someone - it simply makes the document easier to read.

*I do not care if you garden, or whatever in your spare time...that is up to you and won't help you get the interview.

*When a resume shows detail on personal information: Birth date, Marital Status, Religion, # of kids etc.

*When candidates don't take the time to research the company they are interviewing with.

*Incorrect job titles referenced in cover letters. We know candidates use cover letter templates but they should take the time to ensure the information quoted is correct.

*Resumes with pictures, age, gender, WEIGHT! No, no, no! This is a big trend in Latin America that is slowly creeping up here in the states.

*A picture on the resume. Unless you are applying to be a model, just no. And weird personal details also do not belong. I also can't stand non specific and useless objectives.

*Major typos, or it's poorly formatted.

*They have worked less than a month at a job and list a half page of their responsibilities.

*That is not in chronological order and does not provide detailed summary of job duties and has misspelled words.

*When a candidate writes a stock introduction in the resume and leaves the wrong title they are pursuing or company name. They batch send it to any company and they don’t take the time to change this.

*Resumes that are too long, 5+ pages.

*Illegible font.

*Cluttered resume with blatant typos

*It drives me b.a.n.a.n.a.s when I see in a resume the word "Manger."

*In different fonts and sizes (that is obviously not on purpose).

*Spelling errors.

*Disorganized format.

*Not putting months with employment dates - If you only put 2013-2014 I assume you were there for a short period of time and immediately start questioning it.

*Poor formatting.

*Poor grammar or spelling.

*Contains portrait pictures.

*Lacks employment dates (Month/Year).

*Does not list dates of employment on their resume.

*Does not spell check.

*The objective is not remotely close to the role that they are applying for (please leave off the objective altogether).

*Typos, including spelling the name of your degree incorrectly. This is suppose to be the "best you" -- find friends to quintuple check your CV.

*When I see in a resume with misspellings.  What an indication that the person does not check their work.

*Generic objective statement, poor formatting and typos.

If there's a message here, it's that there are plenty of things in a resume that can annoy a recruiter and get you knocked out of the process. Here are some key takeaways to make sure your resume doesn't take an express trip to the circular file:

• Organize your thoughts. Organize them well. Tell a clear story about who you are, what you do, and what you can contribute.
• Typos and misspellings will kill your application, they demonstrate carelessness. As does putting the wrong job title on the resume or cover letter.
• Keep it short but relevant. 2 pages, maximum, unless you've got a compelling reason to go beyond that. But most of us don't. Your mommy may believe you're special, but you're not special enough to have a 5-page resume.
• Leave out the personal stuff unless geography dictates it. In some countries, it's normal to include portraits, social security numbers, dates of birth, etc. The United States is not one of them, and the same rule applies in several other countries. Know your market.
• Readability matters. Use an attractive font. Format your resume so that there is enough white space. Typeset your pages. If you can't maneuver Microsoft Word, hire somebody who knows the application well to format your resume.
• Dates of employment are important. Know them. List them.
• Consider format. There are a lot of creative ways to format a resume. Before doing something trendy or unique, ask yourself if your audience will receive it well. Some career fields, like marketing, may better accept a creative format as a sign of the candidate's own creativity. Others, like IT or accounting, not so much.

Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. He is a Human Resources professional and staffing expert with almost two decades of in-house corporate HR and staffing firm experience, and is a Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW) and Certified Professional Career Coach (CPCC).

Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, and career coaching services, including a free resume review. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.