Career / Business

Your resume can strike sparks and leave memories that stick! You can compel reviewers to pay close attention to your resume. Here are a few possibilities: Below your name and contact lines insert a statement that defines you, shows commitment, or asserts your value. It can be as simple as “Eager to take on challenges and make a difference.” In addition to the skills you list, how about including a section “Leadership and Productivity” that announces your initiative, consensus building, motivational abilities, and other soft skills.

Strategy 1: Get your information together. Start with your current job and past resumes, plus job postings. Add a list of your strengths and accomplishments. Then analyze 1-15 job postings in the industry and job role you prefer. Identify key words and phrases. Assess your strengths and deficits for the job you want. Strategy 2: Focus on problems you want to solve. Learn about the prospective employer’s industry and organization. Evaluate the employers’ priorities and issues. Carry out research including online searches, LinkedIn Company pages, reviews, and more.

Discover free online resources that the library offers and beyond, to help you keep up with current events and fact check what you hear and read on the internet. Librarians will cover the free online news subscriptions the library offers, such as the New York Times and Washington Post, as other free platforms and ways to get your news. 

Have you wondered what impression your resume makes? Most effective resumes allow the reviewer to skim quickly and pick up the predominant threads of the candidate’s career path and potential value. The reviewer forms an impression of you and identifies the high points of your “story.” The resume may offer a glimpse of you in action meeting challenges, leading initiatives, and making changes.

Many effective job seekers improve their chances by relying on a mix of approaches. They adopt new possibilities and reject those they find lacking. We will discuss useful and not-so-useful tactics as well as cover misconceptions that could hold you back. A job seeker with a full program of outreach may network, participate in job forums (including online), attend job fairs, check job boards regularly, refine their LinkedIn pages, research job postings, update industry knowledge, learn about prospective employers, read articles, prepare for interviews, and seek feedback.

You will confront many decisions in preparing your resume. How far back to go? Should you show a work gap? What is the best way to present your transferable skills? Is it better to list several jobs with an employer or combine them? What are some ways to focus the reader on your strengths when you have held several jobs? We will help you sort through the many moving parts of resume preparation. In addition to answering your questions we will demonstrate possibilities by showing novel approaches.

We will show ways to reach out to opportunities by creating reinforcements for your resume. You know about using the Cover Letter, References, and Work Samples. Additional possibilities include your Resume Summary, a Persona Statement at the top of your resume, your Linked-In Headline, Linked-In About section, and Stories created in readiness for interviewers’ questions. You may also prepare an “Ask Me About” page that sparks conversation or a one-page Fact Sheet that highlights the main points a reader should know. Taglines and Soundbites are often parts of Networking Introductions.

Online via Zoom on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays monthly at 5:00 p.m. Marilyn Tullius is the leader and organizer.

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85710374176

Online via Zoom on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays monthly at 5:00 p.m. Marilyn Tullius is the leader and organizer.

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88181627175