Listing your experience - how far back should you go?

Listing your experience – how far back should you go?

 

One of the biggest concerns in creating a resume has to do with your professional experience. Before you begin your resume, consider the following questions.

- What is your career objective?
- Are you changing careers or looking for professional growth?
- What experience have you had so far that will help in meeting your professional goals?

 

To get started in developing your resume, list all of your previous experience, in chronological order, starting with your latest job on a piece of paper. List the dates of employment, your job title, the full company name and the location of your employment. Now, consider just how much experience you have had. In recent years, it has become more commonplace to change jobs more frequently and not build your career in one place. As such, it is possible that someone with ten years of professional experience following college has had over three jobs. That doesn't seem all that much to include on a resume, right? Consider someone with over 30 years of experience. It is important to set limits on what you include and what you can freely exclude from your resume under your professional experience.

 

Ideally, your resume should not exceed two pages. Depending on the type of jobs you have held and your responsibilities, having only two pages doesn't account for a lot of space. The best practice for listing your experiences is not to exceed the most recent five jobs you have held. Again, keep the mind the length of the resume when you are deciding on the number of jobs you will list – if your last five jobs and their accompanying responsibilities will take over one page alone, than consider narrowing the experience down to the three most recent positions you had.

 

Also, consider the time you spent at each organization you have worked for – list up to the last ten to fifteen years of experience. It is not necessary to list every job you've ever had to showcase your qualifications and years of experience. If you have a long professional career, focus on the last three to five jobs, but use the profile or summary at the beginning of the resume to highlight the number of years you have spent working, or the number of years you have spent in a certain industry, acquiring specific skills.

 

When listing your experiences, it is important that you do so in chronological order without skipping any of the jobs you have held. While you may feel that certain jobs are not particularly complimenting to your current career objective you should not avoid listing them on your resume. Work on highlighting the responsibilities that are transferable across various industries.

 

Leaving any unexplained gaps in your work history will raise questions by your potential employer – thus don't create those gaps on your resume by listing your experience out of order or by skipping jobs you have had. Finally, make sure that your cover letter accounts for any additional qualifications you would like to bring to the attention of your potential employer that you didn't include on the resume.

 

Your resume should be concise, well written, and sell you as the best candidate for the job. Just remember that it is quality over quantity that counts.

 

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Methods Of Saving Money

Methods Of Saving Money

 

Saving is basically putting aside money or a way to utilize your present income for future use.

 

One saves for several reasons such as for a college education, buying a new car, for a new TV set you wish to acquire in three to four months time, for down payment on a home, or to provide for yourself when retirement comes.

 

As much as there are several reasons for saving, there are likewise many methods in which one can save. In most instances, the best method can be determined by whatever plans you have for the future.

 

1. Savings accounts. When saving for just a short period or for emergency purposes, consider opening a savings account passbook, as it is in this method that you can easily gain access to your funds.

 

Great for both long and short term savings, you can deposit and withdraw money to your account and earn interest, based on your average daily balance. A minimum balance is required to be maintained though, and you are charged with a penalty should you fail to maintain it.

 

2. Checking account with interest.  Here one can benefit from checking account conveniences, while your deposits gain interests. Generally these types of accounts grants privileges such as limitless withdrawal and check writing, access to ATM and bill payments that can be done online.

 

This method typically requires a daily maintaining balance of at least $2,000.

 

3. Money market insured accounts. For long-termed goals, this method is ideal, as it generally offers a much higher rate of interest compared to a regular or standard savings account.

 

The interest rate usually is dependent on the amount of money in your bank account; larger balance means higher interest.

 

4. "CD" or Certificates of Deposit.  This is a savings method requiring you to "loan" your money to your financial agency for a certain time frame, usually ranging from thirty days up to five years. Here, the longer the time span again, means higher interest.

 

Keep in mind that usually insurance companies offer better deals on interests compared to banks, so before you invest, compare rates first!

 

At certain times, when your goal is many years away, it can be a wiser decision to save money in a certain way that you are not drawn on using it other than the main reason for saving it. Deciding on the right financial agency such as a bank, credit union or insurance firm can bring about a lot of benefit in your finances.

 

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"Quo Vadis, New Graduate?"

"Quo Vadis, New Graduate?"

 

According to a recent survey by Job Outlook, for the third year now there is a positive increase in hiring fresh college graduates for 2006.  Business owners plan on hiring more from the class of 2005-06 than they did from the 2004-05 class as well as offering higher compensation and benefits for the new hires.

 

In the annual survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, nine out of ten companies describe the new job market as good, very good, and excellent.  Public accounting and consulting firms narrated the brightest prospect for the future graduates, while engineering and construction firms supported the idea by saying they'll also be hiring.

 

There is a growing demand for new graduates in the job market as a result of the also growing products and services they offer and to keep up with the retiring HR staff. 

 

Who are in demand?

 

• Mechanical engineering
• Electrical engineering
• Accounting
• Business administration/ management
• Economics/finance
• Computer science
• Information sciences and systems
• Marketing/marketing management
• Computer engineering
• Chemical engineering

 

Mechanical engineering graduates topped the list and eyeing on them are aerospace, automotive, mechanical equipment manufacturers.  They also plan on hiring graduates with Ph.D.s in science and computer related courses.

 

Banking, transportation, financial, and insurance services are seeking Economics/Finance graduates.  The food and beverage processing companies, merchandisers, and financial services will need more Business Administration/Management degree holders.  One-third of business owners plan on hiring associate graduates categorized into three: technology, engineering and business related degrees.  Insurance and engineering/surveying companies appear the most in need of 2 year course graduates for they bear a productive kind of technical knowledge which does not require more training.  They belong to the hands-on work force who developed a good work ethic which is sadly observed by employers as missing in previous amateur graduates.

 

During the survey, only 23.5%, (mainly manufacturers) respondents planned on hiring international graduates in 2006. 

 

What qualities should a new graduate possess?

 

• Must have excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Must be honest and has a high regard with integrity
• Can easily relate to others
• Maintain strong work ethic
• Can work well with others –TEAMWORK
• Analytical skills
• Must be self motivated and initiative
• Adaptability to change
• Updated computer skills
• Observant to details

 

The standards of companies' ideal candidates are often higher than the last year's.  It is important that new graduates show good G.P.A.s as full time jobs come with good benefits coming from good revenues.  Salary, should not be the sole consideration when looking for a job, benefits are part of it.

 

Here are some of the lists of benefits:

 

• Life and Medical/Dental insurance
• Retirement plans
• Annual and semi-annual increase
• Employee counseling program
• Dress code
• Paid trainings
• Bonus and commissions
• Family benefits
• Flexi-time
• Performance updates
• Vacation and sick leaves
• On-site fitness and recreational facilities
• Day care center
• Company car/service

 

The best places to seek competitive employers can be on campus job fairs, during on-the-job-trainings, student organizations and clubs, Internet search job search engines, etc.  What's important is that you target the right employers.  Don't let an opportunity pass, get in the interview to know more about their career offers and don't forget to research about the company.  You must be able to discuss your career objectives and compose a list of relevant and creative questions you can ask yourself.

 

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Better Job Search Engines

Better Job Search Engines

 

Job search engines use state-of-the-art technology to assist people in their job quest.  Here you could enter all the relevant information to reduce the lists of sought after jobs to get more accurate results.

 

Because new jobs are being added daily or even hours after, the tendency to see the results you had yesterday may be different from what you see today.  This is where job search engines come in handy.

 

After some trial and error there are a few job search engines that could yield better results.  They allow searchers to see major job sites, companies and even its associations by entering a keyword and location.  Results can be seen in different ways, it could be in a browser list and some sent thru e-mail. 

 

SimplyHired.com, America's Job Bank, Jobster, and Indeed.com are just a few of the search engines that can give you more accurate results.  These sites include over 500 job listings with job boards, prime newspapers, and numerous companies with career pages. 

 

Indeed.com even has an advance search option that could be used to search company names, positions, and even the distance for commuters.

 

America's Job Bank let's you enter the job category you would like to search, then you can enter either the city or the zip code and state you would like to find the job and it gives the list of job openings.  If you're lucky, you can even get the quoted salary from each of the companies you're eyeing on. 

 

In SimplyHired.com aside from the list of jobs open, applicants are also given a short description of the job you're about to handle including the responsibilities to be met even during application.  It also includes the type of company, location and date when the job was posted.

 

Jobster provides the latest job postings from today up to the last 7 days wherein you can also choose the distance you prefer.  This site gives you the ability to see the list of the freshly posted jobs from a variety of sources.

 

How Well Are They?

 

These sites give listings that are relevant and timely, compared to other search engines that generate results a little longer than the others.  Some would even provide results that are far from the location picked out.

 

So far the best among the search engines used is the Simplyhired.Com.  It showed the job title, a link was also provided for posting, a summary of the job description, where the exact current location and where it originated.  The produced results are easy to read, non-confusing with bits and pieces more of information plus the getting around is user friendly

 

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Why Should I Make a Budget?

Why Should I Make a Budget?

 

You say you know where your money goes and you don't need it all written down to keep up with it? I issue you this challenge. Keep track of every penny you spend for one month and I do mean every penny.

 

You will be shocked at what the itty-bitty expenses add up to. Take the total you spent on just one unnecessary item for the month, multiply it by 12 for months in a year and multiply the result by 5 to represent 5 years.

 

That is how much you could have saved AND drawn interest on in just five years. That, my friend, is the very reason all of us need a budget.

 

If we can get control of the small expenses that really don't matter to the overall scheme of our lives, we can enjoy financial success.

 

The little things really do count. Cutting what you spend on lunch from five dollars a day to three dollars a day on every work day in a five day work week saves $10 a week… $40 a month… $480 a year… $2400 in five years….plus interest.

 

See what I mean… it really IS the little things and you still eat lunch everyday AND that was only one place to save money in your daily living without doing without one thing you really need. There are a lot of places to cut expenses if you look for them.  

 

Set some specific long term and short term goals. There are no wrong answers here. If it's important to you, then it's important period.

 

If you want to be able to make a down payment on a house, start a college fund for your kids, buy a sports car, take a vacation to Aruba… anything… then that is your goal and your reason to get a handle on your financial situation now.

 

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