In the last two years, I’ve been actively assisting clients in many different industries in updating their resumes. During this time I’ve noticed a trend that I am hoping to help with. Nine (9) out of ten (10) resumes that I review are missing the 3 key elements that make a resume: Strengths, Skills, and Achievements

As a courtesy, I just reviewed a past colleagues resume in order to provide feedback and once again, their resume was missing these three key elements. Hence what has prompted this post.

These elements are what will help you stand out from your competitors. Think of your resume as your brochure; your marketing tool. It must tell the story of who you are and your background but most importantly it must start with the “Why?“.

• Why should your potential employer stop to read your resume out of the stack of 100?
• Why are you the best candidate?
• Why should they call you in for an interview?

To determine the “Why”, think your professional experience as it is relevant to the job that you will be applying for and ask yourself the following questions for each of the past positions you will be listing on your resume:

• What has made me stand out at work?
• What have I brought to the table?
• What do my bosses recognize and mention that I am doing well during my annual reviews?
• What do I love to do?
• What are my natural strengths and talents? What comes naturally?
• What strong skills do I have that my colleagues do not have or that are stronger than theirs?
• What am I proud of?
• How have I made a difference at my job?
• If I am gone, how would I be remembered?
• How have I contributed to the success of the business?
• What schooling or training do I have?
• What are some of the skills I’ve learned through my hands on experience?

After you ask yourself these questions you should have a list of top skills, strengths and accomplishments that you can incorporate into the body of your resume.

Now you may ask yourself, what is the difference and why are these three key elements so important? I’ll tell you why!

Strengths: Strengths are tasks or actions that you can do well and make you stand out from your colleagues. These include talents, knowledge, and skills. People use these traits and abilities in their daily lives to complete work, relate with others, and to achieve goals. Everybody has their own set of strengths. By discovering what your strengths are you learn how to use your natural talents every day so you can thrive in life and at work. Instead of wasting time trying to fix your weaknesses, learn how to develop and apply your strengths for success. To help you identify your strengths ask yourself the following:

1. How do you absorb, think about and analyze information and situations?
2. How do you make things happen?
3. How do you influence others? How do you build and nurture strong relationships?

For example your strengths may look like this: Strategic, Focus, Communication, Development

Skills: Key skills are work-related skills that you need to do a job. Most often, you can find key skills in job descriptions. Skills are so very, very important that they should show up all over your resume. Not just in the resume skills section. There are soft skills and hard skills. When you’re deciding what resume skills to add, technical and other expert-level know-how should definitely get first dibs.

Certain soft skills, like those that signal leadership, negotiation, and communication skills, are great to add to your resume in moderation and where appropriate. But be selective. You want to be avoid being overly fluffy. Employers are looking for concrete skills. If they’re filling an engineering position, they don’t care how ‘outgoing’ you are.

The Difference Between Hard Skills and Soft Skills

What Are Hard Skills? Hard skills are teachable abilities or skill sets that are easy to quantify. Typically, you’ll learn hard skills in the classroom, through books or other training materials, or on the job.

Here’s a list of typical hard skills to include on a resume:

• Proficiency in a foreign language
• A degree or certificate
• Machine operation
• Computer programming
• Accounting
• SEO/SEM Marketing
• Bookeping
• Planning / Event Planning
• Project Management
• Data Analysis

What Are Soft Skills? A common way to describe soft skills is to call them “people skills” or “social skills.” Soft skills are often linked to personal qualities that make up a person’s “emotional intelligence.”

Examples of soft skills include:

• Communication
• Ability to Work Under Pressure
• Decision Making
• Time Management
• Self-motivation 
• Conflict Resolution
• Leadership
• Adaptability 
• Teamwork
• Creativity
• Relationship Building

Achievements: This is the area that most miss. Remember when a resume mainly listed responsibilities? That’s a thing of the past. Responsibilities are job descriptions pure and simple. Today, employers want to know what you actually achieved—delivered based on key organizational goals. Achievements is what you brought to the table. How you made a difference in the organization.

What qualifies as resume achievements? Think about sales performance, increased team efficiencies, new policies, procedures, and systems … stuff like this.

They want to know how you performed—the results of your efforts, not just a description of your job functions.

For example: Replace such statements as “managed marketing department” with “optimized department by building a marketing team that focused on media needs and captured 15% more market share.”

Stand out and get the attention, promotion, salary, and recognition you deserve by not ignoring these 3 key elements and I promise you will have a resume that will be worth more than 3 seconds.

If you rather have someone help you and want to learn how I can be of assistance schedule a call on my calendar at a time that is convenient for you: https://calendly.com/vimariroman

www.beproductivecoaching.com

“Move out of your comfort zone. You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new.” Brian Tracy

♡

This year has been the year that I have decided to push my boundaries. I am purposely stepping out of my comfort zone weekly in order to continue growing. Stepping out of your comfort zone is not always easy. But once you do, I promise that the feeling will be amazing.

♡

We have reached July 2nd – the first Monday of the mid-year point. This is a good time to look at the last six months, evaluate your goals, do some shifting if you need to and step out of your comfort zone.

Here are 12 ways you can push yourself out of your comfort zone daily:

1. Take the first stepAll you need to do is to take the first step. It will be difficult. The first day at the gym is the worst. The opening line of your story takes the longest time….etc. But as you gain momentum, it is easier to keep moving.

2. Put yourself in a new environment

Begin with some small changes that do not present any real threat, such as eating at a different restaurant in a different part of town, or attending an art exhibit. The idea is to place yourself in new areas where you control the interaction.

3. Don’t pick the safe choice

Every time you’re making a choice, one choice is the safe/comfortable choice, and one choice is the risky/uncomfortable choice. The risky/uncomfortable choice is the one that will teach you the most and make you grow the most, so that’s the one you should choose.

4. Take a different route home

If you drive or walk a different route, you will see different things. In a small way, that increases your view of the world. That is just an easy way to start. After that, you can make more drastic changes. Eventually, you will feel comfortable thinking out of the box. 

5. Make a snap decisionIt doesn’t have to be a life-or-death decision. Anything from choosing a restaurant to shopping. Just make a choice that’s unusual for your routine without overthinking it.

If that still sounds daunting, flip a coin. Yes, I am serious! Flip a coin over the decision and stick to it. I do it all the time and end up glad that I did (mostly).

Eliminating the need for mulling over a decision greatly boosts the process of stepping out of our comfort zones. Plus, snap decisions instill a feeling of self-trust. So, like Nike ‘just do it.’

6. Consider other points of view

Surround yourself with very smart people who are a little bit arrogant and disagree with you on many things. Make sure to debate ideas with them, in a civil way, which will cause you to re-examine your beliefs.

7. Say “yes” more often

Say yes even when you don’t think you’re ready. … If you are working, say yes to new projects, new assignments, new roles — even when you have not done it before. It opens up huge opportunities in your career. Who knows — you might find yourself enjoying something you never got the chance to explore earlier.

8. Volunteer

Preferably, make it a learning experience. Pick something you’re very unfamiliar with and soak up everything you can while also making yourself useful.

9. Do what you’re afraid of 

New mindset. It goes like this: Does this scare me? Then I have to do it. That’s how you conquer fear. It never goes away, you just learn how to ride that energy.

10. Create challenges to push yourself in areas you want to improve

Decide on a few challenges (and their triggers) for yourself designed to push you outside of your comfort zone in areas you want to develop.

• Next time you see a handsome boy or girl (trigger) you have to go and talk to him/her (challenge).

• Next time you go buy a cup of coffee (trigger) ask for a 10% discount (challenge).

• Next time you find yourself making eye contact with a stranger (trigger) keep it until they look away (challenge).

• Next time someone asks you how you are (trigger) respond by saying you are great/fantastic instead of just ‘good’ (challenge).

Just focus on these triggers and don’t make any excuses. It’ll become a habit after a while.

11. Allow others to decide for you

I make all the travel plans for my husband and I. If he was in charge we wouldn’t go anywhere. So, catch hold of friends who are more outgoing than you. Let them make the plans, and just go with it.

12. Remember that tomorrow is a new day

It helps to remember that what doesn’t kill you generally really does make you stronger — you will survive, you will heal, you will learn something, you will have a better chance of emerging unscathed next time.

♡

My challenge to you today is to put some of these into practice this next couple of weeks to step out of your comfort zone then email me at [email protected] and let me know how it goes.

Know someone that could step out of their comfort zone? Share with them via Facebook, Email or Twitter.

“When love and skill work together, expect a MASTERPIECE” Anthony Robbins

Are you ready for a new career or a better opportunity? Do you have the tools needed to get you that interview…that new opportunity?

A good resume can be hard to find; just ask any recruiter or hiring manager thumbing through stacks of them. To stand apart from the crowd in today’s competitive employment market, you must submit a document that makes an immediate impression. In fact, a well-crafted resume is your most effective tool for landing an interview and, ultimately, a new job.

According to quite a few studies, recruiters spend an average of six seconds reviewing an individual resume. What does that tell you? That if you’re a job-seeker, it’s incredibly important to make those few seconds count.

Your resume is the most important document in your career. Job seekers are 40% more likely to get noticed by hiring managers with a professionally written resume. Today, your skills, credentials, and accolades must truly stand apart in order to get a second glance. Once you get beyond the six seconds it takes just another few seconds for a recruiter or hiring manager to lose interest and decide to look at the next resume. Your resume must sell your strengths, skills, and achievements in a precise and organized manner.

Following are some key “do’s” and “don’ts” of resume writing.

Do:

·        Do use action verbs as much as possible. For instance, instead of writing a passive sentence such as, “My company has provided me with five years of meetings and events experience,” write using an active voice: “Possess over five years’ experience in strategic meetings management.” 

·        Avoid vague terms such as ‘familiar with’ or ‘experience with’ — these phrases set off alarms to recruiters and hiring managers, who may question your actual depth of knowledge.

·        Be short and to the point. Use bullets. Avoid fluffy or redundant language. The goal is to communicate your abilities clearly and concisely.

·        Use a chronological format. Recruiters, Hiring Managers and Executives prefer work histories listed in reverse chronological order rather than grouped by skills or job function. 

·        Skills, Strengths, and Key Achievements: these are all different and your resume must sell and highlight these separately. Do remember to tailor your resume for the job you want and make sure that your key achievements and qualifications relate to the position. 

·        Let the job description guide your resume. If you’re applying for a position, and the advertisement for the job asks for candidates with ‘high energy’ and ‘experience with corporate clients,’ integrate those phrases into your resume. Many companies electronically screen resumes for keywords, so you can boost your chances of landing an interview by adopting any applicable phrases.

·        Be honest. Do not lie in a resume. People who try to outsmart potential employers by attempting to lie in their resume usually discover that the only person they have outsmarted is themselves.

Do not:

·        Don’t include a long, unrelated list of job duties on your resume, such as ‘familiar with XYZ design software’ and ’good with numbers’ if you are going for a marketing position. Instead, think outside of your job title and list only those skills that are relevant to the opening.

·        Do not make it too long. Do not include 20 years or history or 20 different jobs if you are a job hopper. Make it relevant to the position you are looking for and keep it at a max of two pages.

·        Don’t include irrelevant facts about your personal life: The fact that you enjoy yoga isn’t relevant unless you’re applying to work at a yoga studio. Only pertinent information — such as volunteer work or connections with professional associations — should be listed.

·        Email address: Do not include an unprofessional e-mail address in your resume, such as ‘[email protected]’ or ‘[email protected].’ Uses your name in the email address instead. 

·        Grammar, spacing and fonts: Do not overlook the little things. A resume that has typos, misspellings or grammatical mistakes and different fonts send the message to potential employers that you lack attention to detail. It is always a good idea to use spell-check and ask a friend or relative to review your resume for accuracy before submitting the document.

·        Once again, do not lie in a resume. The truth always comes out. Integrity is important and you never know whom that recruiter or hiring manager may know. You will also be interviewed and you need to be confident during the interview in order to get the job.

·        Don’t list references or write ‘references available on request.’ Hiring managers assume you will provide this information when asked. I also recommend you give each of your references a copy of your resume so they can more adeptly highlight your achievements when contacted.

Not sure where to start? Today, more than 60% of executives hire a professional resume writer. The best athletes have coaches to take them to the next level, so why wouldn’t you hire an expert to help you with your resume and interview preparation?

About the author: Vimari Roman is a Career & Leadership Coach who helps individuals achieve their peak potential and live a fulfilled life by utilizing their natural gifts and talents (also known as strengths). Learn more at www.beproductivecoaching.com. Contact at 786-340-3174 or [email protected]

In the last couple of weeks “Women in Leadership” has been popping up everywhere I turn, in many different areas of my life and as I’ve been thinking, I’ve been inspired to write this post.

The first was an article that I read a couple of weeks ago (unfortunately I cannot share the article with you because I don’t recall where or how I got a hold of it). A day later, I received an email from Meetings and Conventions Magazine with an article featuring Meeting Professionals International (MPI) newly launched Women in Leadership Course. I paid extra attention to that article because I am a member of MPI, and I also sit on the Board of the local South Florida Chapter as VP of Education.

This new four-hour course that MPI has launched aims to examine why women are less likely to ascend to leadership positions than their male peers, what they can do about it, and to help them create individual action plans to overcome some of the more common career obstacles. Apparently women represent 80% of our industry, yet we are not seeing 80% in leadership roles. You can click on this link to read the article and learn more about the course: http://www.meetings-conventions.com/News/Industry-Associations/MPI-Launches-Women-in-Leadership-program-meeting-planners/

Last Wednesday, I attended my Emmaus Women’s meeting and oddly enough our topic that day was about “Work” and “Women in Leadership”. The topic was brought up by one of our sisters who shared that at the Hospital where she is currently working they are now launching a “Women in Leadership” initiative because they realized that most of the “leaders” they have are men. Do you see the duplication here? Stay with me…

Then I received an email from my Strategic Intervention & Leadership Coach forum that spoke to Coaches about focusing on Women and Leadership. I started to think and connect all of the areas of my life where this subject was present. In the 3 years or so that I’ve been practicing my Coaching as a Certified Strategic Intervention & Leadership Coach, I think back, and my clients have been both men and women. I started to think back to see if I could identify any differences between Coaching the two and some thoughts and differences came up.

Then yesterday, we celebrated “International Women’s Day” and I was congratulated by quite a few people. Both during meetings or conference calls held, and a few text messages, including one from my uncle who lives in Puerto Rico. I even received an urgent call from the Mayor of the city where I live, asking me to come meet her and some other El Portal staff for 2 minutes, and when I quickly went over to meet them at 5pm, I found out she wanted to take this picture I’ve placed to the right of this post which features some of our police officers, our Village Clerk, the Mayor and I. I was recently elected this past November and sit on the Council of our beautiful Village. Anyhow, I found this all very odd because I don’t recall this day ever being so pronounced. At least not in my personal interactions. This is even more peculiar because Facebook is typically where I get to find out what special International day is being celebrated, and I haven’t been on Facebook since Ash Wednesday when I gave it up for lent. All of these interactions got my mind going and my thoughts took me to all of the Women’s Marches that took place around our Country earlier this year. I continue to connect the dots.

As I connect the dots, I see the trends and as I read articles, have discussions, I realize that they all pretty much have the same information. Basically, women feel that they are still treated differently than men and that they get paid differently. There are statistics support that women still get paid less than men, and that there are less women in leadership than men. But at the same time, I’ve also seen articles and statistics that talk about a rise in women leadership. Like with any subject, if you google, you will find different statistics for the same subject.

Again, I am not sure why all of a sudden this subject is so apparent to me but one thing I know for sure, I believe women are just as intelligent and capable as men. I believe that if women want to be in leadership and get paid their worth, they should. I also believe that as women we should empower each other and look for ways to celebrate each other as men often do. After connecting all these dots, and for the first time ever sitting down to really think about this subject, I ask myself where is all this leading and what am I to do about it.

As a woman, I have been in leadership for most of my career. I’ve been blessed with a wonderful career where I have had the opportunity to grow and learn. I started my hospitality career at 15 years old working part-time at the front desk of a hotel where a few years later I was promoted to my first leadership role as a Front Desk Supervisor. My career continued to grow, and I went from the small hotel in Lynbrook, Long Island to working in New York City at a very high-end all suites hotel on the upper East Side of Manhattan. Once again, I was quickly promoted to leadership. Then I moved to Miami where I also held a leadership role as Assistant Front Desk Manager. Few years later I went from operations to group sales and later promoted to leadership within Sales. In 2013, I shifted from working full time in hotels as Director of Sales & Marketing to becoming an entrepreneur within the Hospitality and Meetings Industry. My personal experience is that I do not feel that I’ve not been able to get opportunities because I am a woman. I’ve gone for promotions where men have also been candidates, and I have received the promotion. I even think I possibly got paid more. I unfortunately cannot relate to what many women feel. This doesn’t mean that I don’t believe this is true. I just have not experienced it personally. I have a Type A personality and I am extremely goal oriented and determined. I question if that has anything to do with my ability to have held so many leadership roles.

As I look back, something did come up. I remember that I was never the type of girl to have too many girl friends. I was always friendly but most of my closest friends were always men. I felt I could relate better, and I also thought women were “catty” or judgmental and gossipy, and I could not relate to those qualities.That was my honest impression of women. It wasn’t until maybe 10 years ago that I started expanding my circles with many women friends. In fact, it was quite noticeable to me and I saw the shift where I now appreciated the nurturing I was receiving from my women friends. I also didn’t surround myself around women that were “catty” or judgmental. The women all had something in common. They were strong and independent women. Many were much older than I and we all appreciated and respected each others strengths and weaknesses. I can now say that I have many girl friends with all different backgrounds and experiences. I now realize the importance of having these circles and how the women in my life have helped me grow.

I’ve come so far that I even joined a fabulous Mastermind Group that my friend started about a year ago. We were 6 ladies who came together to read and study the book “Think and Grow Rich”. I think back to that Mastermind Group and how together we supported each of our goals, and it was truly amazing. Masterminds have been around for ever, but I don’t hear many women talk about being a part of one. If you are reading this post and you are a woman, or have a special woman in your life, I recommend you/they find a Mastermind Group locally. You’ll be amazed on how much you can grow and how you can support the growth of other women.

Seeing this shift in my life, and recognizing that there are many women that are not as confident or have not had the same opportunities that I have, has made me compassionate towards this subject. I would like to contribute where-ever I can to see women gain confidence and not be afraid to go for what they want. Including leadership roles. How I will contribute to this is yet to come…I haven’t thought that far but I think writing this post is a start.

I’d love to hear comments and thoughts on this subject. Are you a woman who feels that you have not had the same opportunities as your male colleagues? Are you a woman who relates to my journey? Are you someone who works on empowering women? Are you someone who thinks this is all BS? Whoever you are and what ever it is that you have done or not done, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Until then…make it a productive rest of the week!

Happy belated #InternationalWomensDay!