job & interview

What's the Best Résumé Format for You?

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What's the Best Résumé Format for You?</h1>
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Rethink your résumé. Here are four layouts and who should use them.</h2>
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The best résumé format for you depends on your work history and career goals.</div>
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<span style="color: #222222; line-height: 1.5;">Not all résumés are created equal – and they shouldn’t be. There are different formats out there that are accepted by recruiters. Consider your professional history carefully before deciding which one to use. Use the guide below to decide if you are using the right</span><span style="color: #222222; line-height: 1.5;"> </span><a class="" href="http://money.usnews.com/money/careers/articles/2013/11/25/try-these-resume-formats-when-job-searching" style="color: #005ea6; line-height: 1.5; text-decoration: none;" title="Link: http://money.usnews.com/money/careers/articles/2013/11/25/try-these-resume-formats-when-job-searching">type of résumé</a><span style="color: #222222; line-height: 1.5;"> </span><span style="color: #222222; line-height: 1.5;">for your background and career goals.</span></div>
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<b>Chronological Format. </b>The traditional chronological résumé presents employment history from the perspective of time. This is the format to use if you have a consistent employment history without gaps, and you are trying to land a job similar to the one you have now. You can’t go wrong with a chronological résumé, since it’s the most common and widely accepted.</div>
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If you have a short period when you were a stay-at-home parent or went to graduate school, you should include that in the résumé rather than leaving a gap. Holes mean questions, and if the questions aren’t answered on the paper, it’s unlikely the recruiter will take the time to call you for an interview to find out why you weren’t working during a certain period. If you held many jobs for a short period and are worried about perceptions, you might consider including a brief and diplomatic explanation for why you left each company.</div>
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<b>Functional Format. </b>If you have a minimal work history, <a class="" href="http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2012/05/17/how-to-handle-an-employment-gap" style="color: #005ea6; text-decoration: none;" title="Link: null">gaps in employment</a> or have frequently jumped around to different jobs types, this might be the right layout for you. It also works well for career changers. The functional format is set up to demonstrate your skills through your accomplishments. For example, if you’ve employed customer service skills at several jobs, you can use this as one of your skill headlines. Below the headline, include bullets that point to your key achievements related to that skill. It’s important to not use cliche phrases in your bullets, because your intention should be to <i>show</i> how you’ve exhibited the skill rather than tell.</div>
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You should also include a professional or work experience section, in which you list your place of employment, job title, location and dates. However, bullets with your achievements will fall under each skill headline at the top rather than below each job.</div>
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<b>Combined Format. </b>The combined format can be useful for those who are switching careers, especially those in more senior positions or with longer <a class="" href="http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2013/09/18/5-red-flags-in-your-job-history--and-how-to-combat-them" style="color: #005ea6; text-decoration: none;" title="Link: http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2013/09/18/5-red-flags-in-your-job-history--and-how-to-combat-them">career histories</a>. As the name suggests, it is a blend of the functional and chronological résumé. This format allows you to translate your skills to the language of the new job or career field. You want to focus the recruiter’s attention on your skills relevant to the job at hand.</div>
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Below the skills and accomplishments, as with the functional résumé, you should include a professional experience portion where you list basic information for current and prior jobs. With this format, you can also include bullets below each position that reflect achievements that didn’t fit in to a specific skill category above. Even if you are a senior executive, you should still avoid including every single piece of information. Only use the most pertinent facts to keep it concise and readable.</div>
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<b>Visual Résumés.</b> <a class="" href="http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2014/08/20/how-to-use-visual-marketing-techniques-in-your-job-search" style="color: #005ea6; text-decoration: none;" title="Link: null">Nontraditional résumés</a> have become popular recently. These types of résumés use graphics and other media to present information about the job applicant. While this is a way to stand out from the candidate crowd, many companies still want to see a traditional résumé. A story résumé might make sense for a person in a creative field, such as advertising, social media or communications – but probably not for an attorney. It’s worth researching a company’s culture before you send your résumé,  and it’s always a good idea to include a traditional version.</div>
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No matter which format you choose, make sure you include your name and how to get in contact with you. Education is another must. Other information, such as professional affiliations, volunteer work, languages and technical skills should be included if they are appropriate for the job you’re applying to. That information can also be helpful if you need to fill out your résumé more, like if you are an entry-level candidate.</div>
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In all cases, you should think about including a brief career summary at the top. This should be restricted to a few lines that tell the recruiter you fulfill the required (and possibly preferred) qualifications. The way to do this is to write how you meet the most essential credentials, which are usually listed first in a <a class="" href="http://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/rankings/the-100-best-jobs" style="color: #005ea6; text-decoration: none;">job description</a>.</div>
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Choosing the right format is important, because your résumé is your chance to get your foot in the door. The traditional format might be hurting rather than helping you. If the person reading it cannot understand why you are applying to a job in the retail industry after spending 10 years in accounting, she is not going to take the time to reach out to you to find out why. Make sure it’s clear in your résumé why you are a good fit, which may require highlighting your skills up front instead of burying accomplishments under each job. </div>
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<b>Marcelle Yeager</b> is the president of <a class="" href="http://www.careervalet.com/" style="color: #005ea6; text-decoration: none;" title="Link: http://www.careervalet.com/">Career Valet</a>, which delivers personalized career navigation services. Her goal is to enable people to recognize skills and job possibilities they didn’t know they had to make a career change or progress in their current career. She worked for more than 10 years as a strategic communications consultant, including four years overseas. Marcelle holds an MBA from the University of Maryland.</div>
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What's the Best Résumé Format for You?

What's the Best Résumé Format for You? Rethink your résumé. Here are four layouts and who should use them. The best résumé format ...

Whitney Port on the Realities of Building Your Professional Brand

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Whitney Port on the Realities of Building Your Professional Brand</h1>
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The former reality TV star discusses her transition to fashion entrepreneur.</h2>
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Whitney Port attends Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York City.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">In today’s fast-paced consumer culture, we are surrounded by brands trying to get our attention. Most of us are able to weed out the clutter and focus on the few we feel are worth it. Like it or not, you too are a brand. But do you ever stop to think about how</span><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;"> </span><a class="" href="http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2013/04/30/7-key-elements-of-a-great-personal-branding-statement" style="color: #005ea6; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5; text-decoration: none;" title="Link: http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2013/04/30/7-key-elements-of-a-great-personal-branding-statement">your professional brand</a><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">is being examined and therefore the impact it can make on your career?</span></div>
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Whitney Port, former reality TV star whose current titles include CEO, entrepreneur and fashion designer, was recently honored at the LinkedIn Discussion Series in New York City. She shared a variety of powerful tips for creating, growing and maintaining your professional brand.</div>
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Port transitioned from a fan favorite on MTV’s reality series “The Hills” to her own show, “The City,” where she learned from industry icons like Diane von Furstenberg. Now CEO and designer of her eponymous fashion line, Port is a master professional brand builder. Using her own experiences in defying misconceptions, overcoming <a class="" href="http://money.usnews.com/money/careers/articles/2014/08/27/4-mistakes-of-career-experts-and-what-you-can-learn-from-them" style="color: #005ea6; text-decoration: none;" title="Link: http://money.usnews.com/money/careers/articles/2014/08/27/4-mistakes-of-career-experts-and-what-you-can-learn-from-them">unforeseen challenges</a> and being unwilling to accept “no,” Port offered an inspiring view into the strategies we can all use to create our professional brand:</div>
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<b>Be real:</b> You may be surprised to learn that when Port signed on to intern at Teen Vogue, she didn’t know or expect she’d be staring on MTV’s hit reality TV show “The Hills.” What you saw then is who Port is now. While there is definitely some strategy involved in establishing your professional brand, and certainly the goal is to bring the best of you forward, the critical part of the equation is in fact<i> you</i>. If your brand is based upon someone you aren’t, it’s simply too exhausting to maintain. The facade is going to break down in the face of obstacles.<i></i></div>
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Port parlayed her relatable characteristics that viewers saw on TV – being a good friend, deeply committed to family and a fearless fashion risk taker – into the launch of her clothing line Whitney Eve, which debuted in 2008. With the goal of establishing credibility among fashion industry insiders and consumers alike, Port understands the importance of keeping her brand consistent online. When asked how she leverages her online presence to build her brand, she offers the key to authentic brand-building: “I try to reveal as much as possible on a daily basis to give an inside and honest look on what is going on with my brand.”</div>
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Port hits on another reason why it’s critical to be authentic when establishing a professional brand identity: It has to hold up across multiple platforms. The biggest mistake we can make is to be one brand in-person and another online. In today’s economy, the first place potential customers, clients and hiring mangers look for more information about you is online. And the only thing worse than giving an inconsistent message about who you are is giving no message at all.</div>
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Port’s presence on LinkedIn is a great example of how to leverage your LinkedIn profile to reflect your professional brand and identity. But you don’t need to have a history in Hollywood to do this. Like Port,<a href="http://blog.linkedin.com/2014/07/01/creating-a-killer-linkedin-profile-tips-from-link-humans/" style="color: #005ea6; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="Link: http://blog.linkedin.com/2014/07/01/creating-a-killer-linkedin-profile-tips-from-link-humans/">show off</a> examples of your work, share your industry-leading opinions and build a network of professional peers and fans. By maximizing the opportunities to illustrate your professional brand on your LinkedIn profile, you increase the chances of getting noticed by potential clients, colleagues and employers.</div>
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<b>Prepare to pivot: </b>You’d think with the cache of being a TV personality, it would have been easy for Port to transition into the world of fashion, but that wasn’t the case. “It was definitely a difficult transition becoming a full-time designer and having everyone take me seriously,” she says. Port’s experience is not unlike what the rest of us are likely to experience in the case of a career pivot. It can be difficult for people, colleagues, industry peers and even family to see us in a new light. Expect some pushback. This is where a solid professional brand is essential in terms of standing your ground and outlasting the protest.</div>
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Port puts it this way: “Do not take 'no' for an answer. You will be faced with a million noes when starting out, but it’s important to stay focused on your goal and not let those noes deter you. It is then the sweet smell of success after those noes that makes it all worthwhile. I get a series of noes and yeses every day of my life. It is an inevitable part of life. Don't come into this [or any] industry thinking you will be an overnight success. There is just too much competition.”</div>
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<b>Decide on your “why”:</b> Getting past the naysayers wasn’t the hardest thing Port had to contend with in her career, and in all likelihood it won’t be yours, either. More often than not, it’s the personal stuff that becomes our <a class="" href="http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2011/06/21/7-ways-to-motivate-yourself" style="color: #005ea6; text-decoration: none;" title="Link: http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2011/06/21/7-ways-to-motivate-yourself">professional motivation</a>.</div>
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It’s sometimes called the "fetal" or "black hole," but whatever word you use, it’s a point at which you don’t know if you're able to go on. It requires, as Port explains it, the decision to show up. When asked about her proudest professional accomplishment, she shared: “Honestly, this is hard, but it’s the decision I’ve made to still show up.”</div>
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Port’s father passed away in March of  2013, a few years after helping her launch Whitney Eve. “He was my business partner, my fearless leader and the man I turned to for every question I had. I am proud of myself for simply showing up after his passing. Every day I walk into my office and feel his energy there. Sometimes it’s so physically and emotionally handicapping that I don't know if I can continue doing it. But we [she and her siblings] did it, and we have shown up.”</div>
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Port has leveraged her personal loss and grief into motivation to succeed not just for herself, but for her family. The vast majority of successful people have something more than the mortgage, a pair of Jimmy Choo shoes or their personal ego at the core of their drive to achieve. Whatever your “why” is, the more powerfully you understand, define, <a class="" href="http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2012/11/07/what-is-personal-branding-anyway" style="color: #005ea6; text-decoration: none;">build a brand</a> around and harness it, the more likely you are to live out your dreams.</div>
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What are your experiences in building your professional brand? To learn more about Port’s career insights and professional lessons learned, search for her on LinkedIn and and on follow her.</div>
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Whitney Port on the Realities of Building Your Professional Brand

Whitney Port on the Realities of Building Your Professional Brand The former reality TV star discusses her transition to fashion entrepr...

How To Win The Job

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<a href="http://www.interviewbest.com/?p=5177" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51) !important; line-height: 50px !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Interview Tips From The Expert – How To Win The Job By “Figuring Out the Problem”</a></h2>
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<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Figure out the problem, be the solution, get hired</strong><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Organizations hire people to solve problems. The problem can vary from, we need another set of hands to get our trucks unloaded on time to our stock price has declined and we need someone to take this corporation in a new direction. When interviewing, thinking about solving a company’s problem provides a perspective that helps focus your interview preparation and guides your presentation in the interview.</div>
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The initial step in preparing for the interview is defining the problem. Typically, job descriptions do not specifically say “here is the problem, the problem is we need someone who can sell more of our product in a difficult market” or, “we need someone who can manage this new project and bring it in on time and on budget” or “we need someone to help the emergency department process medical records accurately”. Job descriptions talk about what the person needs to know or do to fix the problem but does not specify the problem directly. Interview preparation, and the initial part of an interview, should be dedicated to defining the problem in as much detail as possible. Once you have defined the problem, you can clearly state how your skills and experience makes you the best solution for the problem.</div>
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Pre-interview defining the problem is a matter of researching the company, the industry and the position. Also, use the screening interview to ask powerful questions that will define the problem. An example of a good problem-defining question is, “what are the three or four priorities for the person in this position in the next six months? Learning the priorities will inform you of what the “hiring problem” is. In the interview, spend the initial part of the interview listening to the hiring manager talk about the position and his or her needs and think, “what is the problem that needs solving?”</div>
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Once you have the problem clearly defined, follow a two-step process. First, clearly state the experience, skills, background and education that demonstrates you can do the tasks required to fix the problem. Second, provide an action plan of how you will fix the problem. What will you do in the first 30 days on the job what will you do in the first 60 days? Your action plan items can be as simple as learning company policy and procedures so you can get along in the company or as complex as an initiating an analysis of current sales strategies and market trends. An action plan communicates to the hiring manager a high level of motivation and a proactive orientation. It says, “I am going to hit the ground running and contribute to the success of this organization right away. I have good ideas and I am eager to get started”.</div>
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What hiring manager wouldn’t love to hear a candidate talk about how they are the solution to their problem and how they are going to solve it?</div>
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<a href="http://www.interviewbest.com/?p=5177" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">View the original article here</a></div>

How To Win The Job

Interview Tips From The Expert – How To Win The Job By “Figuring Out the Problem” Figure out the problem, be the solution, get hired ...

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What's the Best Résumé Format for You?

Whitney Port on the Realities of Building Your Professional Brand

How To Win The Job

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