Always an Intern, Never an Employee

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Always an Intern, Never an Employee

How Employers can Add Value to Career Development

Beverly Kaye (on the left) and Julie Winkle Giulioni (on the right)

Employees may one day hope to advance in their careers, by having the right attitude and working hard.  So, how can employers demonstrate an interest in career development while getting their employees’ best efforts on the job?

The success of every business is based on the people that work there. And one of the most costly impacts is the loss of key people.

Growing your business means growing your people.  Research consistently underscores the link between employee engagement and critical business priorities like innovation, productivity, efficiency and results. Yet too many organizations fail to see the connection between talent and the bottom line. Continue Reading

Survey: Executives Want Workers to Improve Their Communication, Leadership Skills

What would executives most like to see from their workers?

When it comes to career development for accountants, the “ABCs” may matter as much as the “123s”, a new Accountemps survey suggests. Thirty-one percent of chief financial officers (CFOs) interviewed named communication as the area where employees need to improve the most. Twenty-six percent of executives would like to see stronger leadership abilities, while 14 percent said gaining functional, job-specific skills is the top priority for their department’s staff.

CFOs were asked, “Which one of the following is the area where you’d like to see your employees in your department improve the most?” Their responses: Continue Reading

Developing Your Career from the Ground Up

If you’re just graduating from college, or deciding to enter the workforce after spending your adult years involved in other projects, then you have the benefit many others don’t: building your career from the ground up.
For some, this prospect may sound scary – especially if they’re in the midst of a career that has been rocky all along the way. But if you take your time to plan your prospective career – as well as alternatives – before you get started, you should be able to make rather smooth transitions along the way until you reach your ultimate goal. Let’s look at how you can get this done …
Decide What You Like
One of the most important ways to obtain fulfillment in your career is by first deciding what it is that you like. Many people have no idea what they would like to do with their lives, and this is totally understandable. Some people have always obediently followed the decisions of their parents. Others may have been forced to choose a path in college after too many years being “undecided.” Luckily, no matter the predicament, it is never too late to choose.
The easiest way to decide what you like is by creating a list of the things you love to do for no money at all. If you’re having a hard time coming up with a list, you can complete personality tests like the Ansir Self-Perception test, through which you will answer questions to help you determine your strengths. It will also offer careers you may be best suited to take on.
Choose Your Career(s)
Once you’ve created a list – or completed a personality test – your next step is to see what careers fall in line with your passions. For instance, you may absolutely love math and find that being an accountant, bookkeeper, or even math teacher may fall in line with what you love. Or you may love animals and find that you may be able to work in the veterinary world, on a farm, or even as a zookeeper. If your college degree is not compatible with your passion, that’s okay. It will just be your job to determine what steps you’ll need to take to make your dream a reality.
Create Your Plan – Get Where You Want to Be
Once you have determined more than one option for your career path, your next step can be to look more thoroughly at each one then create a plan that determines how far you want to get on each path (Director of Public Relations, Vice President of Sales, etc.). Next you would look at potential routes you can take to achieve your goal, including the number of years you would invest in each position along the way. You can research the strongest employment opportunities and history of economical strengths with each option. And of course, make room for flexibility in the event that you become dissatisfied with your career or want to make plans around your family.
Developing your career from the ground up can require a lot of soul searching. But it’s a great way to find yourself – and your career. So don’t be afraid to tackle this task. You’ll find that your career success will likely be much easier to obtain with a plan in place.
Heather Eagar is a former professional resume writer and is passionate about providing working professionals with current, reliable and effective job search tools and information. Compare the top resume services in the industry at http://www.resumelines.com.

5 Ways Your Cover Letter Says, ‘I Don’t Want This Job’

Cover letters can be a great way to get employers to notice you. Of course you always want to send one but what are some ways that your cover letter can actually hurt your chances of getting interviews?
1) You use ‘Dear Sir or Madame’ as your salutation.
It can be a lot of work to find out the name of the hiring manager or the person that your resume is being sent to. However, if you do, it will put you in the good graces of the hiring manager…at least to start off with.
2) The reader is left with the question of what job you are actually applying for in their organization.
You need to state the title of the job somewhere on your cover letter. It can be as a title or in the first paragraph. Hiring managers don’t want to guess which job you want. If they do, then you’ll likely get passed up for interviews.
This is another way you can personalize your cover letter. If you use the exact title for which they are hiring, then they’ll know that you took the time to tailor it just for them.
3) Your cover letter addresses none of the job requirements.
One way to really impress an employer is by their specific needs they listed in the job posting. This is where you can completely personalize your cover letter. Check out your achievements from your resume and see what is applicable to their needs. Pull a few and reword them a bit to add them as a bullet list on your cover letter.
4) You end it with a passive call to action.
You want to make the Hiring Manager do the least amount of work as possible in order for you to get an interview. One of the ways you can ease their burden is by calling them to follow-up. State that you will call them in a certain amount of time – say one week or on a specific date – and be sure to do it.
Don’t worry about coming across as to aggressive. It’s acting proactively which employers think highly of and you can expect them to take note. Of course they may call you even before you get a chance to give them a ring, but that’s a good thing.
5) No contact information.
I know you’re saying ‘Give me a break!’ It seems like that’s common sense, right? Not necessarily. Sometimes when job seekers create their own resume package, they only put their contact info on their resume, not their cover letter. But what happens if the two get separated and your resume accidentally gets tossed? Your desire to get an interview just got tossed along with it.
Paying attention to detail will go far when you’re job hunting. Don’t be in such a rush that you forgo some of these pointers. Take your time to do it right and you’ll find yourself getting many more employers wanting to meet you.

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The ABCs of Effective Resume Writing: Part 5 – Second Opinions Count or A Once Over Will Never Do

How many times have you written a document or email, sent it out, and then discovered some major typos or even words missing? What if it doesn’t get your point across – or worse yet – give off the exact opposite impression? If you’re like most, it’s happened to you at least once.
How do you keep yourself from making the same mistake when it comes to your resume? Here are a couple of necessities when it comes to having your resume stand up to the scrutiny of Hiring Managers.
1. Give your eyes a break. Do you notice that when you’re finding a task particularly difficult that if you take a break for a few hours – or even overnight – you can tackle it with a freshness and vigor that you had lost? You need to recharge before you require yourself to inspect a document that you’ve been working on for hours. The words all start to run together and nothing even makes sense to you. The passion for which you originally wrote with is lost on you due to mental fatigue. You need to take a step back, refresh your eyes and mind, then go back and take another look.
2. Have a friend (or family member) take a look. Having another person read your resume can be extremely helpful when it comes to having a fresh perspective. You are so close to your resume that you tend to not be very objective when it’s all said and done. It’s beneficial to have someone completely new look over it. Why? What important information can you gleam from this exercise?
• What’s their first impression? Professional? Amateur? Sloppy?
• Do they know what kind of job you are applying for and how you are qualified?
• Are they impressed with your achievements?
• Is there too little information? Too much?
Be sure that the person or people you choose can give you an honest opinion. You don’t want to depend on someone who is afraid to hurt your feelings or thinks that everything you do is great. It is best to choose someone with business acumen as well. It’s not necessary that they be efficient in human resources and the like, but the more they’re involved with the business world, the better.
3. Have a professional review it. There are many resume writing services who offer a free review of your resume. They can provide some great tips that you might never have thought of to improve your overall success at getting interviews. However, you want to choose one that is personalized and not just a checklist. Not that you won’t get anything out of a checklist but you’ll get a lot more out of a more thorough review.
Resume writing is an exhausting task so you need to be sure not to jump the gun and send out your resume package immediately after you complete it. It’ll pay to take one – if not all – the tips above to heart before you apply if you decide to write your own resume.
Now that you’re all set to send out your resume, we need to review some tips on how to do that effectively. But…that’s for next time.

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An Exercise on Interests

Some of the interns have read the career development exercises for this month but not yet done it. They may be wondering about the relevance. I’ll explain.

We have interests that drive our enjoyment of our work and keep us motivated. Because the interest is keen, we’re more likely to do our best work. That then results in our becoming invaluable assets to wherever we are dedicating our energies.

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Job-hopping : How It Affects Your Career Success

Job-hopping is a contentious issue for some. Does it affect your career success?

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