I've Been Working For Myself. How Do Recruiters View Periods of Self-Employment?

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When it comes to a recruiter or a hiring manager evaluating a resume, self-employment can be something of a mixed bag.

Perceived positive factors:

• Entrepreneurial spirit. You like to try new things and see what you can create.
   
• Self-discipline. if something needs doing, you have to do it, or it doesn’t get done and you don’t get paid.
   
• Deep sense of ownership. You’ve demonstrated that you’re willing to invest yourself emotionally as well as a substantial portion of your time and personal resources to bring a concept to fruition.

Perceived negative factors:

• An inability to fit within a structured corporate environment. Being an employee means dealing with a regular commute, standard working hours, and all the trappings of corporate life such as performance appraisals, rationed time off, and multiple layers of decision-making.
   
• Issues with authority. When you are your own boss, you have the freedom to make any decisions you like in regard to how the business operates, as well as how you do your job. Not so in an established organization – your boss is your boss. Can you really get used to taking orders?
   
• Difficulty handling teamwork. As a solo practitioner, you do what you believe needs to get done. Corporations and other multi-employee organizations rely heavily upon cross-functional collaboration. In other words, you spend a good deal of your time in meetings, influencing decisions and dealing with shared deliverables.

The longer you’ve been on your own, these perceived negative factors will increase in prominence in the hiring decision.

If you’ve been working for yourself and would like to jump into working for a larger organization, here’s how to manage this.

1. Clarify your “story.” Be prepared to explain to a recruiter or a hiring manager why you’re looking to leave your business behind and move into a corporate role. Compelling stories usually involve either an interest in the camaraderie a larger team affords, or a desire to jettison the less desirable parts of the job (i.e., sales) so that you can focus on core responsibilities.
    
2. Highlight teamwork. On your resume and in the interview focus on your experiences in initiatives that have required working with others to drive completion. Allay fears about your ability to interact on projects.
    
3. Clearly spell out if you’ve been working either with or onsite at a major client. Even tangential experience with major clients will bolster your corporate credentials.
    
4. Demonstrate a strong customer orientation. Express your dedication to going “above and beyond” in order to satisfy your customers. If you join a company, often your boss will feel like they are your customer.

Note: This article originally appeared on Quora.

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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.

8 Ways To Maximize The ROI On Your Internship

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Congratulations – you got the internship!

After a painful and highly competitive application and interview process, you were selected over dozens of other highly qualified students to spend the summer working at one of the coolest companies around.

As an intern, you'll gain valuable, real-world experience with an established company, new skills, a professional network, experience to add to your resume, and depending upon your college and the employer some combination of academic credit and a paycheck.

During the internship your employer will closely monitor and evaluate you, and the quality of your work is only one factor they'll consider as they decide whether to invite you back for a full-time role upon graduation. They'll also look at your work ethic, technical aptitude, interpersonal skills, behavior, learning agility, and growth potential to determine if you're a fit for their full-time workforce.

Regardless of whether your career interests lie with the company at which you're interning or at another company, you'll need to be smart in approaching your internship. The ultimate goal is to embark upon a rewarding career upon graduation. Here 8 ways you maximize the ROI – return on investment – on your internship.

1. Set your own goals. Even before accepting an internship, you should very clearly understand what you plan to get out of your summer. What specific technical skills or professional experiences do you hope to gain? An internship that doesn't add to your professional toolbox may not get you any closer to your desired career path.
    
2. Align expectations with your manager. Have a two-way discussion to agree upon what he/she expects out of you. Set goals. Work together to define what success in the internship would look like so that you can prioritize accordingly. If you see gaps in the experiences they plan to offer you versus what you were told during the interview, or if you would like to work on specific projects or technologies, respectfully make your manager aware of this and ask if it's possible to redefine the scope of the internship (it may or may not be).
    
3. Be flexible. There's a lot of boring work out there which needs to get done, and interns usually get stuck doing it. Managers usually know how lame it is. Smile, and take it on willingly. Ask for more. You may learn valuable skills, and demonstrating a positive attitude toward tedious tasks reflects well upon your work ethic. Perhaps you'll identify a process to streamline this grunt work and can share your findings so that you'll make your manager's life easier after you leave.
    
4. Ask for stretch assignments. Managers often give employees what they think they can handle. If you believe you have the capability to take on more complex tasks – and the bandwidth to do so without allowing your core duties to suffer – tell your manager. You might end up with elevated responsibility or a challenging assignment. There's a risk of failure here, but if you succeed in your new assignment you have the potential to truly shine.
    
5. Track your progress. Document your progress against your goals in a quantifiable and measurable way. If you find you're falling behind, it may be time to look at how you're approaching your work and perhaps discuss the situation with your manager. Save your data for the performance appraisal at the end of the internship..
    
6. Network aggressively. One of the most counterproductive things you can do is bury yourself in your cubicle without getting to know people in the organization. Introduce yourself to department employees and other interns. Build your brand by actively participating in corporate activities. After the internship is over, the company will usually rank all of the interns in order to prioritize to whom they'd like to make full-time, post-graduation employment offers. If nobody knows you, they can't advocate for you, regardless of the quality of your work. Also, take a long-term perspective to networking – few people stay with a single employer for the duration of their career, and the connections you make now may be useful in finding employment after graduation and beyond.
    
7. Invest in your performance appraisal. At the end of the internship you'll sit down with your manager to go over your work – the good, the bad, and the ugly. Share your accomplishments, highlight your teamwork, and provide documentation. Ask for performance feedback – in addition to what they perceive as your successes, your manager will share information he or she believes  will help you address developmental areas. Demonstrate maturity – listen actively, don't be defensive, and ask for suggestions. The information they share will usually be the aggregate of multiple individuals across the department who provided input and it will reflect the general perception of your performance. Thank your manager for the feedback, synthesize what's been shared with you, and use the data to improve your performance in the future.
    
8. Update your resume and LinkedIn profile with your new experiences. An internship is real experience, and your work will help sell you. Highlight your accomplishments!

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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.

How Should I Organize My Work Portfolio?

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A portfolio of work can be an essential job interview tool for graphic designers and other creatives. But even if you're not a creative professional, a well-designed portfolio can be a fantastic way to highlight your skills and achievements.

In case you're not familiar with the concept of a portfolio, it's usually a case, binder, or notebook containing pieces of your work. Think of it as a browse-able brochure of what you have to offer to an employer.

Perhaps you're a marketing professional and you've had an article written about you in the local paper. Or you're an engineer with several high-profile patent applications. Maybe you've written documents that show off your writing skills. Include these!

Your portfolio needs to be polished and professional. Here are some guidelines for you to consider when assembling one.

• Make it clean - Your portfolio should consist of your best designed work, arranged neatly and well formatted. Mount the items on the page.
   

• Make your work stand out - Select pieces that best show off your creativity and intellect.
   

• Make it tell a story - Organize your work in such a way that it says something about the progression of what the reader is looking at.  Group like with like; if your work has improved as time has progressed, organize your work in such as way that it shows how you've grown.
   

• Make it shine - Pick your best pieces. Get an outside opinion on what is your best work - not everybody may agree with your personal opinions, and it's easy to become attached to your favorites. And if you've worked on recognizable brands, the inclusion of these projects will usually rise to the top.
   

• Make it available online - A digital portfolio is great because you can always pull it up when you're sitting in a hiring manager's office. An online training module you designed can come alive when presented in multimedia.

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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.