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Best Resume Format Guide for 2017

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Resume and CV trends change very quickly. Some applications need QR code or headshot, others may require a company logo. It’s rather difficult to tell which extras will grab the HR manager’s attention and help your application get noticed, and which will get it tossed out of the competition. Though certain things never go out style, and that is the format of your application document.  The ability to distinguish which resume format is right for your application and your industry can open more doors in front of you and lead you to career success much faster . I’d like to share with you some of my job searching tips and techniques. Today at Job Searching Mom we are going to talk about how you can choose the best resume format to help your application become a marketing tool that will sell you to the prospective employer. Resume Format 2017 The labor market is constantly growing and in 2017 it keeps booming, so the competition is very stiff. If you have a modern and clean desi

5 Mistakes to Avoid When Writing a Resume

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Does it really matter if you make some resume mistakes? Of course, it does.  In fact, if you send a seriously flawed application document, you will most likely be immediately screened out. And submitting a CV that doesn’t match the position for which you are applying is even worse than grammatical errors and typos. It will leave you out of the competition for the job.  I’ve already shared with you some of my top tips on resume writing hacks for moms and resume writing formats here at Job Searching Mom. Today, we are going to talk about the biggest resume mistakes and best ways to avoid them. The Biggest Resume Killers There is no doubt that typos, grammatical errors, and misspellings are the worst resume mistakes and biggest resume killers. Remember to spell check and reread your document by placing your finger on every word or reading backward from the very end of the CV. Also, don’t be shy to ask your friend or family member to proofread it for you one more time. It

What Type of Resume Format to Choose

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We’ve already discussed resume writing hacks and tips for stay-at-home moms, and now it’s time to talk about different resume types and the benefits of every format. I know how hard and tedious it is to put your application document together. Your resume is the introduction to prospective work relationships with a potential recruiter, so you need to try your best to make a wonderful first impression and get noticed.  If you do catch the eye of the recruiter and they like your CV, you will get the chance to make a second impression during the phone call or the job interview. Otherwise, your application will end up in the trash, and we definitely don’t want this to happen. The first and the most important step towards having a great and impressive CV is to select the right format out of different resume types: chronological , functional and combination . Chronological Resume Format Most job hunters are familiar with the chronological type of resume. Here, you need

Stay-At-Home Mom Resume: Extra Tips

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You’ve been working as a stay-at-home parent for the last several years. You’ve acquired excellent multi-tasking skills, project management, and problem-solving skills. The only problem you have is that the majority of your talents have been refined through your most recent job as a stay-at-home mom. Being a stay-at-home parent myself, I fully understand that this is probably the most challenging job on Earth.  From my own experience, I know how hard it can be to return to the 9-to-5 workforce after working from home for a few years. How can you market yourself if you have that big employment gap in your work history? How can you persuade prospective recruiters that in spite of that you are ready and excited to go back to work? Previously I've written a post about the best resume writing hacks for moms and here are some of the tips that worked for me on how to create a resume for mom returning to work. Update Your Resume Template The first and the most important step

Stay at Home Mom Resume Skills That Might Help You Get That Job

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I know how hard it is to return on the career track after being a stay at home parent. Over five million women are stay-at-home moms in the USA. At the same time, hundreds of thousands of moms decide to get back to work every year.  Being a stay-at-home mom myself I understand how challenging it may be to stay confident and get your application noticed in spite of your employment gap. Here are my tips and insights on how to list stay at home mom skills on a resume and make sure your application documents help you sell yourself. Emphasize Related Activities All you have to do is to persuade the recruiters that you have experience and skills to do the job they offer, that’s why the content of your resume should market you. When you write about your years out of the paid workforce, don’t forget to mention only those activities and achievements that back up the skills necessary and relevant to your future career goal. Many career experts and advisers state that the majority o

Best Advice for Women Breaking into a Male-Dominated Industry

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It can be a real challenge to be a woman in today’s competitive labor market – especially if you hope to start a career in traditionally male-dominated industries, such as science, finance, mathematics, or engineering. As a woman, you may face lots of challenges starting your career in one of those fields. So how can you minimize the difficulties and breakthrough in the desired field? Today I want to talk about how to inspire women in a male-dominated industry. Here are some of my top tips. Believe in Yourself In my opinion, the most important is to make small steps towards your dream . You should believe in yourself and be ready to take the leap. For extra motivation, you may have a look at all those women who have important positions in high finance, national politics or heavy manufacturing today. If they managed to do this, you will definitely be not the exception. Well, being determined and believing in yourself should be your number one. Don’t be afraid to try somet

Top LinkedIn Profile Tips for Stay-at-Home Moms

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You are probably reading this because you are a stay-at-home mom who wants to go back to work but doesn’t know how to reflect your current role in your resume or LinkedIn profile. And yes, this time we will be talking about how you should update your LinkedIn profile for stay at home mom. You are not the only person looking for ways to go back to work. I’ve been there and now I’d like to share my own experience as well as some career expert advice on how to get started. ABC-Book for Moms Who Use LinkedIn LinkedIn has come into our lives and changed the way people get hired. Nowadays, it replaces so much old recruiting work like reading trade publications, networking, or calling people. It has become one major online networking event. Many moms ask me, “ Should I use LinkedIn if I am a stay at home mom? ” You would be surprised to know that you can find more than 90,000 results for “stay-at-home mom” if you search on LinkedIn. This number should raise hopes in your breast becaus

Tips for Mom Cover Letter Writing

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Returning to work is a significant event for any parent. And let us be honest: making this kind of decision isn't easy. Everything that follows, isn't much of a breezy task as well. Falling out of the job market happens quickly and easily. As people say, no man is indispensable - there will always be other competitors. Instead, getting to work after the parental gap requires a lot of determination and dedication. Writing a new or updating your old resume and stay at home mom returning to work cover letter may seem extremely frightening at first. But it’s important to remember that there isn't much to be scared of. Obviously, you lost some of the business network connections and insiders knowledge, but it's ok. A cover letter for stay at home mom is a perfect chance to explain the work gap and its importance for you (or for your skills). You wouldn't go deep into it in your resume, because these details are superfluous. A cover letter is a different kettle of f

How To Get Back To Work?

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Hi guys! It’s been a long time since I’ve written my last article here and I must say I miss it so much. But I’ve prepared some tips and want to share my ideas with you! It is always hard to get back to work after the parental leave. And it is important to figure out, how to sell yourself on the current job market . According to the statistics, there are a few millions of stay-at-home parents. At least, half of them aspires to be returning to work. There may be different reasons to choose such an option. Some lack money, others still want to make a career. However, an industry situation always changes and improves. So, one may feel confusion and anxiety after the long years of absence. Luckily, simple little tweaks can make all the difference. Here you'll find the most useful tips for the resume parent returning to work. Highlight the Most Relevant Things The goal of any resume for stay-at-home mom returning to work is to sell an applicant. All you need is to convinc

Things That Make Resume Look Unprofessional

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Work experience is important, without the doubt, it speaks for itself and represents the perfect professional image. Obviously, it should align with the target job ad, the list of the desired skills and background. You can be sure, that you are a perfect match, but the employers don't know about it yet. And they are unlikely to find out if your resume doesn't help you in the long run.  As you may see from the unprofessional resume examples (it can be easily found on the Internet), style matters as well as content. Statements about your significance, smartness, and dedication are half of the work. A good resume is always a self-marketing tool, which needs to be focused. Here you'll find a few little, the most widespread tweaks that make all the difference. 1. Too Bright Formatting Admit it, you're not a kid or teenager anymore and a ridiculous formatting is better to be avoided. There is even a golden rule in the industry. If pretentious fonts or colors are the

Best Jobs For College Students - My List

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All around the wold college students are looking for the good jobs for. They want it to be suitable, high-profile and high-paying. Believe me, I totally get it. Been there, done that. As a student, I was always in a search for the best part-time jobs for college students. At first, I worked as a student assistant. Let's say, it wasn't easy, neither it was an exciting time.  After a few months, I found out, that I could be earning actually much more off the campus. Then I began searching for the online jobs for college students all over again. It took a little time to sort out the offers, yet, finally, I got a good job. Here should be a note about a lot of job scams back then. Nowadays it is much easier to find safe options. So here I come with the list of the most appealing jobs for the students. 1. Bartender It is commonly thought as one of the best summer jobs for college students. You can easily understand, why the job is so lucrative for students. They work a

Ways to Stay Motivated While Job Searching

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Let’s admit it: we all have been there. Another day, another job search on LinkedIn using different variations of the same job. Yet again you have no reply and you close your computer in defeat. Job search is a really challenging thing. But what makes it even more difficult is trying to maintain the motivation even after a long period of rejections. My experience in the job hunt taught me how crucial it is not to lose heart and give way to despair. So here are my personal top tips on how to be motivated in job search. Apply these simple changes to your job-hunting process and get your motivation revived by focusing more on you than on the resume itself. 1. Make a Detailed To-Do List In the beginning of the job search, your motivation seemed to be on top and you believed you can manage to go through all the ups and downs of this time-consuming process and wriggle out of a tight situation. However, as the times goes and you still get no response, your motivation becomes much low

Job Search Rules To Break

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Job hunting isn't easy, especially for the young moms, who need to stay at home and make money at the same time. I'm ready to bet, that pretty much every stay-at-home mom can relate to the fact. What I'm specifically talking about, is a lack of communication. Not just routinely "adult" connection, (which is , by the way, a real issue), but a lack of the industry communication, those types of talks, when you discuss the professional, industry-related news as well as job hunting rules. T here is always someone, searching for a job or in need to change a career. When you're on your own, keeping track of the standard job rules becomes a little more complicated. Week in week out, you lose the chances of getting an up-to-date information. The good news is, the Internet is always on your side. However, there are always some troubles with finding a real catch. I tried to make it simpler and accumulated all the most useful to break job search rules in the p

Top Places to Find Blogging Jobs

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Frankly speaking, sometimes I think it is not too difficult to find a full-time job in the office, as when it comes to finding a decent online blogging job, the process can become more time-consuming and tough.  What about finding a suitable freelance job that pays more than a few bucks for a post? Everything is  possible. I have my list of better-paying blogging job opportunities.  Content marketing has become extremely popular over the last few years.  As a result, more and more companies are hiring freelancers to write articles for their blogs. They may offer one-time tasks, which may pay more than $75. Others are looking for writers who can create several posts per week, which can be a steady part-time gig and bring you extra income. Here is a list of top websites that pay for posts: 1.       Freelance Writing Jobs Website This is a blog for freelance writers. All you need is to find the Writing Gigs link and click it in order to open the list of blogger jobs. Th

6 Flexible Well-Paid Jobs for Stay-at-home Moms

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It can be really time-consuming and quite exhausting to work while being a mom. It is necessary to balance two important aspects of your life and think about so many things at the same time. Luckily nowadays there are a lot of opportunities to work without having to dedicate the whole day to your job only. What are the best part time jobs for moms that can make you some money and still leave some time for your kids? In this post I’ll try to share my ideas and tips, please note that I write an approximate amount of payment in this post. Travel Agent There are many flexible part time jobs for moms and other people looking for some extra money. A travel agent is one of them. As a rule, the payment may not be very big, but you will be able to make extra money according to the amount of deals you close and how much work you do. An average rate is $25-30 per hour. You won’t need to spend the whole day in the office and you can handle this job even from home. This job will be es

Hiring Trends for Job Hunters in 2017

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The survey of top jobs in 2019 showed that more than 40% of recruiters struggled to find talented candidates for their positions. That means the talent war is still on and you need to strengthen your hand in it. Make sure that you keep in mind the following job search trends 2017 and get benefit from them as you try out new job opportunities. Here is a bit of my research and some conclusions. Choose Hard-to-Fill Positions The survey conducted on the best job boards 2016 shows that such jobs as engineers, sales representatives, drivers, technicians, machine operators, receptionists, and secretaries are the hardest positions to fill around the world. This means that even if you are a stay at home mom or in the process of changing career paths, you may consider some of these options and tailor your resume to highlight experiences and skills that employers desperately need to fill. Apply for Jobs About 25% of participants in the job survey mentioned a lack of applica