The Blog for www.BusinessResumeWriting.com - OUR THOUGHTS on Resume Writing, Interviewing and Job Search Strategies.

Project Manager Resume - How to write a good Project Manager Resume?

It is very difficult to write a single project manager resume that will be effective in attaining interviews for a variety of companies in several different industries.

To make a long story short - an effective Project Manager Resume must be CUSTOMIZED.

Whenever writing any kind of resume it must be done with the mindset of - "How does my previous experience relate toward the requirements of this new job that I plan to pursue? How do I show this experience on my resume in a clear / sharp / concise manner?"

When writing a Project Manager Resume - here are 3 focus points to cover:

1) Project Manager Resume - Certifications - The CPM - Certified Project Manager and the PMP - Project Management Professional are a couple of the most popular / common certifications for Project Managers. If you have them, make sure its on your resume under 2 spots - Next to your name at the top - (ex. John Smith, CPM) and then also in your "CERTIFICATIONS" Section. If you don't have these certifications yet, but are planning to get them shortly or currently studying of the test - make sure you put this information on your resume - into the "CERTIFICATIONS" Section.

Also, if you have taken any training or certificate courses that are specific to your industry - make sure you write about this. It does not really matter how long ago you took these courses. If it's over 5 years, just do not put the dates.

2) Project Manager Resume - Management Experience - be detailed and give specific examples. How many people did you manage on each project? What was the level of your subordinates? How many teams / crews did you supervise simultaneously? How many vendors did you collaborate with?

3) Project Manager Resume - Content - Be detailed in your descriptions of each project. You should pretend that you are speaking to a 4 year old when describing your specific project management experience. There are 2 reasons for doing this:

Reason #1 - you never know who your audience will be - chances are is that it will be a 25 year old HR girl, who has no idea what Project Management is and she is just going off the job description that was given to her. Never assume anything is understood....explain, explain, explain...(no negative connotation is meant toward the HR girl comment, but in most cases that's the reality)

Reason #2 - when using this approach people tend to use more descriptive keywords, thus certain automated programs that search for these keywords when sorting through resumes, will find your project manager  resume and forward it to the appropriate hiring manager for review.

When thinking of specific content for your Project Manager Resume make sure to cover the budget for each project - and your performance in relationship to it - did you come in under budget? If yes, by how much. If you tend to go over budget - do not bring up this point.

This was just a short synopsis of a few key things (out 50-80) to ponder over when writing the usually "difficult to write" Project Manager Resume. 

Good Luck.

Business Resume Writing | Business Resume Experts - www.BusinessResumeWriting.com

Business Professionals - Advice on the use of Social Media - Be SMART!

Be careful about posting your party pictures to Facebook, MySpace or Twitter. And make sure you don't write anything negative about your current or past employers on LinkedIn.

If you don't, it may cost you a job offer.

Forty-five percent of employers reported in a recent CareerBuilder survey that they use social networking sites to research job candidates, a big jump from 22 percent last year. Another 11 percent plan to start using social networking sites for screening. More than 2,600 hiring managers participated in the survey, which was completed in June 2009.

Of those who conduct online searches/background checks of job candidates, 29 percent use Facebook, 26 percent use LinkedIn and 21 percent use MySpace. One-in-ten (11 percent) search blogs while 7 percent follow candidates on Twitter.

The top industries most likely to screen job candidates via social networking sites or online search engines include those that specialize in technology and sensitive information: Information Technology (63 percent) and Professional & Business Services (53 percent).

Why Employers Disregarded Candidates After Screening Online

Job seekers are cautioned to be mindful of the information they post online and how they communicate directly with employers. Thirty-five percent of employers reported they have found content on social networking sites that caused them not to hire the candidate. The top examples cited include:

Candidate posted provocative or inappropriate photographs or information – 53 percent

Candidate posted content about them drinking or using drugs – 44 percent

Candidate bad-mouthed their previous employer, co-workers or clients – 35 percent

Candidate showed poor communication skills – 29 percent

Candidate made discriminatory comments – 26 percent

Candidate lied about qualifications – 24 percent

Candidate shared confidential information from previous employer – 20 percent

Fourteen percent of employers have disregarded a candidate because the candidate sent a message using an emotion such as a smiley face while 16 percent dismissed a candidate for using text language such as GR8 (great) in an e-mail or job application.

Be SMART!

Good Luck on your Job Search.

www.BusinessResumeWriting.com

Financial Resume - How to make it effective

When writing your financial resume it is important to keep in mind you are competing against other candidates of similar backgrounds, hence your resume must stand out. 

In order to know how to make your financial resume stand out and be effective, you need to know what hiring managers are looking for in a prospective candidate.

Thoughts of a Financial Hiring Manager when they are reviewing your resume:

..................................................What makes you special?..................................................

or to be more exact:

• What technical skills does your financial resume show?
• Which specific technical accounting regulations (FAS, IFRS, etc..) have you worked with?
• Have you worked with auditors? Do you understand what auditors need and why?
• What kind of analysis projects have you worked on? What was your specific contribution on that project?
• How are your computer skills? What kind of General Ledger packages, reporting systems have you worked with? Have you worked on system conversions or on new system implementations? How is your Excel?
• What do you know about the specifics of doing accounting or finance work in our industry? Do you have this specific industry experience explained in detail on your resume?
• Who did you report to? How many people were there in your accounting or finance department? (If it's a lot, then chances are you did not have a wide variety of duties and your experience may not be broad enough. If it's a small department, then you may have worked for a small company, hence you do not have experience dealing with complex accounting or finance projects that are common for a larger department / company)

and more...

Lesson is: You must know your audience. (And in turn - tailor your financial resume towards that audience...if you do, the interview will be yours)

Good Luck!

www.BusinessResumeWriting.com

Real Interview Advice - for business professionals

Are you preparing for an interview?

There are thousands of interview advice articles / publications / guides, etc.... However, many of them are not practical and most of them give you a hundreds of usually abstract things to do, hence job seekers feel overwhelmed, confused and don't follow any of them.

If you are a business professional - (finance, accounting, marketing, MIS, general business management & operations, HR and etc...) and have an interview coming up - just follow these 5 concrete points of interview advice and the job is yours:

1) Spend 30-45 minutes on the company website the night before your interview. Read through their recent publications, news about the company, new products, R&D, etc... (Don't go crazy with this, you do not need to memorize everything...)

2) Print out the job description, then go through each job requirement one by one - next to each bullet point hand write how your previous experience relates to that specific requirement. This interview prep task really does wonders for getting your thoughts organized for the interview. You will be amazed as to how easy your answers will flow during the interview if you do this. (WARNING: Do not try to do this task in your head, it must be done in the written fashion we have spelled out above...trust us on this one.)

3) Make sure your resume is fully tailored toward the job you are interviewing for. As you do the 2nd task above and realize that your resume does not reflect all of specific experience you hand wrote next to each job requirement bullet point - go back and add this specific experience to your resume accordingly. You should then e-mail this updated copy of your resume to the company before you get there and also bring enough copies for every interviewer in case they do not have enough time to print out the updated resume.

This is also important to do, because hardly any interviewer take good notes, consequently when they are discussing your candidacy a couple of days later they will be looking over your resume again. You want to make sure it contains the qualifications they are looking for in a candidate.

4) Prepare questions for each interviewer. Questions = "You are interested and prepared". Don't be boring and generic. You should prepare about 4-5 questions for each interviewer. During the interview conversation about 2-3 of them will get answered, which will leave you with 2-3 questions to ask at the end.

My personal favorite interview question is: "Why do you enjoy working for this company?". It gives you insight into what the company culture is all about and the interview may open up to you a bit more on the personal level - this equals personal connection = they will remember you after the interview when they are selecting finalists or making an offer.

5) Get a good night sleep and have lots of energy during the interview. Get a coffee if you have to! Energy and enthusiasm is half the battle. (Keep in Mind: You must show this energy to every interviewer)

For example: If you have a line up of 6 interviewers, who let's say they are Finance or Marketing senior managers and directors - you have to impress each one of them. Don't get tired on the last one or two, chances are their questions are going to be the same as the first four, but you have to fight your urge to take shortcuts on your answers just because you just answered the same exact question 4 times. This sounds easy, but its not! After the interview - these 6 hiring managers are going to have a round table discussion about your candidacy - in order to move on to the next round or get the job you must get a "thumbs up" from all 6 interviewers.

Now take a deep breath, relax and start preparing.

Good Luck!

www.BusinessResumeWriting.com

Best websites to use when searching for a new accounting, finance, marketing or management job.

There are thousands of career sites and job boards that employers can use to post their new openings for accounting, finance, marketing and management jobs. What is the point of going through each job board (ie - Monster, Career Builder, Hot Jobs and etc...) when you can view all of the job openings from one single site?

You are correct...there is no point. Time is money and there is no need to waste your time by having to click through thousands of these different career sites and job boards.

When searching for new accounting, finance, marketing and management jobs we recommend you choose one of the following:

www.Indeed.com is a search engine for jobs, allowing job seekers to find jobs posted on thousands of company career sites and job boards.

www.SimplyHired.com is a vertical job search engine that pulls listings from thousands of sites across the Web including the leading job boards, company career sites, newspapers, non-profits, government sites, and more. Simply Hired allows job seekers to search all of the jobs on the Web in one place for free.

Good luck on your job search!

www.BusinessResumeWriting.com

from Public Accounting to Private / Corporate Accounting - how & when to make the move?

After interviewing and working with thousands of very sharp public accounting folks during their transition into a corporate accounting position, the following 10 suggestions come to mind:

1) Make sure you want to make the move.

2) Don't leave your CPA firm until you've attained the "Senior" level, this usually means that you should put in  at least 2 years. If you leave earlier your public accounting experience does not count for nearly as much in the corporate world. If you must leave earlier, at least get to "Acting Senior" level.

3) Get the CPA designation. Again, corporations are always willing to pay a premium for the CPA. The exam is not easy - most everyone knows this, but the study time you invest now will keep paying you back for the rest of your professional career - think of it as an annuity.

4) Don't use too many recruiters. I would suggest 2 at the most since they have mostly of the same opportunities / jobs to discuss with you. Make sure your recruiter knows that your search is extremely confidential and that he/she are not to send your resume to any hiring managers until you give them the "Green Light" to do so. If you ever catch them doing this even once, fire them immediately and find another one. Trust is very important in this process.

5) Know what you want and stick to your guns. For example: if you are coming out of BIG 4 (KPMG, PWC, DT, EY) and most of your engagements have been focused has been on Financial Services companies and you really enjoy your work, then don't let anyone talk you into "trying out" a manufacturing company, while some of the skills are transferable, you will not be up to speed when you start your new job and your "learning curve" will be steep, putting you behind your peers that will have the industry experience. This usually means that they will be promoted first.

6) Be very picky about the opportunities for which you will take off work. While the first interview is usually only a phone screen or a quick face to face for an hour or so...the 2nd and 3rd round of interviews can easily last 4-5 hours, which will most likely require you to take off the whole day from work. Hence you don't want to have too many things going, because it can easily snowball into having to take off several days in a row or in one week. Also, if you think that you can just postpone these 2nd and 3rd round interviews to next week for example, you are wrong. Companies will think that you are not interested in their opportunity and move on to other candidates in the loop.

7) It is smart to look during busy season because you have less competition. This is obviously hard to do if you are working 70-90 hours per week, but keep this in mind. While we don't think you should leave your CPA firm during busy season, it is smart to look and line up an offer / position and arrange a start date for after the busy season.

8) Don't tell anyone at work that you are looking. No matter how close you may think that you are to these co-workers, people talk and word will surely get back to your manager or partner in charge.

9) Invest the time in preparing a quality resume with lots of details about your past & current client engagements!

10) Invest the time in preparing a quality resume with lots of details about your past & current client engagements!