FAQ: Coming Soon
Accomplishments -- Also called the achievements you have had in your career. These key points really help sell you to an employer -- much more so than everyday job duties or responsibilities. In your cover letters, resumes, and job interviews, focus on key career accomplishments -- especially ones that you can quantify.
Action Verbs -- These concrete, descriptive verbs express your skills, assets, experience, and accomplishments. Avoid non-descriptive verbs such as "do," "work," and forms of the verb "to be." Instead, begin each descriptive section with an action verb. Almost every resume book has a list of great action verbs to choose from.
Benefits -- An important part of your compensation package, and part of the salary negotiation process. Note that every employer offers a different mix of benefits. These benefits may include paid vacations, company holidays, personal days, sick leave, life insurance, medical insurance, retirement and pension plans, tuition assistance, child care, stock options, and more. Can be worth anywhere from 20 to 40 percent of your salary.
Career Activist -- Someone who is proactive in planning, evaluating, directing, and controlling his or her career rather than simply reacting as situations arise. (Some call this approach career mapping.) A career activist has an enduring interest in understanding and achieving his or her full career potential, while maximizing career marketability.
Career Branding -- Helps define who you are, how you are great, and why you should be sought out. Branding is your reputation. Branding is about building a name for yourself, showcasing what sets you apart from other job-seekers, and describing the added value you bring to an employer.
Career Change -- Changing your occupation by devising a strategy to find new career choices. Most experts now predict that the average person will change careers three to five times over the course of his or her work life. Change may occur because you don't enjoy the work as much as you once did..
Career Coach -- Also called career consultant, career adviser, work-life coach, personal career trainer, and life management facilitator. These professionals have been likened to personal trainers for your life/career, serving the role as your champion, cheerleader, advocate, mentor, partner, and sounding board on all issues related to your job or career search.
Career Objective/Job Objective -- An optional part for your resume, but something you should contemplate whether you place it on your resume or not. It can sharpen the focus of your resume and should be as specific as possible -- and written in a way that shows how you can benefit the employer.
Career Passion -- One of the most important elements of personal happiness is being passionate about your career and your job. If you no longer have -- or never have had -- personal and professional fulfillment from your job, there is always time to discover a career for which you do have passion.
Career Planning -- The continuous process of evaluating your current lifestyle, likes/dislikes, passions, skills, personality, dream job, and current job and career path and making corrections and improvements to better prepare for future steps in your career, as needed, or to make a career change.
Compensation Package -- The combination of salary and fringe benefits an employer provides to an employee. When evaluating competing job offers, a job-seeker should consider the total package and not just salary.
Cover Letter -- Should always accompany your resume when you contact a potential employer. A good cover letter opens a window to your personality (and describes specific strengths and skills you offer the employer). It should entice the employer to read your resume.
Dress for Success -- First coined by author John Malloy in the 1970s, the term Dress for Success signifies tailoring one's attire, grooming, and overall appearance toward making a great first impression in a job interview -- as well as maintaining a professional look while on the job to aid career advancement. Will dressing properly get you the job? Not by itself, but it will give you a competitive edge and help you make a positive first impression.
Electronic Resume (or E-Resume) -- A resume that is sent to the employer via the web, either as an email, by submitting to Internet job boards, or residing on their on Web page. Includes numerous formats of resumes linked by their mode of delivery.
Elevator Speech -- A a 15- to 30-second commercial that job-seekers use in a variety of situations (career fairs, networking events, job interviews, cold calling) that succinctly tells the person you are giving it to who you are, what makes you unique, and the benefits you can provide.
Email Cover Letter -- A cover letter that is sent to the employer electronically via email. There are different rules that apply to writing these kind of cover letters, though the fundamental principles remain the same.
Hidden Job Market -- Only about 5-20 percent of all job openings are ever publicly known, which results in about four-fifths of the job market being "closed," meaning you can't find out about any new openings unless you do some digging. Strategies for uncovering the hidden job market include networking and calling.
Job Websites -- There are five levels or types of job boards: general job boards (such as Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com)
Key Accomplishments -- An optional part of your resume, but one that is growing in use -- especially with scanable (text-based) resumes. This section should summarize (using nouns as keywords and descriptors) your major career accomplishments.
Keywords -- Nouns and noun phrases that relate to the skills and experience that employers use to recall resumes scanned into a database. Keywords can be precise "hard" skills -- job-specific/profession-specific/industry-specific skills, technological terms and descriptions of technical expertise, job titles, certifications, names of products and services, industry buzzwords, etc.
Networking -- Involves developing a broad list of contacts -- people you've met through various social, professional, and business functions -- and encouraging them assist you in looking for a job. People in your network may be able to give you job leads, offer you advice and information about a particular company or industry, and introduce you to others so that you can expand your network.
References -- A group of people who will say good things about you and who know specifics strengths that you offer. Can include work references (current and past supervisors), educational references (former teachers or school administrators), and personal references (who can speak of your character). Always ask people before including them as a reference for you.
Resume -- A key job-hunting tool used to get an interview, it summarizes your accomplishments, your education, as well as your work experience, and should reflect your special mix of skills and strengths.
Salary History -- Some employers will request that you submit a salary history. A salary history tells them the level and frequency of your promotions. It should be separate page from your resume or cover letter. Be sure to include the full compensation you received in each job, not just salary information. By providing a salary history, you sometimes place yourself in a precarious position of either pricing yourself out of the position or appearing to be at a lower level than the company seeks.
Salary Negotiation -- An extremely important process in which job-seekers attempt to obtain the best compensation package possible, based on skills and experience, the industry salary range, and the company's guidelines.
Salary Requirements -- Some employers may ask you to state the salary you require for a specific job opening. You've got to be careful here. If your salary requirement is too high, you won't get an offer. If it's too low, you won't get what you're worth. The best strategy is to state that you're open to any fair offer and are willing to negotiate.
Transferable Skills -- Skills you have acquired during any activity in your life -- jobs, classes, projects, parenting, hobbies, sports, virtually anything -- that are transferable and applicable to what you want to do in your next job.
