How to Prepare For Your Engineer Resume

How to Prepare For Your Engineer ResumeAn entry level engineer resume has to be tailored to the needs of the engineering industry. These need to reflect your career goals, skills and qualifications as a professional in this field. While this is usually done by the hiring company, it should also be done by the engineering professional as well. A good engineer resume can get you that job you deserve.The best way to prepare for your job search is to make sure you are getting the material you need for your good engineer resume. As a result, you need to get good material from reputable sources. This means hiring the services of an engineering professional that can not only draft a top notch document for you, but can also give you the information you need to ensure you get the most comprehensive information possible.A good engineer resume will include the necessary information for the employer to decide if you are a fit for the position and provide you with the qualifications you should ha ve to do the job. These are usually the skills and qualifications you will be teaching in college as well as your previous professional experience. If you are trying to get an entry level engineer resume, these are the details that you need to include.There is a reason the companies are paying you to take these classes. They want to make sure you have the skills they are looking for when they are offering these positions. They want to make sure you have the knowledge and the training to teach their students how to do their jobs properly.While there are many career tracks within the engineering industry, the one track that is becoming increasingly popular is project management. These projects range from construction sites to manufacturing plants and research facilities. It is important that the engineers who are coming up with these projects are prepared to handle them.While project management may be one of the more difficult engineering fields to learn, it is also one of the most re warding. With projects such as these, the possibility for improving the business and their careers is great. This is why so many engineers are trying to earn their degree in project management.In order to gain a project management degree, however, you first need to gain an entry level engineer resume. This includes a resume showing a variety of experiences and skills so you can make a decision on the program you want to take. A well-written entry level engineer resume should not only have the required skills, but should also highlight these skills as well as other relevant information to help you determine which programs might be right for you.Once you have a solid project management resume, you can begin preparing for interviews. Your interviewer will want to know what projects you have worked on and whether or not you have ever worked in other positions. If you show them that you have, they can build their confidence in you and give you an interview based on these factors.

Baby Boomers - Are you making adolescent decisions - Career Pivot

Baby Boomers - Are you making adolescent decisions - Career Pivot Adolescent Decisions? Are you in a position to make adolescent decisions? Many baby boomers are making the same decisions that they had to make when they were adolescents. Think about it. When you were young: No money No stuff You knew you needed to work for the next 30 or 40 years You needed to make a career decision Now a lot of baby boomers are in a similar position: No money or at least not enough to retire on A lot of stuff that costs you money to keep You need to work for the next 10 or 20 years You need to make a career decision and possibly multiple career decisions over the coming years See the similarity? Can you make better adolescent decisions now? Most of us when we left home and made our first career decisions, made those decisions in a vacuum. We did not know what we did not know! We certainly know more today and can make better decisions. Why are we having to make these decisions? Whole industries and job categories have gone away! Many are being forced to make these decisions kicking and screaming. Listen to the most recent episode Let me tell you about John. I met John shortly after I started my business. John had been a successful photo journalist for a major newspaper. John saw that photo journalism was going away along with the newspaper business going into decline. During the last decade, he retrained and became a home inspector. He had a business inspecting homes when they were to be sold. Just as he was making a go of it, the great recession hit. We know what the great recession did to the real estate market. John once again made a move into the energy efficiency market place where he partnered with contractors to help home owners determine how they could save money by making their home more energy efficient. John enjoyed the green energy part of the job but he was a salesman which he did not enjoy. However, he learned a number of sale techniques that he felt comfortable with. John could not make a go of it financially and took a job working in a boutique home improvement store. He is making half of what he made as a photojournalist. However, he is making a go of it! He is now looking at moving back into the new home business as that segment of the market improves. If all goes well he should return to his previous earning potential. Family All of the shifts has been stressful on his marriage as his wife became the primary provider. To put it bluntly this whole transition has not been easy on him or his family! I had coffee with John last week and for the first time since I have known him I saw optimism in him. He has learned something new at each step of the way. Kind of like when we were adolescents making adolescent decisions. The difference is we have obligations that we did not have when we were young. We have spouses and children. It would have been easy for John to throw in the towel and give up. It probably would have wrecked his marriage. He did not give up and is willing to make yet another transition. Kind of like when we were adolescents making adolescent decisions. Are you making adolescent decisions? [UPDATE: John now has a job with a growing home improvement company. He is not back to where was as a photojournalist but he is on the right trajectory.] Marc Miller Like what you just read? Share it with your friends using the buttons above. Like What You Read? Get Career Pivot Insights! Check out the Repurpose Your Career Podcast Do You Need Help With ...

Asking Questions During an Interview

Asking Questions During an Interview Dear Coach Wolfgang, I have an interview coming up and someone mentioned that I need to ask questions  of the employer. If Im the one being interviewed, why do I need to ask questions?   Thank you for the question and congratulations on your interview! You received good advice. If you don’t ask solid questions during an interview you might as well kiss the job goodbye. I’ve interviewed plenty of job candidates over the years. In one instance, the candidate I was interviewing did a fantastic job during the interview. When  asked if he had any questions, he replied with ‘No, I’m all set. This was a main factor in why the candidate did not get the job offer. There are many good reasons to ask questions at the end of an interview. We are going to focus on the main two: Show the Employer You Are Interested in the Position Doing some research on the company and asking questions related to that research will show that you are serious about wanting to work at the company. Asking good questions demonstrates that you took the interview seriously and shows the motivation you have to land the job. It is important to ask questions about the future of the company or department because they demonstrate that you are a serious candidate who wants to invest in the company long term. Will You Enjoy Working in this Position for this Company In an interview, not only are you interviewing for the position at the company, but also you are interviewing the company. Just because you are interested in a particular position does not mean you will be a good fit for that company. Also, the job description cannot tell you everything about the position. Ask questions that will provide you with more specific information about the job and the company. Write the answers you receive down so that you can review them later when a decision has to be made. For further insight, review the scenarios below: SCENARIO 1: Clarify Job Responsibilities “Data analysis” is listed as one of the job responsibilities on a job posting you are interested in. YOU ARE skilled at data analysis and don’t mind completing it, but it is not your favorite task. YOU ASK the employer to break down the weekly responsibilities into major categories YOU LEARN that data analysis is actually 55% of your daily tasks. Learning this information may influence your decision to accept the job. SCENARIO 2: Evaluate Work Environment The job description lists a desired skill as is a team player. YOU ENJOY working with teammates in person and brainstorming ideas in groups. YOU ASK a question regarding the team environment at the company. YOU LEARN that 65% of your team members work virtually and you will only connect with them via teleconference. Learning this information may influence your decision to accept the job. Tips  For Formulating Interview Questions It is important to formulate 5-10 question in advance of the interview.  Rank the  questions by importance because you will likely not ask all of them. You will want to review the job description to see what information is missing that you would like to know more about. You will want to evaluate your work values (those things that are important to you in a job) and frame some questions around those values to see if they will be met in this job. You will also want to research the company and formulate some questions around what they do and where they are headed.

What Separates Good Resumes from Bad Resumes

What Separates Good Resumes from Bad Resumes Resumes mean so much to hiring managers. Its your first introduction to a prospective employer and its how you differentiate yourself. But what separates the bad resumes from the good ones? The best resumes avoid abbreviations. Abbreviations are not professional nor are they accepted. Nothing makes HR managers cringe more than seeing sentences like the following: “Answered the phone and went 2 C clients” (yes, I truly have seen this). It may be the information age but this is not a text message so dont treat it as such. Giving up too much personal information is a no-no. You should leave off anything related to hobbies or interests that are not related to the job. Do not include your weight and height unless youre applying for a position as a  gym trainer. If its not related to the job in any way, do not include it on your resume. Leave out your illnesses or why you took off 2 years to care for a dying parent. As hard as that may have been, it will count against you. The best resumes are the best because theyre not being used as an art canvas. If you try to stand out by having large graphics on your resume its a bad move, because this will give you an unprofessional and amateurish looking resume. Your prospective employer only wants to see your skills, your duties and achievements. Youre not going to get anywhere by having a Word Art picture of a snail on your resume. Keep the negativity to yourself. The best resumes are neutral in tone or highlight the best attributes of the applicant. But, if you have information on your resume that is negative, such as, leaving your previous employer because you did not like the boss, just keep that part to yourself. Do not try to explain the situation on your resume. Thats an impossible battle that you should not fight. Your resumes job is to sell and promote you. So dont eliminate yourself because you were negative. Good resumes include dates. Do not make an HR manager have to guess. This kills your resume on the spot. You have to include dates. What years were you in college, did you attend graduate school or did you graduate from a trade school? How long have you been working at your current position? Do not make the hiring manager have to ask questions about your resume. The second they have to guess, your resume is going straight to the trash. Make sure your resume flows easily and there are no date gaps. If you took a year off to go travel or to go back to school, include this on your resume. Bad resumes do not highlight achievements. Many people will fill their resumes with irrelevant information, but they leave off the most important part of the resume â€" focusing on their achievements. You want to stand out from other applicants, so how can you do that if you do not showcase what youve done. Explaining your past accomplishments means that the HR manager can see what youve done and know how you can fill their need. If you have the abilities, you need to showcase them on your resume.

Creating A Resume And Cover Letter With A Writing Board Game

Creating A Resume And Cover Letter With A Writing Board GameIn my previous article, I showed you how to properly develop your resume through the use of a resume paper template. This is an important and simple step in developing a resume. However, this process can only show you what is on your resume, but it can not lead you to where your resume needs to go.When you are simply creating a resume, you will likely never be sent to a company for an interview. This means that you will have to send out a resume to the major networking sites such as LinkedIn. These are great places to submit your resume, but they don't serve as anything more than a portal to other people's resumes.The majority of them are going to offer a much more formal profile of themselves. Some will tell you that they are the CEO or the founder of a company. However, many won't. They will just tell you that they run the show.This means that the only way that you can find a good listing of companies is to go into their c ompany's profile and see if there is a section about them that you might want to put on your resume. For example, they might mention that they are starting a fashion label. So, you will want to include this on your resume if you have done some freelance work for a fashion label in the past.The best part about doing this online networking sites is that you will get a lot of this information right from their own forums. You can ask questions that you want answered. However, this can take a long time, especially if you have a large list of questions.Instead, you can use this short time-frame to actually compile your resume. Most of these networking sites have these on their website. When you are able to review all of these for anything relevant to you, you will have a more comprehensive list of companies to contact.If you go the free life on these networking sites, this will result in a bunch of websites that no one ever has heard of. On the other hand, if you use the resources availab le through the free resource on LinkedIn, then you will find a much larger collection of companies that might want to consider hiring you.

The One Lesson of the RBS Chair Snapchat Embarrassment

The One Lesson of the RBS Chair Snapchat Embarrassment Unless you’re employed in the global banking industry you probably missed the recent announcement that Royal Bank of Scotland chairman Rory Cullinan will soon be leaving his post. Bloomberg, the Guardian, and other media outlets attribute the departure to a clash with other execs over strategy. One intriguing footnote to the story, however, puts it in “There but for the grace of God…” territory for any working stiff who uses social media for non-business purposesâ€"or, for that matter, any parent who struggles to stay connected to his or her social-media-obsessed teen. That’s because about a month ago, British tabloids published screenshots of Cullinan’s Snapchat selfies captioned with “Boring meeting xx,” “not a fan of board meetings,” and “Another friggin meeting.” The Sun reported that Cullinan had sent the messages to his teenage daughter, who posted the screenshots to her own Instagram feed last spring using the hashtag #daddylikestoselfie. Compared to other notorious career-damaging social-media blunders, Cullinan’s gaffe seems pretty mild. Some might even be charmed by this high-powered banker’s efforts to bond with his daughter. Still, the Snapchat incident couldn’t have helped Cullinan’s relationship with his employer or coworkers, as Bloomberg’s Matt Levine humorously points out. Even if the chairman’s departure is largely unrelated to his Snapchats, there’s a lesson in the whole episodeâ€"and for once, it doesn’t have to do with managing the security settings on your accounts. Sure, it’s always a good idea to keep privacy settings high on any social media accounts. But the truth is you can’t always maintain control over your messages. Both Instagram and Snapchat have recently seen huge breaches involving images users thought were private. Recruiters report digging deep into the online profiles of potential hires, all the way down to their grammar and spelling. And the latest incident just goes to show that even if you are circumspect, your friends or family members might not always be so careful. The thing to do: Wait a beat before publishing words or images, no matter the audience. Remember that something that looks innocent in one context could burn you in another. From the perspective of a potential employer, what you write is indicative of your character. “When you’re hiring for a job, you have very little data about candidates, so every piece of data that you do get carries an enormous amount of weight,” says former hiring manager Alison Green, who runs the career blog askamanager.org. On one hand, it’s frustrating that a minor lapse of judgement can negatively impact one’s livelihoodâ€"and that even well-meaning people have to worry that an old Tweet or photo could cast a shadow over their careers. On the other hand, the transparency of certain forms of social media can be a force for good, pushing people to choose their words more carefully, kindly, and responsibly. In Cullinan’s case, that might have meant swallowing his work gripes until after hours, and opting for a simpler message like “I miss you.”

Certification Or Degree Which To Pick - Work It Daily

Certification Or Degree Which To Pick - Work It Daily Certifications and two-year degrees both offer you the opportunity of obtaining a career in the industry you’re interested in. However, they also differ greatly in nearly every aspect including the type of job you can get, the cost of schooling, how long it takes to receive the degree or certificate, and the coursework itself. When it comes down to choosing between a two-year college degree and a certificate, all of these details should be considered. Your personal preference, lifestyle, and future outlook will all make a difference when deciding between these two options. Certification Or Degree: Which Is Right For You? Differences Between Certificates and Two-Year Degrees There are many differences between certifications and two-year degrees. For example, a certificate program is often shorter than an associate degree program because the coursework differs. Certificate programs include more job-specific classes and training while two-year degrees require general education requirements. The availability of classes also differs slightly. While many certification programs are offered online, you may not find the two-year degree program you want online, and vice versa. Unlike certifications, the credits you earn while obtaining your associate degree can transfer to higher degrees. Certificates You can expect your certification program to be short; typically between six months and two years long, depending on what kind of certification it is. It is also going to cost less because there is less coursework, and your classes will be to further your career, not for general education. However, you should also be aware that most coursework and training for certifications don’t transfer as college credits toward a bachelor’s or master’s degree. If you’re hoping to get a higher-level degree down the road, you might want to consider an associate degree with transferable credits. However, if your goal is to become qualified and trained in a specific profession, getting your certification can be the quickest and easiest way to accomplish it. Two-Year Degrees Two year college degrees, also known as associate degrees, include coursework for your chosen major as well as general education classes. Most classes you take for your associate degree can be transferred toward a bachelor’s or master’s degree if you choose to do so. And, as you have probably guessed, the average amount of time for this type of degree is two years, but that depends on how many classes you take at one time. If you choose to take summers off and go to school part time, it can take three or even four years to complete your degree program. If you not only want a degree for furthering your career and also want the general education credits, a two-year degree is a great option. Many two-year degrees are also now available online, giving you more flexibility. Photo Credit: Shutterstock Have you joined our career growth club?Join Us Today!