Sometimes it feels that your resume is supposed to introduce you to a company that will solve all of your problems. When you’re hired, you will be able to pay your bills, work in an environment you enjoy and take another step in the right direction toward creating the career of your dreams.

Yes, it’s true that if you’re hired with a company, it could very well solve your problems. However, before all of that happens, you need to prove that you can solve the company’s problems. It’s your job to convince the employer that when you’re hired, you can fill any void that needs filling. How can you do that? By making a resume that solves the company’s problems.

Conduct Your Research

Creating a problem-solving resume requires conducting a good amount of research on the company you’re applying with. Think about it; in order to prove that you’re the person who can come in and solve the company’s problems, you need to find out what the problems are.

There are a few ways that you can do this. First, you can look at the job posting that the company creating to determine exactly what is needed for the position. Obviously one problem is that the company is missing a worker and needs to fill this spot with someone who can accomplish XYZ goals, so you want make sure you can fulfill those goals.

It’s also a great idea to find the mission statement of the company—usually located on its website. This gives you an idea of the organizational atmosphere so that you can determine how you fit into it. Also, look at press releases that the company has issued; they’re often on the same website, and can give a lot of insight into company goals and past history.

Add Skills-Specific Summary

After you’ve determined just what the company needs, it’s time to show that you can be a problem-solving employee. To get a good start, try making a skills-specific summary of yourself and placing it directly under your objective.

This type of summary allows you to show off your best skills. However, it’s important to not just throw anything in this section. Instead, you want to use the information that you’ve researched to show that your skills and accomplishments are already so closely matched to what the company needs that they truly would be foolish to hire someone else.

The skills-specific summary that you create could work well as a short two-to-three sentence paragraph or a series of bullet points. However you feel you can best get the point across that you can come in and solve problems for the company is the best way.

In order to get hired, it’s essential that you show a company what you can do for it. You’ll shorten your job search and start a great new career quickly by creating a resume that accomplishes this—problem solving resumes are simply an essential tool in today’s job market.

The chronological and the functional resume represent the two main document variants that people use for job application. With the chronological resume, the work history of a job seeker is present from the latest to the least recent, which means that the chronology is reversed. On the other hand, a functional resume plays the role of an update for an older resume variant because it simply presents the skills and experience in the form of listed clusters.

When should one use the functional resume over the chronological one? Well, if your career evolution is not a clear one, and you have changed different jobs in time, then, you make the typical user of the functional resume. Career changes qualify best for this type of form because of the difference between the activity sectors they switch. Homeworkers or those who have dedicated some years to childcare will take great advantage from the use of the functional resume models.

The thing is that even if you have some gaps in the career evolution, this will pass almost unnoticed if you create a functional resume. With the chronological resume, the gaps will be easily and immediately noticed with the risk of creating a negative impression on the employer. The same kind of resume is suitable in case the chronological listing of the work experience makes the applicant look overqualified. And to tell the truth, there are lots of people who don’t get hired because they are too qualified for a certain position.

Other categories of job seekers who can use the functional resume successfully include people who have unpaid work experience such as volunteering. Students fit well in this category because of the part they take in extracurricular organizations, sports, class projects and coursework. Therefore, the psychological impact on the employer is the factor that influences the choice between the chronological and the functional resume.

Whenever you feel like your current work history is too lengthy, faulty or makes you look bad, you can turn to a functional resume for camouflaging some of the elements you may consider as disadvantageous. Have a look over some online tips on how to create a successful resume, and even choose some ready-made free templates and forms to make things even easier. Get some functional resume samples as examples for what you are supposed to write and get to work on your application. Good luck!

While searching for an executive level job, have you spent time working temporary positions? You might have thought about leaving these temp jobs out when developing your next executive resume. However, you’d be surprised by the number of employers that are actually used to seeing temp jobs.

Executive level temp jobs can be as challenging as full-time jobs, and they’re certainly worthy of respect. So as you write your resume, don’t feel that your temp positions deserve anything less that the treatment you would give a permanent position. More importantly, be sure not to leave them out. Instead, learn how to add them on. Here are a few steps to consider:

Follow the Standard Resume Format

You may be tempted to use different resume format since you’re adding material that is not considered standard on your resume. However, you really need to make your resume seem as normal as possible when adding temporary positions. This means making your temp job entry the same as the other employment history entries on your resume.

You might ask, how, then, is it possible to designate the temporary positions as different from permanent positions? Well, since a temporary position isn’t exactly the same, you would simply add “temporary” at the end of your job title. For instance, writing something like “Executive PR Director, Temporary” would do quite nicely. You don’t need any other reference to the “temporary” part of the temporary position. If your potential employer has more questions, you can answer them in the interview.

Make Sure to Add to Regular Job Section

Again, you want your temporary position to have the same feel as the other jobs on your resume. When you’re adding in all of your positions chronologically, ideally you’ll want to have any temporary positions in their obvious place. In other words, don’t create a separate “temporary” section. You really fulfilled the same duties and responsibilities of any permanent employee in the same position. So why should you treat it as anything less?

Listing Your Agencies

If you were hired on a temporary basis through an agency, you do want to list the agency on your resume. If you had only one assignment through the agency then it’s a good idea to combine the assignment and agency into a single entry. In other words, you would list the job you worked for and your title then list the agency you worked for in the job description.

On the other hand, if you had multiple assignments through an agency then you want to list the agency in the place where you would normally list the company. If you want to list more than one of assignments you had with the agency, the will be listed as bullet points under the company. If you’re only listing a single assignement, though, you’d still list your agency as the company, then detail the assignment in the job description.

So now do you feel more comfortable with adding a temporary position to your resume? If so then there’s no better time than now to get started.

How To Get Invited To Interview

Improving your hire-ability via any means necessary is a very important part of job searching, regardless of whether you’ve been looking for a job for months or you’re just hitting the market. This is something you can do even if you don’t have a lot of experience. So if you’re ready to kick your job search into high gear, here are some tips to consider …

Start Your Own Blog

One way to make yourself hire-able in the eyes of recruiters is to start your own blog. There are quite a few advantages to taking this effort. First, it helps you to boost your web presence (which you need nowadays). Second, it helps show employers that you have knowledge in the field you’re attempting to make ground in (even if you don’t have experience). And third, it gives a ton of resources to offer prospective employers in the event that they ask for details about your background.

A blog is the perfect way to not only showcase your knowledge, but build knowledge as well. It’s the perfect transition for those trying to switch careers, or those entering the professional world for the first time. There are numerous websites that offer free tools for starting and managing a blog, so it’s a great way to get your job hunt headed in the right direction without a money investment.

Get a LinkedIn Page

Another great way to make yourself stand out among your competition is by signing up for a LinkedIn profile. You’ve probably heard of this great site for professionals, but if you haven’t, you’re really missing out. You can create a virtual resume quite easily, giving your potential employers a quick way to find you via search engines. But you can connect with other professionals for networking purposes and have those you’ve worked with before give you recommendations.

Having a LinkedIn page ups your credibility in the eyes of hiring managers and recruiters. Linking to your blog from your profile will help you appear even more hire-able.

Obtain a Professional Email Address

If you don’t already have a professional email address, now is the time to get yours. While sourapplebubblegum@unprofessionalemails.com might have been fine at a certain point of your life, but you need your email address to show a decent level of professionalism.

The standard route to take when choosing your professional email address is to use some variation of your name like johndoe@yahoo.com, jdoe@gmail.com or johnd@msn.com. But if you really want to look impressive, you could register a domain under your name then sign up for an email address through your own account (ex. john@johndoe.com). This way, you could post a quick resume on your site, point to your LinkedIn page and blog, and have the ultimate professional email address.

Sometimes it’s not easy to think of ways to get your foot in the door when you don’t have a great deal of experience in the field you’re pursuing. But taking free or low-cost steps to build your experience beforehand could make you more hire-able then you could ever imagine.

Interview FAQ

There’s no doubt that going on a job interview is a critical portion of a candidate’s application process. If you were lucky enough to have a resume that got you through the door, the competency interview will provide you with an opportunity to further prove that you’re right for the position.

Many job candidates falter once they get into a competency interview, though, and end up “missing their mark.” You might lose your chance at a position very quickly by making some apparently small mistakes. So before going on your next interview, take a look at these interview faq that could make or break your chances.

Don’t Arrive Late (or Too Early)

One fatal error that could hurt your chances of acquiring the position you desire is to arrive to the job interview late. Often, a hiring manager has several interviews scheduled close together, and you throw a wrench into the works by not respecting his time. If you show up late, you give an indication of what the employer could expect from you as an employee – not a good thing.

However, it’s also good to keep in mind that arriving too early could work against you too. While arriving 15 minutes prior to the interview is perfectly acceptable, arriving 30 minutes early could also through off the interviewer’s schedule and is generally frowned upon.

Don’t Trash a Previous Employer

If you had a bad experience with a previous employer, don’t tell the prospective employer about it. For instance, never talk about how you disagreed with your last boss at every turn, and instead, simply say that you’d left because your goals didn’t line up with the missions of the company. But to say that the manager “sucks” will likely leave a bad taste in the interviewers mouth.

Don’t Get Too “Familiar”

Some hiring managers have complained that job applicants often get too familiar or friendly with them during an interview. Getting really personal and talking about your private relationships is over the line, and you won’t get a call back.

Don’t Dress Inappropriately (or Sloppy)

We all know that wearing a t-shirt or provocative attire is unacceptable during an interview, but many employers also frown upon attire that looks cheap, or even you not ironing your suit or having scuffs in your shoes. A good rule of thumb is to remember that if there’s ever a time to shine up like a penny, it is during your job interview.

Don’t Question Pay and Benefits Too Soon

You may be anxious to know whether the position you’re interested in will pay will or offer health insurance benefits, but the time to ask is not when you walk through the door for the interview. If during the interview, you’re offered the position then it’s good to be prepared to negotiate. Hold your tongue until that point, though, if you don’t want to appear to have a sense of entitlement.

If you think in terms of what you should and should not do in an interview, you can strengthen your chances of getting the position you want. Besides, what’s the point in working so hard on a resume if you’re just going to sabotage the efforts in your interview?

Taking A Career Change Test To Assess Your Goals

When choosing a new career, you may want to consider taking a career change test or securing the services of a career counseling company. Career counseling services vary in different places, but they essentially provide the same type of advice and guidance throughout the industry. The services that career counseling companies give you cover all aspects of making a career change and getting you into the job of your dreams.

Do you think you might need career counseling services, but you’re just not certain? Before you spend your hard earned cash, take this quick career change test:

Do I like going to work every day?
Are my job duties challenging?
Do I have the opportunity for promotion and advancement where I’m at?
Is the company I work for one that I trust in?
Am I overly stressed out when I get home from work?

Take a good look at the answers you gave to the career . If you answered “yes” to the first four and “no” to the last one, then you probably don’t need career counseling services. However, if you answered “no” to the first four and “yes” to the last one, you probably are due for a career change. That’s where the services of a career counseling company can be advantageous to you.

When making a career change, you want to be sure you are getting into an industry and a job that is right for you and that matches your personality, abilities, and talents. Career counseling is made to guide you toward such a job. They will give you a career interest assessment test that will match you with different careers where you can enjoy success and fulfillment. Your career counselor will then aid you get the particular training and education you’ll need for that job and give you support and advice as you proceed toward your career change.

Career counseling services aren’t for everyone; however, they can be extremely helpful – especially if you’re uncertain which direction you want to go in with your career. You know that you’re not happy where you’re at in your job, but you do know that you want to get out of it and as soon as possible. That’s when you need to look for career counseling services to guide you down that road away from a job that you hate and into a job that you love! You’ll have to pay a fee for their services, but when you consider the option, it really shouldn’t matter to you all that much. After all, it’s an investment in your future – a happy future at that!