Executive Resume Services Should Include Social Media

Executive resume services need to continually update and match the technological developments the business world is embracing, otherwise executives may find themselves left in the dust by executives who are staying ahead of the technology curve.

An executive resume services firm should do more than just list your experiences and accomplishments on paper. Today, corporations are embracing social media, and while they still expect paper resumes, many of them are going online to find out additional information about their candidates. Here are four social media tools your executive resume services provider should recommend for you.

Your Executive Resume Services Provider Should Know LinkedIn

This is the gold standard for online job searching, as far as we’re concerned, and your executive resume services firm should embrace it rather than be afraid of it. If they are against social networks like LinkedIn, chances are they still don’t understand social media or new media.

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Seven Insights To Use For Getting Your Next Job

Regardless of your educational background, degrees, work experience or accomplishments, your future employment depends on one thing: how well you can sell. I’m not talking about selling a specific product or service. I mean selling yourself and your ideas. Your ability to do this will determine whether or not you get the job. Selling is simply effective communication, and the first rule in communication is that people prefer talking to listening.

So, success in a job interview is determined by your ability to get the interviewer talking. It’s her job to get information from you, but that isn’t what will get you the job.

That’s because, in a typical job interview, the interviewer asks all the questions and you do all the talking. Sure, she needs to know about your background, education and experience. But as you’re rambling on and on saying the same things every other job applicant says, she’s wondering how quickly she can terminate the interview so she can get on to more important things.

Using some principles, you can gain control of the conversation, get the interviewer talking and glean the information you need to succeed in the interview and get the job.

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Heavy Metal Is Back: The Best Cities For Manufacturing

For a generation American manufacturing has been widely seen as a “declining sport.” Yet its demise has been largely overplayed. Despite the many jobs this sector has lost in the past generation, manufacturing remains remarkably resilient, with a global market share similar to that of the 1970s.

More recently, the U.S. industrial base has been on a powerful upswing, with employment climbing steadily since 2009. Boosted by productivity gains and higher costs in competitors, including China, U.S. manufacturing exports have grown at their fastest rate since the late 1980s. In 2011 American manufacturing continued to expand, while Germany, Japan and Brazil all weakened in this vital sector.

To determine the best cities for manufacturing my colleague Mark Schill at Praxis Strategy Group measured the 51 largest regions in the country in terms of how they expanded their “heavy metal” sector — think automobiles, farm and energy equipment, aircraft, metal work and machine shops. We averaged absolute growth rate and momentum in 148 heavy metal manufacturing industries over ten-, five-, two-, and one-year time frames.

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Ditch Your New Year's Resolutions

Do you struggle with keeping New Year’s resolutions as much as the rest of the world? I do. Actually, I rarely make them, because I don’t like to make promises I probably won’t keep. I had dinner with a friend recently, however, who convinced me to give up New Year’s resolutions for good—and replace them with New Year’s strategic plans.

Inspired by Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project, my friend mapped out all of her goals for 2012. But she didn’t stop with the goals: She wrote out accompanying objectives, strategies and tactics too. Example: One of her goals is “Be healthier.” One of the objectives under that goal is to “Be more physically active.” One of the strategies she’ll use to reach that objective is to “Sign up for a road race.” And the tactics she’ll use to make that strategy successful include “Find a race that supports a cause [she’s] passionate about” and “Ask friends to sign up” with her.

I guarantee that she’ll be more successful than if she simply resolved to “Work out more often.” Don’t you agree? Here are the reasons I’m adopting this goal-setting system myself:

• Breaking major tasks down makes them more conquerable. Even if it was your big goal, you’d never put “Write a novel” on your to-do list, would you? Of course not. You’d break it down into baby steps: Sketch out characters. Write an outline. Write the first sentence. And so on. My friend’s system allows her to focus on individual, manageable tactics, which will ultimately lead her to reach her goals.
• The system requires a good deal of thought. My friend spent the better part of two full days crafting her plan. Devoting so much time to it means that she’s more invested in her success than if she’d simply jotted down the first three goals that popped into her head.
• It can be applied to every aspect of your life. Taking her cue from Rubin’s book, my friend considered all the topics she cared about—career, health, relationships and so on—and mapped out goals, objectives, strategies and tactics for all of them. I expect that she’ll grow a lot in 2012!

Like I said, I don’t typically write New Year’s resolutions, so I’m not worried that I’m starting a few days late this year. I’d rather devote the necessary time and thought into making it a meaningful list.

How do you handle New Year’s resolutions and goals?

By Catherine Welborn, “Bud to Boss” Blog

Study: Women Multitask More than Men

A new study has confirmed what many working women may have guessed: Women multitask at home far more than men.

Researchers from Bar-Ilan University in Israel and Michigan State University examined 368 working mothers and 241 fathers who worked outside the home.

The parents wore watches that beeped randomly seven times a day, and at the tone, the subjects wrote down all of the tasks they were doing at the time, as well as their emotional state, including how stressed they were feeling.

The study found that working mothers spent 10.5 more hours every week on juggling multiple tasks at home compared to their male counterparts, NPR reported. A typical juggle for moms included playing with the kids, helping them with homework, while simultaneously fixing dinner, doing laundry and attempting to squeeze in some work from the office.

Sounds familiar, no?

Women reported being more stressed out and overwhelmed than men, who actually felt pleased with their multitasking.

Currently, men work longer hours outside of the home than women, but workplaces should allow more scheduling flexibility so that men can spend more time at home and can help out more with housework and child care, study co-author Barbara Schneider, of Michigan State, told NPR.

Do the results of the study ring true with you? Do you think you spend more or less time doing at-home multitasking than your spouse? Or is it about equal in your family?

By Rachel Silverman, The Wall Street Journal

Preparing for an Interview with Job Interview Practice

The best way to ensure that you are successful in a job interview is to sell yourself well in the small amount of time you have available to you. The interview is the prospective employer’s first and usually only impression of the job applicant prior to an offer of a job being made. It is easy to make sure that your resume stands up to scrutiny and presents you in the best possible light by getting some feedback before you submit it. But when it comes to the interview, the applicant is all on their own. One of the best ways to prepare for a job interview is to take part in some job interview practice.

Job interview practice can help ease nervousness and tension when the time of the actual interview arrives. Preparing for difficult questions, making sure to be dressed for success and having a self-assured confidence can set a job applicant apart from applicants who go into an interview “cold turkey”. It is quite apparent to practiced interviewers whether someone has bothered to do any preparation or not.

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Secrets to Success in Your Career: Get Moving and Do It Now!

Are you happy with your job? Do you have the tools that you need to be successful? Are you prospering in your career – or do you feel held back?

There is one key to success in any profession or career – that key is YOU!

Let’s begin with a paramount truth: You are responsible for your own success or failure in life. Whatever the circumstances, you choose to react how you react. You choose action in the right direction, or neglect and complacency. Accept this responsibility and you will begin to make changes to help your life improve. You won’t be able to NOT guide yourself towards better things. Don’t be a victim.

You are your own “Personal Services Corporation”

This concept is stolen directly from the author and speaker, Brian Tracy. It’s absolutely true. While you may work for a company, it isn’t “you” that they are paying for. It’s not payment for your time at your desk. They are paying for your skills and abilities, commitment and hard work, attitudes and orientations, production and output.

As your own personal services corporation, it’s up to you to invest wisely to improve your business. What skills can you gain to make you more valuable? Is there equipment that you can use to make your corporation more efficient and profitable? What can you improve upon to help you be more valuable?

It’s hard not to think at this point – “I’m putting in this time and effort for someone else!” Agreed. It feels just like that. Don’t get caught in short-term thinking. The enjoyment that you will get by being able to leverage your own investment on your own behalf makes all of the time, money, and other sacrifice worthwhile. The moment when you realize that you have options because of your own efforts is like hitting a home run or scoring the winning basket.

Stop complaining. Invest in yourself and you’ll never be sorry. Your investment is the foundation for success in your life.

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Considering a Career Change-Should You Stay in Your Current Job?

When it comes to considering a change in jobs or careers, there is nothing wrong with staying where you are, as there are many reasons that a job or career change might not be right for you, at least not right now.

There are many outside factors that can cause you to have to stay where you are right now, even if you are unhappy. One reason could be the timing. It could be that you need to get your finances in order first, you need the medical benefits your current job provides and you can’t afford to risk losing those benefits for whatever reason, or perhaps you just need more time to get other aspects of your life in order before you think about making a change.

If you have felt unhappy with your job, it could be that you figured out it is due to something or someone in particular and not what you do for a living. Perhaps you feel you are just bored and would like to take on more responsibility.  Maybe you have determined that you need more education so that you can transfer into a higher position within the company you are in.

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10 Reasons You Should Run a Background Check on Yourself

Most people live in blissful ignorance of what kind of information is available to anyone who wants to run a background check on them. It’s absolutely amazing and little bit scary how much data has been compiled on each individual that can be accessed by anyone for any reason. Information that seems fairly insignificant when it’s about someone else gains new importance when it becomes personal. Even if you have no particular reason to do so, here are 10 reasons you should run a background check on yourself.

1. Peace of mind – Once you start to think about it you begin to wonder just what information is out there and how accurate it is. Just to satisfy your curiosity and for your own peace of mind, you should run a background check on yourself. Don’t wait until you find out from another source.
2. Check for accuracy – Common human error can result in any number of inaccuracies in your public record. Running your own background check gives you an opportunity to find out if there’s any misinformation out there and correct the record.
3. Clear up mistakes – Once you discover mistakes on your own, you have an opportunity to resolve any discrepancies before they become a problem. It’s much easier to set the record straight when you aren’t pressed for time or upset. Trying to convince a police officer that an outstanding parking ticket is just a mistake isn’t going to go well.

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10 Predictions for 2012: The Top Trends in Talent Management and Recruiting

By definition, being strategic requires that you look forward — identifying trends, opportunities, and threats. With the December lull looming, now is a great time to plan for the future. I’ve listed the “top 10 talent management trends” I foresee that require your attention.

But you should certainly do your own thinking. I recommend that you start by examining this past year…

2011 Was The Year of Social Media

2011 was a tough year for many in talent management, but despite compressed budgets, organizations continued to hire and develop talent. One factor that seemed to invade nearly every high-level functional discussion was social media. It’s clear that Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter will play a dominate role in recruiting and development best practices in years to come.

Not surprisingly, 2011 saw no fewer than 40 new vendors emerge to help organizations use social media to attract referrals. We also started to see early stage tools to use social media in talent assessment (pre/post hire) as well as applicant/candidate/employee experience management. New tools brought much enhanced visibility into talent issues, but most talent-management metrics continue not to resonate with key leaders outside of the HR function.

2012 Will Be “The Year of the Mobile Platform”

By the end of next year, even the skeptics will have to admit that the mobile platform will have become the dominant communications and interaction platform by early-adopting best-practice organizations. The capabilities afforded users of smartphones and tablet devices grows immensely day by day. Long before unified inboxes existed for the desktop, smart device users could see all incoming e-mail, social messaging, text messaging, and voice and video messaging in a single place.

Tablets will become the virtual classroom, and an emerging class of tools will let employees manage almost every aspect of their professional life digitally. During the next year, talent management leaders need to invest heavily supporting execution of talent management initiatives across mobile.

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