Beverly Brewer Stark
Northwest Mississippi Community College
Career Center
SPRING 2008
The Career Connection
NEWSLETTER
Your Résumé: The Key to Getting an Interview
Career Center Info:
Location
Thomas D. Coats Technology Complex Building 1 (Tech 1)
662-562-3954
Hours
M-F 8 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Appointments may be made for Career Counseling, Assessments, Resume Critiques, Mock Interviews,
etc…
Staff
Kristin Watson
Career Counselor
[email protected]
On your way to success...
Emily Post suggests that if you
do the next 5 things with
EVERYONE you meet, you will
be on your way to success!
1. Look them in the eye.
2. Give a firm handshake.
3. Greet them, “How do you
do?”
4. When saying your name,
say it slowly and clearly.
5. Smile!
There are things you can do
to land that all important first
interview, Brad Turkin, executive vice president of staffing
company Comforce Corporation says. "As the old saying
goes, you only have one
chance to make a good first
impression. And the résumé is
it," he notes. Here are his tips
for creating a phone-ringing
résumé:
updating -- it.
Be choosy.
"Don't send your résumé
blindly to every company out
there," Turkin advises. Do
your homework and decide
who you want to target. Look
into a company’s history and
its goals for the future, and
how it plans to accomplish
them.
Know your Strengths.
"The first thing you should
do, Turkin says, is some serious soul-searching. Know the
kind of job and company
that you want. Know your
strengths... and acknowledge your weaknesses."
Demonstrate your value.
Fill your résumé with facts
that jump out at the recruiter.
"Avoid empty boasts that
can't be quantified," Turkin
notes. He prefers a chronological résumé with bullet
points that highlight previous
results and successes. "You
can't just say that you were
the best salesman the company had," he says. "That
means nothing to a prospective employer. You've got to
show how you've contributed
to a company’s bottom line
and how you've added
value."
Be truthful.
Falsehoods get discovered,
he says, and you should always use your actual dates
of employment.
Be the solution.
"Try to find out where the
company’s ‘pain’ is... and then
you'll know how to position
yourself as a solution," Turkin
notes. "Show how you can
add value to their company
by showing some awareness
of their business and their
marketplace. If you can position yourself as a possible
solution to their problems,
you've got a very big step up
on the competition."
Upgrade and update.
A résumé is like a living,
breathing document, according to Turkin, because it
should get to the heart of
what you can do for a company. You should be constantly upgrading -- and
Keep it brief.
Don't make your résumé into
a novel. One to two pages
are best. Three pages max
(and that’s only if you've got
pretty much a lifetime of experience).
Check for typos again and
again and again!
Remember that some words
can be typos even if they
pass through your computer’s
spell check.
With a solid résumé, you
improve your chances of being selected for the next
phase, the "preliminary
screening" or phone contact.
This is a real opportunity to
sell yourself on a more personal level and lock in an
actual interview.
Since the call can come at
anytime, Turkin advises candidates to be ready beforehand by practicing what you
might say in a calm and confident voice.
Careerbuilder.com is currently featuring this information.
Northwest Mississippi Community College Career Center
Page 2
Be Prepared for the Interview
Harrah’s Entertainment will be interviewing
on campus for the new
Paula Deen Buffet in Tunica.
If you are interested in an interview
on Wednesday, April 9th, please sign
up in the Career Center or call 662562-3954 to schedule your interview.
Positions available:
Host/Cashier
Server
Busser
Maitre’d
Server Assistant
BARNHART will be on campus
Wednesday, April 23
holding information sessions about job
opportunities. Contact the Career
Center for more information.
•
Check out www.barnhartcrane.com for
information about the company.
Interviewing Pitfalls
♦
Poor handshake
♦
Talking too much
♦
Negative talk
♦
Showing up late
♦
Treating others rudely
♦
Asking about salary, benefits or vacation
time
♦
Not preparing
♦
Not enough/too much eye contact
You will have made yourself a better candidate
by avoiding some of the “interview pitfalls” and
no one will have to talk about you as the candidate who “almost” got the job.
Making a good first impression
during the actual interview requires
that you know something about the
company and the job opening, and
are able to discuss your strengths
and weaknesses. You can learn
more about a company through online research, reading company
brochures and annual reports, talking with other employees, and
carefully reading the job description. You’ll need to come to the interview with questions you want
answered.
• What is the most important
part of this job?
• Could you describe what my
responsibilities would be?
• What skills do you think are
important for this position?
One of the more difficult preparations is to fully understand your
skills, capabilities, weaknesses, and
strengths. Most interviewers use
open-ended questions, meaning
question that have no “right an-
swer,” in order to get a sense
about who you are and whether
you can fill the position they have.
As you prepare your answers to
the following questions, focus on
ways to structure your responses to
show how you can fill the requirements of the job.
• Tell me about yourself.
•
Why do you want to work for
us?
• What makes you more capable than someone else of filling
our position?
• What are your weaknesses?
Give examples of your work and
how you have been effective,
hardworking or a team-player.
For more interview preparation
information go to
www.collegegrad.com/intv/
Dress for Success
When you approach your wardrobe decisions for your interview,
think clean, simple, and understated.
Wild hairstyles, platform shoes, excessive jewelry, sloppy athletic
shoes, the latest fashion and overstated makeup do not make a
good first impression.
Interviewers want an applicant’s skills and abilities to stand out, not
his or her apparel.
Your first impression is determined by the way you “package”
yourself for the interview.
You want your appearance to communicate respect for authority
and the position as well as confidence in your ability.
Making a good first impression depends on your choice of attire
including accessories, the way you are groomed, and the manner in
which you greet the interviewer.
Paying attention to detail in grooming yourself signals to your prospective employer that you will pay attention to detail and take
pride in your job responsibilities.
Organizing for Tests
Keep these points in mind as you
prepare for final exams next
month!
•
Begin reviewing early
•
Conduct short daily review
sessions
•
Visit the NWCC Career Center!
We want to help you in your aca
demic
and career decision-making process
. We encourage students to take
advantage of our computerized cen
ter where you can learn about car
eers
and occupational environments tha
t will be compatible with your inte
rests,
personality, values, and skills.
•
Read text assignments before
lectures
•
Review notes immediately
after lectures
•
•
Review with a group
•
Conduct a major review early
enough
•
Break up the study tasks into
manageable chunks
•
Study the most difficult material when you are alert
•
We offer several career assessm
ents to assist you in the exploration
process. These include: the CHOICES
Interest Profiler, the Myers-Briggs
Typ
e
Indicator, the Strong Interest Inve
ntory, and the Self-Directed Search.
You can research occupations and
expand your awareness of emergin
g
careers, job titles, salaries, and emp
loyment outlook.
Find answers to your questions abo
ut building a resume, writing a cov
er
letter, handling an upcoming inte
rview, or informational interviewin
g.
Make an appointment with one of
our career counselors for one-onone assistance with choosing a major or care
er, or to figure out your next step
in the
career decision-making process.
•
Studying while you are mentally
fatigued is usually a waste of time.
Jobs In Demand
“Any fact facing us is not as
important as our attitude
toward it, for that determines
our success or failure.”
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Overview
Personal and home health
care aides help people who
are elderly, disabled, ill,
and/or mentally disabled to
live in their own homes or in
residential care facilities instead of in health facilities or
institutions.
Education and training
Most personal and home
heath care aides receive
short term on-the-job training
in a range of job functions.
Aides are instructed on how
to properly cook for a client,
which includes information on
nutrition and special diets.
Furthermore, they may be
trained on basic housekeeping tasks, such as making a
bed and keeping the home
sanitary and safe for the
client. Generally, they are
taught how to respond to an
emergency situation, learning
basic safety techniques.
Personal and Home Health Care
Certification
The National Association
for Home Care and Hospice (NAHC) offers national certification for personal and home care aides.
Certification is a voluntary
demonstration that the individual has met industry
standards. Certification
requires the completion of
a 75-hour course, observation and documentation of
17 skills for competency
assessed by a registered
nurse and passing a written
exam developed by
NAHC.
Job prospects
In addition to job openings
created by the increased
demand for these workers,
replacement needs are
expected to lead to many
openings. The relatively
low skill requirements, low
pay, and high emotional
demands of the work result in
high replacement needs.
Salary
Median hourly earnings of
nursing aides, orderlies, and
attendants were $10.67 in
May 2006. The middle 50
percent earned between
$9.09 and $12.80 an hour.
The lowest 10 percent
earned less than $7.78, and
the highest 10 percent
earned more than $14.99 an
hour.
Job Outlook
Excellent job opportunities for
nursing, psychiatric, and home
health aides will arise from a
combination of rapid employment growth and the
need to replace the many
workers who leave the occupation each year.
Source: BLS October 2004