Cover Letters 101 Why Every Resume Should Have One and How To Get Yours Noticed - Hallie Crawford

Cover Letters 101 Why Every Resume Should Have One and How To Get Yours Noticed Heres an excerpt from my recent career article about Cover Letters Cover Letters 101: Why Every Resume Should Have One and How To Get Yours Noticed by , Career Coach, MA, CPCC So you’ve created a great-looking resume that’s sure to impress potential employers. Terrific! Now…what about your cover letter? Most people overlook the importance of this key item when sending out their resume. Dont miss your chance to communicate with your potential future boss. The cover letter helps make it happen. Tips on Getting Your Cover Letter Noticed 1 Be specific and demonstrate knowledge. Employers read many resumes and cover letters, especially for prime positions. Yours should specifically address the position you hope to land an interview for, and explain how your skills and experience qualify you for that job. Dont send mass mail, all-purpose types of resumes and cover letters these frequently end up in the recycle bin. 2 Address the letter to the person who will be reading it. Avoid Dear Sir or Madam or To Whom it May Concern whenever possible. Even better, show that you are familiar with the company. Reference a recent merger, new product line, or other noteworthy event as evidence that you follow the company’s success and would make a valuable part of the team. 3 Play up the positives; explain or downplay the negatives. Lets say you are a recent college graduate without a lot of job experience. Describe how your activities and experiences in school helped prepare you for your career, while avoiding weak phrases like willing to learn. Or, suppose you have time gaps in your employment that you feel are necessary to explain. Use your cover letter to explain the gap, and put a positive spin on it if possible (i.e., You will notice I was not employed between March 2006 and August 2006. During this time I traveled abroad and studied Spanish) Click here to read the remainder of the Cover Letters article. Good luck writing your cover letter! Hallie Related Articles: Resume writing Resume writer Jacqueline Simmons Resume writer Janice Shepherd Career testing (MAPP) Compilation of Career Articles

High School Resume Template - How to Make a High School Resume Template Using Google Docs

High School Resume Template - How to Make a High School Resume Template Using Google DocsA high school resume template is something that most college graduates, who are wondering how to present their resumes to colleges, find hard to create. Most of the computer programs will take some time to create and would also require you to learn a few more tricks about creating your own resume. But there is an easier alternative and that is to use Google Docs to make a high school resume template.First of all you should be aware that you have not to make your resume using Google docs. To be able to present your resume you can make it using Microsoft Office 2020 or a similar program like Word or even PowerPoint. For this reason I would like to recommend you to choose the simpler program and to print the document from your home computer. You can edit your resume in a similar way using the Microsoft Office.If you want to work with Google Docs, this can be easier than ever. All you need to do is t o sign up for Google Docs and then you will have access to your documents. You do not need to install any software before doing this as you do with Microsoft programs.You can also create a job application using Google Docs to complete a resume. When you finish your resume you can then send it to companies where you intend to apply.There are several programs available on the Internet that will help you make a high school resume using Google Docs. These programs work by presenting you with a list of topics that you can choose from, and they take you through a process that will save you time and make your job application much easier.What I love about Google Docs is that you can upload your document with ease and make changes. This means that you can adjust the formatting the way you wish. You do not need to worry about making it perfect because you can do this with ease and you do not have to wait for it to upload.It can be easy to use Google Docs to make a high school resume template and it can be an effective way to present your resume. There are programs that will allow you to upload your document quickly and the ease of use will also mean that you can easily keep the information current and correct.

Amazon Eliminates Warehouse Worker Bonus Program

Amazon Eliminates Warehouse Worker Bonus Program Employees across the country are accusing Amazon of ruining Christmas with its Oct. 2 decision to raise the minimum wage to $15. Though the announcement was initially lauded by labor advocates, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders and the thousands of people who staff Amazon’s more than 75 fulfillment centers, the details have begun to spark backlash. Among the biggest complaints: Starting Nov. 1, Amazon is ending variable compensation pay â€" a program many workers rely on to finance their holiday shopping. According to several warehouse employees who spoke to MONEY on the condition of anonymity because they’re afraid of repercussions, the company has suddenly made Christmas a lot harder to afford. “We plan our lives around our pay,” says a fulfillment center worker in the Midwest. “How many families just got their holiday season cut to shreds?” A Raise by Any Other Name Before the announcement, Amazon had a unique pay structure. Employees got restricted stock units, shares that would vest after a certain amount of time at the company, as well as variable compensation pay, or VCP. In non-Amazon jargon, it’s essentially a form of incentive pay. For most of the year, VCP allowed people to make a monthly bonus of up to 8% if they had good attendance and the facility met its goals. However, in October, November and December â€" peak sales season for Amazon, which shipped more than 1 billion items during the 2016 holidays â€" maximum VCP would double to 16% in many locations. It was a win-win: Employees got extra money, and Amazon got extra productivity. Like they have in the past, some Amazon workers were expecting to pull in hundreds of dollars in bonuses over the next two months. Then came Oct. 2. The company wiped out VCP and (much of) the stock program in one fell swoop. The news felt like “a slap in the face” to one employee at a fulfillment center in the west. (MONEY verified that she, and the others quoted in this story, do work at Amazon.) “Every December, I counted on it,” she says. “I would go to the store and just spend it all on [my grandbaby] and make sure he had a special Christmas. This year’s going to be tough.” Amazon spokeswoman Ashley Robinson tells MONEY that it’ll even out in the end. Employees who had double VCP for October will still see it in their paychecks, as the changes don’t take place for a couple of weeks. She also says “all hourly Operations and Customer Service employees will see an increase in their total compensation.” “The significant increase in hourly cash wages effective November 1 more than compensates for the phase out of incentive pay and future [stock options],” she adds. “In addition, because it’s no longer incentive-based, the compensation will be more immediate and predictable.” But the timing stings for another worker in the mid-Atlantic, a single mom on food stamps who says she was blindsided by the announcement. She estimates she’ll make about the same amount of money yearly once the raise kicks in, but she’s short on cash in the meantime. “I have no room in my budget. I literally have no idea what I’m going to be doing,” she says. “I was depending on that VCP.” In previous years, her bonuses totaled almost $200 per pay period. She always put it toward buying gifts for her kids. Last year, they wanted Hatchimals; this year, they’re eyeing video games. “I live paycheck to paycheck. That extra $200 â€" that’s my Christmas presents,” she says. “We got it every year, and now it’s gone.” She says she’s trying to figure out how she can cut back on gifts. So far, her only idea is to knit as many things as possible. That’s all she can afford. ‘I Just Lost Everything’ A fulfillment center worker who lives on the west coast says she was originally happy to hear about the $15 minimum wage increase. She thought she was getting a raise in addition to her VCP and stock options, but then she went online and discovered that wasn’t the case. “I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, we’re about to lose a lot of money,'” she says. For her, the lost VCP amounts to hundreds of dollars over the next two months. In the past, she used the pay to not only purchase gifts but also get rid of debt. Half of a Christmastime check would be enough to pay off two of her credit cards and shop for her son. “For me, it was a stress reliever. All year, I was like, ‘By the holidays, I’m going to be back in the green,'” she says. “To abruptly get that information with no warning, and everyone’s about to enter into peak… I just lost everything I was working toward.” Robinson says the company worked quickly to get the update to teams “knowing there would be certain cases that would need to be adjusted.” Some of those adjustments have already happened. On Oct. 10, Bloomberg reported that Amazon was awarding $1.25 raises to some employees who were already at $15 an hour as well as cash bonuses to workers who hit certain milestones in their careers ($1,500 when they reach five years and $3,000 every five years afterward). The company also promised $100 checks to people who have good attendance during December. The math doesn’t work in everyone’s favor. Imagine you’re an Amazon employee, and before the announcement, you were making $15 an hour and working 160 hours a month. If you were earning 16% more in the double-down period, that’s $2.40 an hour, or about $384 extra per month before any overtime, overnight or holiday pay. But now, say you’re getting that $1.25 raise. Multiply that $1.25 times 160 hours a month, and you’re only getting $200 extra. As a result, the west coast employee says she’s reconsidering whether she wants to stay at Amazon. “During peak, we really give it our all. Everyone is on that same [mission]: ‘Don’t crash. Eat properly. Have your soda and coffee,'” she says. “What helps us come to work is we know that payout is going to be worth it.” She likes her job, but holiday shifts are so exhausting she sometimes has to sit in her car in the parking lot until she gathers enough energy to drive home. “Now that [VCP is] gone, all I’ve been thinking about is, is it worth putting my body through that?” she says. Going Beyond Christmas Some Amazon workers interpret the $15 news to mean the company prioritizes newer, seasonal workers over its veteran, year-round ones. In its news release, the company says the minimum wage increase will benefit “100,000 seasonal employees who will be hired at Amazon sites across the country this holiday.” Marc Perrone, the international president of the 1.3 million-member United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, tells MONEY he thinks Amazon is trying to attract new hires in a time when unemployment is low. The company’s big announcement helped create buzz â€" at the expense of existing staff. “While it made good copy for the newspapers and for television, the actual workers have found out it was a bait-and-switch,” he says. “They’re chasing potential employees, and they wanted a way to pay for it.” Perrone’s organization does not have official ties to Amazon, which is not unionized, but he has long been a vocal critic of the company. Robinson says the company plans to touch on the effect of the additional expense in its upcoming third quarter earnings guidance. “We value all associates, those who are new and those who have been with us for many years,” she adds. But disgruntled workers aren’t returning the love. At least one warehouse saw people quit after the Oct. 2 announcement, and workers in other warehouses have begun to circulate petitions or privately discuss the possibility of protesting as Black Friday approaches. In the United Kingdom, a group of 41 employees sent emails directly to CEO Jeff Bezos asking him to reinstate the stock and incentive pay programs. For his part, the Midwesterner says he’s insulted by the way Amazon is framing the news as a raise for everyone. A longtime employee, he says he usually puts VCP into a savings account, which by the end of the year can reach $4,000. He’s shaken by the fact that Amazon would take away VCP right before the time when people need it most, and he thinks Amazon should offer to cover the difference in paychecks for the next few months. Christmas, and the company culture, are at stake. “It’s an Amazonian thing: You get your stock, you get your VCP, everybody works for a goal, and we meet a goal,” he says. “Once you take that, you take apart what Amazon’s about.”

Is Your Boss Targeting You At Work Heres How To Handle It. - Work It Daily

Is Your Boss Targeting You At Work Heres How To Handle It. - Work It Daily This week on Well This Happened, we discussed Taylor's awkward workplace dilemma. Taylor recently started a job at a retail store that's solely commission-based. He's really liking it, and learning a lot about sales. However, his excitement for the job started to decline when the store manager started stealing clients from him and other team members. These tactics are hurting Taylor and his colleagues, since they aren't making money when they work with this manager. Since Taylor is so new to the company, he's not sure whether to report his manager, or move on to a different job. This is a tough situation to be in. Dealing with a superior who is participating in shady work behavior can be challenging, especially when you're new to the company. Earlier this week, we asked how you would handle this situation. Did you guess correctly? The Correct Answer Is.... SUBSCRIBE TO WORK IT DAILY: https://www.youtube.com/workitdaily?sub_confirmation=1 Welcome to Well This Happened. The show where you become the career coach.... Have an uncomfortable situation at work or in your job search that you aren't sure how to deal with? Let us know by emailing support@workitdaily.com. Also, be sure to check back in regularly, as we will be posting a new awkward experience weekly! From Your Site Articles How To Handle A Hostile Work Environment - Work It Daily 9 Strategies For Dealing With A Passive Aggressive Boss - Work It ... 5 Ways To Deal With An Incompetent Boss - Work It Daily What do I do? I found out my employee lied about being sick! - Work ... Help! How Can I Explain A Gap In My Work History And Resume ... Well, This Happened... - Work It Daily Related Articles Around the Web How To Deal With A Bad Boss - YouTube Toxic Bosses How to Professionally Deal With a Bad Boss Well This Happened: Thought A Co-Worker Was Pregnant She Wasnt Have you joined our career growth club?Join Us Today!

6 Reasons You May Be Getting Paid Less Than Men

6 Reasons You May Be Getting Paid Less Than Men At this point, unless you avoid the Internet entirely, youve probably heard of the term gender pay gap, which refers to the fact that on average,a womans salaryis somewhere between 78 and 82 cents of what the average man makes.Even though theres a ton of data demonstrating the gap, its a controversial topic because naysayers say its difficult to compare apples with apples.A key part of the controversy is due to the fact that pay is a reflection of a personal choices, as well as social and institutional outcomes. All of these factors make it a rather messy thing to understand and analyze. Seldom do two people have identical job types, educations and work experiences -- and rarely do men and women face the saatkorn set of cultural norms and social expectations in the world or workplace.That said, if youre a victim of the pay gap, its worth examining what factors might be causing it. Here are six potential reasons1. Education (specifically what you study).According to the American Association of University Womens most recentstudyof the gender pay gap, women are earning more college and postgraduate degrees than men. However, comparing college graduates by gender, they found on average, women earned 82% of what men earned just one year after graduation.Of course, there are important differences in terms of how many women get certain advanced degrees (such as MBAs) or study certain subjects (e.g. engineering and computer science). This ultimately leads to wage differentials becausefewer women study these subjects. Getting a degree in STEM for example, logically leads to a higher probability of getting a high paying job in engineering, science and technology.2. Longer job tenure.Onestudyfound that married mothers in the workforce had longer job tenure than other groups of women or married men. It called the finding a quiet revolution in married mothers behaviors. Many employers only grant annual raises as a percentage o f your existing salary. This practice tends to mean higher salaries for those who are job hoppers. In fact, one expert concludes that employees who stay at a company for more than two yearsearn 50% lessover their lifetimes.3. Greater work flexibility and/or hours.Harvard Professor Claudia Goldin calls the phenomenon, non-linearity, or a part-time penalty. Essentially, the idea is that women who work fewer hours than their male counterparts end up earning less per hour than a full-time worker or worker with less job flexibility. Goldin believes that non-linearity helps explain why most of the gender pay gap occurs within professions such as law, finance and corporate jobs where employees are incentivized to work double or triple a traditional full-time schedule, because their time is better compensated per hour when they work longer hours.Fairygodboss research aboutwhat women jobseekers wantshows that women, on the whole, do greatly prize flexibility in their jobs. Thats why its part icularly important to be aware of the potential pay tradeoffs if you are someone interested in more job flexibility.4. Job and industry choice.In apaperpublished by Cornell professors Francine Blau and Lawrence schute last year, the largest factor in explaining the difference in wages between men and women were due to gender differences in employment by industry and occupation.While money is only one factor in choosing a job, much less a profession, this is an important thing to keep in mind, especially since discrimination and bias may be leading women into lower-paying occupations in the first place.In other words, it may not be as simple as just telling women to choose higher paying jobs and industries to work in. If women are discouraged (socially or educationally) from working in those industries, the choice of going into any field may be skewed.5. Negotiating less.The research and data is mixed on this point. Somestudiesshow that women negotiate less when it comes to their job others, whileother studiessay women ask for raises at the same rate as men, but are simply are less successful in getting them. Regardless of who is right, when anything is this contentious, its best to be aware for yourself that negotiation of job offers, raises and bonuses all matter and can add up.6. Gender bias and discrimination.Cornell Professors Blau and Kahn found that 8% of the gender pay gap could not be explained by measurable factors such as education levels, job experience, hours and job type and industry. When these factors are accounted for, the gender pay gap does shrink. According toPayscale, controlling for these factors results in the average woman being paid 98 cents for every dollar earned by the average man. However, that stubborn difference remains and bias (conscious or unconscious) is a logical, potential culprit.While money isnt everything, it certainly is one of the primary benefits and motivations for those of us who go to work every day. If youre a woma n who wants to to earn a lot of money, be aware of how these six factors play a role in how much you get paid.Fairygodboss is committed to improving the workplace and lives of women.Join us by reviewing your employer

The Undisputed Truth About Federal Resume Writing Service That the Experts Dont Want You to Know

The Undisputed Truth About Federal Resume Writing Service That the Experts Dont Want You to Know What Everybody Dislikes About Federal Resume Writing Service and Why Because of the inherent differences between computers and printers, you might see that the document doesnt print properly. If you see a service we havent evaluated, dont hesitate to drop us a message and were going to take a look once possible. It is very important to point out that we also offer resume editing services to help you to find your favourite job easily. The Demise of Federal Resume Writing Service Most government resources offer specific templates that are to be followed when youre asking for a federal job. The documents linked to federal resume has a huge parte in landing work outside from the results of your interview. Federal jobs often need you to have experience in a special type of work for some period of time. With the federal resume and receive a rate has at a guy or. The Debate Over Feder al Resume Writing Service When you are trying to get a Federal job, you have to have an effective resume to find an interview. The award-winning resume services provided by the absolute most trusted Military Resume Service may help to make the transition from military to civilian life much simpler. By choosing one of the Federal Resume Writing Serviceslisted above, you will know which youre getting an effective resume which will help you acquire the interview you must attain the job that you want so bad.Creatively written Federal Resumesthat will make you distinguish yourself from the remainder of the candidates. Unlike resumes in other industries, they are always chronological. Students lead busy lives and frequently forget about an approaching deadline. The Most Popular Federal Resume Writing Service Writing a federal resume means following federal resume guidelines to ensure hiring managers are in a position to come across the precise details they want with only a quick gl ance. There are several different formats to use if creating a resume. Federal resume writing services are extremely top quality writing. Developing a federal resume can be hard.

Employee Referrals Latest Trends You Might Want to Consider

Employee Referrals Latest Trends You Might Want to Consider Employee referral programs have long been attributed with numerous benefits, which include speedy and quality hires and better performance and retention at lower costs than other recruiting sources. These known benefits have provided ample motivation to recruiting professionals to discover new ways of acquiring referrals. In the late 1990s when employee referral programs were nowhere in the radar, Cisco came up with the Cisco Friends concept giving candidates an opportunity to connect with Cisco employees to know more about the company and the job openings rather than just sending in their profile. Realizing early on that employees were in the best position to promote the company to prospective candidates, Cisco managed to source 50-60 percent of its talent requirements through this initiative in a tight IT talent market. The astounding success of the program demonsttarifd for the first time the tremendous benefits that could accrue from leveraging your entire employee workforce as recruiting partners. Not only did it help recruit better quality talent with higher productivity but in fact also helped to close positions much faster as compared to traditional recruiting channels.Times have certainly changed since then with employee referral programs now occupying center stage in all recruitment initiatives. However, as the war for talent further intensifies in the years to come, organizations will need to start thinking differently about the manner in which they design, implement and manage their referral programs to ensure they remain ahead of their competitors in the hunt for talent. Some organizations have already started experimenting with and implementing new referral techniques others have yet to accept this trend completely but all in all new and innovative experiments with employee referral programs will cert ainly gain popularity in the years to come.Below are some of the recent trends in referral recruiting that recruiters and organizations alike should be looking to adopt in the future.Employee Referral programs will become more scientific as data metrics will drive decision making toward specialized or focused referrals targeting specific referral groups, be it college referrals, high performer referrals or specific skill referrals. A host of organizations, including Oracle, use data driven decision making to ensure referral campaigns are targeted toward specific employee groups to ensure greater effectiveness.Reward Schemes that go beyond cash incentives and are more inclusive in nature are going to become more dominant in employee referral programs as organizations look to reward employees not only for successful referral applications but also for participating in the program irrespective of the outcome. Accenture, for instance, rewards 100 EUR to all employees whose referrals are called in for an interview. Employees whose referrals are hired are invited to participate in a lucky draw with exciting prizes (like world trips) to ensure that employees remain excited and motivated to participate in the program.Employees will soon have the flexibility to upload the social media profiles of their connections rather than go through the hassle of securing their updated resumes and then uploading it on the referral site. This is something that is already being practiced in most organizations. In fact, with specialized employee referral tools like ZALP available in the market today, enabling this has become a low cost and high ROI affair. Enabling social profiles, especially LinkedIn profiles, will also open the door for actively targeting passive candidates for open positions as employees will be encouraged to actively seek out social connections that match the job descriptions but are not actively seeking a change. Microsoft is a big believer in harnessing the power of social media for driving referrals. Its Spreadthelove program allows employees to create individual stories including videos, pictures, graphics and testimonials regarding their work and life at Microsoft and then share the link to Spreadtheirlove about Microsoft on social sites with friends and family, including potential candidates.Referral programs will move toward introducing gamification in a big way to stimulate internal competition. Many organizations have already started making way for this trend while others are still skeptical about it. Accenture has an employee scorecard where employees can track the progress of their referral and the amount of bonus they have collected by participating in the referral policy. TCS and Aricent, on the other hand, hold contests and share dashboards capturing referral successes across the organization to foster competition among business units and employees.As employees start referring anyone and everyone in an effort to make some extra money out of the referral policy, organizations will also have to start looking at ways of discouraging low-quality referrals. For instance, Agilent requires employees to assess every referrals skills, experience and cultural fit. Employees are also asked to rate their knowledge of the candidate on a scale of 1 to 10 to ensure that random referrals are identified early on in the process helping Agilent save precious recruiting time.A final major trend that has already gone mainstream as far as employee referral programs are concerned is the use of a mobile platform. Almost all organizations claiming to use referral programs for recruiting have ensured a mobile friendly referral portal giving employees the opportunity to refer-on-the-go directly from their mobile phones and tablets. This is a great value addition, especially since more and more people today use their smart phones for virtually everything.