WOW! - week 6

This week's word of the week is:

SIGNPOSTING

1. A post supporting a sign that has information or directions.

2. An indication, sign, or guide.

BUT
I also see it used in literature about presentations. If you are giving a business presentation (job interviews are a type of business presentation too), you need to provide the listener with signs to show what they can expect in your presentation and where you are now in your presentation.
This is a valuable technique for helping your listener to understand you.

The following phrases are SIGNPOSTS:
"I'd like to start by...."
"First I would like to explain....."
"Now that I have explained this, I would like to talk about that"
"There are three ways in which your company would benefit from hiring me...."
"Now that I have explained our position, is there anything you would like to say"

This website lists many SIGNPOSTING phrases and you can click on a button to hear them spoken.
http://www.eslgold.com/business/signposting.html

COSTI Immigrant Services

COSTI is a great organization. They are a registered Canadian charity. They have locations all over the Greater Toronto Area, the closest to Pickering being at Scarborough Centre.
Starting August 17th they have a new on-line program called Enhanced Employment Strategies.
They have Enhanced Language Training with Work Placement for landed immigrants and refugees who have prior experience in Accounting, Childcare or Office Administration & Customer Service

They have English classes at all levels, vocational rehabilitation, skills training, translation services as well as programs for youth and seniors.
Take a look at their website:

http://www.costi.org/index.php

Announcing - The birth of my new logo

My husband designed this for me. I like it because it is a pie chart indicating business but the addition of the small blue circle turns it into a friendly face and then the blue pie slice becomes words coming out of its mouth. So it is a good symbol for people talking about business.

WOW! - week 5

Our Word of the Week is:

COLLABORATE: To work together, especially in a joint intellectual effort.
-from the latin collaborare "work with," from com- "with" + labore "to work."

On your resume, to say "I collaborated with other employees on the project" is an improvement over saying "I worked with other employees on this project" because it implies that you worked in an atmosphere of co-operation. It is a more positive word.

Interestingly, the word acquired a negative connotation in 1940 when it was used to mean "co-operate traitorously with the enemy" but don't worry about that. An employer would never assume that you intended this meaning.

Powerful Verbs

In the recent past,because resumes were scanned, we were told that they were usually scanned for nouns. Well, apparently now experts advise us to have plenty of good action verbs.

Suzanne Simpson has good advice about verbs:
"Verb Guidelines
* Remember to use present-tense verbs for your current job except for obvious cases of past accomplishments in your current job. Use past-tense verbs for your past jobs.
* Vary your verbs. Avoid beginning consecutive bullet points with the same verb.
* Keep verb forms parallel (more about this subject in Chapter 6, Keeping it Parallel). Generally, use simple present-tense verbs in describing your current job, not present-participle (-ing) verbs.
* Watch tricky verbs, such as "lead" (present tense). The past tense of "lead" sounds like the metal, "lead," but is spelled "led."
* Apply the "So what?" question. Does each bullet point in your resume arrest the reader's attention and excite him or her? Or does it inspire the reader to ask "so what?" To avoid a "So what?" response, use picturesque verbs."

Suzanne gives examples of replacing weak verbs with powerful ones and has an extensive list of powerful verbs for your resume and cover letter:

http://www.quintcareers.com/action_alpha.html

WOW! - week 4

Our word of the week is:
COMPETENCIES

Competence is a noun meaning the quality of being competent; adequacy; possession of required skill, knowledge, qualification, or capacity: He hired her because of her competence as an accountant.

A competency is the knowledge, skill, and ability required to be successful at a job.

I read that "competency based human resource management" is very fashionable right now.

Competencies are related to the job, not the person. They are the knowledge, skills, and abilities required for the successful performance of a job.

So when a company is looking for a new employee, they have a list of competencies. It is important, therefore, that in your job application, you refer to as many of these as possible.
You can read more about this in some articles by Suzanne Simpson on the website:

www.hrsg.ca

WOW! - week 3

The word of the week this week is:
ACCOMPLISHMENT - noun meaning something you have achieved, something you are proud of, something you completed after great effort.

This is a very important word for people who are job hunting or who want to take a proactive approach to their career.

Experts say that resumes should be accomplishment driven. In other words, don't let your resume be a list of your responsibilities. Make it a list of your accomplishments. To be able to do this, you have to keep track of your accomplishments. Get in the habit of entering everything you succeed at in a file.

Some experts advise the use of a special format for your accomplishment descriptions.
This is called C.A.R. - Challenge.Action.Result.
For example: Our new product was not selling well. (Challenge). I went out to talk to our customers.(Action). It turned out they did not like the purple colour so we made it in green and tripled our sales .(Result).

The next step is to decide what this story says about you. It might show that you are an independent thinker and action-oriented.
Now you can use this in your resume and have it ready to tell when an interviewer asks you if you are action-oriented.

To take this a step further, I recommend that when you have written several accomplishments, cut up the paper and put each one in a jar. when you have a spare minute, take one out and practice it. Check your pronunciation with a native English speaker.