What to put in your Resume in 2022

1. Don’t Put Everything on There

Your resume should not have every work experience you’ve ever had listed on it. Think of your resume not as a comprehensive list of your career history, but as a marketing document selling you as the perfect person for the job. For each resume you send out, you’ll want to highlight only the accomplishments and skills that are most relevant to the job at hand (even if that means you don’t include all of your experience).

2. But Keep a Master List of All Jobs

Since you’ll want to be swapping different information in and out depending on the job you’re applying to, keep a resume master list on your computer where you keep any information you’ve ever included on a resume: old positions, bullet points tailored for different applications, special projects that only sometimes make sense to include. Then, when you’re crafting each resume, it’s just a matter of cutting and pasting relevant information together. Think of this as your brag file.

3. Put the Best Stuff “Above the Fold”

In marketing speak, “above the fold” refers to what you see on the front half of a folded newspaper (or, in the digital age, before you scroll down on a website), but basically it’s your first impression of a document. In resume speak, it means you should make sure your best experiences and accomplishments are visible on the top third of your resume. This top section is what the hiring manager is going to see first—and what will serve as a hook for someone to keep on reading. So focus on putting your best, most relevant experiences first—and then check out these five other marketing tricks to get your resume noticed.

What makes a great recruiter?

Looking for a job and want to work with a recruiter? not all recruiters are alike, here are some qualities you should look for in a recruiter who will be helping you with your career.

Great recruiters all have an innate ability to ask very detailed questions,.

When assessing talent, it is vital to be able to acquire an in-depth understanding, of the individual candidate, including their experience, characteristics, and career goals. Accurate candidate assessment and selection requires a recruiter to have a highly inquisitive demeanor. Recruiters that are more interested in talking about themselves typically are not the best candidates for greatness.

A great recruiter has a memory like an elephant.

Having the ability to memorize individuals, titles, experiences, and anything else related to a candidate’s background is what makes a recruiter unique. Great recruiters spend an enormous amount of time understanding and learning about the people they meet. Recruiters who can remember the finer details of what makes people tick are able to quickly identify opportunities and positions that will fit each unique individual. Searching a database for a list of candidates is a great piace to start, but the recruiter who can immediately remember a highly targeted list will be the one who wins.

Great recruiters are highly organized individuals.

Sloppy and disheveled desks stacked high with resumes typically lead to an unorganized pursuit of candidates. Organized recruiters understand how to maximize an outcome with the least amount of effort. Recruiters who can efficiently organize their daily, weekly, and monthly operations achieve higher levels of performance, ultimately reaping the highest level of commissions and sales.

Great recruiters are able to build relationships at any level.

No matter what the industry, candidates fall along a wide spectrum of experience, skill level and backgrounds. Great recruiters have to be able to position themselves to communicate credibly with each individual, regardless of where that candidate falls on the spectrum. This not only requires outstanding communication skills; it also means that a recruiter needs to accumulate a wide understanding of every level within the industry in which they’re recruiting, if their comprehension is too narrow, it will be harder to build relationships at the high level needed for success.

Great recruiters are credible. Highly credible.

A great recruiter is someone people trust with their careers; they have to know that their recruiter is different than all the rest. Building credibility starts from the moment a recruiter interacts with a candidate, and is sustained by delivering on promises, communicating regularly, and, in general acting with integrity. As a recruiter strengthens their credible image, their network will expand exponentially, which in turn achieves an even higher level of credibility.

At a time when great recruiters are highly sought after, droves of individuals, from fresh graduates to experienced sales people, are beginning to enter the profession. Inevitably, there will be a high number of them who fail. The great ones who will achieve long-term accomplishment are highly motivated individuals. The above six characteristics are what I’ve seen most prominently when meeting and interacting with the most successful recruiters. These are the individuals who will make a difference in your business.

You need a killer resume, make sure its ready for the job you want.

1. Find a Professional Font

As fun as it might look on the page, now is not the time to use weird fonts. Unless you are working in a creative field where you should be showing off your style, stick to something classic. Times New Roman is great go-to, or try a serif font with a little more individuality, like Book Antiqua or Lucida Bright.

2. Put the Good Stuff First

The real secret to a good resume is focusing your reader’s attention. In an ideal world, recruiters would read every word on your resume. In reality, that rarely happens. I’ve screened hundreds of resumes, and though I’m more meticulous than most, I’ve been surprised by how many I nearly tossed, only to find something truly interesting buried at the bottom of the page.

Also, the biggest mistake is to use chronological order. Why lead with “Babysitter in High School” when you could lead with “Strategic Planning Analyst?” Even reverse chronological order (which is more common) may not give you the flexibility you want to highlight your best and most relevant accomplishments.

3. Be Specific

You increased recruiting? Give us the percent increase. You raised money for charity? Tell us how much you raised! This can turn average-looking experiences into impressive head-turners and help distinguish you from other candidates. The flip-side of that is that specifics can also make some accomplishments look worse. If you only raised $150, you might want to think twice before including that—it’s unlikely to impress a billion dollar company.

Hint: This is true of your classes as well. Mentioning relevant coursework can help catch a recruiter’s eye.

4. Vary Your Verbs

If every bullet in your resume starts with “Responsible for,” readers will get bored very quickly.

5. Make Every Word Count

Unless you’re a tenured professor who needs to list every book and article you’ve ever published, your resume should be one page. While this limits the space you have to share your experience, think of it as a blessing in disguise: It forces you to focus.

You don’t need an equal number of bullets under each experience. You should be spending more words on your most impressive set of experiences. Moreover, if a job isn’t relevant anymore, take it out! You don’t need to prove that you’ve been employed since 1997.

Can’t make things fit on one page? Keep cutting it down. You can play with margins and font sizes a bit if necessary—but don’t overdo it. The point is to choose the right experiences, not squish them in. Plus, a dense resume is harder to read. And the harder your resume is to read, the more likely people will just skim it.

Hint: You can make the font size of the spacing between text smaller without losing legibility

6. Proofread

Grammar or spelling errors in a resume can be the difference between the “keep” pile and the “trash” pile. At best, you look sloppy. Enough said.

7. PDF, PDF, PDF

This one is simple: PDFs look the same on any computer. Word documents, on the other hand, can show up with wacky formatting or spill onto a second page if opened with a different version of Word or on a PC vs. a Mac. Make sure companies see what you wanted them to see.

Major Recruiting Challenges Business Leaders are Facing Today

Hiring today is quite different than it was a few years ago, and this isn’t just due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While it may seem relatively easy on the surface, hiring the right employees can be overwhelming and taxing on many different levels, regardless of the size of an organization. Human resources departments today face significant challenges as their roles become broader and more strategic. The HR function goes beyond recruiting, training and retaining employees. It is a key element in developing a workforce that aligns with the mission and vision of a business.

With that in mind, we thought it might be useful to get some insight into how hiring in today’s job market is for the business experts in charge of these operations. To get that insight, we asked some experienced business leaders across various industries what their thoughts are about today’s biggest hiring and resourcing challenges. We analysed their opinions and the answers gravitated to five main issues. In this blog, we will discuss these five major hiring challenges business leaders are facing in the job market in today’s climate. Keep reading.

What have been the main challenges?

Adapting to Remote Work

When the pandemic struck, in compliance with government directives and regulations, most companies had to switch to the remote work model to continue business operations. Now, before the pandemic, very few companies offered remote work and those that did included it as a perk. For companies that were completely new to this new culture of work, the transition to remote work was tough, not just for the staff but employers as well. Hiring new recruits, tracking employees’ productivity and performance, and keeping employees engaged and motivated can be difficult when you’re not in a traditional work environment.

Another Insurance industry leader, told us that, luckily, the company already had a remote working infrastructure in place, so adapting to the new work norm was not as difficult for them as it had been for other organizations. “The current climate has created some challenges, but our office has been equipped to weather the storm. The majority of the sales team had already been working remotely so thankfully we were prepared as anyone could be to continue despite the inherent challenges and as a result, we have continued to move business forward.

Retaining Talented Employees

Recruiting is one thing, retaining and motivating your employees is another consideration altogether. According to research by the Society for Human Resource Management, HR professionals project that retaining the best employees will be the greatest HR challenge in 2022. But why? Well, the world of work is changing. Historically, job-hopping was considered to be a negative thing. Landing a role and staying at one company until retirement was the norm, and if you were moving around alot, it tended to lead to negative connotations. This is no longer the case. It is now acceptable to move companies more often, in pursuit of better salary, culture, learning opportunities or clearer progression paths. Rather than stagnating, or feeling (and being!) undervalued, it is seen as a positive attribute to know your worth and chase it.

Building a workplace where employees are motivated is another ongoing issue confronting HR professionals, because the work doesn’t stop at landing top talent. Retention is the next consideration. Knowing what motivates your staff, and implementing strategies and packages that cater to their motivations, is how you keep the best employees happy and productive. A leader in electrical distribution spoke to us about how finding talent that wants to build a career with your company in the long term can be tricky – especially in niche industries. “Our primary challenge is identifying talented individuals who want to build a career within the commercial lighting industry.” they said, with “getting the word out that you can build an excellent career within the trades and create long-term stability for yourself and your family” being a particular area they need to focus on. Another challenge they’re facing? “Identifying motivated candidates that actually want to work.

Finding And Recruiting High-Quality Talent

Identifying and acquiring high calibre talented individuals has always been a critical challenge for HR managers. Sure, the job market is full of job seekers especially after the devastating lay-offs of workers caused by the pandemic. But how many of those job seekers actually have the skills and qualifications that match the candidate persona of what a recruiter would consider their ideal applicant for an open role? It can be tedious and time-demanding to sift through dozens of applications to discover the right candidate in a pool full of unqualified talent.

One of our clients within the Insurance industry tells us that the difficulty in identifying high caliber talented individuals is a big issue, especially within a niche industry like insurance, that often requires candidates with a unique set of skills and competencies. He does note, however, that this was an issue before COVID-19 struck, so isn’t a challenge to be exclusively attributed to the pandemic.

Promoting a Strong Employer Brand

A strong employer brand is built by investing energy and resources into numerous channels, as well as through ensuring a company culture that resonates with clients, employees, and other stakeholders. You can nail your social media presence, and promote a brand that looks desirable, but longevity comes in living your values with your employees and your clients.

We spoke to a leader in the manufacturing services provider in the aerospace industry, who believes that investing in relationships with your clientele can help business leaders weather the storm especially in a time like this with so much uncertainty in the air. “Relationships are extremely key and spending time with your clients to let them know that you care “more than just a sale” has also proved extremely advantageous in helping navigate these unchartered waters.”

Building Solid Professional Networks

The importance of networking in the corporate world is something every business leader should not underestimate. As essential as it is to have talented people in your workforce, if you want to build a successful business, it is vital that you have a network of professionals who can help you with attracting and engaging highly skilled candidates in the job market. Without a solid professional network, as a business leader, you might find yourself struggling to find and recruit the best talents in your industry.

One Insurance industry company identifies networking as being key to maximising  opportunities. They advise that you need to “develop a network that views you as an asset [or] you are going to struggle to do well in this market. Networking is still key and maximizing opportunities as they present themselves. As well as identifying new hungry, humble, and smart individuals to be apart the team is still an issue. But we are equipped to bring on board new talent despite the current climate.

How are things going for leaders at the moment?

The pandemic has caused global unrest. It disrupted many businesses and upended several business operations. We asked the business leaders we reached out to about the impact of the pandemic on their organizations. The insurance industry (especially in the areas of employee benefits and commercial line coverages for companies) is up over last time this year.

Overall things are going well. [Our] physical office has been closed since March, but the current team has acclimated to the new process and things are continuing to improve. There has been a bit of decrease in revenue as it relates to funding within industries directly impacted by covid related projects along with some delays in the servicing of some accounts as a result of available team members but overall business is doing great and continuing to improve despite the current climate“. – Insurance industry firm

Things are going well. Company and business is up over last year at this time. There has been an uptick within the Insurance industry for obvious reasons especially in the areas of employee benefits and commercial line coverages for companies.” – Insurance industry business

In addition, the construction industry (in particular custom home building) and real estate is seeing some significant growth, benefiting from boosted disposable incomes and increased numbers of households. According to a report, “The necessity of shelter and the desire of many urban renters to move to suburban homes with greater distance from neighbors will support revenues in the residential segments,” and coupled with lower interest rates and high inventory, those with stable finances are moving away from renting and into ownership instead.

However, as expected, some industries have been affected worse than others. The aerospace industry has been hit pretty hard, as a result of the pandemic and lack of air travel. Construction is another industry that has seen disruption too.

Times are challenging. The majority of our clients are in the aerospace industry and that industry has been massively hit. Contracts have been out right cancelled or not renewed as a result of the virus and lack of airplane travel.” says a manufacturing services provider.

It’s important to understand that these challenges might play out differently depending on the size of the company, hiring needs and several other factors, but it reaffirms the fact that there’s some sort of consensus in the market and that these challenges are common.

Whether you are a business owner, HR professional or a recruiter, understanding these challenges can help you survive the pandemic, and even come out of the other side stronger and more equipped to handle future challenges.

At CareerPaths NW we pride ourselves in providing qualified candidates to leading companies all across the nation. If you are looking to make a hiring decision soon, contact us today and we can source qualified, professional candidates for you as soon as possible.

Developing an Elevator Pitch

Have you ever been in a situation where you had the opportunity to talk with a highly important person? Let’s say for example they’re employed in a company that you really want to work for, and one of the first things they say is tell me about yourself. Would you know how to respond?

You need an elevator pitch.

An elevator pitch is based on a premise where if you had only had 2-3 minutes to have a substantial conversation with someone, would you be able to? Here are some things that will help you build a great elevator pitch:

  • Create a positive first impression
  • Give a powerful and unique personal statement
  • Leave a positive lasting impression

Remember this is not an interview, you only have a few minutes, make sure you give the highlights that are of value to the person you are talking to.

How to answer what is your greatest weakness?

When an interviewer asks “What is your greatest weakness”, they want to find out:

  • Whether you have a healthy level of self-awareness
  • Whether you can be open and honest, particularly about shortcomings
  • Whether you pursue self-improvement and growth opportunities to combat these issues, as opposed to letting these weaknesses hold you back

Ultimately, you’ll want to use this question to demonstrate how you’ve used a weakness as motivation to learn a new skill or grow professionally. Everyone has weaknesses — your interviewer doesn’t expect you to be perfect.

However, it’s critical you avoid mentioning weaknesses that will prevent you from performing well in the role. For instance, if you’re applying for a accountant role, you don’t want to say, “I’m not very good at math and struggle with numbers.”

Alternatively, if you’re applying for a web content writer position with little necessity for math skills, you might admit, “I struggle with numbers. While math is not directly tied to my role as a writer, I believe it’s important I have a rudimentary understanding of Google Analytics, to ensure my work is performing well. To tackle this weakness, I’ve been taking online courses in data analytics.”

At all times express confidence in both your strengths as well as your ability to overcome your weaknesses.

Don’t just go with the flow…

Ask the important questions

Many successful professionals have become successful because they ask important questions. You should maintain a curious disposition and ask questions. Asking questions will build your knowledge and contribute to your learning process and development. You may also consider asking questions about things that are not directly related to your job title if you think it could help you gain a better understanding of your organization as a whole.

Don’t be afraid to speak up

Meetings are meant for employees to share their thoughts and ideas on important topics that affect the business. If you have an idea or if you have a reason to believe an idea shouldn’t be implemented, then you should mention it in a professional way with accurate data to back up your claims. You may also request a face-to-face meeting with a supervisor if you need to discuss a sensitive matter or ask for advice. When you participate and speak up, employers will notice that you care about your job and take it seriously.

Work for your success…

Work harder than those around you

Good work ethic commands respect. This doesn’t necessarily suggest that you should be the first one at work in the morning or the last one to leave work at night. However, you should cultivate habits that can contribute to your performance and put in more time and effort than those around you. Doing so will show your dedication and result in respect from your peers and leaders.

If you need help, ask for it

There will likely be certain tasks or projects you must complete at your workplace that you may not understand. It is best to ask questions to clarify, rather than make unnecessary mistakes. This way you save time and ensure that you can complete the task or project successfully the first time.

Use your strengths

By putting your focus on those things that you are strongest at, over time you will become an expert at it. By outsourcing your weaknesses to others who excel in those areas, you’ll be able to cover those weaknesses better than you could have otherwise. Trying to be great at everything could be spreading yourself thin and keeping you from reaching your full potential in your strongest areas.

Looking to hire a leader?

Every company needs leaders at all levels in their organization, sometimes team members can be promoted from within but at other times companies need to hire someone like you. Here are some questions you should expect in an interview.

Five team leader questions.

What’s your leadership style? 

This is a common question that gets asked at team leader interviews. The employer wants to see that you have a proven strategy for leading people. It’s a tricky question as there are no right or wrong answers. Your leadership style is determined by several factors, including skills, experience, values and the company culture.

Your answer should clearly explain what your management style is. Always indicate that your approach isn’t rigid – but is adaptable and flexible enough to fully support each team member.

What would you do if two members of your team didn’t get on?

Let’s face it, most teams contain people who have different drives, personalities and ways of doing things. So it’s inevitable that at some point, two colleagues won’t get on. As a team leader, it’s part of your job to manage this situation, and ensure it doesn’t escalate.

Being asked to describe what action you would take if colleagues didn’t get on is a question that’s frequently asked in team leader interviews, explain the problem, the action you took and the result.

How do you build a strong culture within your teams? 

When a team shares a set of beliefs, attitudes and values, they’re better equipped to achieve their collective goals. Whether it’s hitting a sales target or getting a new product to market.

Team culture is achieved through many things, including supportive leadership and trust – but these things may not be enough on their own. So try and think about practical ways you can create a strong culture, such as team building events, regular one-to-ones and team catch-ups, and use these examples to help give your answer credibility.

What methods would you use to evaluate your team’s performance? 

Measuring a team’s performance is an important part of a team leader’s job. By identifying strengths and weaknesses of each team member, you can assign them tasks that match their skills.

The method you’ll use to measure the team’s performance will depend on things like the sector you work in, the type of job the team is doing and what the company’s goals are. So, when preparing your answer, think about what factors are important to measure and how you’ll use the information to improve the team’s performance in the future.

And if you can demonstrate how these align with hitting overall business objectives, you’ll really be able to get the interviewer’s attention.

Tell us about a time you led your team to success? 

This question focuses on your ability to inspire and motivate your team. This is your opportunity to impress the employer with your leadership skills, so don’t shy away from acknowledging your accomplishments.

Have a strong example, clearly explain what the project was, how you managed the team and what value this brought to the company. But also show how the whole team contributed to this success.

How confident are you?

Speak Up

Express your ideas and speak up. Confidence is something that can take you places. High confidence equates to more people listening to you, which in turn can make you more reliable.

At the same time, speaking up and being confident can mean you care about your job and that you’re taking things seriously.

Welcome Feedback

Always welcome feedback and take this opportunity to improve things and your skills. People learn from mistakes and grow from them to develop their skills.

Be Confident

Be confident but, at the same time, be humble in anything you do. Having a high confidence level helps boost your communication skills, and people listen more to confident speakers.

At the same time, be humble and accept that you are not the one who knows everything, and at some point, you can make mistakes.