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Saturday, April 20, 2013

5 Things You Should Never Put on Your Resume

Just wanted to share this article that we read off from yahoo. Thought that it would be a good one to share.

By Tom Mangan Monster Contributing Writer 

Which blunders will send your resume straight into oblivion? There might be dozens, depending on the job, but experts say these five common resume mistakes are most likely to derail your job search. 

Your Age 

Hiring managers need to know what you can do for them, not how many years you�ve managed to stay alive. Darlene Zambruski, managing editor of ResumeEdge.com and JobInterviewEdge.com, advises against:
  • Listing professional experience more than 15 years old.
  • Providing an exact number of years of professional experience in your opening summary.
"For example: 'senior accountant with more than 25 years of experience in...' -- this kind of data invites age discrimination," Zambruski said. 

And don't forget that age bias cuts both ways: A resume that tells a future boss you're too young for the job is no good, either. 

Lists of Tasks or Duties Without Results 
Your resume has to go beyond saying which jobs you've done: It must establish what you've accomplished on those jobs. Many applicants miss this key distinction. 

"The only things that separate equally qualified candidates are the results of their efforts," Zambruski said. "For example, an administrative assistant may write, 'reorganized filing system.' That provides the task. What were the results? A better way to write it would be, 'Increased team productivity 20% by reorganizing filing system.' Results are what matter to hiring managers." 

Explanations of Anything Negative 
Everybody has dark stories in their past. 

There's no place for them on your resume. "Your resume is a promotional document and all promotional documents need to be positive," said Teddy Burriss, a career counselor and outplacement consultant in Winston-Salem, N.C. 

The time to explain yourself is when you're talking to somebody in person after you've scored an interview, Burriss said. 

A List of Every Job You've Ever Held 
Hiring managers don't want to know about that summer you worked as a lifeguard -- unless you're applying to manage the park district's pool. 

"Recruiters and hiring managers are looking for relevance and stability," Burriss said. The key is to list the work you've done in the past 10 to 15 years that tells an employer you're a skilled, reliable fit for the job. 

Say you've had three employers in the past seven years but only two of them are in the industry you're applying for. Employers don't want to see a gap in your employment record, so you still need to list that third job -- just make sure you list the accomplishments in that job that are relevant to the job you're applying for. 

Personal Details 
Employers usually don't care about your marital status, race, sexual orientation or hobbies, unless they are somehow pivotal to the job. Including personal data is a rookie mistake, and nobody wants to hire a rookie. 

Crafting and sending a resume is part of the "discovery phase" of the hiring process, Burriss said, so employers at this phase don't need personal details beyond your name, city, state and a way to contact you. If you make it to the hiring phase, the human resources department will collect your relevant personal details then. 

Most resumes are now transmitted electronically, and there's no way to be sure where one might end up after you send it in. With identity thieves always on the prowl, you always need to protect your personal data. Never include your Social Security number. 

A few more quick tips from the staffing agency Temporary Resources Inc.:
  • Make sure your resume has no typos, grammar goofs or factual errors (like getting a company's name wrong).
  • Don't list your salary history unless the employer demands it. 
  • Don't worry about providing references. You can do that in a separate document.

Thursday, April 11, 2013

The Croods


We just got back from watching a good movie with our kids. It was an animated movie simply entitled The Croods. To tell you the truth, we did not have any idea what the movie was about. It was in the spur of the moment on our daughter’s birthday. She wanted to do something together so we all agreed on a movie and the movie that could fit into our last minute schedule was The Croods. J

The movie was awesome. It had a good storyline and the animation and graphics were cool and bright. But most importantly the movie had a lot of lessons that we could take home and apply in our daily lives namely on leadership.

Before we go any further, here is a simple synopsis of The Croods so that you may better understand what we want to share today. Of course the best is to go and watch the movie!

The Croods is a prehistoric comedy adventure that follows the world's first family as they embark on a journey of a lifetime. The family consist of Eep, living in pre-historic times, her overprotective father Grug, mother Ugga, little sister Sandy, brother Thunk, and grandmother.

When the cave that has always shielded them from danger is destroyed, the Croods have to venture into the unknown for the first time. Traveling across a spectacular landscape, the Croods discover an incredible new world filled with fantastic creatures -- and their outlook is changed forever especially when they meet Guy, an intelligent caveboy.

You can check out the movie trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fVCKy69zUY


So here are three lessons that we learned from The Croods that we can all use to succeed in life.

1.   Use your brain – IDEAS!
As humans, we have the ultimate gift which is our brains. This separates us from other things on this great earth. Most of the time because of our routine we never use our brain enough. We just set our life on auto pilot and do everything as we do them every day. Sure there are some things that you don’t have to think too much but what happen is that we do not utilize our brain.

We must focus on what we can do not on what we can’t do. When we have the right focus, we can use our brain to think and we will start to generate ideas that will help us to achieve our goals. That’s why if you spend a day thinking you will find yourself getting tired faster as whenever you need to think you are using your resources. Thinking is the most important activity but it is something that people don’t do enough.

Using your brain will allow you to plan your life better. You will also be able to come up with better solutions and better ways to do things. In short you can have a better life just by thinking more!

2.   Follow the light – DREAMS
The Croods showed us that we must have a dream. When you don’t have a dream you will be stuck in your life. One of the best ways to have a dream is to get the right exposure. As they say, exposure leads to expansion.

Most of the time our problem is that we do not see the light hence we cannot follow the light. Walt Disney so eloquently said, ‘If you can dream it, you can achieve it.’

The Croods managed to change their lives and more importantly survive because they decided to follow the light. If you want to be a great leader than you need to have a dream. You need to follow the light to your dreams. Once you see your light you can be the light for others to follow.

3.   Get out of the cave – GET OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE!
In order to achieve success you need to get out of your comfort zone. Before they lost their cave, the Croods were just surviving. They were not even leaving. Their goal was not to die. To them anything new was bad. Experimenting was bad. Trying was bad. In short just do the same things that have kept them alive.

Getting out of your comfort zone is one of the toughest things to do in life. We all have problems to do it. In the Croods, when they decided to get out of their comfort zone and try out new things, they discover new things and it allowed them to grow to become better people.

Think back to the things that have happened to you that you thought was bad for you. Chances are those experiences have helped you to grow to become a better person. That’s why we learn more from our failures. Ask any successful person about their journey to success and we can guarantee you that they will have a lot of stories of failures along the way J