Five ways to exit from an abusive employer

Do you feel that your employer deliberately abuses you at work? Are you one of the many who are highly dissatisfied with the arrogant attitude of your boss? Unhappiness at work has very severe economic as well as mental implications on the employees. In this post-recession phase where the job market is steadily improving, more and more jobs becoming available. So you make up your mind and consider the below alternatives to exit your job.

            1.  Assess Yourself: Take stock of your current situation, skills, immediate plans etc well before you take the final call. Forget how long you been with the organization, whether its 10 days or 10 years. First, you need to update your resume. Then sit back and take a close look at your skills, where will you begin the job search, what could you be hired immediately etc. You need to check and renew your contacts. Above all, its always better that you start with your family, let them know that you are planning a change. You got to be very clear on your abilities and disabilities, should be able to define yourself.

           2. Be mindful of your finances: You need to have a check on your finances. What have you saved? If it's none, start now or if you're saving, save more. It's not about the amount you save, it’s all about planning. Cut your expenses, have a backup plan for your future expenses. When you save more, you feel very confident about leaving the job and will be less worried that you'll be fired.

          3.   Expand Your Network: You need to reach out to your friends and family because they can be of great help for you to find a new job. You can pursue your close friends and near ones to look out for a job that you would enjoy. The professional network also will come in your help to get you new contacts. The social networking sites and such other mediums should be well used to get in touch with your friends who can provide valuable references.

          4.   Set Your Goal: It's a crucial point where you have to set your goals and decide what you want to do. You have to image what a brighter future might look like in your desired field and this will take away much of the pain of a job you hate. This will further boost you and motivate you to search for your dream job. If you want to start a business, put together a plan that you can begin immediately. As you leave the job and search for a new one, focus on your career growth. It's always good to seek a job that might pay you less at the beginning but will offer greater job satisfaction in the long run.

          5.  Be Flexible: Flexibility is a very important character that you need to develop to grow in your career. Be ready to meet new people and be ready to accept a new work culture as you search a new job. You might get into an employment environment that might not have occurred to you before. You have to unstuck yourself and open up to the new ways of working, make friends and widen your professional network. Tune your mind to adapt to new situations and adjust with new people. Flexibility will help you to grow fast.

"Believe in Yourself "

Never stop believing in yourself
When others doubt, don't you
Do what you love to do,
No one knows better than you

Life is too short to live others' dreams
Follow your own dream
Push yourself to reach your goals
and live the life you once dreamed

Trust your instincts
Be true to yourself
You know what is right for you 

Never give up or give in

Forget the words "I don't know how"
You can learn,
you can research,
you can do

Your mind is powerful
When you believe you can
You will find a way
you won't waste a day

Persist and persevere
Do not fear
because if you believe in you
you will find dreams can come true

May all your dreams turn into goals,
Believe in yourself
And remember, all of life is a choice
The decision is up to you

11 Sure Shot Ways of Making Your Resume Work- Parul Banka

How do you make your resume stand out of the clutter and make sure you're not ignored for that big job you've been waiting for?

Imagine a heap of resumes on the desk of a recruiter or hundreds of online job applications in the recruiter's mailbox.

With job postings available at the click of a mouse and the option to apply online, this heap seems to become larger!

At times, a recruiter gets as little as 30 seconds per resume.

Now, the important question is: Does your resume have the capability to sell the product it is supposed to -- YOU?

Remember, a resume is the first point of contact between you and the recruiter. Therefore, the first impression that a resume makes (after all 30 seconds can only make a single impression!) must be positive and strong.

Here are the ways you can make your resume work for you:
     1.Match between the vacancy and the profile:  Remember, a resume's key job is to help gauge if you have skills that fit the job profile. While you may possess an entire gamut of skills, your resume should reflect skills that the job demands.

Example: If the advertised position shows project management as a key job responsibility, you should glean the relevant project management experience and highlight it. Of course, ensure that you showcase only what is true.

This concept is called the 'So what' concept. I remember what a recruiter had said when she saw Reiki, a healing technique, mentioned on the resume for a trainer's position: "So what if the person does Reiki? It has nothing to do with training profile!" Whenever we write something on resume, we should ask ourselves this question: So what if I have done this? Would this experience assist in the job at hand?

     2.Crisp and Succinct:  A crisp resume is definitely a favorite of recruiters. Being verbose does not defend your case better when it comes to job applications. Extra words only mean that you might be wasting your as well as the recruiter's time. The exact length of an ideal resume is debatable but usually 1-2 pages suffice; entry-level applicants should adhere to a single page.

I remember a resume that ran into 10 pages. Believe me, my first thought was to dump it into the waste paper bin! A colleague, Cathy, recounted a similar experience. The resume she had received was 16 pages long.
Politely, she asked the candidate to reduce the resume to 2 pages so that it could be considered.

     3.Impact Factor: Does your resume communicate how much impact you made to the organization? Have your ideas helped to reduce cost of a project? If yes, 'how much' becomes indispensable to pass on the correct message? Sample this:

Reduced cost by 20 per cent in Power and 33 per cent in Maintenance division respectively.
Or
reduced cost incurred by the organization in running the project.

Do you see the difference? The moment you mention the exact numbers, the impact is higher. It also lends credibility to the work that you have done.

    4.Relevance of information: Is the job profile asking for knowledge of an additional European language as a mandatory requirement? Or is it asking for experience in an industry where you have not worked?

Please understand that applying to a job advertisement, where your profile does not match would only frustrate the recruiter and subsequently you, post rejection. I have seen resumes wherein candidates include information on their height or weight. Mostly, this information does not aid the decision to offer or not offer employment to a particular candidate.

Example: If you are applying for the role of a software developer, it makes no difference whether you write a program with a 6 feet height or 5 feet height or whether your weight is 60 kg or 80 kg. Basic thumb rule is that you exclude whatever information does not strengthen your job application.

      5.The must-have parts in resume: Your education, work experience and contact information form essential parts of the resume. I personally prefer to incorporate personal information in the Header of the document; it helps to save precious space and the main content of resume remains strictly professional.

I remember seeing a resume that did not contain contact details, neither a phone number nor an email id. The resume was not short-listed and lack of this information could have contributed to it to some extent.

     6.A career summary/objective: A strong but short career summary in the beginning of a resume helps as a preamble. Always remember to mention your key skills and experience in it. Some recruiters also view this summary as synonymous to the candidate's positioning. Entry-level candidates could put an objective statement instead.

For instance a trainer's resume could have a summary statement such as: Soft skills and a Public Speaking Trainer with experience in Asian/European markets. Some recruiters classify a career summary or objective statement under optional parts of a resume. I suggest that you include a summary in the beginning when you have ample space else leave it out.

     7.Extra-curricular activities: This is another important aspect of a resume. In certain instances hobbies and extra-curricular activities can be used to strengthen the application.

Example: Let us assume that you actively participate in debates or elocution. You are applying for a position that requires strong communication skills. Participating in debates shows that you are comfortable speaking before an audience, which corroborates one of the job requirements, there is a lot to learn from every activity that we undertake and this value proposition helps to support your application.

      8.Positions held: This section is a personal favorite. It shows what you have done as a leader or a member within the scope of your role. Again, the key is to undermine the value of your work. Let's take an example:

Member of organizing committee of Annual College Festival.
Or
Member of organizing committee of Annual College Festival and raised Rs 20,000 for sponsorship

Decide for yourself which one makes a better impact.

      9.Formatting the resume: A good resume has substantial white space and does not look cluttered. If the recruiter has to struggle to find relevant information in the resume chances of the latter getting dumped into recycle bin rise mercurially.

Online applications pose the hazard of formatting getting lost. You may like to consider a plain text version for online applications.

     10.Tone of the resume: Make your resume achievement oriented; remember that no one wants to select mediocre caliber. Emphasizing on actions and results helps to achieve this.

     11.You, me and Us: Remember, your resume helps to get you across to an interview with the organization. Therefore, it is important that you understand what the job requirements are, what skills you have and how you would contribute to the organization.

Understanding the organization’s perspective is indispensable to make a good job application.

Five Ways to Maintain Work-life Balance

Are you feeling overworked? Is finding the balance between work and the rest of your life not working out for you? Don’t get upset, you’re not alone. In this fast moving life we are surrounded by many pressures that we've to deal with every other day. Especially for urban working women, running a home and handling the tight deadlines at work can really be quite a task. Here are few suggestions that can be effective in maintaining a better balancing while playing both the roles.

          1.Time Management: The time-waster in you steal your productivity in the form of reading email, net surfing, or making personal calls. As a result, you work overtime, more than 10 hours a day. You are way too busy to get off your desk for a lunch break, so you starve instead. You compromise on your social life to finish your monthly projections. By tracking your daily activities, you get to know how did you spend whole day and with such a practice of properly analyzing and scheduling, you can design your day according to your work load to manage your professional and social life better.

          2.Use Technology: No doubt that personal habits and practices can be very effective in time management, but technology can also be yet another weapon in serving the same. There are several ways a busy executive can make technology more effective for his or her own use. For instance, Microsoft Outlook with Business Contact Manager can be very useful for you in organizing your contacts, with quick and easy access. 

          3.Leave Your Work at Work: When you go home after your working hours, focus on your family. There is very little that will be that much of an emergency that it can't wait until the next morning. Taking your works at home creates tension and makes you stressful even if you are lying on your bed at home, which will ultimately affect your family as well. Leave work at work.

          4.Organize/Prioritize: In order to make the work-flow as smooth as possible, it's very important for you to organize every element of your daily life. According to experts, everything in your business should be set up using logical systems so anyone needing anything can find it when they need it. Selecting what's important and what can wait contributes a lot to the booking your time effectively. Emphasis should always be on trimming the essential from the secondary. 

           5.Don't Overbook: Don't pack your entire day full with meetings and tasks. Things don't always go as planned and you need some buffer. Hence, it is recommended to take sufficient amount of work so that you can handle them well. Otherwise, your work hours will get extended.

Ten Worst Pitfalls To Avoid in Your Resume

Believe it or not, your resume has only a few seconds to gain the employer's attention. Today, most employers are flooded with resumes from eager job seekers. Therefore, to stand out from the crowd, your resume should be free of the common errors. Have you ever wondered what not to include in your resume? There are some blunders that will guarantee that your resume never catches the attention of the employers. A recent Accounting survey suggests that 28 percent of executives feel that job applicants make the most mistakes when writing their resumes. What are these mistakes? Here is our take on the top 10 worst pitfalls to avoid while writing a resume. 

            1.Too many personal details: Except from your full name, contact information, including email, phone number and address, you should avoid giving further personal detail in your resume. Information such as your age or anything about our family must be kept aside. It's you who is applying for a job position; you are what matters, not the history of your family.

           2.Unrelated information: Mention such facts that lend credibility to you as a job applicant. You should avoid stating information in your resume that has nothing to do with the job you are applying for. Very often job seekers make this mistake while telling about their hobbies or accomplishments. If you are applying for a software developer position, what sense it would make if you state that you were an arm wrestling champion as one of your accomplishments? Think about it.

           3.Highlight on duties, instead of accomplishments is a mistake: Resumes should primarily have high-impact statements about the job seeker's accomplishments that would sell his qualifications and present him as the best candidate. You must shun phrases like "responsibilities included" or "duties included" and focus on accomplishments that set you apart from other job candidates.

           4.A loose objective: The very first thing in your resume that your potential employers would surely look at is the objective statement. So avoid making vague statements like "Seeking a challenging position that offers professional growth". The employers come across such lines probably hundred times a day. Try to say something specific that would serve the employers' need as well as your own. If you are applying for a marketing position, you can state your objective as "Seeking an entry-level marketing position that allows me to utilize my skills and enables me to make a positive contribution to the organization".

            5.Using cookie-cutter resume templates: Most resumes created from a Microsoft Word template are easily recognizable to employers. Since the employers have seen a million of them, such drab looking resumes don't stand out. You're supposed to be uniquely qualified so the company will choose you among other candidates. Therefore use a little imagination while writing your resume. It'll surely help you a lot.

            6.Listing references directly on the resume: References are a good tool to increase your credibility in the eyes of your prospective employer. But you shouldn't list specific references directly on your resume. Instead, you must list them on a separate sheet. Even then, references should be given if specifically requested by the employer.

            7.Including salary expectations: Never include salary related points in the resume. It will distract the reader's attention and you may lose the chance to face the interview. It's better to keep it out of your resume, unless the employer asks for it. If you get a job requirement from a job portal, placement agency or direct recruiter, they may specifically ask your current salary and expected salary. In this case, it is recommended to include the details asked above in the cover letter.

            8.If you were fired from a job: Your resume should highlight your positive aspects and each and every facet that makes you the most deserving candidate. Stating that you were fired from your earlier job for poor performance or any other fault will not help you getting the job in any way. Yes, if you are asked to explain why you left a job, you need to be truthful.

            9.Poorly organized: While writing your resume, you should maintain a proper order of importance. Don't mention about your hobbies at the starting. Moreover, job titles are more important than dates of employment. It's better to put the educational details at the end. If you are a fresh graduate, then only you should highlight it. More significance should be given to those information that meet the need of the employers.

 

            10.Typos and Grammatical Errors: It may sound insignificant, but a small spelling mistake or grammatical error can cost you the job you are applying for. Your resume needs to be grammatically perfect otherwise it will create an impression of a careless person in the minds of the employers.