Career Communiqué x-Press

A personal note from Annemarie...

Tell a friend! Forward this email to a friend!
Not subscribed yet? Don't miss an issue!

Friday, 20th July 2007

Hi,

Welcome to another edition of Career Communiqué x-Press. I hope you have had a productive and successful fortnight.

Can you believe we are nearly at the end of July? Where has the year gone? With the hype of activity of over the past few months, time is flying by. I even heard someone mention the number of weeks we had left until Christmas. Stop!! [with hands over my ears and eyes shut tightly] I don’t want to know! ]

For those of you who live within the Melbourne vicinity, another event to add to your calendar is the Herald Sun Career Expo on the 27-29 July 2007 at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre. I will be alongside my fellow career practitioner colleagues at the Australian Association of Career Counsellors stand [180-183], and will be critiquing resumes from 10.00-12.00 Noon on Friday 27th July, and later presenting our Powerful Resumes: 6 crucial writing strategies to Secure that Interview’ resume writing workshop at 1.00pm. If you plan on coming around those times, please drop by the AACC stand!

Remember, we always welcome contact and feedback from our subscribers and visitors, so pop across to our Ask Annemarie site and submit your topic of interest, question or comment. We'd love to hear from you!

Upcoming programs and workshops

Coming soon – teleseminars:

31 July 2007 at 10am AEST

Due to repeated requests we will be running one of our interviewing workshops for our Career Communiqué Live teleseminar series. I do hope you can join me.

Demystifying interviewing barriers that many job seekers still struggle with.

For more information and to enrol go to: www.career-coach.com.au/teleseminars/interviewing.htm

Is your resume ‘interview worthy’?

In preparation for the Powerful Resume Workshop I will be presenting at the Herald Sun Career Expo on 27th July 2007, I thought it only fitting to talk about some of the information I will be covering in the workshop. If you are currently in the job market you may want to read this fortnight’s article before sending out your resume to see whether a potential employer would consider you to be worthy of an interview. What impact would your current resume have? Is your resume interview worthy?

Until next time,

To your success!

Annemarie Cross
Career & Master NLP Coach

In this issue...

Coach's Corner: Is your resume ‘interview worthy’?

Ace that Interview: Interviewing Barriers

Resources & Tools to Catapult Your Career

Coach's Corner

Is your resume ‘interview worthy?’

The increasing competitiveness of today’s job market now requires a job seeker to be far more assertive in their overall job search, particularly when it comes to developing their career-marketing document – the resume

With a window of opportunity often as little as 10 seconds for the resume to spark the reader’s attention, this demands a well-written document that outlines the candidate’s expertise and overall value offered. Gone are the days of a tasked-based resume with an inventory of a position’s responsibilities, coupled with a standard list of personal aptitudes. This has been replaced with a results driven document that highlights solid results through examples of achievements and contributions that you were responsible for.

Your resume is your initial handshake and must therefore not be second-guessed, so the aim is to demonstrate your ability to fulfil their requirements and to build an interest in the benefits and value you bring to the company.

So what strategies can be followed to create a professional marketing document that promotes your overall value and that demands an invitation to interview?

Here are some tips to inspire your writing:

Replace the career objective [which concentrates on what you want] with a career profile that summarises your expertise. Your profile could also include a few accomplishment highlights which is bound to impress the reader as it concentrates on what you can deliver for them, rather than on what you want
Incorporate industry-related key words as well as action words that will grab the reader’s attention. For instance:

Orchestrated, devised, instructed, spearheaded, maximised, led, directed, streamlined, oversaw, managed, motivated, controlled, delegated, consolidated, generated, implemented, proposed, specified … and the list goes on

Identify challenges you overcame; the action or solution you undertook to alleviate the challenge; and the (quantifiable) result, and script into a powerfully written statement. For instance:

	Challenge:	Staff turnover high, performance levels extremely poor, with overall costs to recruit and train new staff high.
	Action:	Developed staff monitoring and incentive programs; implemented staff training programs.
	Result:	Increased staff knowledge base; decreased staff turnover by 66.7%; increased staff morale and collaboration; increased productivity levels by 77%.

	Then by incorporating a number of action words, the above can be written as: Enhanced staff morale; optimised productivity by 77%; and reduced staff turnover by 66.7% through implementation of strategic monitoring and incentive programs. Notice the deliberate placement of the quantifiable results at the front of the statement, followed by the method in which this accomplishment was obtained.

Ensure your document is consistent in its formatting; if you bold a position title, bold all job titles throughout your document. Make certain your overall document is well structured (plenty of white space), and aesthetically pleasing (professional headings and layout).
Refrain from providing details of every single position you have ever had. As a guide, generally the last10 years is appropriate (if the position being applied for is relevant to what you have been doing), with a maximum of about 15 years.
For far greater impact when identifying your professional experience, create a strategically written paragraph outlining your main accountabilities (remembering to incorporate attention grabbing action words), followed by a bulleted list of achievements.

	For example:
	Pivotal sales and leadership role within one of the 10 busiest stores in the chain, using strong staff management and sales talent to continually exceed competitive sales budgets by ensuring professionalism and quality service is extended to a diverse and continually-expanding client base
	Notable Achievements: Outstripped sales budget by 285% with many products selling out through relocation of stock to more prominent positioning; developed eye-catching displays to capture and elicit client spend.

Lastly, edit, edit, and edit again. Then ask a family member or friend to read through the document to ensure your career-marketing document is error free.

To verify whether your resume is interview worthy, compare them to the resume samples at: www.aresumewriter.com.au/resume.htm. I’m also happy for you to email your resume to me for any feedback. My email is annemarie@annemariecross.com

Have a great fortnight everyone!

To your success!

Annemarie

Ace that Interview!

Do you fall victim to these interviewing barriers?

    - How to respond to behavioural interview questions?
    - How to respond to the question “What is one of your weaknesses?” or
      “Why should I hire you – what makes you the best candidate for the role?”

Behavioural interview questions can stump even the most seasoned professional. When preparing your response to a behavioural based interview question it is important to include the following key elements: C., A., and R.

C for Challenge; what was happening [the context]
A for Action; what you did to address the challenge
R for Result; the outcome for the company

Incorporate those three key elements into your response to successfully address a behavioural question.

If you want to learn how you can overcome these interviewing barriers then join us on our upcoming Career Communiqué Live Teleseminar or Grab your copy of 10 key steps to Ace that Interview! today Send me Ace that Interview today!

Stop press: Need to get your hands on 10 key steps to Ace that Interview! immediately for an unexpected interview? Get a copy of our new e-Book version delivered to your inbox today! Send me Ace that Interview today!

Resources & Tools to Catapult Your Career

ATTENTION JOB SEEKERS! Want to seize control of your job search and ensure you maximise your chances of snaring that interview by making yourself irresistible to a potential employer?
Did you know that:
in today’s fast paced and competitive job market your resume will only receive about 15-20 seconds to make an impression, and
thousands of job seekers are loosing out on job opportunities due to a dull and uninspiring resume? So what lasting impact is your resume making? Powerful Resumes!: x-POSED - 6 crucial writing strategies to Secure that Interview! e-Course shows you how to create a powerful marketing tool that will allow you to outshine your competitors and catapult your application to the top of the pile. [Fast-track your application to the top of the pile today!]

Want to use this article in your ezine or website?

You can as long as you include this complete copy with it:

Career & Master NLP Coach and author Annemarie Cross provides specialised services for people striving for success and fulfilment in their careers. With an inquisitive, inspiring and influential approach, Annemarie has supported and empowered clients from diverse backgrounds across Australia and the globe in their journey to regain clarity, confidence, contentment and balance within their lives and careers. To learn more about her book, 10 Key Steps to Ace that Interview!, and sign up for more F^REE tips and solutions like these, visit her site at http://www.annemariecross.com

Have a question you'd like answered in this ezine? Submit your question to: info@annemariecross.com

Managing your subscription

Career Communiqué x-Press is published by Annemarie Cross. You are receiving this email from Annemarie Cross because you subscribed on our website. To ensure that you continue to receive emails from us, add info@annemariecross.com to your address book today. To no longer receive our emails, click to on the Remove Me button below.

If you have any comments or questions please send them to info@annemariecross.com