June 2015 |
Transition-e-news Volume 3 Issue 107 |
|
|
Sponsored By: |
Transition Insight
"If you want to achieve greatness, stop asking for permission"
|
 |
|
|
||||
|
|||||
Click here for a complete list and description of organizations of TAOnline.com growing Partners! |
 |
|
|
Tips for Getting Your Resume Past an ATS System
by Barbara Adams, CPRW, CEIP, MFRW, MMRW, MFCA-T Getting to a human in the face of heartless robot or Automatic Tracking Systems (ATS) resume readers, the natural human inclination is to short circuit the system. Unfortunately this is easier said than done. It's an obvious conclusion that there are flaws in the ATS process, but more difficult to determine which exact flaws you may be dealing with when you click the "Apply" button. There are multiple generations and versions of ATS in use, each with their own idiosyncrasies. What is acceptable to one ATS may cause the next robot reader to crash and burn. That said, there are several strategies that are generally considered to reduce the chances that your resume will disintegrate into digital limbo: - Use clear, descriptive headings — Education, Work Experience, Skills - Avoid complex formatting — no boxes, shading, tables, or graphics. Stick to standard fonts. - List dates last — Employer Name, Job Title, then the dates. - Use simple file formats — .rtf or .doc are usually acceptable. PDF files can crash some systems. A word about keywords. Packing a resume with keywords or hiding them in white text may sound like obvious hacks, but remember that a human decision-maker will see the resume if it passes ATS muster. You can't write for the robots. The challenge is to produce a document that can be analyzed by the ATS without being sucked into the black hole and emerges reasonably intact from the process. This means that your document must be both machine and human readable. It should be keyword rich and in a format that is less likely to be scrambled or misread by the automated tracking system, but also coherent and organized to allow an HR professional to quickly understand how your skills, experience and accomplishments fit the position for which you are applying. No problem, right? - See more at: http://www.careerproplus.com/blog/robots-are-reading-your-resume/#sthash.CBeez8Ic.dpuf
Barbara Adams, President and CEO of CareerPro Global (CPG), the parent company of www.careerproplus.com and www.militaryresumewriters.com, has been a member of the careers community for the past 20 years. Ms. Adams holds four prestigious industry certifications. CareerPro Global is the only ISO 9001-2008 Certified Career Service in the industry, as well as one of the fastest-growing Military, Federal, and Civilian Resume-Writing and Careers-Coaching companies. The team of Certified Professional Federal and Military Resume Writers at CPG assist thousands of clients in applying for and gaining employment each year. We can help you land your military to civilian job. |
VA homeless program to add more than 150 job coordinators
By
Heath Druzin - Used by permission © 2015 Stars and Stripes WASHINGTON - As its self-imposed deadline to end veterans homelessness approaches, the Department of Veterans Affairs has launched a new program to hire more than 150 employment specialists across the country. The new community employment coordinators are meant to connect "job-ready" homeless veterans with potential employers, according to VA officials speaking on a media conference call Wednesday. The $15 million program aims to put a coordinator at each of the VA’s more than 150 medical centers, and officials said the department has filled all but about 20 positions. Getting veterans back to work is an important step in making them feel like they are part of society again, VA Director of Homeless Veteran Community Employment Services Carma Heitzmann said. "Community integration is obviously a critical component of ending veteran homelessness," she said. In 2010, President Barack Obama and the VA launched the Ending Veterans Homelessness initiative, with the goal of getting every veteran off the street by 2016. The VA says its efforts have cut the homeless rate among veterans by more than 30 percent since that pledge, and current estimates put the homeless veterans population at 50,000. Some homelessness advocates have criticized the goal as unrealistic, but VA officials say with less than seven months to go in 2015, they are still committed to the timeline. "Our goal remains the same and we have a network of support services to make that happen," Heitzmann said. Kelly Matthew, the community employment coordinator for the Greater Los Angeles VA Medical Center and a former U.S. Army medic, said many of her clients need to work through problems such as gaps in employment history, criminal records and concerns about loss of benefits if they resume work. Often, Matthews says, her first visit with homeless veterans may not lead directly to employment but pave the way for a longer-term goal. "A big piece of what we’re doing is working on education," she said. "You don’t have to be ready to go back to work today, but maybe in a few months that might be something you want to look into." Community employment coordinators will be General Schedule 11 employees, meaning a base salary of $51,000 to $66,000, depending on location. A list of the current community employment coordinators, organized by state, can be found at www.va.gov/HOMELESS/cec-contacts.asp If the entry has no name, it means the VA has not yet hired for that position. Barbara Adams, President and CEO of CareerPro Global (CPG), the parent company of www.careerproplus.com and www.militaryresumewriters.com, has been a member of the careers community for the past 20 years. Ms. Adams holds four prestigious industry certifications. CareerPro Global is the only ISO 9001-2008 Certified Career Service in the industry, as well as one of the fastest-growing Military, Federal, and Civilian Resume-Writing and Careers-Coaching companies. The team of Certified Professional Federal and Military Resume Writers at CPG assist thousands of clients in applying for and gaining employment each year. We can help you land your military to civilian job. |
5 Essential Components of a Successful LinkedIn Profile© Copyright, 2015, Susan P. Joyce. All rights reserved. I see and hear many complaints about how LinkedIn "doesn't work" or "is a waste of time." Usually, when I look at the profile of the person making the complaint, the reason they are struggling is fairly obvious. LinkedIn Is Not a "Quick Fix" for Your Job Search I doubt that there is a quick fix for anyone. But, demonstrating your social media and technology savvy and creating a strong professional visibility for yourself, via LinkedIn, is not optional for most job seekers. Employers and recruiters research job applicants and search for qualified job candidates. That's a "fact of life" in today's job market. And the best solution for job seekers is a LinkedIn Profile. Very few professions are exempt from that requirement. Your LinkedIn Profile combined with your other LinkedIn activities should demonstrate your fit for the job - your relevant knowledge, skills, and experience. Remember, once you are visible and found, your online activities are an audition for your next job! The Essential Components of a Successful LinkedIn Profile Assuming that your Profile meets LinkedIn's requirement for a complete/"all star" profile, focus your attention on the following elements of an effective LinkedIn Profile: 1. Effective Professional Headline This is the short description that follows your name everywhere on LinkedIn. To be most effective, it must be descriptive and attention getting, full of the right keywords for you and your target job. By default, unless you edit that field, LinkedIn will use your current job title as your Headline. Too many people underestimate the value of their Professional Headline - it is a key contributor to your Profile's appearance in LinkedIn search results. So, a vague or generic headline, like "Marketing Professional" (covering about 10,000 job titles) is useless. Keywords are necessary! Headlines like "Marketing Professional" are useless because they contain only one keyword ("marketing") which is typically used in combination with other words like "social media marketing" or "B2C marketing manager." Vague headlines guarantee poor placement in search results. Worse, in this case, the Headline "Marketing Professional" seems to contradict itself by demonstrating poor personal marketing. [MORE about keywords in your job search.] Bragging is required. This is not the time or place for modesty! (Or fiction!) "Social Media Marketing Specialist | Managing & Measuring Social Investment for Rapid Virtual Revenue and Profit Growth" is much more descriptive, interesting, and full of great keywords. Your Professional Headline should stand out from the crowd, particularly when you are in job search mode. And, effective Professional Headlines both demonstrate and illuminate your unique (and highly sought after) professional abilities. 2. Quantified Accomplishments The days of impressing a potential employer with a long list of duties or responsible-for statements is in your rearview mirror. Far, FAR back behind you. Today, focus on your accomplishments - preferably quantified in some way that highlights your value to an employer. OLD: Responsible for the profitability of three very large federal government proposals. NEW: Bid manager for three U.S. Federal Government proposals exceeding $100 million dollars each, which returned 9% to 12% profit on each contract during the first 3 contract years. Both OLD and NEW describe the same person's experience. See the dramatic difference in impact when the responsibility is quantified? Millions of dollars are not required for impact; the quantification provides the impact, even when much smaller numbers are involved. ALWAYS: Think keywords! (e.g. bid manager, U.S. Federal Government, proposals, dollars, profit, contract) 3. Relevant Experience In both the Work Experience and Summary sections, LinkedIn offers plenty of room to describe your work experience in each job. Take full advantage of the platform and opportunity provided. Work Experience section Don't stop with the job title, employer name, and years of employment! Make it clear what you did in that job (relevant to the target opportunity), and also make it clear what your employer did. Focus on the aspects of each job and your (quantified) accomplishments in those jobs that are relevant to your target job. Describe each employer in the best possible terms, even if you hated working there. You don't need to be dishonest, but do find something to brag about. For example, while you might have hated working for a car dealer, they were the biggest dealer in [whatever] cars in the [where ever] location. So, make it clear how big they were in your description of your job there, leaving out why you hated working there. Time for bragging about those former employers - making a former employer look good makes you look good too. Summary section This is not a resume, so write in first person. Describe yourself, focusing on your accomplishments, particularly those that are relevant to the job you want next. For example, "Many people have told me that I seem to thrive on challenges. It's true. I greatly enjoy leading teams to accomplish near-impossible goals like remodeling and refitting a clothing store to become a sushi restaurant in less than 3 weeks. During my last job, I…" AGAIN: Think keywords! Focus on the keywords relevant to your target job. Use your past to lay the groundwork for your future. 4. Headshot Photo Many people, myself included, hate having personal photos viewable by the whole world, but the reality is that a LinkedIn Profile without a good headshot photo is likely to be ignored. The assumption made is that the person is clueless or the profile is bogus. Neither assumption will help your job search. [MORE: 5 Very Important Reasons to Have Your Photo on LinkedIn.] 5. Contact information Being found (keywords!) is a key element in your job search. But, without contact information visible, being found is nearly useless. Unless you have an extremely scarce skill, being easy to contact is required. LinkedIn now offers an obvious place for your contact information. Simply click on the contact card near the bottom of the box at the top of your Profile. LIMIT the contact information to your email address (personal, not work-related, is best). Do not include your address and home or work phone numbers. If you have a job-search-only cell phone, you might find it helpful, but be careful of answering at work or in a noisy location (or when you are driving your car). About the Author… Online job search expert Susan P. Joyce Online job search expert Susan P. Joyce has been observing the online job search world and teaching online job search skills since 1995. Susan is a two-time layoff “graduate” who has worked in human resources at Harvard University and in a compensation consulting firm. In 2011, NETability purchased WorkCoachCafe.com, and Susan has been editor and publisher of WorkCoach since then. Susan also edits and publishes Job-Hunt.org, is a Visiting Scholar at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and a columnist on HuffingtonPost. Follow Susan on Twitter at @jobhuntorg and on Google+ |
Jobless Rates Drop for Recent Veterans and Older Workers
Associated Press
- Used with permission Recent veterans fared well on the jobs front in May. The unemployment rate for men and women who served in Iraq and Afghanistan dropped to 5.4 percent - the lowest level in a year - from 6.9 percent a month earlier. Older workers also benefited from the overall bounce in the U.S. job market, which added a solid 280,000 positions in May and underscored confidence among employers. The unemployment rate for workers 55 and older fell to 3.7 percent from 4 percent in April. Not all groups came out ahead. Young workers in their early 20s lost ground. So did black Americans. The unemployment rate for black workers rose to 10.2 percent from a nearly seven-year-low of 9.6 percent in April. The data for various demographic groups came from a survey of households that is part of the Labor Department's monthly jobs data. Unemployment rate by group: (Numbers in percentages) May-15 Apr-15 May-14 White 4.7 4.7 5.4 Black 10.2 9.6 11.4 Asian 4.1 4.4 5.6 Hispanic or Latino ethnicity 6.7 6.9 7.7 Adult men 5 5 5.9 Adult women 5 4.9 5.7 Teenagers 17.9 17.1 19.2 20-24 years old 10.1 9.6 11.1 25-54 years old 4.7 4.6 5.4 55 and over 3.7 4 4.5 Veterans of Iraq/Afghanistan 5.4 6.9 5.3 No high school diploma 8.6 8.6 9.2 High school graduate 5.8 5.4 6.5 Some college 4.4 4.7 5.5 College graduate 2.7 2.7 3.2 Duration of Unemployment: Average length (weeks) 30.7 30.8 34.3 Jobless 6 months or more (pct.) 28.6 29 34.3 Not seasonally adjusted Includes all races Source: Labor Department © 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. |
|
TAO Privacy Statement | View Previous Issues | Military Job Fairs ©TAOnline.com 1996-2015, All rights reserved. |
