Thursday, May 28, 2020

Resume Writing With Action Verbs

Resume Writing With Action VerbsAction verbs should be present in every resume. If you feel a lack of them, make an effort to include them. If the standard resume is missing action verbs, the person reading your resume will have a hard time making an inference as to your ability to perform the task of working.The use of action verbs can be an indication of how much effort you put into your work. Without them, it's hard to tell how much effort you really put into your job search. Action verbs that do not show a lot of initiative are simply written without any effort. These action verbs don't show initiative at all.When I first heard about the use of action verbs, I was shocked. I mean, how could I put effort into my job search if I did not have any? A recruiter told me that people were not necessarily looking for their own, so they needed to show some initiative by including some verbs like 'applied,' 'asked,' and 'acted.' I realized that if I was going to have any chance of success, I needed to start using action verbs in my resume. Otherwise, I would have been effectively eliminated from the competition.To illustrate this point, I am going to give you two examples of action verbs that are easy to show up in a resume. There are times when these verbs are hard to put in the resume, but they are still examples of good examples of action verbs. In the first example, the list shows that you took an initiative. You didn't sit around waiting for someone to act. Rather, you started doing the tasks that needed to be done.In the second example, the list shows that you asked for an explanation of a choice or option. Again, you did not wait for someone to act, but rather chose to ask. You took the initiative to make the request and that makes the action verb very effective.What's nice about the examples of action verbs is that they are simple. They also include all the action verbs that a resume writer can use. In most cases, the job seeker would probably use the next act ion verb, which is 'put forth' but that's usually only seen in resumes that have a large number of applicants.Remember, your resume writing action verbs should be short, to the point, and action verbs. They should appear natural and they should clearly show how much effort you put into your job search. Your resume should appear professional and you should feel at ease. If your resume does not look professional, chances are you won't feel at ease either.It takes some work, but the first step toward writing a resume that displays your initiative is to include action verbs in your resume. Write your resume with these verbs in mind and you will be sure to create a resume that looks professional and increases your chances of getting the job you want.

Sunday, May 24, 2020

Waitress Cover Letter Sample - Algrim.co

Waitress Cover Letter Sample - Algrim.co Waitress Cover Letter Template Download our cover letter template in Word format. Instant download. No email required. Download Template Related Hiring Resources 5+ Best Cocktail Waitress Interview Questions Answers 40+ Waitress Skills for the Resume

Thursday, May 21, 2020

5 Ways to Design Your Home Office With Productivity in Mind

5 Ways to Design Your Home Office With Productivity in Mind Feel unmotivated to get work done at your home office? Working from home shouldn’t fill you with dread or stress. There are ways to make your work-from-home environment feel more comfortable and efficient. Your work space needs to be customized to your needs. A few simple design tweaks will make your home office fit for productivity. 5 Ways to Design Your Home Office With Productivity in Mind 1. Create a Stress-Free Zone Ideally, working from home should remove the stress of going into the office. But alas, stress is still going to find you, whether it’s a clueless client or a frozen computer cursor. Maybe you’re a yogaholic. Pick a beautiful area within your home or near a window in your work area, and create a personalized yoga space. Remember that it’s okay to take breaks. What brings you zen? What does your stress-free zone look like? Just be sure it won’t relax you so much that you end up falling asleep. 2. Watch the Clutter! Clutter can be constructive, but there’s a point that clutter threatens to eat both you and your productivity. Be conscious of how clutter may be functional for you, and lose the clutter that isn’t conducive to you getting work done. Minimizing your possessions, especially in your work space, helps you to focus on functionality. You won’t struggle to find what you need, even if it’s in a designated office junk drawer. Don’t keep anything out of guilt, and form a clutter attack and disposal plan. 3. Channel Your Dream Work Space And Find A Focal Point How do you work? What atmosphere do you perform best within? Are you a freelance graphic designer who has been working out of various coffee shops? Do you need a big work space to spread out your swatches and design roughs? Write down what comes to you, and keep your needs in mind. If it’s coffee, set up a mini coffee bar near your desk. If it’s a big table, focus on creating convenient shelving and ambience around this focal point. Push your coffee bar or large work table against a wall. On the wall, add a personal mantra with vinyl lettering for daily motivation. 4. Adjust the Driver’s Seat and Mirrors Metaphorically, that is. Translation â€" your desk chair and computer, silly! You’re going to be at your work space for hours on end. Might as well be sure you are comfortable at your work station. No ten-and-two position necessary here, unless those are the times that you want to take your breaks. Sit in your office chair. Does your chair offer good support for your back? Can you recline just enough to relax but allow for a healthy posture? Your thighs need to be parallel to the floor, and your arms should be perpendicular to the floor. For your computer, the monitor should be at eye level but not strain your eyes. Stop craning your neck. If you know you’re going to keep odd hours, use applications and software that will help reduce the brightness of your screen. 5. Get a Plant Instead of staring outside at nature, bring nature into your home office. Choose a plant that prefers some sun and does well in shade. Basil mint plant smells delicious and does well indoors by a window. Even if you aren’t working by a window, studies show plants have restorative effects on employees who have a plant on their desk. A plant is a great way to get a boost of productivity during work hours, with little nurturing required. Design your work space around your needs and preferences. You know what your distraction temptations are and how best to motivate yourself to get work done. These quick design fixes will enhance your productivity and happiness in your home office. All it takes is a little determination and imagination.

Sunday, May 17, 2020

Why generic CVs and cover letters end up in the bin! University of Manchester Careers Blog

Why generic CVs and cover letters end up in the bin! University of Manchester Careers Blog Youve just sent me a CV cover letter for a job.   You and possibly several hundred others so Im going to spend just a few seconds skimming over it to see which pile you fit in.   Yes, No or Maybe. I have a check-list of all the skills qualifications Im looking for and if you dont tick any boxes youll be going in the No pile. Why generic CVs fail. They often talk about duties you performed not the skills involved. The skills you are talking about may not be on my wishlist. Personal statements clearly not targeted at this job or sector. Why generic cover letters fail Bad cut and paste jobs even referring to the wrong company or wrong job. You clearly havent done the research into who we are or what we do, why should I consider you? I want to see that you want to work in my organisation not ANY organisation. Completely missing the point of the organisation or job role. Im not good at guessing! Im not going to just assume you have a skill or qualification either. Just because you say you have worked on a reception desk, Im not going to imagine what that might have involved or that you might have been good at it. SHOW ME  I want evidence that demonstrates your effectiveness. You dont necessarily have to have done the same job before, ill happily look at a skill gained in another context. If you have done similar tasks or roles in the past I want to see specific details now you have me really interested. If it sounds believable and consistent youll move up the pile. If you have more ticks on my wishlist than other people ill interview you to see if you live up to expectations. So go on make the effort, even a bar job deserves a CV tailored at typical bar work skills! Check out our CV cover letter guides   See also: How to do your research for CVs and cover letters   All Applications and interviews Undergraduate Undergraduate-highlighted applications Applications and interviews cover letters CV

Thursday, May 14, 2020

How Smart Companies are Making Working Vacations Work CareerMetis.com

How Smart Companies are Making Working Vacations Workâ€" CareerMetis.com Vacations sure aren’t what they used to be. Wireless technology compels us to plug-in from anywhere in the world, at any time of day, insidiously eroding the division between business and leisure time to the point that our Out-of-Office notifications are essentially as useless as trying to fight a wildfire with a watering can.Some 66% of the American labor force spends at least part of their vacation time working. When this statistic is considered alongside the fact that U.S. companies offer, on average, the least generous vacation policies in the industrialized world, it’s clear that American working culture has a complicated relationship with the concept of time off.The Work/Life Balance ConundrumEven companies that really want to promote a healthy work/life balance and outlook on vacation time have their work cut out for them. Close to half of Americansdon’t even use up all of the vacation days afforded to them, suggesting that the problem is larger than whatever good offeri ng more time-off could do.evalWorkers cite a laundry list of reasons why their much-needed vacations get routinely cut short, indefinitely postponed, or taken over by office work: too many deadlines, fear of the backlog they’ll return to, and worrying how time-off will reflect on their commitment to the job.In short: workers don’t feel that vacations are good for their careers.And yet, studies have shown time and time again that vacations are crucialfor employee health, happiness, and productivity, and that employees return from vacation more motivated and energized than when they left.But if a change is going to happen such that both employees and employers are able to reap the benefits of vacation time, that change needs to start with company culture.Workcation, All I Ever WantedKeeping your personal life and professional life separate from one another is typically considered wise. But perhaps it’s time to rethink this strict division, especially when it comes to vacations.T he same technology that is often blamed for ruining our ability to leave work at the office has given rise to the phenomenon of “workcations.” Whether as a nomadic, laptop-wielding lifestyleor as an employer-sponsored perk of the job, this oxymoronic portmanteau is used to describe traveling without completely checking out of the office.Workcations feature in some form or another in the policies of a growing number of companies. For some employers, this comes in the form of flexible, unlimited PTO: employees are free to be out-of-office as often as they choose, so long as they are performing well and meeting deadlines. In this scenario, an employee may take off for two weeks instead of one, but still, generate a few reports and join an important conference call while on the road.evalA more radical form of the workcations involves giving employees a stipend to travelwherever they like for a week or two, as long as they keep up with their work while they’re away.Other companies make a point to use travel to foster teamwork. Whether by organizing annual company camping trips, sponsoring destination team-building retreats, or simply flying their employees to a beautiful locationwhere they can catch some sun while they work intensively on an upcoming deadline, some employers are using travel as a way to refresh their employees’ motivation.Workcation Doesn’t have to be an OxymoronWorking vacations are, understandably, not a fit for every company or every employee. Many people need strictly enforced work/life boundaries in order to unplug and de-stress. These are the sort that just won’t even entertain the thought of letting work creep into their precious vacation time in any capacity.But for many others, maintaining rigid boundaries between work and play isn’t realistic. Perhaps the key to solving America’s complicated relationship with time-off is workplace policy that is open to our personal and professional lives overlapping from time to time.eval Making workcations work requires creating a company culture in which taking mental health days or leaving early to catch your child’s dance recital are encouraged, even celebrated. In turn, this could create the kind of workplace culture in which employees don’t feel resentful about cracking open their laptop on the beach.Here is how some companies are trying to foster office cultures conducive to working vacations:

Sunday, May 10, 2020

Help! How Do I Price My Work - Kathy Caprino

Help! How Do I Price My Work Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net In my work as a success coach for solopreneurs, consultants, small business owners, and private practitioners, Im frequently asked questions about how people should price their work, package their programs and services, and create compelling offers that generate a Yes Ive got to have this! buy-now response. Ive learned over the years that to develop high-demand programs and services that offer great value AND generate the revenue you want takes much more than just strong marketing copy.   It requires keen insight, customer perspective awareness, courage, healthy boundaries, great relationship-building and engagement skills, and finally, a real grasp on your competition and your audience, and what they need, want and will pay for. The key blocks Ive observed to pricing your products successfully or getting the sales response you want include: 1) Your deep down fear that no one will pay what youre asking 2) A lack of understanding and articulating what you offer that stands apart from the competition 3) Not creating a sense of urgency or reason to buy NOW 4) Your insecurity about the true value of what you offer (and a lack of proven outcomes to demonstrate your value) 5) Connecting with the wrong audience for what you have created 6) Confusing your enthusiasm and excitement for your product with your customers true feelings about it 7) Not guiding your prospective customer through a compelling process that inevitably leads to a sale If you struggle with your pricing strategy, below are 5 key tips from my latest Work Reimagined QA column for understanding whats necessary to price your programs effectively, and connect with ideal clients and customers whom you love to serve. Click below for the full article: HELP! I HAVE SUCH A HARD TIME PRICING MY WORK Pricing programs effectively, particularly for women, brings up fears, insecurities and deep questions about our worthiness and our right to make great money.   Before you make a decision about your pricing, do the inner work required to connect you to why youre worth the great financial success you long for. What is your deepest challenging in figuring out how to price your work and your programs effectively?   Please share! (For hands-on help to price your programs effectively and earn more money doing work you love, check out my Jumpstart Your Entrepreneurial Success program. And check out my Amazing Career Project for help creating more success, happiness and reward in your work.)

Friday, May 8, 2020

Must-Have Info for Aspiring Web Business Owners - Hallie Crawford

Must-Have Info for Aspiring Web Business Owners Dear Career Seeker, Hi! My name is Dina and Im a successful web copywriter and friend of Hallies. While Im visiting her blog, I wanted to share a secret with you. I was once as unsatisfied in my nine-to-five job as you are. But thankfully, those days are over. Today, I run a copywriting and marketing business online. I get to meet and work with all kinds of cool entrepreneurs (like Hallie) from around the country! I realize you may still have a ways to go before that web-based business youve always dreamed of becomes reality for you. Thankfully youre working with Coach Hallie, and shes one of the best! Want to know what else you need to grow your own biz online? Want to know what helped push me into the forefront of my industry, and what skill I use to help my online clients do the same? Article marketing. If you can write intelligent, one-page articles geared toward your target market, you can get your own website very high up on Google! And thats important, because its how your future customers will find you on the web. Discover how article marketing can grow your online presence and get you paying customers. Come learn about my e-book, Article Power: Create Dynamite Articles and Watch Your Sales Explode. Writing articles is easy, fun and it can make you money. Visit for more info. Learn about a terrific marketing strategy that has helped many people (including ME!) grow an online business from scratch. Rooting for your success and happiness, Dina at Wordfeeder.com Copywriting and Marketing