Why You Dont Want To Pack Your Resume With Keywords

Why You Dont Want To Pack Your Resume With KeywordsWhy You Dont Want To Pack Your Resume With KeywordsResumes are not a science nor do they require mathematical algorithms to land that next great interview.While using language in your resume that mirrors your target companys needs is imperative, keyword packing is not. In other words, know your audience, be precisely focused in your target job, and let the words bubble up intuitively.The following are five reasons you should spread your energies and job search marketing focus beyond the science of buzzwords1. Applicant tracking systems (ATS) vary. While you may think youve hit the keyword jackpot by following the rules of the keyword-packing road for one particular ATS system, youre limiting yourself. ATS systems vary, and mora importantly, are adapted to individual companies needs. You will drive yourself crazy trying to program your resume for each and every corporate system out there. Focus instead on focusing in on your target co mpanys current situation, by reading not only about the job, but also about the organization itself, the industry sector, and the competitive market within which your target enterprise resides. Then, unearth the message that will resonate with both a machine and a philanthropisch being. Armed with that information, your uber-focused message-knitting in the tenor and tone of the researched information will be punctuated with critical keywords naturally.2. Not every company uses ATS screening. Suffice it to say, companies come in all sizes, from single, two- or three-part offices to multinational conglomerates employing tens of thousands. Even then, within the globally expansive entities, companies within the companies (e.g., business units) arise, often acting independently of one another. Not every organization has the means, or chooses to apply their recruiting budget to ATS software. Believing that your next great opportunity is highly dependent upon your ability to game a systems programming can devolve your job search into a technologically hairsplitting game where you dont win.3. Human beings read your resume. Human beings program the screening systems and read the resume ultimately. Despite the naysayers out there, your resume should be written for a human beings eyes and ears. (Note An ASCII/plain text conversion of your design-savvy resume is a simple solution for uploading into ATS systems creating two separate resumes simply is not needed.) Before submitting yours online or to one of your networking contacts, read it aloud. Does it sing? Or, does it fall flat? Print it off and look at it from a consumers perspective. Does it advertise your value in a brilliant, enticing way?4. Net-weave your way into an interview, instead. While the Internets vastness and ease for trumpeting your resume makes initial sense, you must remember that managing your career, and your job search, requires much more than technology uploads and clicks. If youre doing it right, youre weaving a net of relationships that will help transport your message toward a real-life audience, to whom you want the story to resonate. You dont want to drown them in a sea of keywords.5. You have a story to tell. So many careerists get caught up in the keyword frenzy their resume mirrors that of their competitors. No distinguishing nuances call out their value. With so many resumes noting Innovative and results-oriented professionals with a proven track record of success, youd think the worlds economy would soar instead of struggling. Instead of employing overused language, identify and illustratively describe specific stories e.g., depict how you stepped into a newly right-sized, disengaged and under-performing accounting department and created a collaborative and higher-performing environment.Of course, you will punctuate this story with metrics that show before and after revenue/profit/etc., growth. But then, tell how you, specifically, designed the collaborative cultur e. What leadership and relationship-building talent did you employ? What action steps did you take? How did you handle push back from frustrated staff unhappy with the changes? Get down into the details to add substance to your achievements. Mostly, dont get bogged down in a keyword gaming struggle.Remember, youre more than just one person in what has been unfortunately referred to as an unending online inventory of people. And, if done right, your resume wont land on a giant pile of other resumes. Instead, yours will rise to the top.Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter is a Glassdoor career and workplace expert, chief career writer and partner with CareerTrend, and is one of only 28 Master Resume Writers (MRW) globally. Jacqui and her husband, Sailor Rob, host a lively careers-focused blog at http//careertrend.net/blog. Jacqui is a power Twitter user (ValueIntoWords), listed on several Best People to Follow lists for job seekers.

Fathers also want to have it all, study says

Fathers also want to have it all, study saysFathers also want to have it all, study saysHave you seen the T-shirt slogan Dads dont babysit (its called parenting)?This slogan calls out the gendered language we often totenstill use to talk about fathers. Babysitters are temporary caregivers who step in to help out the parents. But the fact is that fathers are spending mora time with their children than ever before. In fact,American fathers todayspend 65 percent more time with their children during the workday than they did 30 years ago.According to the2016 National Study of the Changing Workforce, almost half of fathers in heterosexual relationships say they share caregiving responsibilities equally or take on a greater share of caregiving than their partner.This week we witnessed the release of the firstState of Americas Fathers, a report that draws on numerous social science research studies as well as new analysis of the 2016 National Study of the Changing Workforce.Looking for an i nspiring way to start your day? Sign up forMorning MotivationIts our friendly Facebook robot that will send you a quick bedrngnise every weekday morning to help you start strong. Sign up here by clicking Get StartedAs a sociologist who studies fatherhood worldwide, I think the most important homilie of this report is a simple one Fathers are parents, too.But dads desire to have it all, as we once talked about in relation to working mothers, means that they are also having difficulties successfully combining work and family. The report, among other things, suggests that we need to pass paid, non-transferable, job-protected leave. I agree.Work-life balance is important to men, tooThe State of Americas Fathers report highlights that a majority of fathers experience work-life conflict, and that this has increased over time. For example,60 percent of fathersin dual-earner families say they have problems balancing work and family, compared to 35 percent of such fathers in 1977.This is lik ely due to the fact that a majority of fathers feel they dont spend enough time with their children. This situation may be due to the continued pressures on men to earn a good income. According tothe 2016 National Study of the Changing Workforce, 64 percent of Americans feel that fathers should contribute financially even if taking care of the home and children. Millennials are just as likely to agree with this statement as baby boomers.In my own research published in my bookSuperdads,fathers continually expressed frustration at not being able to balance work and family. Its no longer a question of whether fathers want to be more active in their childrens lives, but how they will do so when workplace and government policies do not offer the support necessary.Men need work-life policies as much as womenA big part of the problem is that the workplace has not really adjusted to working women and caregiving men.Instead the idea of theideal worker, someone (usually a man) who can focus e ntirely on work while a partner (usually a woman) takes care of everything else, still holds power among employers. But the State of Americas Fathers report reveals that most workers have some family responsibilities, and only a minority of families fit the traditional breadwinner father, homemaker mother model. Only 20 percent of couples live off of one income. This means that most fathers have partners, female or male, who also work, and more single fathers have shared or primary custody of their children. These men do not have the choice to push off caregiving onto someone else.Like working mothers, working fathers face stigma when they seek greater flexibility in the workplace. A very similar number of fathers (43 percent) and mothers (41 percent) think asking for flexibility could have a negative impact on their careers.In addition, there isevidencethat leave-taking negatively impacts chances of promotion, frequency of raises, and wertmiger zuwachs evaluations, and these penalt ies are stronger for men than women. Men who seek flexibility are even seen asless masculine.The benefits of father involvementWhy should we be so concerned about mens ability to balance work and family?The simple answer is that fathers who take leave and spend more time with their children are really good for their families. Theirchildren benefitfrom better cognitive, behavioral, psychological and social outcomes.According to the State of Americas Fathers report, these fathers also pave a path toward greater gender equality as their sons are more accepting of gender equality while their daughters feel more empowered. Their partners benefit because they are more likely to be satisfied with their relationships and less likely to experiencepostpartum depression. They are also more able to focus on their own careers, which has the potential to benefit the larger economy as well, with one estimate showing anincrease of 5 percent in GDPif womens labor force participation rate equaled men s rate.Fathers themselves benefitby engaging in healthier behaviors and creating more ties to family and community.And in the end, men are just as capable of caring for children as women. It is the act of providing direct care for a child that increases ones capacity for caregiving. Mensbody chemistryreacts the same way as womens to close physical contact with infants. In other words, fathers show similar hormonal changes, and this means they can experience similar levels of bonding with their children.Paid parental leave could helpIn an analysis of policies in 185 countries, the International Labour Organization finds that theU.S. is only one of two countriesthat does not guarantee paid parental leave. In fact, theU.S. ranks dead last among 38 OECD nationsin government-supported time off for new parents.Our only national policy, theFamily and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of 1993, offers up to 12 weeks of leave, but in addition to being unpaid, it only covers about three-fifths of worke rs due to a number of restrictions. The act only applies to employers with 50 or more employees and only covers employees who have worked for that employer for at least one year. Additionally, 20 percent of employers that are required to comply with the FMLA offer fewer than 12 weeks of leave to employees who are spouses/partners of new mothers (mainly fathers), in direct violation of the law. Amazingly,only 12 percentof U.S. workers in the private sector have access to paid family leave, and this applies to a paltry5 percent for low-income workers.Worldwide paternity leave is becoming more prevalent, with71 countriesnow offering it. Fathers are most likely to take leave when it is specifically designated for them. Around90 percent of fathers in Nordic countriestake leave.These programs may seem out of reach, but we have seen successful paid leave in the U.S. Funded by a very small payroll tax of 0.9 percent, Californias groundbreaking Paid Family Leave program helped new parents sp end more time caring for their children. At the same time most employers have seen no cost increases or abuse and in fact witnessless turnoveras employees are able to care for their new children and return to work.We are also starting to see more models of paid leave amongcompaniessuch as Ernst Young, Facebook and Twitter, but I would argue we need something more far-reaching. The FAMILY Act, for example, proposed by U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York to provide up to 12 weeks of paid leave, is a start.This will help fathers to have it all, and be the parents they want to be.Gayle Kaufman served as a reviewer for the State of Americas Fathers report.This article was originally published on TheConversation.com.

Benjamin Franklin Isherwood

Benjamin Franklin Isherwood Benjamin Franklin Isherwood Benjamin Franklin IsherwoodThe steam engineering building at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD, bears the name of a man whose pioneering work leid only set the stage for modern ship building but also was the basis for great advancement in mechanical engineering.In fact, the revolutionary engineering program initiated by Benjamin Franklin Isherwood (1831 1915) at the Naval Academy became the template for professional mechanical engineering education. That basic curriculum designed at Annapolis in the late 1860s and 1870s still serves as the core of university mechanical engineering study throughout the U.S. and beyond.It may surprise many that Isherwood had no formal engineering education but his unique and innovative ideas catapulted him to the pinnacle of the engineering corps in the U.S. Navy in 1861.Born in New York in 1822, Isherwood attended Albany Academy in 1831 at the age of 9 and spent five years there. He learned mechanics and engineering on the job while working successively on the Utica Schenectady Railroad, Croton Aqueduct, Erie Railroad, and at the Novelty Iron Works in New York City. His last civilian job involved designing and constructing lighthouses for the Treasury Department before starting his long career in the Navy.Isherwood joined the Navy Engineering Corps in 1844 at the age of 22 and quickly demonstrated his talent, becoming chief engineer of the Corps five years later. He then rose to become the engineer-in-chief of the Navy in 1861 and then went on to head the Bureau of Steam Engineering for six years, from 1863 to 1869.During the Mexican-American War, he served on the steam warship Princeton, and later became senior engineer of the gunboat Spitfire.The steam engineering building at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD, bears the name of Benjamin Franklin Isherwood due to his advancements in modern ship building.When the war ended, Isherwood was assi gned to the Washington Navy Yard, where he assisted Charles Stuart in designing engines and experiments with steam as a source of power for propelling ships. Throughout the 1850s, Isherwood compiled operational and performance data from steam engines in the U.S. and foreign commercial vessels and warships. He used this empirical data to analyze the efficiency of engine types then in use.It was during the U.S. Civil War, however, that his contribution to modern ship building became well known. His main achievement was the rapid design and construction of a steam-powered fleet for the Union. He had to provide a sufficient number of ships to blockade Confederate supply routes, a daunting task given the state of the U.S. Navy in 1861.During the war, Isherwood designed machinery for 46 paddlewheel vessels and 79 screw steamers. In 1862, he advocated building large, fehlte nicht viel, heavily armed and armored ships, which were built from 1863 until after the war. He also conducted numero us experiments on marine engines to study the practical use of steam for power. Between 1863 and 1865, Isherwood published the first and second volumes of Experimental Researches in Steam Engineering, which were translated into six languages and became the standard engineering text upon which future steam experiments were based.Immediately upon the conclusion of the Civil War, Isherwood was principally involved with organizing a new scientific curriculum for steam engineering at the Naval Academy. By 1874, naval engineers refined this curriculum to the point that it served as the model for mechanical engineering education at most American universities.Although his Wampanoag (1868) was the fastest ship in the world, Isherwood came under increasing criticism from civilian engineers, Congress, and naval officers who believed steam-powered vessels had too many drawbacks, and consequently, he left the Navy.The apparent setback failed to dim his spirit, as Isherwood continued to produce t echnical innovations. In 1870 and 1871, he conducted experiments that resulted in a propeller that was used by the Navy for the next 27 years.He was a pioneer in the production of fast cruisers, producing this class against strong opposition. Following a tour of European dockyards, he became president of the Experimental Board under the Bureau of Steam Engineering until his retirement in 1884.After his ignominious forced retirement from the service, the Navy sought to make amends in recognition of his great work. He was made Rear Admiral, the highest rank given to an engineer in the history of the U.S. Navy at the time.The steam engineering building at the Naval Academy was named after him in recognition of innovation and experts in the effective assessment, development, execution, or deployment of technological solutions for operational Fleet needs.Furthermore, three Navy ships (two destroyers and a fleet replenishment oiler) have been named for him as well.The American Society of Mechanical Engineers made Isherwood an Honorary Member in 1894 in recognition of his great contribution to the field of mechanical engineering.This great engineering genius, whom George W. Dyson, in an article in the Naval Institutes Proceedings called possibly the greatest engineer the U.S. Navy had developed, died in New York City in 1915 at the age of 91.Arshad Mahmud is an independent writer.It may surprise many that Isherwood had no formal engineering education but his unique and innovative ideas catapulted him to the pinnacle of the engineering corps in the U.S. Navy in 1861.