Maybe you’re a newly minted graduate with high hopes and ambitious plans for yourself in the accounting field. Or maybe you’re a mid-life, mid-career employee with your last job in the rearview mirror and your sights set a better job with a different employer. Or maybe you’re a former chef/dog-walker/CEO/educator who wants to step into accounting after spending the last several years working on something else.

In all three cases, you have the skills, enthusiasm and positive attitude you need to find a great job, and there’s no need to settle for less than you want. But how can you bypass the mediocre stepping stone jobs that hang in front of you like accessible fruit and reach for better opportunities that hang a little higher? Here are a few tips to keep in mind.

Get help.

First, if you haven’t traveled this path before, get some professional guidance. The support of an experienced recruiter can connect you to the most appropriate jobs and help you filter out those that aren’t quite right, pay too little, or offer marginal paths to growth. Talk to your recruiter and be as honest and explicit as possible as you describe your goals. Then let your recruiter review your resume and steer you toward an appropriate match.

Trust your networks and the networks of those around you.

The word “network” implies connections that extend beyond your immediate social circle. When you tap into your network of contacts, you aren’t just turning to friends and colleagues for leads and tips; you’re also turning to your friends’ friends and your colleagues’ colleagues. To do this properly, you’ll need to be patient and persistent, and you’ll need to constantly assess what you have to offer to others, not just what you have to gain.

Move toward what you want.

If you want to live in Hartford, look for jobs in Hartford, not in your current city. This may seem like a no-brainer, but we often feel tempted to take higher paying over a lower paying jobs, or choose a short commute over a long one, when in fact pay and commuting distance aren’t our actual priorities. We want to live in Hartford, but we take a job here instead of there, hoping that somehow it will all work out. It will only work out if we take actions that move us toward where we need to be. The same applies to building a career in a new field.

For more on how to find the employers and opportunities you’re looking for, turn to the New Haven County career management professionals at Merritt Staffing.

Your resume will be your very first opening salvo in your relationships with most potential employers, so if this document represents the first contact an employer makes with your name and your personal brand, you’ll want put your whole heart into the little details that can help make it stand out. In other words, no matter how great your resume may be, there are always small ways to make it even better. As suggested by the best Victorian interpreter service, you can start with these simple but often-overlooked moves.

Keywords, keywords, keywords.

Every search algorithm works differently, and the keywords that grab attention on Linkedin may not work as well for your favorite job board, or your target company’s HR database. So cover your bases by making sure these three keywords appear in your document at least once: Your target job title, your target geographic area, the name of your industry (hospitality, healthcare, manufacturing, etc), the full and accurate title of your most relevant former job, and your proudest and most relevant five skill sets. Add any other words you think your target employers might type into a search bar, but start with these.

Spacing.

A resume that’s hard to read will quickly fall through the cracks, so make sure your document provides an easy and pleasant reading experience both on screen and in hard-copy form. Keep your font large (nothing smaller than 11 points) and leave generous spacing between your lines and headings. If you fear that might push valuable information off the page, don’t worry. Just expand to two pages and carefully summarize your points.

Stick to tradition.

There are some times and places during your job search when you’ll benefit by going off script and doing things your own way. But formatting your resume should not be one of those times. When your readers scan the page in search of specific information, they should quickly and easily find what they need. So give your headings standard titles (“education”, “relevant experience”, etc) and place them in a recognizable order. Save your unique branding and personality for the next stage of the process.

Include a summary.

The top of the page, just under your name, should contain a few lines that provide readers with the most important elements of your message. Assume that your readers may only read the summary and may base their entire assessment on what they see there. In some cases, this is exactly what happens. So put your best selling points (including your ability to write a succinct and artful summary) into your summary.

Clarify your intentions.

Know exactly what you’d like to do and build your resume around that type of work or specific job title. Super vague resumes that attempt to fit any job description can be confusing and off-putting to readers who are searching for signs of a match. Don’t suggest that you’re great at everything and will accept any job, anywhere. Hone in on what you actually want.

For more information on how to create a resume that sets your apart, contact the job search team at Merritt Staffing.

As you sit down with your prospective employer during your interview, you can expect to answer questions about the future; you’ll be asked what you want to do next, where you see yourself in a few years, and what you’ll contribute to the enterprise after you’re brought on board. But you’ll also be asked about the past, and your interviewers will want to know what you’ve been up to, and why, and for whom. Here’s how to handle questions about events you can’t change and decisions you’ve already made.

Don’t be relentlessly positive.

If your entire past comes across as one unbroken, blinding ray of sunshine and unmitigated success, your interviewers will naturally assume you aren’t providing the full story. In an interview, it’s better to let your honesty shine then your “success” (however you define that term). Managers are familiar with the type of smoke that gets blown in the interview setting, and they won’t be impressed by a candidate who seems never to have experienced a single mistake or setback. But they will be impressed by a candidate who tells an honest story, appears refreshingly self-aware, and feels comfortable with his or her unique set of likes, dislikes, strengths, and limitations.

Demonstrates these two core skills.

As a candidate, you’ll stand out if you can do two things, things that far too many candidates can’t do at all: connect and learn. If you can treat your interviewer as a friend and respected colleague who deserves to see you as you truly are, you’ll instantly set yourself apart. Small things like eye contact, honesty, engagement, and fearlessness can further this effort. You’ll also stand out if you show the ability to learn from mistakes and problems. If you cling to platitudes or myths instead of trusting your own experience and listening to what it tells you, you’ll have trouble gaining your interviewer’s confidence.

Stories carry more weight than explanation and exposition.

If your employer asks why you left a previous job, you can answer in either of two ways. You can explain, or you can tell a story. If you explain, you may say something like “I had no voice with upper management. I had useful ideas, but they were not implemented.” If you choose the other route, you’ll tell a story about a specific appearance of this specific workplace dynamic. Your story will leave a greater impact and last longer in your interviewer’s memory than your explanation. The same applies to questions about your accomplishments. Set the stage and tell the tale, don’t just share your accomplishment as if you’re reading it from a list.

For more on how to impress interviewers while describing your professional past, turn to the job search experts at Merritt.

After a grueling job search, you’ve finally received an offer, and it’s one you can happily accept. Congratulations! Now it’s time to put that exhausting search behind you, prop your feet up, and take a well earned relaxation break. After all, your new employers have already indicated that they’re impressed with you and pleased to bring you on board. Mission accomplished! Right?

Not exactly. Instead of treating a job offer like a chance to relax, treat the next few months as an opportunity to insert yourself into a new system, weave your way into the social fabric, and quickly make yourself indispensable. Gain a foothold now, and you’ll thank yourself later— Especially on the day you miss a beat and you need to rely on your bank of established capital to protect you.

Meet everyone and remember their names.

Don’t just let yourself be introduced; make an effort to shake hands and exchange names with as many new faces as possible during your early weeks on the job. Say hello and greet people by name when you see them. Now is the time. Turn this minor gesture into a solid habit. As you walk around, keep your eyes up and your expression friendly.

Be responsive.

Especially at the beginning of your new job, respond to every message and call. Eventually this may become impossible, but keep up this expectation as long as you can. When you start to fall behind and delete messages as a matter of course, learn to filter and prioritize the messages from those who need you most. But at the beginning, give everyone a chance to experience your best and most responsive self.

Don’t do everything.

You may have been advised never to use the phrase “that’s not my job”, and instead to rush forward eagerly, obey every command, and serve the needs of everyone around you, no matter what they ask. This is bad advice. Don’t roll up your sleeves and grab every single wrench or mop that’s handed to you; instead, prioritize the tasks that require your unique skill sets. First, do the things that nobody else can do. When you finish those, then move on to the areas in which you don’t excel, have minimal training, or aren’t as qualified. Your cheery can-do attitude won’t be welcome when you really can’t or shouldn’t handle the task in question.

Be kind.

Be kind to the busy manager who can’t give you clear instructions. Be kind to the frazzled direct report who needs a deadline extension. Be kind to the rude person in the hall who rushes past you. Be kind to the client who needs help, even if they aren’t part of your account. Be kind to people who behave in ways you don’t understand. You’re new here, and many of your questions will be answered in time. Your patience at this stage will serve you well later on.

For more on how to adjust to your new job and make the most of your first few weeks, contact the career management experts at Merritt.

As you work your way through an average day, hour by hour, how many of those hours find you facing down a daunting, confusing, or excited new challenge you’ve never faced before? During an average week, how often do you find yourself getting nervous about a big task, sweating in front of a critical audience, or tackling a project with higher stakes than you’re used to?

If none of these scenarios apply to you, and you’re spending your days moving through a series of simple tasks and challenges that you could do in your sleep at this point, maybe it’s time to wake yourself up. You may be trapped in a comfort zone that will hold you in its soft embrace for the rest of your working life—If you’re lucky enough to keep this job forever and if your ambitions extend no farther than these walls. If you’d rather not see yourself in the same chair in 20 years, it’s time to start learning some new things…and that means discomfort. Face that discomfort head on and power through by keeping these tips in mind.

Nobody else will do it for you.

Your boss might gently chide you into reaching for a higher bar, but it’s not her job to coach you or take the wheel of your career. That wheel belongs to you alone, so if you’re waiting for her to come over to your desk and sign you up for a training course, or shove you beyond your familiar boundaries, you may be waiting a long time. You’ll have to do this yourself. And you’ll have to start today instead of waiting until all the conditions are perfectly in place. (They never will be).

Opportunities exist in this workplace and also beyond.

You can go to your boss and ask her to sign you up for that course if you choose, and that’s a great start. But if she can’t or won’t, or has nothing to offer you, your mission isn’t over. There are plenty of online and local community courses available all around you, and your company may even be willing to foot the bill if you declare your intentions and ask.

Bite off more than you can chew.

Sometimes the best way to learn to swim is by jumping in over your head. Accept a project or a task that you aren’t totally sure you can sleepwalk through. Put yourself in the path of trouble, then be your own hero and save the day.

For more on how to get out of your rut and explore new branches of your industry, new software platforms, new technical skills, and new opportunities, contact the career management experts at Merritt.

Your recruiter has a job opportunity that they think might be great for you. With one glance, you can tell that they’re right, for the most part. The job is located close to where you live, the schedule and hours work well for you, the conditions and culture seem great, and the responsibilities of the role fall directly in line with what you’ve done in the past and where you’d like to take your career in the future. There’s just one problem: The job isn’t meant to last.

This is a temporary role, and the employers only need someone who can step in while their regular employee is on leave or reassigned to another project. If you take the job, you’ll step in—and probably thrive—but you’ll have to find something else once the contract period ends. So what should you do? Here are a few things to keep in mind.

Don’t immediately say no.

All jobs are temporary (when you think about it) and there’s nothing wrong with extending your search for full time work while you hold down a position, meet some new people, collect a paycheck and learn some new skills. In work, just because something doesn’t last forever doesn’t mean you should avoid the experience altogether. Just go in with your eyes open.

Talk to your recruiter about the changes you’d like to see.

Simply ask your recruiter to find out more about your options. Will this company consider taking you on permanently if the employee doesn’t return? Are there any other possible scenarios that might result in changes to the timeline of the role?

What will you gain for your troubles?

A short-term job (even a very short-term job) might come with some big benefits for your long-term career. If you can gain some assurance that your managers will give you a recommendation or if there’s a chance you can be shifted to another role or department when your contract ends, a gamble you take at the beginning of the process might pay off in the end.

As with all professional decisions and paths that diverge, ask plenty of questions before you make your final decision. If you need help crunching the numbers, contact the Connecticut expert career management team at Merritt.

Are you waiting all year long for your annual performance review in order to get feedback on how you’re doing at work? Have you ever given a huge presentation or a high stakes project in June, only to hear in December that you aced it or didn’t quite hit the mark? If you have no idea how successful you are at your job, and you’re waiting for your boss to tell you how well your projects are being received, how widely you’re respected, or how likely you are to climb the ladder, that’s not great. Instead of relying on your manager’s opinion (especially if that means waiting all year for a formal review), change course and find alternative ways to evaluate your performance. Consider these moves.

Read the room.

You’ve worked for weeks on your sales pitch and you’ve lost sleep and stayed late at the office to make sure every detail is perfect. But during the actual presentation, you’ll need to stop thinking about your sweaty palms long enough to look around. Take the focus out of yourself and place it on your audience, and do this in the moment whenever possible. You will never receive a more honest and useful response then the expressions in the room while your performance is underway. But reading real-time responses will require a degree of self-possession and calm that may take some effort to summon.

Ask your direct reports how you’re doing.

Asking your boss for daily reviews of your performance can come off as needy and insecure, and asking your coworkers for constant feedback can come off as a confidence problem. But asking your direct reports won’t entail that type of baggage. You’re there to support the people who work for you, and asking them how you’re doing (and how you can do better) is usually received as a welcome sign of strong and engaged leadership.

Check the numbers.

Numbers don’t usually lie, and if your projects are consistently coming in on time and under budget, that’s a strong sign that you’re doing fine, at least on paper. But if your missed deadlines and overbudget projects are starting to creep above the average for your position, something’s wrong. Even if you had a good reason each time you missed the mark, you still missed it, and there’s probably something you can do to get your numbers up.

Even if you’re doing well, there are ways you can do better.

Remove your sense of harsh self-judgement and take a step back. Even if you’re doing a perfectly adequate—or exceptional—job, there must be at least one area in which you can focus your efforts on growth and improvement. So which area is it? If you have to pick one, which one would it be?

For more on how to conduct your own honest performance reviews instead of relying on feedback from others (especially your boss), turn to the career management team at Merritt Staffing.

Here’s a thought exercise that every job seeker should engage in on a regular basis throughout the search process: If you found yourself riding the elevator (or sharing a cab or subway ride) with a crucial networking contact or potential employer, would you know how to make use of that precious time? If you only had about 30 seconds to spend with someone in a position to move your career forward, would you know exactly what to say?

Those in the career management world refer to this 30-second burst of prepared words as an “elevator pitch”, and if your elevator pitch isn’t polished to perfection and ready at a moment’s notice, you may be missing out on opportunities to get ahead. Here are a few common pitch problems that might be affecting your chances.

Your pitch doesn’t exist.

If you can’t yet sum up your candidacy and your qualifications in less than a minute, start drafting your pitch today. Practice delivering it aloud at a speech pace that’s normal and comfortable for you. You’ll be glad you did. Even if you never find yourself riding a literal elevator, you can use your pitch to keep your interview conversations focused and on-message.

Your pitch is boring.

Keep your message exciting and relatable, and start by giving it a purpose and meaning that extend beyond your own career and your own hopes for yourself. Demonstrate how your credentials and your professional goals will benefit others outside of yourself, specifically the person you may be speaking to. Most listeners are more interested in themselves and their own company prospects than you and your personal past.

Tell a story.

Instead of structuring your pitch around a laundry list of reasons why your listener should hire you, shape your speech into a narrative. Give it a beginning, a middle and an end, and find a way to turn your listener (or their company) into the protagonist. If you’re the protagonist, make sure you come off as someone worth rooting for.

Use numbers.

Quantify your claims, accomplishments, and goals as well as you can. Adding numbers to the details of your story will make your pitch easier to put into perspective and easier to remember later on.

Leave room to land your plane.

Your pitch should not build and build and then abruptly cut off when the elevator doors open. Keep an eye on the time available and begin the process of wrapping up several seconds before the metaphorical buzzer.

For more on how to create a winning pitch that can win over a valuable contact in 60 seconds or less, turn to the New Haven County job search experts at Merritt.

Sometimes even the most popular and profitable brands need a reboot from the experts found in fullypromotedfranchise.com site in order to stay fresh and hold their position as market frontrunners. If something isn’t broken, there’s usually no need to fix it, but even reliable classics need an update every few years so their storyline can stay consistant with the changing needs and priorities of their audience.

The same rule applies to job seeking employees. When you’re fresh out of college, bursting with ambition but short on practical experience, it’s okay to sell yourself based on your potential. As you get a little older and more immersed in your industry, it’s wise to reboot your profile so “potential” takes second place after the hard-earned lessons of experience. And as you enter the third phase of your career, it’s time to consider yet another update. If this describes your situation, keep a few job search and re-branding tips in mind.

Focus on Your Biggest Successes

Eagerness, a can-do attitude and a megawatt smile are worth more than gold for entry-level job seekers. And these qualities bring the rewards and honors that signal success. But gold stars for performance at the entry-level don’t shine as brightly for experienced workers, so at a certain point, it’s time to tuck these things away and replace them with more meaningful counterparts. The megawatt smile should give way to the thoughtful frown of someone who knows how to make hard leadership decisions, and cheerful eagerness should be replaced by the ability to say no, to speak honestly, to take a stand, to negotiate, and to embrace the mistakes of the past instead of hiding them.

Raise the Bar

At the entry-level, simply showing up on time can be praiseworthy. And after a few years of experience, easy wins and participation in successful team projects deserve top billing on a resume. But as you enter the second half of your career, make sure the top items featured on your profile reflect the rising expectations that come with age and experience. Don’t try to show off every detail of your career; instead, delete the easy victories and focus on the serious accomplishments that your younger competitors can’t claim.

Don’t Edit Out Your Past Careers

While it’s fine to edit out your early accomplishments and replace them more recent and impressive claims, don’t delete your previous careers. By the time we reach the latter part of our career, most of us have moved through several jobs and sometimes even completely different industries, so if you’re looking for an accounting job and you used to be in retail, share this fact, don’t hide it.

Your experience can work in your favor and can become a powerful selling point for potential employers, but only if you embrace it and show off your new brand strategically. For more information, turn to the career management experts at Merritt Staffing.

If you’re like most job seekers, you prepare well in advance for your face-to-face interviews, dressing to impress, researching the company, and taking extra precautions to put your best foot forward. But you probably don’t take the same approach or invest the same time and thought in a simple phone screening. But you probably should. Give yourself an advantage during the search and take a few extra steps that your competitors are likely to ignore. Here’s how.

Be yourself…but be your BEST self.

Affecting a fake persona during an interview isn’t a good idea, and over the phone this plan is even more likely to backfire. So don’t try to be someone you aren’t. But do bring your friendliest, most engaged, and most organized and purposeful side to the call. Sit up straight, or stand. Speak a bit more slowly and clearly than you’re used to. Smile as you speak— your listener can hear your smile.

Prepare beforehand.

Make sure you’re ready to take the call in a quiet place with no distractions or unpredictable noises in the background. And of course, don’t create these noises yourself. If you think your listener can’t hear you flushing a toilet or eating a snack, think again. The room around you presents a soundscape that your listeners can easily interpret, so don’t reveal what’s around you. If you regularly fix all the issues by contacting the plumber randwick then no kind of fuss will be created while you are working on something important. When you take the call, do it far away from coffee shops, bathrooms (get the best services as Sarkinen Plumbing notes that they can provide the best services), and dog kennels.

Do some research.

A phone screening doesn’t require the same depth of research that might help during a face-to-face meeting, but do some research all the same. Impress your employers by showing that you’re invested in the job and you’re interested in moving the process forward. A few minutes spent reviewing the company’s website should suffice; don’t miss this easy opportunity to shine.

Ask questions now.

During your initial phone call, you’ll have a chance to ask questions that may feel awkward later in the hiring process. For example, if you suspect that this job will pay far less than you can accept, get this cleared up now. Don’t waste the employer’s time and your own by moving forward toward an offer that you’ll inevitably reject. The same applies to other clear dealbreakers, like a geographic location far outside of your search range.

Prepare your tools.

Check to make sure your phone connection is clear and you have access to whatever conference platforms your employer plans to use during the call. If you plan to take notes, make sure you have your note-taking program or pad and pen handy. While you’re at it, prepare a list of questions you’d like to ask and key points you’d like to make about your background and credentials. Be ready to share these details without being directly asked. If you wait for the perfect prompt, you may miss your moment.

For more on how to make the most of your phone interview and move forward to the offer you’re looking for, turn to the Fairfeld County job search experts at Merritt.