Job Search

Resume Tip: Accomplishments Rule

Wendy Terwelp 1 Comment

What are employers and recruiters looking for on resumes?

Accomplishments. Accomplishment statements grab an employer’s attention.

Recruiters say, “Past performance predicts future productivity.” Accomplishment statements also demonstrate that an employer will quickly recoup their investment in your annual salary when the company hires you.

Do not fill your resume with fluff such as weak summary paragraphs (“20 years’ experience”), unsubstantiated adjectives (“significantly increased”), or clichés (“dynamic, results-getting professional”).

Instead, use specifics. Employers want to see numbers, specifically numbers that demonstrate cost savings, revenue increases, productivity improvements, etc. Numbers that contribute to the company’s bottom line in some manner.

One staffing firm CEO said, “Put a BENEFIT STATEMENT into your resume – something that speaks of how you 1) made the company money, 2) saved the company money, or 3) streamlined procedures. Years of experience are immaterial and may indicate that you are just “old.”

Companies want to know what kind of contribution you can make to their success – not how many years you’ve been working.”

Here are some questions to ask yourself about each of your jobs, special projects, and other activity beyond standard job duties:

  1. How much additional revenue was generated?
  2. By what percentage did productivity improve?
  3. How much money was saved? (Describe the project and the savings.)
  4. By what percentage was turnaround improved?
  5. How many labor hours were saved?
  6. Onboarding improved by ________ percentage?
  7. Improved employee retention by ______, through ______________.
  8. 6. _________________ went from ___________ to _______________ after employees completed ____________________ training program.

The ability to provide “before and after” results is a strong way to demonstrate and communicate your value.

Challenge: Review your current resume. Have you provided specific information about your results? If not, get the numbers and add them to your document. Track the responses to your new, accomplishment-driven resume.

Need more help with your resume and your job search? Check out “Rock Your Job Search.”

©1998 – 2023 Wendy Terwelp | All rights reserved.

Wendy Terwelp is an award-winning career coach and personal branding strategies whose clients regularly win raises, promotions, and jobs. Want to advance your career? Let’s talk!

What to Say at Networking Events

Wendy Terwelp 3 Comments

Tongue-tied at networking events? Here are some tips to start a conversation.

Have at least three open-ended questions you can ask any person at the networking event.

Here are open-ended questions that encourage conversation:
1) What brings you to today’s meeting?
2) What one or two things would you like to take away from this event?
3) What’s the coolest thing that’s happened to you all week?

NEVER ask: “Do you know anyone who’s hiring?”

Your goal is to create real and helpful connections, NOT close the deal on a job offer or try to collect the most business cards in the room.

Want more networking tips? Read, “Rock Your Network®”

10 Things Social Media is NOT

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Guest Blogger, Dana Van Den Heuvel, MarketingSavant

Social media. Very few two-word phrases conjure up so many expectations and misconceptions as these two words put together. For as much as social media can do, there is still plenty that it can’t. Here are the top 10 things that social media can’t do, along with a mind map on the things that you can do about the 10 things that social media can’t do…

  1. Social Media Isn’t and Will Never Be Totally Free: If you want results, build deep experience within your own team to reduce cost
  2. Be Your Marketing Strategy: Social media is not a strategy. In fact, in a few years, we won’t be talking about it with the reverence we now have for it, rather, it will be assumed that it’s part of everything you’re doing, if not the center of it all.
  3. Guarantee Sales: Social media cannot and will not likely ever be a sales engine. It’s a marketing and communication engine. It supports sales and like most all other forms of marketing, it’s up to you to convert.
  4. Succeed With a Half-Assed Effort: Social media requires dedication, and like anything else, you get out what you put in. Consistency is the first key to social media success. Get consistent, and you’ll see results. Build a plan to publish social content in the 1-7-30-4-2-1 rhythm and you’re more likely to succeed.
  5. Change Your Company For You: Social media requires active change management and a corporate culture to support it. Get the right people involved to lead and support the effort – that will change your company.
  6. Replace Advertising/Sales Team/etc.: You still need to meet people in their medium and social media is just ONE of the ways to build business for your brand.
  7. Be Your Only Go-to-Market Method: Your best bet is to build an integrated approach where social media builds on your other channels. Budget across channels, and include social in that budget.
  8. Deliver Quick Success: Social media is NOT (usually) quick. In fact, it’s really only done well as a long-term commitment. Focus on delivering genuine value to a devoted base of customers first and activate that base only after you’ve built trust and social capital.
  9. Be a One-off Project: Ongoing conversation is what makes social so powerful. Get out of ‘campaign mode’ and into ‘conversation mode’.
  10. Create Conversation from Nothing: You MUST create/re-imagine/curate great content to get great conversation.

Click here to download Dana’s mind map of the above.

Dana Van Den Heuvel is the founder of the marketing consulting firm, The MarketingSavant Group. An award-winning marketing blogger, Dana is also the author of the American Marketing Association’s “Marketech Guide to Marketing Technology” and their “Guide to Social Network Marketing” and the creator of the AMA’s TechnoMarketing training series, Advanced Social Media training series and B2B Social Media training series. Dana is also a member of Rock Your Network®.

Your Cell Phone Can Ruin Your Interview

Wendy Terwelp 6 Comments

By Guest Blogger, Isabella York

In today’s modern world, cell phones play a very important role in communication. Everyone, including students, use cell phones to keep in touch with others, to convey an important message or to find information in an instant.

For those looking for a job, your cell phone could be your best friend when you need to call companies to inquire about job openings or to confirm an interview with a prospective employer. But, when used inappropriately, cell phones could cost you the job you want.

You can’t answer your phone every time it rings. And you shouldn’t, especially when you’re on an important job interview. Unfortunately, though, a lot of people break this rule. This definitely calls for some brushing up on cell phone etiquette.

First, here are some pet peeves headhunters have when it comes to interviewing people who can’t seem to part from their phones.

  1. Gabbing or texting nonstop on your phone while waiting for your interview. OK, so it’s not your turn yet to impress the employer with your wit and charm. But that does not give you license to chat or text ceaselessly in the waiting area. That seemingly oblivious receptionist at the front desk could be eavesdropping on you or secretly eying you from a distance. Your private conversations could turn out to be not-so-private after all when word about your chatting or texting marathons reaches the hiring manager. That just gives a bad impression, so please, take your personal business elsewhere or wait until the interview is over.
  2. Using the internet feature of your phone. Many new cellphones these days come with browsing features that help people get information on the go. Even if your data plan allows you to surf whenever you feel like it, remember that you are waiting for a job interview. You may think that this is not as severe as talking or texting on your phone, but it is. Surfing while waiting shows you’re bored and that you’re better off somewhere else than waiting for hours for your interview to happen.
  3. Using your phone to take down notes. Surprise, surprise! Some people actually DO this during job interviews. You know from the moment you accepted the interview invitation that you need to take down notes to retain information. Why would you be using your cell phone to record information, when you could’ve brought a notebook or an organizer for that purpose?
  4. Answering a call in the middle of the interview. Unless you’re expecting an emergency call from your wife who’s about to give birth or other related emergency (although, if it’s an emergency, why would you be expecting it anyway?), your phone should be turned off during the interview. Making a potential employer wait for you while you finish your phone conversation is just plain rude. The hiring manager wouldn’t think twice about kicking you out of the room, at least mentally.
  5. Talking to someone in the company’s restroom. This can be summed up in one word: gross. Whatever your business is, don’t talk about it in the restroom, especially not in the company where you’re having an interview. You don’t know who else might be in hearing range and listening to every juicy detail you dish while on the phone.

Having said those things, there are good practices to observe so you don’t jeopardize the job of your dreams. Some tips:

  1. Instead of burying your face on the phone while waiting for your interview, consider mentally rehearsing your answers to possible questions that may pop up during the interview.
  2. Before entering the interviewer’s room, turn your cell phone OFF. Yes, you read that right: Off. Even if you have your phone on vibrate mode, your interviewer would still hear its buzzing sound and that could interrupt the flow of conversation.
  3. If you are expecting an important phone call, inform your caller not to contact you during specific hours.
  4. Ask someone else to take the call for you or run your errands BEFORE you head out to your interview.
  5. Turn on your voice mail so you can listen to your messages after the interview.

It is important to make a good impression on your job interview. Even if you have a list of great accomplishments, those things won’t matter much if you don’t show respect to your future employer. Nonverbal communication matters greatly especially when meeting someone for the first time. Use your cell phone sparingly when waiting for an interview or preferably not at all.

Isabella York’s background includes serving in Human Resources with Balsam Hill,  a provider of fine pre-lit Christmas Trees. She’s also a busy mother with a son to raise, who enjoys being outside in her backyard garden. 

Graphic by SnapHappy Creative LLC.

Want more help with interviews? Check out Invincible InterviewsSM

Do One Thing

Wendy Terwelp Leave a comment

One finger

Just got back from the Career Thought Leaders conference where I was a presenter. What a positive experience!

Now, it’s back to work and there is a lot to do. I’m guessing I’m not alone in that feeling. Who hasn’t gotten back from a trip and then looked at the huge pile of work looming on their desk waiting to be completed?

The same is true for job seekers. With so much advice coming at you, it can be overwhelming, and sometimes tough to know where to begin.

Here are some suggestions to help you get things done and whittle that pile down to a manageable size.

1. Do ONE thing. Just one. Taking that first step is a start in the right direction. My friend Dr. Rich Schaefer, author of “Extreme Thought Makeover” says, if you want to get into an exercise routine, just take that first step on the treadmill. The rest will follow. The same thing with your work. Do ONE thing.

2. Baby steps. Yes, if you watched the movie What About Bob? that’s the concept. Break up those overwhelming tasks into smaller chunks. What’s one thing you can do right now that takes you toward your goal? Just one.

3. The daily list. Rather than making a huge list that has item after item after item on it, break it down. What are the top three things you’ve got to finish today? Make a list of action items before you go to work each morning. This way, you’ll get most things done and not respond to all those emails, tweets, calls, and questions before knocking some items off your list.

Getting a blog post in today was one of my things. What’s one of yours? Have you done it yet?

Share YOUR ideas of how you get things done. We’re listening.