Refresh Your Resume in a Few Simple Steps Find Your Dream Job

Refresh Your Resume in a Few Simple Steps Find Your Dream JobRefresh Your Resume in a Few Simple Steps - Find Your Dream JobIn todays competitive job market, it is important to have an up-to-date resume to increase your chances of getting an interview. A great way to begin your job search is to give your resume a quick makeover especially if you havent updated your resume in a while. Below are a few simple steps you can take to make sure your resume will stand out in the job market. Include Resume Keywords Think about the requirements for your ideal job. If you are unsure, look erreichbar at job listings, or speak to people who work in your industry. Based on this information, include keywords in your resume that reference the job requirements, including your skills, credentials, and previous employers. Most companies use recruiting management software to screen candidates for job openings, so including keywords is a great way to help you make it through the first round of scr eenings. Out With the Old Typically, you do bedrngnis need to include more than your last 10 to 15 years of work experience on your resume. Go through your resume and remove any information that is from more than a decade or so ago. Similarly, if you graduated college more than a few years ago, you do not need to include the years that you attended school. The same holds true for military experience. You do not need to advertise your age on your resume. In With the New This step is especially important if you have not updated your resume in a while. Be sure to add any new professional information a new job, new educational information, new skills. Think outside the box, especially if you feel that your resume is a bit sparse have you performed any volunteer work recently that relates to your dream job? Even if you have not gotten a new job, perhaps you received a promotion or were given new responsibilities. You can also add professional activities, such as conferences, cert ificate programs, etc. Get Rid of Your Resume Objective If you have a resume objective (or even if you do not), consider replacing it with a resume profile. A resume profile is a brief summary of your skills, experiences, and achievements as they relate to the job for which you are applying. A resume profile is a great way to show an employer what you can do for them, rather than what you want. Emphasize Achievements Rather than listing your responsibilities within each job, list your achievements. For example, rather than saying that you were responsible for installing anti-virus software on all company computers, you can say you substantially increased the security of company software systems and increased company productivity by implementing critical software updates and anti-virus technology. When possible, include numbers to demonstrate the actual value of your achievements (for example, reduced recruitment budget by 10% by implementing innovative and cost-effective onl ine hiring tools). This will demonstrate not only that you can complete a given task, but also that you can do it well. Proofread Be sure to read through your resume to check for any spelling or grammar errors, and to make sure your format is consistent (for example, if you bold one employers name, you need to bold every employers name). Have a friend or career counselor check over your resume as well. Update Any Online Resumes If you have posted your old resume to any job boards, be sure to replace it with your new resume. It is especially important that you update the Background section of your LinkedIn profile to match your new resume. Prospective employers will be wary of any discrepancies between your resume and your online profiles. Update Regularly It is worth the time to update your resume regularly. Whenever you get a new job, achieve something at work, or begin a continuing education course, be sure to add it to your resume. Its much easier to continually updat e your resume than to start from scratch every few years.

Beware the Ides of April Tax Tips for Freelancing During Your Unemployment

Beware the Ides of April Tax Tips for Freelancing During Your UnemploymentBeware the Ides of April Tax Tips for Freelancing During Your UnemploymentLooking to pick up contract work while youre looking for the next steady paycheck? Dont forget a few significant differences in how that income is taxed.Youre between full-time gigs and looking to stay in the game - or maybe even considering freelance work as a longer-term employment option. What do you need to know to prepare for next years tax bill?The big difference between a full-time job and freelance work is that youve become a 1099 instead of a W-2. Full-time employees receive a W-2 form from their employers listing their wages and deductions. Freelancers and consultants receive a 1099 form from their clients.Consultant income tends to come in erratic spurts. Keep track of them and try to set aside 30 percent to 35 percent for your tax obligation how much you will be obligated to pay will depend on how much you earn, deductions an d other factors. Its painful to take away anything from an irregular paycheck, but it is less painful than trying to find the cash in April to pay the lump sum on an entire years tax obligation.If you make less than $600 from one employer, theyre elend obligated to send you a 1099 at the end of the year, but youre still responsible for the taxes, so be sure to keep your own records.Read the IRS self-employed page and its associated forms carefully. There are a lot of permutations to self-employment, many of which come with special requirements, benefits and unique forms to fill out.For instance, there are special rates for farm work, fishing and work you do for religious organizations.Self-employment taxThe trickiest part is the self-employment tax, which apparently flummoxed even Timothy Geithner, the former CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and current secretary of the treasury, when he was supposed to be paying it. Fortunately, the folks at TurboTax - the software Geit hner said he was using at the time - have an explanation.Basically, when youre employed, you and your employer split the payments for Social Security and Medicare. When youre self employed, you pay the full cost, which breaks down into 12.4 percent for Social Security and 2.9 percent for Medicare.Simple? No. But you can deduct from your income-tax bill half of what you pay in self-employment tax.And youre supposed to pay it quarterly, using the amount you made during the previous three months to estimate how much youll make during the whole year.Unemployment and job huntingUnemployment benefits are taxable, by the way, but not all of them. The first $2,400 is all yours, though thats new for 2009. For the rest, you should have the unemployment office withhold about 10 percent.Luckily, much of the money youre spending on job searching - for resume rewrites, career coaching and job-search services like Ladders - are deductible. So are transportation costs, parking, tolls and other t ravel expenses directly related to your job search.The bottom line? If you have income from several sources and have become a 1099 after a career as a W-2, and dont have any special background or skills in tax preparation, get as much good advice as you can on deductions and tax-saving strategies. Then get some professional help. In the end it will probably be worth it.Dont forget to keep the receipts and any correspondence that would help prove the connection, in case anyone with an IRS business card wants to chat with you about them.

3 tips to become well-spoken and a better communicator

3 tips to become well-spoken and a better communicator3 tips to become well-spoken and a better communicatorWant to become well-spoken?Here are three tips.1. Make others feel well-heardWe focus too much on what we should say next, formulating witty responses in our heads instead of giving full presence to the rolle talking. Theart of listening is as important as theart of speaking.When the other person feels truly heard, that person will perceive you are caring about what he or she is saying, and this may make you appear more likable and better spoken.2. Ask questions you genuinely care about or are curious aboutThese questions are better than ones you think will make you sound smart or clever. People palpate authenticity from the way a question is used whether it is a genuine question or just a way to make the asker show cleverness or superiority.Of course, questions can be genuine AND clever, as long as your questions are truthful to your interest and engagement.3. Practice the tec hnical aspects of your communicationSlow down if you tend to speak very quickly. (Visual thinkers tend to do this.) Pay attention to the m or pace of your speech. Match the pace of the conversation, unless you want to deliberately slow down or speed up the pace of conversation to improve the overall level of engagement.Remember If you slow down the speed of conversation, you will become the focal point in the conversation thus slowing down is useful for changing the tone/depth or direction of a conversation.Lower your voice to a calming pitch, but not to the point of becoming distracting and jarring, i.e. un-natural sounding (as an example, Elizabeth Holmes deliberately lowers her voice to the point of being unnatural for me personally, whatever her rationale may be to cultivate vocal authority).If your voice tends to be low and you want to appear more approachable and friendly, slightly raise the pitch of your voice imagine puppies or whatever adorable baby creatures that break you r face into a big smile.Reduce filler words um, uh, like, just. Make friends with pauses in between sentences and learn to be comfortable in short moments of silence. I remember reading a research study that suggests filler words are a way for our brains to scan for the right words, thus Im not arbitrarily saying that filler words are bad. However, using the same line of thinking, reducing filler words suggests you have a good command of the vocabulary you want to best communicate your ideas.Have something to talk about pay attention to timely topics andpay attention to what other people are paying attention to. It doesnt all have to come from you - I have few original ideas and even fewer insightful ones - but I can share the insight I have observed or read about from others, and I can be a bridge or connector in a conversation. You may want to start by becoming a connector or bridge in a conversation, versus a driver of conversations.This article originally appeared on Quora.Wha ts the best advice youve ever been given about speaking up in meetings? Let us know on The Climb.3 tips to become well-spoken and a better communicatorWant to become well-spoken?Here are three tips.1. Make others feel well-heardWe focus too much on what we should say next, formulating witty responses in our heads instead of giving full presence to the person talking. Theart of listening is as important as theart of speaking.When the other person feels truly heard, that person will perceive you are caring about what he or she is saying, and this may make you appear more likable and better spoken.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and more2. Ask questions you genuinely care about or are curious aboutThese questions are better than ones you think will make you sound smart or clever. People palpate authenticity from the way a question is used whether it is a genuine question or just a way to make the asker show cleverness or superiority.Of course, questions can be genuine AND clever, as long as your questions are truthful to your interest and engagement.3. Practice the technical aspects of your communicationSlow down if you tend to speak very quickly. (Visual thinkers tend to do this.) Pay attention to the meter or pace of your speech. Match the pace of the conversation, unless you want to deliberately slow down or speed up the pace of conversation to improve the overall level of engagement.Remember If you slow down the speed of conversation, you will become the focal point in the conversation thus slowing down is useful for changing the tone/depth or direction of a conversation.Lower your voice to a calming pitch, but not to the point of becoming distracting and jarring, i.e. un-natural sounding (as an example, Elizabeth Holmes deliberately lowers her voice to the point of being unnatural for me personally, whatever her rationale may be to cultivate vocal authority).If your voice tends to be low and you want to appear more approachable and friendly, slightly raise the pitch of your voice imagine puppies or whatever adorable baby creatures that break your face into a big smile.Reduce filler words um, uh, like, just. Make friends with pauses in between sentences and learn to be comfortable in short moments of silence. I remember reading a research study that suggests filler words are a way for our brains to scan for the right words, thus Im not arbitrarily saying that filler words are bad. However, using the same line of thinking, reducing filler words suggests you have a good command of the vocabulary you want to best communicate your ideas.Have something to talk about pay attention to timely topics andpay attention to what other people are paying attention to. It doesnt all have to come from you - I have few original ideas and even fewer insightful ones - but I can share the insight I have observed or read about from others, and I can be a brid ge or connector in a conversation. You may want to start by becoming a connector or bridge in a conversation, versus a driver of conversations.This article originally appeared on Quora.