Tips to make your Resume Remarkable

If you’ve been looking for work, you know that the job market is tough at the moment, but it’s a great time to take stock and spiff up that ho-hum resume!

Having the right design, layout, and content for your resume is what stands between you and a new job.  Many times you only have twenty to thirty seconds to capture the attention of your reader so approaching this endeavor with a clear strategy and plan of action is important.  We’ll tackle your resume one step at a time over the next few posts and give you tips on how you can update your resume to stand out from the crowd.

Content is King

Consider your resume like an online dating profile.  Not only does the content have to adequately cover your experience and capabilities, but it must be interesting and even enticing.  Keeping the reader’s interest means not having a War and Peace sized autobiography; cover the most important topics by giving just enough information to leave whoever is reading your resume the desire to know more.  The idea is even if a hiring manager had the extra time to read your finely detailed pedigree they would no longer need to interview you, they already know more than enough.  What you divulge with your content needs to be setting yourself up for that first date, the interview. 

 Here are some of our suggestions:

Highlight your accomplishments - Did you cut costs? Increase revenues? Deliver projects correctly ahead of time? Below budget? Break a company record?  If so, your resume is an excellent place to call attention to how awesome you really are!  You want your potential employer to visualize how you are going to help them and one way to help this process is to use numbers and percentages.  Don’t spell it out when you can show it with numbers.

Call out the value you would bring to the target company – If you’re a sports fan or even if you just hang around one, you’re familiar with this idea.  When a new player joins a team everyone voices their opinion on the value that new player brings with them.  Your resume is the perfect place for you to assert the value you would add to your prospective employer’s team.  Make sure you are speaking the same language that your potential employer speaks, especially as it relates to the position you are applying for. 

Identify five assets that make you remarkable –   No doubt you’ve seen an infomercial.  They’re loud. They’re bright. And surprisingly, they’re effective (Be honest, you have at least one product seen on TV in your house right now)!  The reason they are effective is they highlight the assets of the product and show how those assets benefit the user.  In the same way, show your depth by identifying your professional assets and highlighting the benefits to the hiring manager and the company.  Professional assets are things like your background, experience, abilities, knowledge, and specialties.

By addressing this content in your resume, you’ll set yourself apart from the competition, pass the employer’s screening process and get the interview! 

The right job for you is out there.  We can help get you to it.  Visit our website to view our current employment opportunities and receive the support that will help you go forward confidently!

Good News from Goldman Sachs and An Increase in Temp Workers

Jobs increase as investing in the homebuilding industry transitions from “neutral” to “attractive” in Goldman Sachs report.

In a recent Bloomberg article, Real Estate Reporter Prashant Gopal highlighted a Goldman Sachs report that marked US homebuilders an “attractive investment as the housing market starts ‘strong’ recovery.” With the Commerce Department reporting new houses selling at a pace of 369,000 in May, June saw a record plunge in mortgage rates and the continued evaporation of existing homes that led to a 4.7 percent increase in the construction of single-family houses. The recent surge has led Goldman analysts to estimate new-home sales reaching 700,000 in 2014.

According to Gopal, Goldman analysts are connecting the positive recovery to “supportive government policies and a decline in the so-called shadow inventory of homes.” The shadow inventory of homes refers to the supply of foreclosures and shorts sales still projected to hit the market. Arizona, California, Florida, Nevada and Texas report a 15 percent decrease in shadow inventory, while also reporting a 34 percent increase in demand. Goldman analysts attribute this to the supply of foreclosures being swallowed up by investors, “limiting shadow inventory and creating a floor for home prices.” “We expect any further decline in inventory,” write the analysts, “to serve as a platform for price appreciation, further aiding sales.”

In a June article for Bloomberg entitled “Arizona's New Housing Crisis: No Workers,” Gopal also described the impact this increase in new-home building has had on jobs, as Arizona contractors report an unprecedented shortage of skilled workers. One of the places hit hardest over the past few years, Arizona is now “scrambling” for workers to keep up with the demand for new homes. This scramble for workers should be considered in light of the June jobs reports that indicate, according to USA Today, a 25,000 raise in temporary workers—nearly a third of June’s 80,000 payroll gains. As concluded in the report, “many businesses are using contractors and other temp workers on an ongoing basis to better meet fluctuating demand and enlist workers with specialized skills for short-term projects.”

JWilliams Staffing has definitely felt the convergence of these new reports, with new positions and openings pouring in from a variety of locations—most recently including Los Angeles, San Diego, Tucson, Fort Worth, and Denver. Whether you are looking for employees or employment, there could not be a better time to visit JWilliamsStaffing.com.

JWilliams Staffing Publishes Second Annual Guide on Building Industry Compensation and Benefits

With home-buying activity the highest it has been in two years and interest rates at record lows, home builders are requesting the most permits in years, and as new construction increases, new jobs are being created. As California builders step up their hiring, they will find indispensable information in the newly-published 2012 Building Industry Compensation and Benefits Guide from Irvine-based JWilliams Staffing, Inc.

Featuring data on more than 100 relevant industry positions, the guide is designed to aid both companies and employees as they reevaluate work and assignments. Contributions from builders and developers throughout Califor-nia helped assure timely and relevant data, according to JWilliams Staffing founder and CEO, JoAnne Williams.

"Our second annual edition couldn't come at a more auspicious time," Williams says. "It will give both employers and job seekers an understanding of current, competitive salary and benefit packages that will enable them to make informed decisions as the industry accelerates the pace of home building activity."

John Burns, CEO of John Burns Real Estate Consulting, Inc. in Irvine, California, agrees with Williams that making informed decisions is more critical now than ever. "Companies that made hiring decisions based solely on gut feel are gone," he observed, "and they are being replaced by builders who are not only experienced, but who have also created new processes and procedures."

The new guide provides a year over year comparison of compensation with basic job summaries along with salary levels for a wide array of positions within the industry. There is also a section devoted to compensation according to size of the firm, making it easy to compare key responsibilities and salary levels at a range of firms. This year's industry-wide overview of employee benefits provides a more comprehensive summary based on feedback from the 2011 survey.

The guide also features an informative article by Tom Miller, president of The VisionLink Advisory Group, that discusses the importance of establishing a long-term "value sharing" plan among management and staff. Miller ex-plains why immediate compensation is only one motivating factor for employees committed to overall business growth and success.

"After a long period of low turnover, employers might expect their top talent to leave for -- or at least explore options in -- greener pastures," Williams says. "Companies must plan for a possible rise in attrition and move faster to start filling the talent pipeline. One of the most reliable ways to do that is through an effective value sharing strategy."

Williams and her team worked with the California Building Industry Association in compiling the Building Industry Compensation and Benefits Guide. In future editions, they would also like to incorporate information from other building industry associations around the country, providing the industry with a reliable assessment standard.

The Guide is available through JWilliams Staffing, Inc., at www.jwilliamsstaffing.com. Substantial discounts are available to BIA members and to those builders who participated in the survey.