What is the Preferred Resume Length? – Accountemps Study

careerhacker.com
| workforce-vision.com | strategy-matrix.com | billinman.com

Accountemps, the world’s largest temporary staffing company for accounting, finance, and bookkeping professionals, recently published the results of a poll of 150 senior executives (HR, finance, and marketing) from the nation’s 1,000 largest companies – “Resumes Inching Up“. The executives were asked “What is the preferable length of a resume for staff-level employees and executives?” Here are the results:

Read the press release to find out more about the Do’s and Dont’s of what to include in a resume.

Resumes Inching Up. [Accountemps]

________________________________________________________________________

Career Hacker * www.careerhacker.com * By Bill Inman * www.billinman.com

Security Clearance, “In Many Cases It’s Better Than Having an MBA”

CAREER HACK: If you are in an area where Security Clearance positions are in demand consider applying for these positions and gaining clearance. If you are able to receive Security Clearance it can boost your salary by 25% on average while providing stronger job security.

Would getting a security clearance be better than getting an MBA degree? The Associated Press in their article “Security Clearance a Valued Resume Credential” discusses the advantages of having this clearance which is in high demand. Here are some highlights from the article:

• “Job candidates with security clearances are hotter-than-ever commodities in the Washington area and elsewhere, due to higher demand, tighter security requirements and a wave of baby-boomer retirements”
• “If a soldier has good skill sets in the IT arena, he’ll have a job offer in five minutes”
• “We see people hoping to retire, and their employers are pleading with them to stay. They say, ‘We’ll pay you another 30 grand to stay on board.”‘
• “Estimates are that there are 100,000 unfilled security-clearance jobs, many of them in the Washington area, the largest market for such positions.”
• “Those with security clearances earn an average 25 percent more than similarly skilled workers who lack them. That gap has been widening, too.”
• “It’s in many cases better than having an MBA.”

Security Clearance a Valued Resume Credential. [Associated Press]

________________________________________________________________________

Career Hacker * www.careerhacker.com * By Bill Inman * www.billinman.com

The Average U.S. Hourly Wage has Increased 25% Since 1997

The average U.S. hourly wage has been increasing steadily over the last 10 years. The increase has been from $12.51 an hour to $16.75 an hour, an increase of 25%. If increases continue at the current rate then in 2017 the average hourly wage will be $20.00 hourly (about $40,000 annually), $26.30 hourly in 2027 (about $52,000 annually), and $32.96 hourly in 2037 (about $66,000 annually). You can bet that inflation will keep pace though!

Below you will find a table with the average hourly pay for U.S. workers from 1997 – 2007.

The following graph represents the same timeframe:

For more information see:

The U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Statistics
The White House Economic Statistics Briefing Room – Employment

________________________________________________________________________

Career Hacker * www.careerhacker.com * By Bill Inman * www.billinman.com

Ways To Know When It’s Time To Find Another Job

Information Week writer Sharon Gaudin interviewed career experts from Challenger Gray & Christmas, a global outplacement firm based in Chicago, and Monster.com, online job posting leader, on the subject of knowing when to look for another job.

Here are the “ways to know when it may be time to move on” with quotes from the Gaudin’s article “5 Ways to Know When It’s Time to Find Another Job“:

1) Learning Has Stopped or Slowed Considerably

“If you’re no longer learning, the indication is that your time there is over. If you have a really good boss, it can be hard to leave that. But if you’ve learned everything you can from that company and that great boss, you’re not helping yourself by staying.”

2) There are Rumors that Your Company May be Acquired or Merge with Another Company

“Pay attention to the rumor mill when it’s about acquisitions, mergers and layoffs. Mergers and acquisitions are a real red flag that some of you will go, if not all of you.”

3) You Work with a “Toxic” Co-Worker

“If you see a company where people are not held accountable for things they do, both good and bad, you shouldn’t stay, they might as well not be giving you a computer because they’re not helping you do your job.”

4) You Have a Bad Relationship with Your Boss

” [If the relationship with your boss] is [not] solid at its core…you’re just not going to be in a position to get good raises, promotions and challenging and interesting work. If you feel like your job is at risk and you may be let go, instead of fearing and avoiding it, be proactive about looking…don’t wait.”

5) You are Underpaid and Overworked

“Many people took a job that paid less than they wanted but they just wanted a paycheck…if you’ve stayed with an employer for four or five years, you’ll probably find that you’re underpaid.” Suggested is going online and check out various salary surveys, looking specifically at your job level and geographical region.

5 Ways to Know When It’s Time to Find Another Job. [Information Week - Sharon Gaudin]

________________________________________________________________________

Career Hacker * www.careerhacker.com * By Bill Inman * www.billinman.com

Strategies for Successfully Managing Workplace Culture

Jane May, in her Careerramblings.com blog, provides the following 21 Strategies for Managing Workplace Culture. As she writes, “Some [career minded professionals] might hate the company [they] work for, or are unclear of the companies’ culture. As a result, [they] are not able to manage workplace politics. The following list of strategies for managing workplace politics may be useful to those that are new to the company or profession.

21
Ways of Managing Workplace Politics. [Careerramblings.com - Jane May]
______________________________________

Career Hacker * www.careerhacker.com * By Bill Inman * www.billinman.com

Ten Highest Paid “Blue-Collar” Jobs

10 blue-collar jobs with highest annual earnings Occupation Average earnings of full-time workers

Drillers, oil well	$62,409
Supervisors, electricians and power transmission installers	$62,347
Locomotive operating	$59,517
Supervisors, plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters	$58,062
Railroad conductors and yardmasters	$57,672
Power plant operators	$56,545
Supervisors, extractive	$56,228
Supervisors, carpenters and related workers	$55,833
Aircraft engine mechanics	$55,539
Electrical power installers and repairers	$55,395

Drillers are no. 1 in blue-collar pay. [Bizjournals - G. Scott Thomas]

Career Hack: If you are in a professional similar to these positions above and make less pay search for these titles on Monster.com in your local and consider submitting your resume!

________________________________________________________________________

Career Hacker * www.careerhacker.com * By Bill Inman * www.billinman.com

Second Life – A virtual life becomes a real job

Second Life is a “3D online digital world imagined, created, and owned by it’s residents.” Simply put it is a ‘website’ where real people can create online alter ego and interact with other people worldwide. As Dawn Rosenberg McKay of About.com writes, “residents of this virtual world, who take on the persona of a self-created avatar, can own land, run businesses and attend events, all online. Ms. McKay references Fortune.com, “the most radical dotcom 2.0 recruitment wave is happening in virtual reality thanks to Second Life. Instead of posting a resume on Monster.com that will hopefully net a flesh-and-blood job interview, your avatar can be interviewed and hired all within Second Life, often for jobs possible only in virtual reality.” Apparently several companies have already hired people by finding and interviewing people’s Second Life alter ego. If you are already on Second Life you might consider networking or starting a business where real world employer can see your talent. If you have not yet experienced Second Life it may be worth a look.

Can Second Life Help You Get Hired? [Dawn Rosenberg McKay - About.com]

________________________________________________________________________

Career Hacker * www.careerhacker.com * By Bill Inman * www.billinman.com

U.S. Workers Hate Their Job More Than Ever

Inc.com writer Tamara Schweitzer wrote the article U.S. Workers Hate Their Job More Than Ever. Here is some information from that writing:

_____________________

Career Hacker * www.careerhacker.com * By Bill Inman * www.billinman.com

Google Earth Resume

First video resumes, now resumes on Google Earth. Interesting. The Google Earth resume shows the locations where the job seeker went to school, where their jobs were/are, where they participate in extracurricular activities, etc.  It allows for the viewer to drill down on the locations and get more information about each.

click here to view the Google Earth resume in Google Maps

Since people are continuing to innovate how they display their resume and skills here is a new one for you. Job seekers should sell pieces of their resume on GoogleBase? $1 for the Objective, $1 for the Education, $1 for Experience, and $5 for the contact information. If a company really wanted to recruit them at least they would made a small investment and the job seeker would know they were serious when the prospective employer called.

Google Earth Resume Screenshot 

 _______________________________________________________________________

Career Hacker * www.careerhacker.com * By Bill Inman * www.billinman.com

The Vault’s Video Resume Challenge Winners

The website the Vault evaluated scores of video resumes to select the 5 best submissions. Here were their observations:

• A confident, poised video resume can make up for deficits in your written resume.
• If you use the Q&A format, try not to jump immediately to your answers – wait a second or two.
• Speak at a fairly slow pace.
• Dress professionally.
• If at all possible, face the camera.
• Try not to visibly read off notes or other cues. If you keep your video resume on the shorter side you will not need many, if any, notes.
• Ensure that the background is professional (no posters stuck to the wall with rolled-up tape, beer cans, etc.)
• Four minutes is the absolute maximum you should spend on your video resume. Better to keep it between a minute and two minutes.

View the 5 winning resumes here. [Vault]

________________________________________________________________________

Career Hacker * www.careerhacker.com * By Bill Inman * www.billinman.com