Resumes should focus on experience, not school

Take a gander at your resume. Is it an artless list of basic data?

One job-hunt firm suggests rewriting it in a different format, focusing on a succinct recitation of ways you could help a potential employer rather than where you went to school.

Competency-based resumes “stand a better chance of being screened for a fit between candidates and job openings,” said Anne Hawley Stevens, a managing partner for Boston-based ClearRock, an executive and career-development firm.

After contact data and a summary of the position you’re seeking, a competency-based resume jumps directly to your skills and experience. List a task you’ve performed — project management, for example — and then list the specific role you played.

Workplace

Co-workers more likely to give thanks than boss

Does the boss say thanks? No? Well, you’ve got ample company.

More than half of employees in a recent survey, 55 percent, said they were never or rarely thanked for their efforts. Conversely, 35 percent said they were thanked frequently at work.

The e-mail poll of 1,002 people also revealed that colleagues are much more likely to say thanks than managers — 84 percent said they expressed gratitude to a co-worker daily or frequently.

On the other side of the niceties, more than a third of supervisors (34 percent) said they praised at least daily the employees who report directly to them. Thirty-seven percent said they did it weekly, 8 percent praise monthly, and 6 percent conceded they never praised those who report to them.

The survey of supervisors also found that women were more likely to praise their workers than men, 40 percent versus 31 percent.

“It’s amazing how much two simple words can mean to an employee,” said Rodger Stotz, vice president of Maritz Incentives, which conducts a bimonthly poll of workplace issues.

Motley Fool

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