Job Search Tips - How Far Back Do You Go With Work History on Your Resume?

Job Search Tips - How Far Back Do You Go With Work History on Your Resume?When writing a resume, it is often common to include everything in chronological order. However, this can be detrimental if you are attempting to cover a lot of ground in the job application.Instead, you may want to think about age bracket first. This means you will know if you are applying for a job as a teenager or young adult. This is important because young workers are much more likely to get jobs than an older worker.Another thing to consider when researching employment background checks is the number of references. For example, if you have a specific reference to a specific employer, do you know if they have asked the reference for their name? This might be an easy way to get a few names you don't know.When writing a resume, when most people think about it, the chronological order of your history will include your education. However, many companies like to see a resume that shows a college degree, an appr enticeship or post-secondary credentials. It is important to keep this information in mind when writing a resume because companies are used to seeing a few years worth of work.If you are not certain if you are applying for a job in a certain department, use your reference names to find out. Many companies require a specified number of references, and these may be more likely to be used if they are a few years past. By using a reference, it will be easier to spot your previous employer.By including your name, age and any previous job, this will help make your reference names stand out. This also shows that you really are trying to get a job and that you did something worthy of getting one. If you have a specific company that you want to work for, keep them in mind when reading your reference names.When researching employment background checks, you need to keep your resume as chronological as possible. You can follow the same process for each career path that you would for a job. Howe ver, keeping this aspect of your history in mind will help keep your resume from being too lengthy.

How to Handle a Name Change at Work

How to Handle a Name Change at Work Just back in the office after getting hitched to an actor in Venice, London-based human-rights attorney Amal Alamuddin is going by a new name: Mrs. Clooney. While the former Ms. Alamuddin, 36, has established a professional reputation under her own moniker, it’s safe to say that being identified as the woman who got the sexiest man alive to settle down won’t damage her career prospects. But what about accomplished women who aren’t boldface names by marriage orâ€"like Kim Kardashian, who announced earlier this summer that henceforth she would be known as Mrs. Westâ€"boldface names in their own right? Suddenly appearing in the workplace as Mrs. So-and-So can cause some confusion among clients and colleagues. As we noted when Kim made it official, the fact that women are marrying later, often after they’ve spent years establishing a career, can make the change to a new name more complicatedâ€"and risky. If you’re considering going by a different handle in the workplace, here are eight steps to ease the transition without hurting your prospects. 1. Hedge your bets. Think about how costly it would be to cut off your connection to the body of work or marketing that’s tied to your maiden name. If that worries you, opt for a more moderate approach. “The easy out is to keep your maiden name at work and in professional contexts, but use your spouse’s last name socially,” says Danielle Tate, founder of MissNowMrs.com, a site that helps women change their legal name. Another compromise is to use both surnames, either by making your maiden name your middle name, using both last names, or creating a hyphenated last name. Kim took this approach initially. Shortly after exchanging vows with Kayne, she changed the name on her social media accounts to Kim Kardashian West. And just as Kim has done, you can use both surnames for a brief transition period to help people get used to your new identity before dropping your maiden name. 2. Get help from your company. If you plan on making a complete switch, reach out for advice. “You don’t have to figure it out all on your own. You’re not the only who has gotten married or changed your name,” says Michelle Friedman, a career coach who specializes in women’s career advancement. A good first move is to check in with your HR department, which may have policies in place outlining exactly what changes you need to make to your beneficiary designations, insurance benefits, company email and directory listing, and tax and Social Security forms. Aside from offering help with name-change paperwork, HR may be able to offer advice about managing contacts, as well as insights into how others in your industry have handled the change successfully (ask co-workers too). 3. Don’t make it a surprise. Give co-workers and clients ample notice about your name change to avoid confusion, especially if contact info such as your email address will be updated. Sandra Green, a U.K.-based executive coach, recommends reaching out a week to ten days before the wedding. One easy way: Put a small note in your email signature in advance, says Julie Cohen, a Philadelphia career and personal coach. It’s an unobtrusive reminder and a good way to get people familiar with the change. Not everyone in your email contact list needs to know. Run through your list of clients and sort them into groups based on the closeness of your working relationship. Some you’ll just need to include in a quick email blast, while others you should talk to directly. “Obviously you don’t want to get on the phone with everyone, but in certain important client relationships this may be good to do,” says Friedman. 4. Stay on top of the technology. After you’ve made the switch, set up forwarding on your previous email account, or write an automatic reply that includes your new contact info. This way you don’t miss any important messages, and people have a longer grace period to update their contact info and adjust to your new name. 5. Go back in history. Give former employers and references a heads-up about this change as well. This way if you’re applying for a new job, your background check will go smoothly, and you won’t run the risk of having people mistakenly deny that you worked for their company. 6. Use this as an excuse to network. Send an email to everyone in your work circle. “Whenever someone changes jobs or retires, they send these emails about good news,” says Cohen. “Do the same with this.” This also gives you a perfect excuse to remind your network what you’re up to. “You always want to remain in contact,” says Friedman. “But sometimes it’s hard to think of a natural reason for reaching out. This gives you a celebratory excuse.” You could even send this blast twice, says Green. First a few days before the wedding and again after you return from your honeymoon, when the change is in place. 7. Make yourself easy to find. Think about how people locate you and your business. Is it through search, a review website, social media, or all of them? Update all your bios. When you add your new name on sites like LinkedIn, keep a vestige of your old name. That can help people find you during the transition period. “Include your maiden name on social,” says Cohen. “If people are finding you by search it will serve you best to keep connected to both names.” If you had a more common name or are making the switch to a more popular surname, adds Tate, having both names online could even help you come up higher in search results. 8. Update your memberships. To further help your new name show up high in search results and build up credibility for your new moniker, Friedman recommends having any professional organizations, alumni associations, company or community boards, or other groups you belong to change your name on their membership roles. If you hold a leadership position or are listed elsewhere on an association website, perhaps for winning an award, request that the name change appear throughout. Ask to have any older content that can easily be altered, such as a post listing you as a guest speaker at a conference, updated too.

6 Principles for Reaching Your Ultimate Career Potential (Part 2) - Work It Daily

6 Principles for Reaching Your Ultimate Career Potential (Part 2) - Work It Daily The following article is a continuation of the previous article written on the first three of the six principles to reaching your ultimate career potential. The Bridge Model is a nonlinear model designed to provide you with key concepts required to reach your ultimate career success. Regardless of what type of career growth you are looking for, these principles are the common factors that will distinguish you as someone worthy and capable of reaching your highest career potential. The first three principles were covered in a previous article. They are Build Your Base, Respond Responsibly and Influence Impeccable. The next three principles are as follows: 4. Distinguish Yourself The farther you want to take your career and the higher you want to climb, the tougher the competition gets. What are you doing to stand out from the crowd? By doing things such as performing beyond expectations, ensuring you have a strong team working for you who can do the same, and taking unwanted or tough assignments are the types of things that help differentiate you from others. It is doing things out of the ordinary (for example, being successful in a difficult assignment) which demonstrate you have the ambition and history of high performance required to get ahead. 5. Grow Your Skills Do you know what skills and experiences are needed to advance your career? Hopefully the answer is yes but if not, you should identify these and put an action plan together to ensure you have what it takes as you continue to navigate along your career path. Having a career plan that will guide you along your path is essential. t ensures you keep on track and grow in the appropriate areas. Share your career plan with your leaders or mentors, or key stakeholders to get some input on the areas where you need to develop. As well, it helps keep your stakeholders updated on your aspirations and enables you to enlist their support as you advance. Another key aspect of growing your skills is to develop others. Learn to be a talent developer so you can groom your successor and have a strong viable candidate to replace you when you are ready to move up to the next position. 6. Encourage, Enlighten, Expect As you continue to chart your own course of career growth, you should encourage and enlighten your key stakeholders on what to expect with regards to your performance. You should also encourage your peers, subordinates and superiors to expect only the best from you. By encouraging them to expect the best, you will most certainly want to deliver the best and this propels your career ahead. You should also practice being transparent and sharing as much information as possible to enlighten those around you about important information occurring in your work area. Individuals who advance into higher-level roles are those who are willing to share information because they know information is power. They want others to be empowered with knowledge so they can perform and do well. If you practice this, you will single yourself out as one who is worthy and capable of continued career advancement. The six principles of the Bridge Model should be consistently practiced as you continue to advance along your career path. It is a fluid model designed so you can go back and forth between each principle and continue to practice and master these six areas that enable you to reach your ultimate career success. Read more » articles by this approved expert | Click here » if you’re a career expert Photo credit: Shutterstock Have you joined our career growth club?Join Us Today!