4 Secrets to a Standout Resume

4 Secrets to a Standout Resume 4 Secrets to a Standout Resume Team player. Results-oriented. Self-motivated.You already know where this is going. These are some of the most generic termsanyone could use on their resume, and yet everyone uses them. Why? Because weve been trained to think that this is what companies want to hear.To really stand out and grab a readers attention, your resume needs to tellyour unique story. Skip the clichs and follow these four steps instead1. Be Honest and Genuine in Your SummaryReally dig down to the heart of what you do and why. Include what drives, excites, or motivates you about your work. This is your chance to make a connection with the reader. Dont squander it.2. Its Okay to Be BriefWhile your inclination may be to write a list of everything you were responsible for under each position you held, dont. Job duties dont mean much without real results. Share your so what instead of responsible for.For example, you could say you were responsible for new client development.In this case, the so what might be Consistently brought in $2 million dollars of new business each year. More significant, right?Rather than responsible for mentoring junior sales staff, you could say All junior sales staff under my direction were promoted to senior sales associates within three months, well above the company average of seven months for other departments.A couple of good so whats will make more of an impact than a laundry list of responsible fors could ever make.3. Look to Your LegacyWherever you worked, you either added value or detracted from it. Think about what you did, initiated, or implemented that left the organization better off. It could be that you made the push for the company to revamp their corporate culture. Did you start the internal communications plan the company leise follows long after youve moved on? If you created it, its yours to claim on your resume4. Convey Your Desired Career PathAll hiring managers are interested in y our career progression. Naturally, they will be curious about why you left each job and what you hoped to gain in each new position. If you can offer them insight into these areas, theyll get a much clearer picture of your career growth and the thought processbehind it.Remember, a resume is supposed to generate interest in the reader. It doesnt have to offer all the details of your story it just needs to tell a compelling story. You can fill in all the blanks in person.A version of this article originally appeared on theAtrium Staffing blog.Michele Mavi isAtrium Staffings resident career expert.Master the art of closing deals and making placements. Take our Recruiter Certification Program today. Were SHRM certified. Learn at your own pace during this 12-week program. Access over 20 courses. Great for those who want to break into recruiting, or recruiters who want to further their career.

How to Communicate Power When You Walk into the Room

How to Communicate Power When You Walk into the RoomHow to Communicate Power When You Walk into the RoomHow to Communicate Power When You Walk into the Room Morgan, author of Power Cues The Subtle Science of Leading Groups, Persuading Others, and Maximizing Your Personal Impact (2014, Harvard Business Review Press)You can win over or lose your colleagues in the first thirty seconds of meeting them with your body language and specifically your posture. Really.How do you accomplish this feat or avoid this disaster?Communicate Power through PostureYouve seen people who bound into the room with lots of energy and no doubt seen people who do the opposite creep into the room with low energy and lots weighing them down. Which did you look forward to mora?So its important to smile, move quickly (but elend so quickly as to fall or injure yourself), and look as eager as you can. But theres more to it than that. The real secret lies in your power cues posture.There are three ways to stand (an d a fourth thats a combination of one and two), and only one of them is effective.Think of how you look from the side, as if a straight line were being drawn through your head down to your toes. If youve got good posture, the one your mother used to tell you to have, then the balls of your feet, your pelvis, and your shoulders and head all will line up on that vertical slice.Some people, however, project their heads forward. Most people who spend a lot of time at the computer do this the computer work rounds their shoulders and pushes their heads forward.I call this the head posture, sensibly enough. It signals subservience, humility, and deference to the people around you. Great for the Dalai Lama, but not so good for the rest of us who dont need (or want) to be as professionally humble.Others project their pelvis forward. (Imagine yourself playing air guitar without the air guitar.) This posture, which is highly sexualized, is typical of teenagers and pop stars. Again, not so good for grownup businesspeople.The third possible posture is the straight-up, lead-with the-heart posture. Imagine a soldier, seen from the side, but relaxed across the shoulders rather than rigid. Thats the heart posture, and it radiates trust, authority, and confidence all the attributes you as a businessperson want to project.(The fourth is a combination of head and pelvis, a kind of question mark. Most typical, again, of teenagers, who are both self-conscious and sexualized. Or intellectual rockers. Not good for businesspeople.)So bound into the room and look happy. But more importantly, watch your posture. It will signal to your colleagues who you are, whether you intend it to or not.During the Meeting Occupy the Right SpaceOnce youve set the right tone with your posture, its time to think about your body language in relation to the others. Lets talk about zones. Not getting in the zone. No, I mean the distances between people.We each have four zones of space that we maintain bet ween us. The first zone is the public zone, and its twelve feet or more. We tend not to take personally the stuff that happens in that zone thus its not very interesting to us. Between twelve feet and four feet is the social zone.From four feet to one-and-a-half feet is personal space. Heres where it gets interesting.As soon as youre in my personal space, Im paying close attention. You might be dangerous, so Ill keep a close eye on you.From one-and-a-half feet to zero feet is intimate space. In this zone, were both committed. For business meetings any public occasion, really dont go here. Both parties will feel very uncomfortable. Its why Americans and English travelers feel so awkward in Asia and some parts of the Mediterranean.Back to meetings. So you need to get in their personal space if youre really going to grab them (intellectually). Not their intimate space, their personal space.Use the four zones, but especially the personal one, for persuading your colleagues.During the Meeting Make Effective Eye ContactWhy would you imagine you could get away with not looking at your colleagues? Thats just common sense.Theres research that suggests that we tend to trust people who look at us and distrust people who dont because we think theyre lying. And were right. It is a sign of lying, though a not very reliable one.But is there anything more to it than that? There are some important subtleties.The first sophisticated rule of eye contact then is that if youre going to make eye contact, you have to do it with your eyes wide open.The second sophisticated rule of eye contact is that you actually have to make eye contact. With individuals. For up to thirty seconds. You cant look over the heads of the group, and you cant dart your eyes around nervously like a lizards tongue.The third sophisticated rule of eye contact is that you should be monitoring the extent to which your colleagues are making eye contact with you. Its a simple way to gauge their interest in what youre saying. If 80 percent of them are focused on you, youre OK.If 80 percent (or even 40 percent) are focused elsewhere, youre in trouble.Reprinted by permission of Harvard Business Review Press. Excerpted from Power Cues The Subtle Science of Persuading Others, and Maximizing your Personal Impact. Copyright 2014. Nicholas H. Morgan. All Rights Reserved.Author BioNick Morgan, founder of Public Words Inc., is one of Americas top communication and speech coaches. He is a former Fellow at Harvards Kennedy School of Government, where he was affiliated with the schools Center for Public Leadership. From 1998 to 2003, he served as editor of the Harvard Management Communication Letter. He is the author of the acclaimed book, Working the Room, reprinted in paperback as Give Your Speech, Change the World.

How To Complain While Still Being Professional

How To Complain While Still Being ProfessionalHow To Complain While Still Being Professional At any job, issues are bound to come up. From your coworkers to your company policies, not everything can be perfect all the time. So, what exactly should you do when you disagree with a company policy, or need to lodge a formal complaint about your annoying co-worker?Theres a huge difference between exhibiting radical candor and becoming the office complainer. In order to help employees strike the right balance, Glassdoor spoke with a few career experts to help you resolve your office woes the professional way.The first step to take when raising concerns in the work place, according to Amy Van Court, CPCC, PCC , is to talk to your direct supervisor. Despite any past experiences youve had bringing feedback to your manager, Van Court notes this is always the best way to start addressing your concerns.Start clean. Give your anfhrer an opportunity to surprise you, to advocate for you if necessary, says Van Court.But, before actually going in to make your complaint, Van Court suggests taking a moment to consider what you want to happen.Turn everycomplaintyou have into arequest, suggest Van Court. Then youre creating a path instead of staying stuck in the mud and expecting someone else to get you out.Before you walk into your managers office, its best to go in prepared with solutions. If you walk in with a long list of complaints and no proactive steps to take to solve them, youll end up sounding like a complainer.If you have concerns, take some time to get clear on what they are and why they upset you - journaling is great for this, says Laura Weldy, leadership mentor and life coach at The Well Supported Woman . Taking some time to prepare will allow you to be precise with your concerns and also help you to avoid saying anything too hastily.Laura notes she encourages clients who experience this issue to take this practice one step forward and actually i dentify what their ideal solution to the problem would be. Whether its changing the way you communicate with someone, or requesting a change in your schedule, coming to this meeting prepared will help your manager better understand how to help you.Your manager may not be able to make it happen, but they will never know what youre hoping to see happen if you dont tell them - plus it shows that youre proactive about problem-solving, says Weldy.If your manager cant help with the situation, or nothing gets resolved after your complaint is made, what steps should you take next? Try taking the request to the persons boss, or to your managers supervisor. Then, if the issues continue to be ignored or unresolved, you can go to human resources.I have heard of many examples of people feeling they are not treated justly by their boss (or their boss being unreasonable or speaking in nasty tones) and issues with a fellow employee - such as inappropriate behavior, irritation by sitting too clo se in a cubicle situation or gossip, etc., describes Anne Angerman, MSW at Career Matters . If there are still issues, I would recommend consulting with an employment attorney and learning if the grievances are valid. Also, it depends what the issues are Are they personal, such as age discrimination? Or is it an issue with a boss or another employee? Or treatment by another employee?If you want to ensure your complaint gets the attention you feel it deserves, the best way to keep this conversation professional and between you and your manager is to come to an agreement on how to best handle the situation.When you approach your boss with your request, ask him/her if they willagreeto look at it and get back to you, advises Van Court.Agreementsare far better thanexpectationsbecause they represent a dialogue, where expectations are just something we place on someone whether they want it or not.Van Court notes that, if your boss agrees to look into your request, make sure you ask for a date that you can both agree to that the issue can be resolved by. But, if its a more serious issue, such as sexual harassment or illegal actions, you will want to have this resolved within a shorter time period, if not immediately.Though making a complaint at work can feel intimidating, approaching the issue in a professional manner will help you reach a resolution.I think that the biggest difference between a complaint and constructive feedback is that constructive feedback is solution-oriented, says Weldy. Everybody needs to vent now and then, but make sure that the person youre complaining to is the right person - let small frustrations about scheduling, slightly annoying coworkers or not-so-fun tasks out during conversations with friends and family, not your boss. If you have a bigger problem to address, dont be shy about addressing it with your manager - youre both here to make your team better