Marianne Adoradio

‎~ One of the "BEST PLACES TO WORK" has 2 new openings ~

Design Your Direction

Silicon Valley COMPENSATION PROFESSIONALS: I'm working on a project with Lewis Partners, LLC. for one of the "Best Places to Work." There are 2 openings.

~~~Comp Analyst, Exec Comp~~

~~~ Comp Analyst, General Comp~~

PLEASE REFER your colleagues ~ 

marianne@lewis-partners.com OR 408-295-6656

Networking into the Holiday Season

This past weekend, I attended a Blues concert at Villa Montalvo that brought Chicago Blues artists and local Silicon Valley musicians together. It was an evening in tribute to blues legends who have passed in the last year. JC Smith, on the west coast, pulled Eddie Shaw, Kenny "Big Eyes" Smith, and Vaan Shaw together from Chicago. See the connections! We all have them but don't always look for them.

The connections between the musicians on stage, and their network that brought them together, is pretty amazing as you can see. They are able to get the right talent together anywhere in the world, and pretty darn quickly too. 

We have a lot to learn from our musicians. Networking is one of the most productive ways to get things done in our career. As we enter this holiday season, it's a great time to connect. Just relax, have fun with it, and do it in your own style. Take some risks, challenge yourself, but it's right there for you to leverage. THERE WILL BE MORE NETWORKING TIPS for you in the coming weeks. In the meantime, I leave you with a finale picture from the show. ~COURTESY OF ROSALINDA CARRILLO.             Marianne   Marianne@designyourdirection.com 
Picture below  left to right standing: JC Smth, Kenny "Big Eyes' Smith, Eddie Show, Ladee Chico, Vaan Shaw.

Career Tips for Resume: Finish Your Resume with Final Step 10

You are in the final phase of updating your resume. Be sure to review it carefully. Here's a trick: Read each line backwards. This will bring the spelling of words to light when you aren't reading context but just proof reading. Final of the Top 10 Resume Tips follows:

  

 10. Be sure you check for grammar, punctuation, and spelling.  Remember that  

          it’s not enough to use only the spelling checker.

    All the best this week!  Marianne             
    marianne@designyourdirection.com

Career Tips on Resume: Continue with Effective Resume, Steps 7- 9

Steps 7, 8 and 9 are common sense in approach. You are ready to finalize your resume and want to have everything very professional throughout. This will insure resume impact on the reader.  Professional resume tips continue below and I'm available if you need more assistance, marianne@designyourdirection.com:

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7.  If using a second page, fill a minimum of one-third of that page or the information will look lost or less significant.

8.  Always include your name and contact information at the top of the page.

9.  It is difficult to be objective about your own resumé.  Make a point of getting input from people who know your work. Have them take notes while you talk about your work experience and your accomplishments. Then, go back and use the notes to write your bullets in the experience section.

Career Tips on Resume: Write Your Way to Resume with Impact, Steps 4 - 6

Steps 4,5 and 6 will lead you through your resume content including strong bullets with impact to the reader. A key point and "trick" of writing the resume is to use #s wherever you are able - # of people on the team, the % of savings, the # of key clients or the cost savings $s for units that you fixed. See the specifics of step 4 through 6 below:

4. Use bullets and numbers for impact! Bullets are easy to track when quickly reviewing a resume. Numbers draw the reader’s eye to that particular place on the resume. The more numbers throughout, the more likely your information will be read and of interest to the reader.Write strong accomplishment statements within your work experience history.  

5.  The statements should both reflect your strengths while targeting the position. The experience should be listed chronologically. This is the most preferred format by hiring managers and recruiters in the Bay Area.

6. The resume should only go back 10 – 15 years. There are times when relevant experience, to the targeted position, requires including additional years. This experience should be limited or you may include it in an additional information section. Remember that “less is more” for impact!

Career Tips on Resume: 10 Steps to Create a Resume with Impact

Having a resume that makes you stand out is crucial! With an effective resume, you will gain impact on linkedin, other posting arenas and even when giving a contact or hiring manager your resume. That is why you are receiving the 10 steps for a resume with impact again (just in case you missed them in earlier blogs).  You will see them in 4 - parts this month.
 ~ Here are the first 3 of the 10 steps:

1. Always have a particular job in mind when you update your resumé.  Most often, you will be updating your resume relative to the skills and background of your current or last held position. When you forward your resumé to a company, put the position job requisition number in the subject line. Forward both an attachment and a left justified version pasted into your e-mail.

2. Write a strong Summary Section at the top of your resumé that reflects the unique contribution that you bring to the position. Be specific enough so that the reader can distinguish your unique profile from others. 

Poor Example: Marketing professional bringing extensive experience and strong communication skills. Works well independently and on a team. This statements sounds like many people.

Good Example: Successful marketing professional with over 10 years experience running global programs in both bio-tech and IT. Reputation for building strong and productive team relationships with both tech and non-tech members.

3. The font should be large enough to be easy to read and give an impression of a  “confident” professional. A general rule is to use a minimum font size of 11 or 12. Use of smaller font size than 10 seems timid.  Use of a larger font size than 12, in the main content, looks “overdone.” Fonts with serifs draw the reader in. Fonts without serifs are very neat.

Career Tip for Week 4 in Sept: Build YOUR Brand into YOUR Resume

 As we wrap up the lovely month of September, the final tip of this month is to leverage your brand and have a resume that sets you apart. Know your "brand" and uniqueness and build that into your resume summary at the top and your accomplishment bullets in your experience section. Assisting you with resume building is one of my specialty areas so I'm glad to work with you. A resume that "promotes" you and sets you apart will often land you an interview. In a good market, over 90% of my clients receive more interviews and resume notice after we work together.

At the end of this week's blog, you will find additional resume tips that will also beef up your resume. Once you have a well branded resume that has a nice use of white space, or "resume real-estate," you will receive more attention when you send it out to your network or post it on line. 

If you have questions, I'm here at marianne@designyourdirection.com.
Have a great start to your fall and success on updating your resume!
~ Marianne

Resumé Tips

 

Whether looking for new work or not, it is recommended that you update your resumé every year to keep current with your accomplishments and skill sets.  It is a way to remind yourself of your competencies and value.

Below are 10 tips on how to target and structure your resumé to make it effective. 

1. Always have a particular job in mind when you update your resumé.  Most often, you will be updating your resume relative to the skills and background of your current or last held position. When you forward your resumé to a company, put the position job requisition number in the subject line. Forward both an attachment and a left justified version pasted into your e-mail.

2. Write a strong Summary Section at the top of your resumé that reflects the unique contribution that you bring to the position. Be specific enough so that the reader can distinguish your unique profile from others. 

Poor Example: Marketing professional bringing extensive experience and strong communication skills. Works well independently and on a team. This statements sounds like many people.

Good Example: Successful marketing professional with over 10 years experience running global programs in both bio-tech and high-tech. Reputation for building strong and productive team relationships with both tech and non-tech members.

3. The font should be large enough to be easy to read and give an impression of a  “confident” professional. A general rule is to use a minimum font size of 11 or 12. Use of smaller font size than 10 seems timid.  Use of a larger font size than 12, in the main content, looks “overdone.” Fonts with serifs draw the reader in. Fonts without serifs are very neat.

4. Use bullets and numbers for impact! Bullets are easy to track when quickly reviewing a resume. Numbers draw the reader’s eye to that particular place on the resume. The more numbers throughout, the more likely your information will be read and of interest to the reader.

5. Write strong accomplishment statements within your work experience history. The statements should both reflect your strengths while targeting the position. The experience should be listed chronologically. This is the most preferred format by hiring managers and recruiters in the Bay Area.

6.  The resume should only go back 10 – 15 years. There are times when relevant experience, to the targeted position, requires including additional years. This experience should be limited or you may include it in an additional information section. Remember that “less is more” for impact!

7. If using a second page, fill a minimum of one-third of that page or the information will look lost or less significant.

8.  Always include your name and contact information at the top of the page.

9.  It is difficult to be objective about your own resumé.  Make a point of getting input from people who know your work.

10.Be sure you check for grammar, punctuation, and spelling.  Remember that it’s not enough to use only the spelling checker.