Building Your Resume

Whether or not you are chosen for an interview or not depends a great deal on the first impression of your resume, including both the format and the language you use to communicate your skills, abilities, and experience. Your resume must elicit a strong response that indicates that you are the best option for the organization's needs. 

Essential Information to Include:

• Full name and contact information, including telephone number, e-mail, and street address. If you have a professional website, this would also be important to list. Avoid including social networking sites that are for personal use.
• Work experience
• Education and schooling relevant to the position.
• A summary of qualifications or skills and abilities you bring to the job. 
• Awards and recognition.

Chronological Style Resume

• The traditional resume format is a Chronological presentation of your work experience and qualifications. Other formats include Functional (skills-based) and Hybrid (combination), but these are not very popular with hiring managers in 2022. 
• Executive Summary or Objective - A brief 2-4 sentence summary of the skills and/or work experience that you wish to highlight or your objective in applying for a given position.
• List the specifics of your work experience in reverse chronological order.
• Include work history and education.

There may be gaps in your employment history that could create tension or awkwardness. Careful and creative wording can help present special circumstances in the best possible light. Honesty is the best policy if you are asked to explain times of unemployment for any reason such as extended illness, disability, caring for a loved one, incarceration, or just times when you could not find a job.

 Until next time ...

 

Sheryl Tuchman, SPHR, SHRM-SCP

Planning a Job Search

Setting SMART Goals

Now that you have a clearer picture of your skills and abilities along with your purpose and values, you can set SMART goals.  SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely. For example, you may wish to set a goal of finding a job as an HR Manager (specific), including a minimum salary (measurable). To be achievable and relevant, the job must exist, and you must have the qualifications for the job. Include a timeframe of when you expect to fulfill your goal. 

A 30-Day Plan

You have to accept the reality that finding a job that is going to meet your needs and fulfill your objectives will take some time and likely require a lot of effort. If it is a job worth your time, there will be other people competing for the same job. You must be the best-prepared candidate. Successful job seekers design a specific plan for the first 30 days then revise the plan according to what has transpired.

On a calendar, list all the interviews you schedule for the month. 

For days on which you do not have interviews scheduled, you must dedicate your time to acquiring interviews. This will include applying for jobs online and/or in-person and networking. Other activities may include creating a list of potential employers to call and visit, revising your resume if it is not working as you expected, and polishing your interviewing skills by role-playing, reading books on the topic, and watching videos. 

The first 30 days give you time to form a daily routine of prospecting future employers, applying for jobs, fine tuning your resume, and asking for interviews. Each time you complete an interview, write down what you think went well and where you could improve next time.

Until next time ...

 

Sheryl Tuchman, SPHR, SHRM-SCP

Beginning a Job Search

The success of one’s career depends greatly on the ability to recognize the job-related values that are important to the individual as well as the hiring company. Identifying the purpose for working and the assessment of skills can help determine the types of jobs to consider. Creating SMART goals, a robust resource system, and a 30-day plan can give job seekers a concrete plan.

Identifying Your Values and Purpose

In order to be able to sell yourself well and present your skill set and experience to potential employers, you must first identify your own values and your purpose for working. 

Here are some common purposes for job seekers: 

• · Gain an income source that provides for my basic survival needs and some of my wants.
• · Use my creativity, skills, abilities, and energies to benefit not only me but others also.
• · Make a valuable and lasting contribution to my community and to society.
• · Use my college degree for something worthwhile.
• · Do something constructive with my time.
• · Be in a place where I can meet new people, travel, and gain new experiences. 
• · Get out of debt and save money for the future. 
• · Try a new skill and gain new experiences. 
• · Fulfill my dreams and my mission in life.

Assessing Your Skills

There are many professional instruments designed to help you assess your skills. These instruments help you identify what talents and abilities you may have to offer a potential employer. Some of the skills that employers find valuable include organization, analytical ability, creativity, initiative, vision, communication, strategic planning, presenting, collaboration, and many others, depending on the specific job.

Until next time ...

 

Sheryl Tuchman, SPHR, SHRM-SCP

Key Tactics in Difficult Discussions

Following are three strategies that can help you to gather facts to deal with the person or the situation.

Active Listening

The first tactic, and possibly the most important, is to listen empathetically. Listen while trying to be sensitive to the various components and levels of the message. Try to listen for the following information:

· Why: Why is the person communicating with me?

· Length: What can the size of the message tell me about the importance of the message to the person?

· Words: Does the person use formal or informal language? Is there impatience?

· Volume and Pace: What emotional pressures can you sense?

Note-taking after a Discussion

A second tactic is to write down your recollection of the discussion that just took place. The notes can be used to support your next communication with the difficult person. Note-taking also gives you the opportunity to plan and organize before the next communication takes place.

Writing Your Communication

Putting your thoughts into writing rather than communicating verbally can have three important benefits:

1. The difficult person cannot interrupt with an objection.

2. It’s easier to provide orderly communication in writing than verbally.

3. There is no body language to shape the outcome, reducing the possibility of mixed messages. However, you must consider your words carefully and be clear.

Until next time ...

 

Sheryl Tuchman, SPHR, SHRM-SCP

Dealing with Difficult Behavior

Each of us can probably think of at least one difficult personality either at work or in our personal lives. Consider what the person does to annoy you and what you might be doing to aggravate the situation.

Dealing with Difficult Situations

A difficult person might be your boss, your coworker, or anyone else in your workplace. That person behaves in a way that is disruptive to business or life outside of work. In a work setting,  the functioning of a team may be disturbed, leading to a disruption of the work flow, flared tempers, and gossip. The bottom line is that work suffers and difficult situations cost organizations money. 

To deal with difficult people, we innately try to apply coping filters, such as:

· Removing virtually all positive attributes about the person. For example, we might say or think, "he was my worst hiring mistake."

· Defaming. We build consensus with others against the person.

· Describing the person in negative terms.

Anger also plays a big part. Feeling angry, we instinctively use anger to try to manage the situation.

To break the cycle of negativity, take time to answer the following questions:

1. What observable behaviors or statements did the person perform or say?

2. What is the most positive interpretation an outside witness would make? What is the most negative?

3. What can you gain by interpreting the difficult person’s actions or words in as positive a light as possible?

4. What would you do or say when you respond to the difficult person if you viewed their actions in a positive light? What is stopping you from responding this way?

Until next time ...

 

Sheryl Tuchman, SPHR, SHRM-SCP

Coming to Consensus

Whether there is a disagreement on a particular issue or you simply need to get a group to agree, neuro-linguistics offers a solution. Consider the following questions:

1. What do you want your outcome to be?

2. How will you know when that outcome is achieved?

3. Who will attend the meeting?

Establish rapport as participants come into the meeting. 

Now you are ready to use the PEGASUS model to achieve your desired outcomes:

• Present outcomes
• Explain evidence
• Gain agreement on outcomes
• Activate sensory acuity
• Summarize each major decision
• Use the relevancy challenge
• Summarize the next step.

Until next time ...

 

Sheryl Tuchman, SPHR, SHRM-SCP

Coping Techniques for Difficult Situations

An assertive, self-confident person uses a variety of coping techniques to deal with the challenges of interpersonal communication. Many of these techniques come from the school of neuro-linguistic programming. NLP began in California in the mid-1970s when graduate Richard Bandler joined a group at the University of Santa Cruz headed by linguistics professor John Grinder. NLP is defined as models and techniques to help understand and improve communication and to enhance influencing behavior. 

Building Rapport

Rapport is the relation of harmony, conformity, accord, or affinity to support an outcome. There is a sense of a shared understanding with another person. 

Mirroring is matching certain behaviors of a person with whom you are interacting. Mirroring is the process used to establish rapport. There are four techniques for mirroring:

1. Voice tone or tempo

2. Breathing rate

3. Movement rhythms

4. Body postures

Levels of rapport range from a low of tolerance to a high of seduction. For business, strive for levels of neutral, lukewarm, understanding, identification, or warm which are all in the center of the continuum.

Expressing Disagreement

The way that people learn best can be classified as predominantly:

· Visual  (The things we see)

· Auditory  (The things we hear)

· Kinesthetic  (The things we feel, touch, taste, or smell)

Both the type of words used and the speaker’s eye movements provide clues as to how someone learns best. In a conversation, once we understand which type our conversation partner is, we can try to match it.

Until next time ...

 

Sheryl Tuchman, SPHR, SHRM-SCP