26 Posts found for Publisher: Fast Company

Writing a resume is a task that every job seeker loves to hate. Writing a Web resume is even tougher. Here’s how to create a document that will put everyone on the same Web page.

What’s in Your Resume?

1. Think nouns, not verbs. Career counselors used to advise job seekers to pepper their resumes with action verbs that would impress HR

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Author: Gina Imperato | Source: “35 Ways to Land a Job Online” | Original Publication: Fast Company | Subject: Resumes

Following are James Waldroop’s 12 Achilles’ heels, along with short descriptions of them and some ways to begin grappling with them.

Acrophobe: Never feels good enough.

• Stop the damage.
• Prioritize and think about how to let yourself succeed.
• Buy yourself time to grow into a job.
• Act “as if” you belong. Acting “as if” will start to make you feel naturally more comfortable in

… [ Read more ]

Author: Cecilia Rothenberger | Source: “Ways to battle your own Achilles’ heels” | Original Publication: Fast Company | Subject: Miscellaneous

• Ability to listen
• Ability to give proper recognition
• Ability to share—whether it’s information or credit for a success
• Ability to stay calm when others panic
• Ability to make midcourse corrections
• Ability to accept responsibility
• Ability to admit a mistake
• Ability to defer to others, even (especially) those of lesser rank
• Ability to let someone else be right some of the time
• Ability to say thank you
• Ability to resist playing favorites

This quick list of attributes, while attractive … [ Read more ]

Author: Marshall Goldsmith | Source: “Nice Guys Can Finish First” | Original Publication: Fast Company | Subject: Miscellaneous

Herminia Ibarra proposes a “test and learn” career change model, in which action trumps introspection. It’s an admittedly crooked path: Knowing what you want to do comes from experimenting with various possibilities. In this strategy, the goal is to try on alternative work identities to find the most satisfying fit, and choices are constantly refined as the process evolves. This method has several advantages. The … [ Read more ]

Author: Linda Tischler | Source: “Identity Shift” | Original Publication: Fast Company | Subject: Miscellaneous

Regardless of the time you take between jobs, it’s important to build an interim structure to your day in order to replace the old patterns of work. The brain functions best when there’s structure. Make a schedule that you honor every day. Get up at a regular hour, get dressed, exercise, get adequate sleep, and keep a journal. The journal is particularly important as a … [ Read more ]

Author: Ruth Luban | Source: “All The Right Moves: Don’t Lose Hope” | Original Publication: Fast Company | Subjects: Coping Emotionally with Unemployment and the Job Search, Miscellaneous

If you’re thinking about making a job or career change, the first step is to “know thyself.” I can’t help you figure that out in a letter, but I can give you a one-minute formula to help get you started:

• G + P + V = your calling.

The G stands for your gifts; the P is for passion; and the V equals

… [ Read more ]

Author: Joyce Ravid | Source: “All The Right Moves: Rational Expectations” | Original Publication: Fast Company | Subject: Career (Self) Exploration

Weekly Reviews

At the heart of David Allen’s productivity coaching is the discipline of a weekly review. “That is critical to making personal organization a vital, dynamic reality,” he says. Here, adapted from Allen’s Web site, is a list of steps that you should work your way through every Friday afternoon.

1. Sort your loose papers. Gather all scraps of paper—business cards, receipts, miscellaneous notes—and

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Author: Keith H. Hammonds | Source: “You can do anything – but not everything” | Original Publication: Fast Company | Subject: On the Job Career Advice

Richard Knight is a senior vice president at Keystone Associates, a premier career-transition firm based in Burlington, Massachusetts. After 16 years in corporate human resources, Knight realized he didn’t like where his current road was taking him. The process that he used to switch fields—to outplacement consulting—is the same process that he’s used to help hundreds of other people create new career visions.

1. Find the

… [ Read more ]

Author: Cheryl Dahle | Source: “Four Steps to Find Your Inner Fly” | Original Publication: Fast Company | Subject: Career (Self) Exploration

Colleen Aylward, Web recruiter extraordinaire, has created all kinds of tactics to attract and to evaluate talent. And she’s heard just about every interview question ever asked. Here are 10 questions that she believes will always get you the information that you need.

1. Take me through a time when you took a product or a project from start to launch.
2. Describe the way that you work

… [ Read more ]

Author: Anna Muoio | Source: “How to Play the Talent Game” | Original Publication: Fast Company | Subjects: Interviewing, Questions Recruiters Ask

The purpose of any interview is simple: to determine whether the candidate can do the job profitably. A smart interview is not an interrogation. It’s not a series of canned questions or a set of scripted tests that have been ginned up by HR. An interview should be a roll-up-your-sleeves, hands-on meeting between you and the candidate, where all of the focus is on the … [ Read more ]

Author: Nick Corcodilos | Source: “All The Right Moves: Meanwhile, Back at the Office…” | Original Publication: Fast Company | Subject: Interviewing

Professor John Sullivan argues that sizing up a company means asking “bone-chilling” questions—and seeing whether people are willing to answer. “Be skeptical,” he says. “You need an accurate job preview, and that means posing tough questions.” Here are a few of his favorites:

• What are the worst aspects of your company’s culture?
• What does the company plan to do over the next year to

… [ Read more ]

Author: Michael Warshaw | Source: “The Job Rating Game” | Original Publication: Fast Company | Subjects: “Interviewing” Companies, Interviewing

Professor Maura Belliveau, who teaches at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, gives this down-to-earth advice:

1. Know some answers before you ask questions.
   “The best information about a company comes from the people who know the intimate details: current employees, former employees, customers. But these people may not know you. How do you persuade them to be frank? By becoming as informed as possible before

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Author: Michael Warshaw | Source: “4 Ways to Read a Company” | Original Publication: Fast Company | Subjects: “Interviewing” Companies, Interviewing

Eunice Azzani is managing director of the San Francisco office of Korn/Ferry International, a leading executive-search firm. She farms high-level executives for the world’s most powerful companies and has had “a good time pushing the envelope and wreaking havoc all the way.” Azzani offers the following guide to career gardening.

Get a Story

Before you can achieve the job of your … [ Read more ]

Author: Cecilia Rothenberger | Source: “Don’t Hunt for a Job, Farm for It” | Original Publication: Fast Company | Subject: The Job Search

1. Ask for job leads from family members, friends, people in the community, and staff at career centers. Ask them this one simple question: Do you know of any jobs in my field? That method has a 33% success rate.
2. Knock on the doors of any employers, factories, or offices that interest you, whether or not they have vacancies. That method has a 47% success rate.
3. Use the

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Author: Daniel H. Pink | Source: “What Happened to Your Parachute?” | Original Publication: Fast Company | Subject: The Job Search

1. Randomly mail out résumés to employers. That method has a 7% success rate. (One study revealed that there is one job offer for every 1,470 résumés floating around out there. Another study puts the figure even higher—one job offer for every 1,700 résumés.)
2. Answer ads in professional or trade journals appropriate to your field. That method also has only a 7% success rate.
3. Answer ads in newspapers

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Author: Daniel H. Pink | Source: “What Happened to Your Parachute?” | Original Publication: Fast Company | Subject: The Job Search

To help you conclude your next job search with a sure kill, Fast Company asked Nick A. Corcodilos, author of the myth-busting book titled “Ask the Headhunter”, to map out a plan for reinventing the rules of the hunt.

1. Your resume is meaningless.
   Headhunters know that a resume rarely gets you inside a company. A resume can’t defend you or answer questions about you.

… [ Read more ]

Author: Bill Breen | Source: “Interview with a Headhunter” | Original Publication: Fast Company | Subject: The Job Search

Despite all the promise of Internet job hunting, a tiny proportion of jobs are filled online. Forrester Research found that even at the peak of the tech boom, only 4% of job hunters found employment through online boards. (Help-wanted ads scored a 23% success rate that same year.) “Job boards are a research tool, not a matchmaking service,” says Margaret Riley Dikel of the Riley … [ Read more ]

Author: Bill Breen | Source: “All The Right Moves: Your Next Move” | Original Publication: Fast Company | Subjects: Miscellaneous Tips, The Job Search

According to Richard Bolles, 72, author of the best-selling book What Color Is Your Parachute the best diagnostics are those that assess rather than test. “You can’t flunk an assessment,” he says. But you can misuse one. “Never let an assessment tell you what to do,” warns Bolles. “Its purpose is only to give you some clues about your skills and interests; you’ve got to … [ Read more ]

Author: Gina Imperato | Source: “Testing the Testers” | Original Publication: Fast Company | Subject: Internet Resources

Laid Off Central—Looking for a laugh, maybe a cry, or at least a few kindred spirits as you struggle to make all the right moves? Then pay a visit to Laid Off Central. Founded a by a couple of friends who lost their jobs, the site is a refuge for job hunters. It combines the emotional dump of group therapy with the make-it-happen outreach … [ Read more ]

Author: Gina Imperato | Source: “35 Ways to Land a Job Online” | Original Publication: Fast Company | Subject: Internet Resources

• I followed the best and the brightest.  Companies want people who bring varied experience to the table. For that reason alone, job hopping makes you more marketable.
• I followed the money.  No one will argue with a move that gave you a salary boost – – as long as money isn’t the only reason why you left.

… [ Read more ]

Author: Cheryl Dahle | Source: “The Buzz on Job Hopping” | Original Publication: Fast Company | Subjects: General Tips, Guidelines, Etc., Interviewing