Steer clear of these 4 resume mistakes if you want to score yourself an interview

resumes on a desk

We trust that you’ve had a well-rested weekend. For some, it might be a busy one since we’re just less than two weeks to Christmas! Good times or bad times, there’s power in the season of giving so we hope you’ve gotten your Christmas gifting plans all sorted out.

Now, back to serious business. Yes, it’s the most dreaded Monday, and we’ve new additions to our usual career-related tips. Job seekers who have yet to score yourself an interview despite the number of resume sent-outs, the problem might be due to some resume blunders you’re making.

Read on to find out how you can avoid these four resume mistakes to score yourself an interview soon.

#1: Placing too much focus on the design
colourful resumes

Image Credits: business.tutsplus.com

If you’re a designer and applying for a position in the creative industry, probably it would make sense for you to want to spend some time on the visual outlook of your resume. But the main point here is that some people tend to overdo it.

You’ve heard the saying, “less is more”, and in this context, it accurately sums up what you should do. Think about the functionality of your resume, including the audience and purpose. Busy recruiters do not have all the time in the world to admire your stylish resume.

Instead, it would be best if you depicted your resume in a way that helps the hiring manager:

  • Read with ease
  • Sift out your skills and suitability
  • Apply your in-demand skills to the job vacancy

A border design and some coloured text may appear lovely in your eyes, but it may not be for the head hunter looking at tons of resumes a day to pick out the right candidates with crucial competencies.

#2: Having chunks of lengthy texts
sample resume

Image Credits: TemplateMonster

Even if we do not apply this mistake in this particular context, having vast chunks of unbroken texts can cause a headache for any modern readers out there.

You might have seen before in the news that some recruiters spend only around six seconds to read a resume. Six seconds?! In that short period, you will need to impress your recruiter as he or she scans through your resume.

To put yourself in the shoes of an HR personnel, think back on the amount of content you mindlessly scroll through your social media feed daily. Recall on what caught your attention and what did not. Even a well-written article can have a low readership count purely because of its formatting.

To assist the recruiter in shortlisting yours among the sea of resumes out there, breaking up texts into proper paragraphs and being fully aware of run-on sentences without punctuations can help. If it makes sense, use bullet points to grab the reader’s attention at first glance.

Also, section the content into headings and subheadings and bold them where necessary. This is to allow the hiring manager to locate essential information effortlessly.

#3: Missing out on brief role descriptions
brief job role descriptions

Image Credits: Prime Advice

Wanting to fit all your achievements in a one- or two-page word document is understandable. While some things like designs are better left as simple, an outline for your role descriptions is necessary.

Think of it as a summary section to give the recruiter some background on these:

  • Who you’ve worked for
  • Nature of the said business
  • Where you fit into the organisation

Those who have worked for widely known global brands may not have to explain the nature of the business, but it’s still important to include some pointers about your department and your contributions to the company’s success.

#4: Not including facts and figures
facts and figures on a resume

Image Credits: iHire

One massive takeaway I’ve had while doing marketing is that numbers matter. Putting this lesson to practical use, it’s the same as trying to market yourself to land an interview with the HR department. As such, don’t leave out facts and figures.

To prove your worth, you want to use some numbers to convey the scale of your impact. Those who’ve led departments before, don’t just stop at “managed a team”. Insert the relevant numbers on the size of your team, the locations they cover, and clients or customers under their servicing.

This is especially useful if you’ve led massive teams across several locations and want to transfer this experience to a regional management position you’re applying for. With that said, even penning down that if you’ve led a small group of five can open doors and put you at the forefront compared to applicants who’ve no such experiences.

Spending some quality time to right the common resume mistakes pointed out in this article could lead to better results in your job applications. If you want the right response from your potential employers, then make sure you have a resume powerful enough to assist you. The last thing you want is to have a substandard resume as a stumbling block to your job search success.

And one last tip before you go, do customise your resume to the specific role you’re applying for and ditch the one-for-all cookie-cutter content!

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How To Increase Motivation At Work

With the multitude of global issues that we are facing right now, it is normal to experience burnout. Motivation is the drive that conquers burnout. Self-motivation is having the initiative to do a task without being supervised or being told to do it.

Think of two things you like doing and two things you do not like doing. From this simple exercise, you will realize which activities motivate you. Motivation drives our behaviors and there are two primary types of it. These are external and internal motivation.

With external motivation, you are doing something because the activity will bring some reward or benefit at the end of it.

For instance, you may visualize the act of job hunting. It is not something you do to pastime. People job hunt because they want an outcome – a job. The motivation for actually working is also usually external. We are motivated to go to work because we are paid to do so.

In contrast, internal motivation entails doing something purely because you love doing it. The more internally motivated an action is, the more enjoyable it usually is. So from the point of view of happiness, it makes sense to have more internally motivated activities in your life. People who are internally motivated show more interest and excitement over what they do. You are usually better at internally motivated actions too. You show more persistence and creativity. You are likely to have increased happiness and self-esteem by pursuing what internally motivates you.

Think about some of the things you do on a regular basis. Are you mostly externally motivated, acting in for the rewards? Or are you mostly internally motivated? It is important to know which type of motivation is strongest for you. If you follow this, your performance will likely improve and you will generally be happier.

DEVELOPING INTERNAL MOTIVATION

With the bulk of tasks we have to finish in a day, do not expect everything to be internally motivated. Internal motivation is developed and maintained when we are autonomous, competent, and supported.

We feel autonomous when we can make our own choices and decisions.
We feel competent when we know that we can do things.
We feel supported when we are connected to others.

BECOMING MORE COMPETENT

1. Practice what you need to do or perform beforehand.

2. Look for positive feedback, but value constructive criticisms. Your motivation will become stronger if you can find some way of getting positive feedback on your progress.

3. Break down your tasks and goals. If a task is very complex and challenging, breaking it down can help you stay motivated. It makes things more sustainable and attainable.

4. Make sure the difficulty level matches your ability. You want your goals and activities to be reasonable. It should not be too easy, because you will get bored. It should not be too difficult, because you will get frustrated.

KNOWING THE PITFALL OF EXCUSES

Unsuccessful people often have good reasons for not hitting their goals. Successful people use those same reasons as their motivation. Practice transforming your excuses into motivations. Here are some examples:

1. I can not give up. I have to do this for my children.

2. I have to study harder, so that I can properly teach my students.

Image Credits: unsplash.com

What are you hustling for? Motivation is strongest when it comes from within. Let me close by highlighting what Don Wilder once said: “Excuses are the nails used to build a house of failure.” Build a house that you deserve.

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A psychologist reveals 4 key ways you can use to embrace critical feedback

two woman having a meting

Critical feedback can be daunting for some. Since we’re talking about criticisms here, it’s easy to get defensive over it. But take a more profound examination, and you will probably agree that constructive feedback is the ‘true friend’ that identifies the gaps between who you are and the improved version of who you want to be.

Dr Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, a psychologist, author, and entrepreneur, points this out as a paradox. He shares that most people are happy to receive positive feedback, but it is the negative ones that enable us to be better.

This is because if you think you are already on the right path, then there would be a lesser desire to brush up on your current skills. To avoid potential conflicts, some companies have even attempted to remove negative feedback from performance reviews.

So the question is, do you want an upgrade? Or are you happy with where you are right now with all the compliments flooding your way? If it’s the former, we’re so glad for your willingness to change.

We’re not going to promise that you will leave this article feeling like you’re ready for a self-improvement journey. Criticisms hurt and we’re not going to lie. But it’s something to embrace if you want to tackle your weaknesses and bridge the gaps.

Want to walk out of your self-protective instincts now? Take it from Dr Tomas on the four key ways you can use to embrace critical feedback.

#1: Search for a right mentor
two persons having a discussion

Image Credits: unsplash.com

Don’t be alarmed by the word ‘mentor’. Dr Tomas points out that the right person should be someone with experience in the area you’re keen to make a change in. He or she could be someone who knows you well, has seen your growth, or aware of the skillsets or talents you want to build.

In our current prosocial society, it’s getting difficult to find someone willing to provide critical feedback. “For all the talk of authenticity, if you go about telling everyone what you really think, you will have no friends and your colleagues will hate you,” said Dr Tomas.

That’s like hitting the bull’s eye, isn’t it? What you need is someone who is fearlessly psyched to tell you what you need to hear. Note the difference between what you want to hear and what you need to hear.

#2: Find proper questions to ask
a man asking a question

Image Credits: unsplash.com

Finding the right mentor to receive feedback is already not a simple task. If you want to make it easier for your mentor to give you an appropriate assessment, ask pertinent questions.

Avoid asking short questions like these:

  • “How did I do?”
  • “Was this okay?”
  • “Did I do a good job?”
  • “Did you like what I did?”

Instead, ask:

  • “What would you have done differently?”
  • “What are the two things that they didn’t like so much?”
  • “If you can change one thing about X going forward, what would that be?”

Also, mean what you say. If you’ve made known that you wouldn’t take it to heart, then don’t take it personally. Value their honest response and see it as a way to help you get better, even if you don’t immediately agree due to a defensive stance.

Dr Tomas states that the right mentors should help improve your ability to identify blind spots and critical areas for improvement. As a mentee, always be thankful.

“Feedback is always a gift, and there is no bigger gift than constructive critical feedback because it is daunting and risky to provide it. There is a higher cost to honest negative feedback than fake positive feedback, but the former makes you much better than the latter,” he adds.

#3: Receive comments and act on it
Take action

Image Credits: unsplash.com

Have you ever advised upon a request only to find out that the other party has turned a deaf ear? If you understand how frustrating it feels, don’t do the same to your mentor. 

Receive critical feedback and reciprocate the time and effort spent by committing to change. Then, share your action plans with your mentor to involve them in the process. Knowing that you’re taking their constructive comments seriously is also a form of motivation for your mentors to provide you with more guidance going forward.

“When someone asks you for help, and you offer your honest views, even though you know it may hurt them, there is nothing more rewarding than seeing them make a positive change based on what they heard. Making others better is a wonderful achievement,” Dr Tomas remarked.

#4: Get more feedback to monitor progress
portrait-of-confident-young-asian-woman-calling-by-mobile-phone

Image Credits: HealthHub

If you’ve followed through the strategies so far and managed to gain and act on the criticisms given to you, don’t just stop there. Politely ask your mentors for more valuable critiques so you can track your progress.

To put it simply, Dr Tomas says the process should look like this:

  • Get critical feedback
  • Make an effort to change
  • Get more feedback to monitor progress

He also illustrates this strategy using a weighing scale. When you think you’ve put on weight recently thanks to the work-from-home routine, you put yourself up on a weighing scale. Seeing the figures got you motivated on losing weight, so you change up your diet or start exercising more often.

But do you stop there? No. To measure your success, you go up on the scale again to track your weight. The idea here is that you don’t just repeat the process once or twice, but as often as you can to monitor your development.

In conclusion, be aware that even the most talented people are a work in progress. Yes, criticisms are painful; nonetheless, it is also a positive force for change and the fuel to be better. Those who are seeking growth should learn to welcome useful negative feedback with open arms.

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A PR firm’s CEO shares 5 ways you can build trust as a leader at work

Boss-Listening-to-Employee

Striving at the workplace is not an easy task. Suppose you’re a leader, that makes the job two or three times harder. Maybe you’ve just been recently promoted, or you’ve been in a leadership position for a few years now and giving some serious thought about the art of leadership.

Whatever the case might be, Amy Stanton, the founder and CEO of Stanton & Company, shares that leadership isn’t a destination. It’s a never-ending learning process in which soft skills come into play.

“It’s really not about being seen as the person in charge, or dressing a certain way, or reminding the people around you that you’re the final decision-maker,” Stanton says.

Want to build trust as a leader at work? Take it from Stanton on five small ways you can start communicating with your colleagues from now on.

#1: Mean what you say
giving feedback to a colleague

Image Credits: TLNT.com

No one would hate a compliment. But when “good job” becomes words you use anytime in every situation, then it loses its meaning.

While singing people’s praises is a good leadership trait, it’s not about doing it all day long. Communicate “negative” feedback appropriately if you want to be a helpful leader.

In other words, constructive feedback is the key to facilitate growth. Do it so your co-workers can grow through the experience. Also, as you find ways to provide feedback, take it as a chance to learn how to use this soft skill to build trust.

Need to find a balance when it comes to “negative” and positive reinforcement? Use the sandwich method to stack it in this way: positive – constructive – positive. Keep in mind to have honest talks that include actionable steps too.

“Remember: It’s one thing to critique. It’s another to give constructive feedback with a path to improvement,” Stanton states.

#2: Be true to yourself
asians at work in an office

Image Credits: HRM Asia

While you can look up to other leadership examples outside the workplace, be true to who you are. Don’t get us wrong because there is nothing wrong with observing different management styles in an attempt to incorporate new approaches or techniques.

But Stanton believes that you only become the best version of yourself as a leader when you are authentic to who you are. Trying to be someone or something you’re not will only show that you’re putting on an act.

Speak from the heart even if it means showing your fellow workers a vulnerable side of yourself. You’re not a superhero, and there’s no need to try to be one.

#3: Take accountability when things go wrong
man with a disapproving look at the office

Image Credits: BBC.com

Falling into a victim mindset when things take a wrong turn is a dangerous situation to allow yourself to be in. If you continually let yourself sink into the mentality that the hurdles you face happened because they were not within your control, it will only make matters worse in the long run.

We know taking responsibility even when it may not be your fault is not a simple step to take. But as a leader, you want to take accountability and also question the role you played in the issue. Could it be a lack of supervision? Or maybe you were too hung up on other projects to provide support to your team?

Be a leader people can trust and lead by example before you start pointing fingers at others.

#4: Rethink micromanagement
micromanagement

Image Credits: Business Insider

Ask any employee, and they will reveal how much they detest micromanaging superiors. Stanton also mentions how micromanaging people are rarely influential.

In your entire career, you would probably have come across a few micromanaging managers or maybe even struggling with one right now. There’s a thin fine line between aiming to be in control and obsessively controlling others.

If you want your subordinates to learn, allow them space to make mistakes. “Obviously, you want to put guardrails in place and make sure those mistakes happen in a controlled setting, but your goal is to get them to a place where they feel comfortable and confident operating on their own,” Stanton points out.

Don’t forget we’re talking about building trust here and it goes both ways. Give your colleagues the belief they need if you want a reciprocal work relationship.

And yes, you will require lots of patience to get to the endpoint (if there is even one). A tremendous amount of time and effort is necessary to guide your team members towards the right path. Not to mention that you have to be prep yourself to deal with their potential mistakes along the way.

But look far ahead instead of merely fixing your eyes on the short-term sacrifices.

#5: Reflect and seek feedback
asians having a discussion

Image Credits: iStock

Examine your relationship with your co-workers right now. Do you find them sharing direct feedback with you regularly, openly, and comfortably?

According to Stanton, the last thing you want is to revolve around only a vacuum of your thoughts. No matter how busy your schedule is, take time to hear other people’s perspectives because there’s more to gain than lose.

As a leader, you want to foster a nurturing environment where your employees or co-workers can honestly share how they feel knowing that they won’t be judged. Also, receive their suggestions and act on it rather than merely accepting it.

No one is born as a perfect leader. It takes ups and downs to get you where you want to be. Treat this leadership journey as a learning opportunity for you to mature as a person as well. Keep at it!

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How To Settle In A New Job With Ease

Getting ready for your first day at work can mimic your experience on your first day in a new school. As butterflies roam your stomach, your first day in a new school is both terrifying and exciting. You walk in the grounds of an unfamiliar hallway with a schedule in hand. You try your best not to trip or to embarrass yourself in front of other kids. Years later, those similar emotions can be felt as you show up to a new workplace.

You do not know what expect! The first couple of months can be confusing, exciting, and terrifying. These months can make or break your time at a particular company. Start adjusting to a new job by preparing for your first day.

PREPARE FOR YOUR FIRST DAY

Use the weeks leading up to your first day wisely by preparing yourself mentally and physically. Accomplish as many errands as possible such as medical checkups, car maintenance, and visits to relatives. Get adequate amount of sleep and renew your fitness regimen. If time permits, you may freshen up your mind by taking a short staycation.

Prepare for the position by researching about the company and its business press. You can search through its social media accounts to get a grasp of their branding. You can also request for a list of readings from your future boss. He or she will be impressed that you want to start work well-informed and educated.

MAKE A GREAT FIRST IMPRESSION

Your first impression counts. Show up on your first day well-dressed and with enthusiasm to work. Come early and put your mobile phone away to stay focused on the tasks at hand. Take notes on the tasks and the people around. What are their names? It is important to write them down. You can learn a lot from these people.

ASK A LOT OF QUESTIONS

It is easier to assume that we know what to do. Sometimes, we are just too afraid to admit that we cannot do something. However, asking for assistance is the best way to resolve an issue. You are in a new environment. Admitting your lack of knowledge in certain realms may show your eagerness to learn. Take notes.

DO NOT COMPARE THINGS TO YOUR PREVIOUS JOB

No matter how skilled you were in your previous company, it is unpleasant to brag about it in your current working environment. Instead, let your actions speak for itself. Take this opportunity to learn new things, to contribute new ideas, and to share your experience with your co-workers. Find the right platform to air your concerns.

LISTEN TO CULTURAL CLUES

To help you get a grasp of the company’s culture, listen and observe at all times. Building rapport with your new co-workers is important because it lets you assimilate to their culture faster. Be wary. Do not let your desire to fit in encourage you to engage in gossip. You do not want to employ socially destructive behaviors. Listen to cultural clues, but avoid gossips.

Image Credits: unsplash.com

You are the new employee. Smile and make the effort to reach out to them by offering coffee or lunch. This way, you will be able to break the ice.

Sources: 1 & 2

 

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