3 Things that Must NOT Be on a Candidates Resume

3 Things that Must NOT Be on a Candidates Resume Although it seems that the things you should exclude on resumes can be determined easily enough through common sense, some job seekers still manage to commit gaffes that are quite unthinkable. What is considered common knowledge for resume experts and for recruiters may escape job applicants, especially new ones who may not know that there are some items in their resume that just don’t work. Take a look at the list below and make sure that they aren’t part of your resume. 1. Objectives The wide use of objectives can be attributed to old resume wizards that applicants use to create their resumes. These days it makes more sense to develop a branding statement or professional summary to tell recruiters and potential employers exactly what you are about and what you have to offer. So ditch the objectives altogether! 2. Too Much Jargon Using too much or too little technical or industry jargon can be a major turn off for recruiters and potential employers; too much is overkill, too little may reflect inexperience. Here’s a tip: scan the job advertisement and see what keywords or jargon are used, then insert them strategically in your branding statement or professional summary (ideally the first sentence). Remember though that you have to back up whatever you put in your resume…so if your experience doesn’t reflect it, better leave the jargon out. If you happen to be changing careers, then it is prudent to avoid using jargon from your previous industry. Focus on your transferable skills and experiences, and elaborate on how they can be applied to the new industry you wish to enter. 3. Personal Information Don’t ever include your social security number, professional license numbers and other forms of identification; this could open the door to identity theft, and that’s the last thing you need to worry about during a job search. Provide this information only when asked (and this usually happens after you are interviewed, not before), so protect yourself. Also, any non-professional related affiliations are better left unsaid, unless you are applying for a non-profit organization that is focused on a specific cause, and you happen to be affiliated with a group that advocates that cause. Remember also to check and double-check your resume for typographical, grammatical and syntax errors. If you are directing recruiters or potential employers to a link, such as a blog, a social media page or an online resume or portfolio, make sure the links are not broken and that the information is in sync with the resume you are submitting. Keep your resume simple, clean, complete and relevant. Stay focused on the facts, strengthen your achievements with numbers and don’t be afraid to show a little personality. Over the past 10 years, Karen Flowers, a.k.a. TheResumeChick.com, has assisted thousands of job seekers by providing them with a resume that brought them the confidence and professionalism they needed to get an interview.  

Creativity First, Innovation Will Follow Marla Gottschalk

Creativity First, Innovation Will Follow Marla Gottschalk Alright, I am officially obsessing about creativity. This has everything to do with all of the interest in innovation. Discussions about innovation seem to be everywhere â€" yet, we dont to fully understanding how to cultivate it. Yes, innovation is a critical concept in todays workplaces. However, I cant help but think that we might be putting the cart before the horse. Which leads me to one crux of the innovation dilemma. When it comes to innovation, dont we need creativity to be there to pave the road? Where creativity is concerned it is wise to learn from the masters. Ive just listened to HBRs interview with Ed Catmull, President of Pixar Animation Studios. Undeniably, the folks at Pixar seem to have a handle on the creativity realm, and the innovative results which follow. Catmull explains that the dynamic they have built at his studio isnt perfect. However, the employed creative process has successfully contributed to some incredible game-changing outcomes. (Consider Toy Story for a moment). The ideas Catmull proposes may initially make us a bit uncomfortable â€" and go against the grain of how we might usually work. But, the dynamic has undeniably been proven to be a winner. Here are a few of Pixars strategies to consider: Banish perfectionism. There is a misconception that an idea has to be perfected to share it. Throw that rule out the window â€" and take a leap of faith to trust your team. Share your ideas earlier and gain useful input to build on its strengths. Dont let risk dictate. Give ideas enough time to flesh out before the looming possibility of risk snuffs out the possibilities. Evaluate risk as time goes on, and address those risks one step at a time â€" after the true potential of the idea is presented. Dont focus on just one idea. Becoming creative isnt about locking in on one idea and never letting in another creative thought. Look to accumulate a number of ideas, and group them to help catapult a project forward. If you work in a group (as they do at Pixar), let a number of ideas from different contributors co-exist for a time. See what develops. Not all ideas are initially money makers. Sometimes the process of following a creative path is simply good for the soul. Even if the idea doesnt prove lucrative, it might pave the way for other ideas which have a much greater payoff. You can give up. Not every creative endeavor deserves long-term attention or resources. If you have the feeling that youve entered a dead-end, offer yourself permission to move on. File the work for a later date â€"   it may become more relevant down the line. How do you stoke innovation in your team? Share your strategies. Dr. Marla Gottschalk is a Workplace Psychologist, consultant and speaker. Connect with her on Twitter and Linkedin.

MTVs Jersey Shore sending a bad message to todays youth

MTVs Jersey Shore sending a bad message to todays youth Many of us have a new guilty pleasure. And its kind of embarrassing. We cant stop watching Jersey Shore.   MTVs latest disaster, Jersey Shore, is a reality show based on 7 (ridiculously exaggerated) New Jersey Guidos who live together in a house on the Jersey Shore together for a summer. The males on the show have amazing bodies, tattoos of crosses, funny hair styles and dance moves, and they have only one goal: hooking up with as many girls as possible. The girls on the show love their hair extensions, poofs, and wearing as few clothes as possible. Drinking, hooking up in the hot tub, clubbing, and doing cartwheels in a thong on the dance floor entail some of the highlights of this show. Are you shamefully hooked on this show like I am?   If so, WHY cant we stop watching this garbage?!   These reality stars are all about 21. An age when many of us had a limited scope about our futures, careers or the long-term consequences of our actions. And what is America indirectly telling Americas newest MTV generation? That if you make a complete fool of yourself and do outrageous things to get attention, you can make it big too- no hard work required. A few comments by David Claude on my recent post about Penelope Trunk got me thinking about the topic of self-publishing, reality television, and selling your dignity to build a personal brand. Shows like Jersey Shore  prove that  America  is a  junk consuming  nation. Whether we admit it or not, we love junk. We consume junk in droves whether it is in the form of reality television or food. We will swipe our credit cards and accumulate debt in order to pay for junk, we will google for junky quick-read/low-information articles. And the scariest part is that young people are being told that if you can create junk, you can make it big. I sit there and watch Jersey Shore and think to myself, How do these Jersey Shore kids feel about their grandparents watching them talk and act like complete fools? Have they ever thought about what happens after the shows popularity dies down? Was selling their soul to MTV really worth a lifetime of embarrassing videos to follow them? Are they convinced that doing the show is the start to a promising new career? How much more narcissistic can you be!? And this cycle of producing and consuming junk comes back to my fears about Gen Yers in the workforce today. Weve been raised on MTV: a place where you can make a career by hooking up and airing all of your dirty laundry on MTV. Weve been raised to think we can do whatever we want, whenever we want. We dont know how to wait for things. Why would we? We can google, email, communicate and look up anything we need in a matter of seconds. The media demonstrates that if we can capitalize off our story and personality, we can make more money than we ever would by putting in long hours and hard work. How do you think shows like Jersey Shore affect the next generations perception of reality and hard work?   What predictions do you have for the future careers of Ronnie, Sam, Snookie  and, of course, Mike The Situation?

Bill Zeller, Congresswoman Giffords, and mental health

Bill Zeller, Congresswoman Giffords, and mental health Two things really rocked me today. One is the suicide letter from Bill Zeller. The other is the shooting in Arizona. First, Bill Zeller. I am not going to reprint the suicide letter here. He killed himself, and he left a 4000 line note. He asked that people do not reprint excerpts, but he would like a wide range of people to read the letter. So, here is a link to the letter in full. I really recommend reading it. Zeller wrote a lucid account of what happens to ones insides after sexual abuse. Its the best account Ive ever read, actually. And, having my own history of sexual abuse , I can say that his feelings are very familiar to me. Though I know the feelings are not normal, what Im telling you is that there are a lot of people walking around with feelings like Zeller. Im sure of it. One reason I know is that I just read research that the more children a woman has, the less likely she is to kill herself. Which means that people who kill themselves think they are not worthwhile and are not doing anything good for the world. And I completely understand that. This is why I want to write. Because Ive been in therapy for 35 years. Some days suicide seems so obviously the right choice that its amazing to me that more people dont do it. I dont really understand why more people dont do it. I read Zellers note and I think its incredibly sad that he couldnt turn to someone for help. There is someone reading this post, right now, who feels hopeless. Its so hard to see our own lives clearly. Resumes are like thateach line is distorted because we distort our vision of ourselves. And just as professional can help us see our work history more clearly, a professional can help us see our personal history more clearly as well. When things are going terribly, and you havent been able to fix things, you need help. Everyone who cannot get a job should get career counseling. Because if you havent gotten a job in a year, you probably need someone to help you change how you see yourself. And everyone who has been saddepressed and cant fix itshould get help. It is not reasonable to think that if you have been sad for more than a year that you can fix it yourself. It is not a shortcoming of yours. Its a part of being human that we are complicated and sometimes we get stuck. People need help. Look at yourself. Ask yourself if you need help. Believe me. You are not a uniquely, an unsolvable problem. Most of us are not complicated to a therapist in the same way that most of us are not complicated to a professional resume writer. We are complicated only to ourselves. The more impossible your problems feel, the more you need someone to talk with about them. Something I love about this blog is that you reflect me back to me in a more clear way. You call me names, you tell me when Im too hard on myself, you tell me the obvious solution, and then you echo the obvious solution in the comments until I give in. I am lucky. And I still need to go to therapy. Andrew Sullivan is live-blogging the unfolding of the Arizona shooting and he notes, at one point, that psychologists who are watching videos of the gunman are fairly certain that he was having a psychotic episode. (Which means, of course, that this was not political. And, while Im writing in parenthesis, Sullivan also notes that the intern who saved Congresswoman Giffords was Hispanic and gay and, until a week ago, could have been stopped randomly in Arizona and asked to prove his citizenship.) The mental health system is broken. Few people have enough money to get good mental health care. And few dollars are spent to encourage people to use those expensive benefits. But we can help change that by spreading the word that going to therapy is a hard first-step, but its life-saving. So, I was thinking that in honor of Bill Zeller, and the killings in Arizona, everyone today could each post some encouragement to the person who feels stuck but is hesitant to get help. The world gets darker and darker if you dont ask for help. Can you write, in the comments section, how you forced yourself to ask for help? Can you help someone else today?

10 Easy Steps to Grow Your Career as Java Developer - CareerMetis.com

10 Easy Steps to Grow Your Career as Java Developer Most people think that building a career in the programming field is all about getting your hand dirty with the language’s syntax and memorizing the documentation. That’s not true, according to many experts. In fact, programming field is about much more than programming languages, and there’s more than meets the eye.For a specific market such as the Java market, there are many ways in which one can grow his career as a java developer. Java has been among the top programming languages of the industry for a long time and will most likely stay there for a while.evalThere’s a wide range of things you can do in Java, it spans a wide spectrum of applications so it’d be useful to advance your career in Java, especially if you’re a Java-lover. To start career in Java, one can always choose Java tutorials and courses of their choice.1. Explore the open sourceThe open source frontier is full of hidden gems, it makes it such that it’s hard to imagine an unemployed programmer. Open source projects give you the opportunity to learn from craft’s experts how things are done.If you don’t feel like writing code, you can simply read and understand the open source code and even experiment with it. You can participate in these projects as well and that sure adds your personal bio.Open source collaborations provide win-win situations. Even on the enterprise level, it’s becoming an industry norm.2. Master GitThis goes toe-to-toe with the previous point. Open source platforms usually use version control to manage the content, and when you get more into the practice of using these platforms you’ll find yourself using Git quite more often, and for more tasks than you normally do -if you do use it.Git is becoming a requirement for most projects in the software world, and it’s even being used by non-developers such as writers.It’s an important skill to add to your toolbox and it will surely have its time to make you shine among the rest.3. Attend Conferenceseval A conference is a fun way to get more in-depth knowledge about the language and its applications. You get to listen to all new updates on the language and explore new territories in development that you might not know existed.You also get to connect with other Java developers and learn some of their practices and tricks along the way, if you’re lucky enough, you could make a team or join one and start working on something new.It might be overwhelming to do by yourself, but once you get beyond the fear, you can experience conferences with the heart of a wanderer.4. Prepare PresentationsPresentations are overwhelming and nerve-wracking, but preparing a presentation on a certain topic in Java will help you get on solid grounds with that topic, it’s even preferable that you pick a topic that you don’t grasp very well.evalImagine you’re a guest speaker at a conference, how are you going to make your point clear, what tests, run-time performances or pieces of code will the audienc e need to understand the points. Elaborate, and as you do, you’ll get familiar with the topic.5. Know the toolsIf you know the saying “Jack of all trades, master of none” then programming in general and Java specifically is where you can apply the saying. There are hundreds of tools and libraries and frameworks for Java, knowing what to choose, and when, also knowing how that tool functions is a massive advantage in the field.These tools expand your horizons and prevent you from re-inventing the wheel. This is why ruby programmers root for the language and express their love for it quite often, and Java is equipped with a lot of tools and frameworks, like Spring, JSF, GWT, Spark, and the list goes on.6. Change the practiceFor a market like the programming market, interests shift quite often from one field to another. So it’s always better to try out new possibilities in Java if you’ve done web development try data engineering or machine intelligence and so on.The point is that you shouldn’t be static, be flexible and get know different worlds of Java. Try not to stay too long or too short in one field, and experiment your interests in different places, you might stumble across something you truly like and can excel at.Source :Unsplash.com7. Sharpen your problem-solving skillsProblem-solving skills are key to any programming career. Programming is all about solving problems, and problem-solving skills are often what differentiates the top-notch developers from standard and normal ones.It all comes down to your mental wiring and while that might be a little bit theoretical or abstract it’s the real magic behind the scenes. The way you can do that, is by solving coding problems on websites like codeforces, TopCoder, Coderbyte ,etc.8. Read blogs and make your ownBlogs contain some high value information that is free to access and open to anyone who finds it. Sometimes, the writer would provide a way to solve a certain problem or introduce a new metho dology in development that might be a novelty to you.You could also start writing your own blog, it doesn’t have to look fancy, but paying attention to the writing structure and attempting to write professionally is definitely rewarding.evalJust like the presentations, it helps your understanding for the topic as it functions similarly to Feynman’s technique. And it also will help you when writing documentations, and not a lot of programmers can do that.9.Grow your Soft SkillsJust like any career, it’s not all about technical knowledge. Soft Skills have their place in the programming world as well. Time management, communication and customer-service are all first-class trade skills that are needed in an open system like development.These skills increase your value as a developer and help you focus on what matters most in the development phase.10. Learn a new languageWhile it sounds like irony at first, it really isn’t. Learning new languages expands your horizons on the appl ications and strengths of that language.When you get there, you can start checking if these functions are compatible with Java and how are they achieved in there. It will show you a new world of possibilities.evalConclusionThere are several ways to boost up your career in Java, and you can probably apply most of these points and start progressing when you start a new project or if you’re working on one right now. Paying attention to what matters most in terms of a project’s goal and client’s requirements can help orient your development in Java.

Get Passive to Increase Job Search Activity

Get Passive to Increase Job Search Activity No, thats not a typoLet me elaborate. I just returned from the Kennedy Recruiting Conference and a key message I heard in several of the presentations was that recruiters are better off spending the bulk of their time sourcing passive job seekers for their open positions, because passive job seekers account for 80% of the market. What this means is that if you are an active job seeker and you are using a one-dimensional search strategy such as posting on the job boards, recruiters may be less likely to find you because they have less interest in the active market. But what if active candidates started looking like passive candidates? What if they could be found via a Google search, an on line web portfolio, a social networking tool, a Zoom Info profile, a blog, an article they wrote for a professional newsletter, etc? Then they might be easier to find because they are working the same circles as the recruiters and they are not part of the job board clutter. They would also differenti ate themselves from their competition and show that they are self-starters, experts in their field, technologically savvy, great communicators, team players, and successful leaders. Sounds like a recruiters dream to me! So get busy being passive and watch new doors and opportunities open.

How To Help Write Professional Resume Free

How To Help Write Professional Resume FreeWhy should you help write professional resume for your job? It is not difficult to learn how to write a resume but sometimes it becomes very difficult to understand the needs of the employer when the job description is vague. This leads to a lot of errors in the resume and there is always a risk of getting an unfilled position.If you have such problems and still need to fill the vacancy then you may want to look at the particular job posting that you have. It will give you ideas on how to make your resume more impressive and helps you focus on the right things. Help to write professional resume free is an effective tool for people who are in search of a job and who need to make their resumes stand out.The content of the resume is the most important part of it. The resume should have all the necessary information on it so that the employer can identify you easily. You need to take care that the resume is simple to read as this will be more lik ely to attract employers. This will also help you get the desired job and not just sit back and wait for the vacancies to come your way.There are a number of programs available for those who need help to write professional resume free. It is quite easy to access these programs online. They allow you to create a new resume online and submit it free of cost. All you need to do is use these programs to edit and update the content.You will find a large number of these programs available on the internet. Some are very good, some are a bit more complex than others. The best ones will allow you to view several samples of resumes so that you can judge the kind of resume that you want to create.Help to write professional resume free should allow you to create a resume that would go with the requirements of the company you are applying for. If you have to create a very specific resume, then you should use a very complicated program. These programs will allow you to create a resume that is spe cific to the requirement of the company. You can find these programs for free on the internet.To help write professional resume free you should use programs that are extremely user friendly. Most of the programs have a tutorial facility which makes them even easier to use. Even people who have little or no knowledge of computer technology can create these resumes. You can easily get the required information on how to make your resume useful for the job seeker.Help to write professional resume free can also help you in creating a list of what jobs are on offer. This will enable you to prepare a shortlist of companies that you may be interested in. You should also be able to make your resume stand out from the rest of the resumes in the pool of resumes. By using these software tools, you can be sure that you will be able to make your resume stand out and attract the attention of employers.