From Yahoo:

Writing your very first resume can be a daunting process. And it doesn't help to know that recruiters spend an average of six seconds reviewing a resume before they make the initial decision on candidates, according to research conducted by TheLadders, an online job-matching service for professionals.

"Many students don't know what should and should not be included in their first resume," says Amanda Augustine, career consultant and career management expert for TheLadders. "While there are no hard and fast rules when writing a resume — it really depends on what content you have to work with — there are some preliminary guidelines all students or new professionals should follow."

She says the most important things to think about when you're creating your first resume are your job goals and your audience. "Ask yourself: If I handed the resume to someone who knew nothing about my college major or career direction, could they easily identify the type of role I'm targeting and why within the first 30 seconds?" 

To get a clearer picture of what makes a resume great, we asked Augustine to create a sample of an excellent one for someone with little to no experience.

While your resume may look different, depending on the industry you're in, the one below should serve as a useful guide for entry-level professionals with very little work experience:

What makes this an excellent resume for someone with no experience? Augustine outlines the following reasons:

1. The layout is clean and easy to read. 

The same font type is used throughout the document. Dates and locations are consistently represented, so it's easy to scan and pick out the important information. "In addition, the headers and main sections of information are centered on the page, which TheLadders eye-tracking study revealed is how recruiters tend to scan resumes," she says.

2. It includes a link to the job seeker's professional profile. 

While it may seem a little premature, it's important for students to develop good social media habits from the get-go. "Create one professional profile dedicated to your future career," she suggests. "If you're studying to work in a more creative field, consider developing an online portfolio to display as part of your contact information. In addition, increase the security settings on your personal accounts so they're hidden away."

3. The job seeker's goals are clear. 

Maria's professional title and summary at the top of the resume clearly indicate her interest in securing an internship in advertising or public relations. "If her resume was passed along to someone by a friend, the reader wouldn't have to guess," Augustine says. "While Maria's personal brand is still under development, her summary references the value she already brings to the table: the relevant degree she's pursuing, her experience using social media, and her writing skills."

4. It plays up the job seeker's selling points. 

Maria is pursuing her first internship and doesn't have any relevant work experience to speak of. "As a result, we've shifted around the components within her resume to showcase her strengths: her relevant coursework, leadership activities, achievements, and skills," Augustine explains. "Her work experience is moved to the bottom of the resume because it's not directly tied to her internship goals." However, it's important to include this information because it demonstrates Maria's work ethic and skills. 

5. It includes some references to high school. 

If you're pursuing your first internship, it's all right to incorporate some information about your high school career. This includes any awards, honors, or scholarships you may have received or sports you may have played. If you were valedictorian or salutatorian of your class, or you held an office in an honor society or relevant club, include it in your first resume, Augustine says. "This information paints a picture for the reader of a well-rounded student who was active in and out of school."

6. It lists her social media skills. 

"If you grew up with Facebook and other social media channels, it may seem silly to add these to your resume — doesn't everyone know their way around Instagram today?" she says. "But the reality is that this knowledge is an asset to many employers, and not everyone in the job market possesses it." If you're targeting internship opportunities in marketing, public relations, advertising, journalism, or even customer service, include these skills in your resume. Many employers are looking for interns to help manage their online brands; adding these skills to your resume will help them find you.

7. It doesn't include a list of references.

You do not need a line at the bottom that reads: "References available upon request." 

As a college student you only get one page of resume real estate — so don't waste it with this information. "Employers don't ask for that information until you make it to a face-to-face interview, and they know you'll provide it if they request it," she says.

It's important to remember that experience isn't everything — and, luckily, employers filling internships don't expect you to have much of it just yet, Augustine says. "However, they do want to see an active student who has demonstrated a genuine interest in their position."

So, when you sit down to write your first resume, try to think about your previous jobs in a new light. "If your experience seems unrelated to the internship you want, think about what skills you've practiced or learned that could be applicable," she says. "For instance, as a waitress you're sure to develop skills in customer service, sales, and multitasking, all of which could be very valuable to a potential employer."

via Yahoo

From: RHUer

I must ask... What is this… Vay-Cay-Shun they talk about during the summer months? 

I’ve heard of it somewhere, I seem to have vague childhood memories of it... From what I can recall, it was pleasurable.

They speak of mysterious, far off wonders.

'Time off?'

Places called a 'beach,' or activities called 'camping,' and once or twice, I've heard of things called 'amusement parks' and 'cruises.'

Very mysterious, I must say. The more I read up on these things, the more confused I feel.

I've heard rumors of another thing that goes along with it: 'spending money.' Can anyone tell me what that mysterious thing is?

--RHUer

From: RHUer

Being asked for help in a store has happened to me a number of times too… Normally I’ll laugh it off and send them in the right direction if I happen to know it. But... the ones that really get me, and these sadly aren’t uncommon, are the ones that walked ~right past~ an actual store employee to ask me that question.

What’s even more funny is what I was wearing looks nothing like the employee uniform. I was wearing black denim jeans, a red sleeveless t-shirt, a pair of work boots, and sideways Yankees hat.

I had a coworker try to dispense wisdom; "If you don'twant to be chased down, don't dress like you work there. Slouch when you walk, and shuffle along not looking right or left."

I bit my tongue when he was flagged down by some lady not two minutes later... while doing exactly that...

He always wore trashy looking jeans and t-shirts showing off Harley Davidson regalia or metal bands with skulls and the like, mostly because he spent his days in the back room store, dragging boxes around. Oh, and he had a beard to rival ZZ top. It doesn't help. It never helps.

--RHUer

Hey RHU, My sister, Billee Burchett is a spiritual guidance teacher and she recently uploaded a podcast interview to YouTube where she discusses multitasking and how it affects your energy level. I know many of you, like myself, are juggling very busy lives, multitasking away, and there's this nifty tool called a smart phone that we all use as it's supposed to help make our lives easier. Unfortunately more times than not, our magical metal slabs end up causing even more stress, if we're not careful. What she has to say about smartphones and multitasking and how they affect your energy you'll find very inspirational.

From Bloomberg:

Using Times New Roman is the typeface equivalent of wearing sweatpants to an interview.

A résumé, that piece of paper designed to reflect your best self, is one of the places where people still tend to use typeface to express themselves. It does not always go well, according to people who spend a lot of time looking at fonts. Bloomberg asked three typography wonks which typefaces make a curriculum vitae look classiest, which should never, ever be seen by an employer, and whether emojis are fair game.

We went digging for a complete set of professionally fly fonts and returned with just one consensus winner: Helvetica.

“Helvetica is so no-fuss, it doesn’t really lean in one direction or another. It feels  professional, lighthearted, honest,” says Brian Hoff, creative director of Brian Hoff Design. “Helvetica is safe. Maybe that’s why it’s more business-y.”

There are other options that, like Helvetica, are sans-serif, meaning their letters do not have the tiny "feet" that adorn the "T" in Times New Roman, for example. Do not choose a cheap imitator, the experts counsel. “If it's me, [I’m using] Helvetica. Helvetica is beautiful,” says Matt Luckhurst, the creative director at Collins, a brand consultancy, in San Francisco. “There is only one Helvetica.”

Unless you're applying for a design job, human resource professionals probably wouldn't notice a knockoff font. But you would be on the wrong side of good taste. Could you live with that?

Say you're a high roller and want to actually purchase a font. Go with Proxima Nova, which Hoff calls a “cousin to Helvetica” with less of an edge.

“It has a softer feel. Helvetica can be more stiff, and  Proxima Nova feels a little rounder,” Hoff says. Proxima Nova is apparently a hit among suits. “I never met a client that didn’t like that typeface,” he says. That kind of popularity does not come cheap: Just one style of the font costs $29.99 at myfonts.com, and the entire 144-member family costs $734.

If you are very experienced, use Garamond to get your long rap sheet to fit into a single page. “Garamond is legible and easy for the eye to follow,” says Luckhurst.  “Garamond has all these quirks in it, so what that does is allow the eye to see where it should go.”

There’s some controversy over the classic Times New Roman. “I don’t have any problem with Times New Roman,” says Martina Flor, a letterer and designer in Berlin, Germany. She acknowledges that it has the reputation of being staid, but says the font is not to blame. “It has been a system font for a long time. It’s been used and misused a lot.”

Using old faithful might send the wrong sign to your future boss, though. “It’s telegraphing that you didn’t put any thought into the typeface that you selected,” says Hoff. “It’s like putting on sweatpants.”

If you want something intentionally upscale, try Didot. “It’s very tall, it’s a little fancy, [and] it’s a little feminine,” says Luckhurst. It’s a good option for a fashion job, but not much else, he adds. “It’s like wearing the black dress to the ball. Do you wear a tuxedo to your job interview?”

It may go without saying, but do not use the flowery Zapfino type on anything you will show an employer. “It's just really swoosh-y. If it’s your wedding invite and that typeface is for you, go for it,” says Luckhurst. 

Do not even use anything that looks like Zapfino, says Flor. “All the fonts belonging to this family of connected scripts wouldn’t be right for your résumé,” she says. They are hard to read, she says, and not designed to express anything longer than a headline.

“You don’t have a typewriter, so don’t try to pretend that you have a typewriter,” Luckhurst says. “You have been using a computer to do a handwritten thing. You haven’t used a computer properly, and you haven’t handwritten properly.” Damn. Don’t use Courier, I guess.

We probably do not even need to discuss this, but you should never use Comic Sans unless you are designing the investment issue of a national business magazine. Do not even look at Comic Sans. It should not be on your résumé “unless you are applying to clown college,” says Hoff. “There are other whimsical fonts out there that you can buy that would give a similar impression and feel, but not necessarily be a Comic Sans.” Hoff is being gentle, but take it from me: Don’t look for a Comic Sans-like font. Just let it go.

Should you put emoji in your résumé? Prayer hands, a cat with hearts for eyes, followed by a dress shirt with a gold tie? “I think it’s a great idea. Put a lot of emojis on the bottom. Some chicken wings. They will love it,” says Luckhurst. “Maybe an emoji is your logo. Maybe you just really key in on the 100 logo, that’s your thing, you put it everywhere.”

Maybe.

 via www.bloomberg.com

Hey guys Finder Queen here.

With all the recent stories shared of scheduling conflicts and general management not talking to keep staff they can use up to date, I myself have a few questions that maybe you guys can help me with.

You see, when I started in my gas slavery hell I got mon-fri opening shifts. As a night owl this really didn't work, but I made it so since you know them pesky bills and all. I've been forcing myself for over a year to keep this going, so my only thing I ever asked was to be left on mornings, sure you can change it from mon-fri to whatever days, but leave me on opens as I was used to them now. I do work in a will to work state ( I think it's what it's called when you or the employer can end employment for any reason as long as it's more reasonable than not liking someone, at least for on paper).

So fast forward to after our buy out and such. We've been through two SMs and our current one just makes me question a few things, mostly scheduling or lack there of. First a co-worker pulled a stunt and got my morning shift (that I was specifically hired for even though I'm pretty flexible with hours I can work) pulled from me and now I'm on the shittiest schedule I can think of throwing at someone besides clopens.

They yanked it from me with no reasoning, not even a phone call just one day BAM I now work half the week opening the shop and the other half closing the shop, often with no days off in-between until after I've worked the closing shifts, then it starts with opens a couple days later again. My SM also knows I do NOT want to work closings because they make us work solo and it's not a good neighborhood; let's just say cops drive in and buy gas hourly for a reason.

Now my SM has not been making schedules ahead of time, even when they knew they'd become an SM and have been for almost two months now. By this I mean at the end of the pay period of the week you're working and there should be a new paper with the next pay week scheduled hours on it, it's NOT THERE.

I typically work closings of the last day of the pay period and when the SM leaves there is no new one made at all. SM was calling us for the first couple weeks to let us know what the next shift we were due in for was, even that has stopped and they are pushing it onto co-workers who AREN'T management to make the calls or text others their shifts.

An example would be the pay week starts 3/29 and ends 4/4, you'd want to see a new schedule posted by 4/4 and SM isn't doing it, SM won't entrust it to anyone else to draft up either. Also even when I get a day off I am getting calls from SM about coming in to cover a co-workers shift or gives my number to another store and I then get pelted with calls from another SM that they need my help, so it's almost like I never get time off anyhow.

Even if I say no it feels like work to have to listen to all those voice mails and call people back to tell them no, that I want to have my day off, and I have things to do besides work to work some more. :( I've also never encountered this issue of no schedules being made no matter where I've worked.

I'm just not sure if they are trying to get me to leave since they schedule me full hours and staple shifts, or even what my rights/ actions can be for this situation.

With all this in mind my main questions are:

Is it fair of SM to schedule me and ONLY me on these 1/2 open 1/2 closings?

Can SM have non management call/text schedules to people?

Am I to assume if I get no memo on when I work next that I have a day off?

Does the SM have to have a schedule posted x days ahead of time?

Also can SM give my number to other shops when it's stated even on my job app I am NOT willing to "relocate"?

--Finder Queen