Whats the Right Length for Your Resume

Whats the Right Length for Your ResumeWhats the Right Length for Your ResumeConventional wisdom and many resume experts recommend limiting the length of your resume to a single page. But a new studyfrom ResumeGo revealed that hiring professionals are mora than twice as likely to prefer two-page resumes to one-pagers, and are more willing to spend about twice the time reviewing these longer submissions. This is true not only for managerial positions, but for entry-level jobs as well.Whether youre a current job seeker or just want to ensure that your resume is properly updated for future opportunities, check out some highlights of the research below based on a conversation withPeter Yang, CEO of ResumeGo, which can help guide job applicants in determining what they should cover in their two-page resume.Longer isbetter.Career experts have long debated whether longer or shorter resumes tend to perform better. Many thought leaders argue that theres no need for a resume to be more than a s ingle page in length for the majority of job seekers. Yet the new study found the opposite that recruiters and hiring managers were not only willing to spend the extra time needed to read through two-page resumes, but they actually felt better about receiving more information from candidates as opposed to a condensed CliffNotes version in a concise one-pager.Yang points out that most of the arguments that career experts make for one-page resumes have historically been based on their personal experience and/or anecdotal evidence, rather than statistical data analysis. Because of this shortcoming in the research, ResumeGo sought to get to the bottom of the debate by studying the behavior of nearly 500 recruiters and hiring managers, ultimately discovering that job seekers who submit two-page resumes may have a significant advantage over those with shorter resumes. These findings are important because they have a massive impact on how job seekers should approach the task of writing the ir resumes, summarized Yang.Dont cut it- keep it.Following the traditional rule to streamline resumes so that they fit on one page, job seekers have often had to make some tough choices. If you only have space for a few paragraphs of total copy and your work experiences take up the full space on your resume, what happens to other potentially important sections like an objective statement, relevant volunteer experiences, professional memberships, and awards, for example?Fortunately, with hiring teams acknowledged preference for longer resumes, you have more options now to add important details that go beyond just a list of your professional experience. And by including additional relevant points, you have more chance of standing out to an employer, potentially gaining a leg up on the competition.Job seekers whose resumes naturally exceed one page should no longer feel the need to cut out potentially critical sections or bullet points just for the sake of reducing their resume length, says Yang. In fact, with the extra real estate, job seekers can now afford to include things on their resume such as an objective statement, a longer list of academic coursework, a broader platzdeckchen of skills, and older work experiences- things that might not have been worth mentioning if their resume were confined to a single page.Maximize your competitive advantage.Being able to include more is a particularly important advantage for online applications. Since many companies now use applicant tracking systems (ATS) to filter for candidates whose experiences and credentials best match the job in question, a two-page resume gives job seekers more space to include all the necessary hard skills, coursework, and keywords that are most critical to their particular industry and to the position for which they are applying. Yang notes that online job seekers using two-page resumes when applying via an ATS minimize the likelihood that their resume will be screened out by applicant track ing systems and maximize the chance that their resume will be read by an actual hiring manager.While the study found that two-page resumes outperform one-pagers even for entry-level workers, Yang doesnt suggest that entry-level job seekers go so far as to force themselves to create a two-page resume based on limited work experience. If your resume is naturally just a single page, thats perfectly fine. Doing things like adding in irrelevant fluff, increasing the font size, oradjusting the page margins just for the sake of making your resume longer will not help your cause, and will likely reflect on you poorly.Instead, Yang emphasizes that job seekers should absorb the following key take away from the study if you have more to say in your resume than will easily fit on one page, theres no need to make the extra effort to cut it down to one page- and, in fact, you shouldnt.Want to chat with an expert about your resume?SIGN UP FOR CAREER COACHING

How female protagonists in YA fiction have changed and stayed the same

How female protagonists in YA fiction have changed and stayed the sameHow female protagonists in YA fiction have changed and stayed the sameStrong female protagonists in young adult fiction are nothing new. From nanzig Drew to Annemarie Johansen Lois Lowrys selfless herbeioine in Holocaust-era Number the Stars to a plucky young Lucy Pevensie in The Chronicles of Narnia, young adult fiction has always enjoyed a healthy share of women ready to figure it all out, enlighten, and sometimes literally save the day.But the female protagonists who star in this decades crop of young adult fiction show three interesting shifts.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and more1. Unlikely heroinesOne refreshing trend is unlikely heroines young women who are not really looking for fame or grandiose accomplishments but simply trying to survive. These protagonists are everyday whispering warriors. They show quiet strength at times but mostly just embody a confident if unassuming way of walking in a world where they definitely belong but feel no obligation to prove it.A stellar example lies in the character of Marin in Nina LaCours Printz-winning young adult novel We Are Okay. Marin adjusts all on her own to life in New York, fleeing her West Coast past after being reared by a stoic grandfather who dies suddenly before her freshman year of college.While this character masterfully shows the internal struggles common to LGBTQ teens discovering their sexuality, she also spends Christmas pretty much alone in her dorm room, fighting ennui, being snowed in, and remembering the gentle, confusing lies her grandfather piled up before he died. In the end, she simply decides to be in the world. Her resolution that we are okay indeed becomes as profound as any battle cry.Penguin Young Readers Group2. Flawed charactersAnother trend is the proliferation of young women who embrace their imperfection i n whatever big or small form it may come. They are much more willing to open themselves up to risk and and much more willing to reveal their humanity.Perhaps with this trend, young adult fiction has grown up the most. Whether its the super quirky Flora Belle Buckman and her voracious reading of Terrible Things Can Happen to You in Newbery winner Kate DiCamillos Flora and Ulysses, or the parallel protagonist, intergenerational duo of Xan and Luna in The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill, female heroines in young adult fiction are now showing both their wisdom and their warts from cover to cover.And this trend is consistent across genres Whether readers enjoy realism, historical fiction or fantasy, the female characters are both out front and far out. These characters and their courageous authors feel no need for tidy endings or polished edges. And, if book abverkauf or online reviews are any indication, readers love it because the characters live through these flaws boldly an d without reservation.The standout in this trend is a standout all around these days, with the introduction of the girl across the street that everyone comes to admire Starr Carter, in Angie Thomas wildly successful The Hate U Give. Caught up in a senseless police shooting of a neighborhood teen, the protagonist navigates between her all-white school and her blatantly mischaracterized ghetto neighborhood companions.With an uncle as a cop, Starr struggles to find her voice and describe the lived experience of being pulled over and watching her friend gunned down for driving while black. This piece is powerful all the way until its resolution precisely because Starr is a conflicted and confused character redefining strong as she traverses atypical situations.3. Still not diverseOne final trend is quite a bit less uplifting than the first two Todays heroine is still very white and very upper middle class.Yes, there are amazing black heroines these days, and they are racking up awards f or their equally amazing authors The Lions of Little Rock, by Kristin Levine Brown Girl Dreaming and Another Brooklyn, both by Jacqueline Woodson, are notable examples.Authors and publishers have made inroads. And individuals such as 13-year-old activist and trailblazer Marley Dias will help lead the way with her inspirational 1000BlackGirlBooks movement and the literary buzz it has created. But Marley isnt alone in her need for more and more meaningful diversity and inclusion in young adult literature. Diversity in young adult fiction needs to reflect the nations demographics because currently it does not.Kelly Roberts, Associate Professor of English Program Coordinator, 6-9 and 9-12 licensure programs in English, Meredith CollegeThis article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.You might also enjoyNew neuroscience reveals 4 rituals that will make you happyStrangers know your social class in the first seven words you sa y, study finds10 lessons from Benjamin Franklins daily schedule that will double your productivityThe worst mistakes you can make in an interview, according to 12 CEOs10 habits of mentally strong people

Move Your Career Ahead by Focusing on One Thing at a Time

Move Yur Career Ahead by Focusing on One Thing at a Time Move Your Career Ahead by Focusing on One Thing at a Time What we have learned, both as career coaches, and in our professional lives, is that the key to making any change is to slow down and focus on just one thing at a time.It is the same when you want to move your career forward. There are techniques you can learn about discovering what you are good at, discovering the kind of work environment that would bring out your best, networking, interviewing, getting along with other people, and figuring out what your greatest contribution could be to your organization, etc. However, before you try to tackle all of these at once, our advice, based on our own personal experience and counseling thousands of people about their careers, is focus on just one thing at a time.No matter what you have decided is your number one career issue that you want to work on, here are a number of strategies.Ask a powerful question.Ask yourself one bu rning question about your career. Use this question to drive the rest of your strategy. Is your question, Should I change careers?, Should I start my own geschftsleben?, How do I learn office politics?, Who would be an excellent mentor for me?, or the age old query, What do I want to do with my life?Get focused.Get as specific as you can and then write your burning question down. For instance dont simply ask what do I want to do with my life? Instead ask what do I want to accomplish by the time I am sixty years old? Or how can I improve my presentation skills? Put your question somewhere you will see it every day such as on your appointment book, your calendar, your computer, in your office, on your refrigerator, etc.Remove distractions.Do something that will reduce your stress. Career change is tough managing it requires that you remain focused. Consider taking up yoga, getting a massage or exercising. Replace worry, self-recrimination, avoidance, procrastination and denial with e motional and physical well-being.Eliminate nonessential busy work in all areas of your life that does not help you reach your goal by leaving it for later, grouping similar tasks together, hiring someone else to do it or giving it up altogether.Learn from others.Most burning questions have been asked by others before you. Find out how others have answered burning questions for themselves and study the lessons they learned to shorten your path. You can do this by reading about famous people, speaking to people where you work, or getting a mentor.Think creatively.Take a non-conventional approach to answering your burning question. We know one entrepreneur who took an acting class when developing her business mission statement because she wanted to learn how to listen to her inner truthful voice. We know customer service professionals who took up knitting because they found that quiet handwork helped them listen to their customers more closely over the phone. What would help you answer your burning question?Be ready.Once you have put your powerful question out into the world, and are focused on it, people and situations will present themselves to you. Take advantage of opportunities to learn more as they present themselves to you.Evaluate.Last, set a date to evaluate your progress. Keep doing what is working. Stop doing what is not working. Ask others for feedback on how you have done. And, then ask yourself if your question is still relevant or if you have another burning question.By slowing down, and focusing your energies on one specific goal, you will move your career forward, one step at a time.