Flair News

by Amber Rolfe

Wish you could turn back time? You’re in luck… 

Unfortunately, we can’t help bring back the good weather, but we can give you some advice on how to spend your extra time. Because remember that hours’ sleep we lost back in March? When the clocks go back at 2am on Sunday morning, it will finally be time to reclaim it.

But how can you make best use of your gift of free time? Here are eight productive* ways we think you could spend your extra hour:

 

1. Stay in bed

Most of us don’t have the time to enjoy a regular lie-in in the mornings, meaning we’re often left feeling tired, lethargic, and suffering from a severe case of ‘bed deprivation’ on a day-to-day basis.

If this sounds like a struggle you face, then why not spend the extra hour in the comfort of your own bed?

You’ll get the satisfaction of prolonging the “snoozing” process with absolutely none of the guilt. And when you do get up, you’ll feel refreshed and well-rested.

It’s basically win-win.

 

2. Clean the house

If you’re more of a morning person, why not use the extra hour to do things around the house that you wouldn’t normally have time to do.

It might not seem like the most exciting way to spend your free bonus hour, but continuing to ignore the clutter will only ever end badly when it comes to your long term goals.

And this way, when you’re done, you won’t feel like you’ve lost any time. Not to mention the fact that you’ll get to enjoy life in a nice clean house for the rest of the day.

Much better.

Six things productive people do every day

 

3. Make a big breakfast

If you’re the type to dine-and-dash in the mornings because you don’t have time for a proper breakfast, put your new found time to good use and make the most of the day’s first meal.

Aside from the obvious great taste factor, you’ll be even more thankful for all of the food when you can survive the whole morning without snacking. Leaving you to spend the rest of the day on more important matters (and/or Twitter).

After all, everyone knows that all the best days begin with bacon.

How to become a morning person 

 

4. Actually exercise

Go to the gym. Ride your bike. Have a swim. Actually get dressed and leave the house at some point. All viable options.

Using this time to be active will make you feel much more energised, and set the day up in a positive light. And, you know, exercise is good for you. So that’s a bonus.

It also means that maybe you’ll be able to justify those 17 chocolate biscuits you’re planning to have at lunch.

Top 5 ways to keep fit at work

 

5. Learn Mandarin

OK, we’re not saying you’ll be completely fluent and ready for a trip to Taiwan in 60 minutes. But believe it or not, some things can be learned in under an hour.

Aside from linguistics, potential skills you could pick up include basic coding, changing a car tire, CPR, or the core principles of Pilates. And if that’s not a productive way to spend your time, we don’t know what is. At the very least you can set the wheels in motion to find the right course for you.

No. More. Excuses.

 

6. Finally do all of the things you haven’t had time for

Well, at least one of them. There could be that TV box set you’ve been meaning to watch but ended up falling asleep instead, or that book you never quite got round to reading because you didn’t have the time.

The point is that with your added hour, you can finally stop putting it off and start filling these voids.

And yes, it’s perfectly acceptable to feel like you’d benefit most from spending an hour with your two best friends. First friend = Netflix, second friend = snacks.

NB: Bubble baths are also an option.

Six ways to beat procrastination

 

7. Sort out your CV

Sick of that Sunday night feeling? Why not find a job worth waking up for?

Use your newfound free time to make sure your CV is up-to-date, and work on making it better. Then you can dedicate the rest of your weekend to finding a role you can really be passionate about.

And who knows, this extra hour could be the reason you find your dream job.

Thanks daylight savings.

Free CV template 

 

8. Prepare for Halloween

Although not everyone celebrates Halloween – those who do will understand how important having an array of novelty decorations and a range of trick or treat sweets (that you will mostly eat yourself) is to having a good October 31^st.

Sadly though, many of us don’t have the time to make things exactly how we want them (see also: literally become Jack Skellington).

The good news is, now you have an extra hour to shop, decorate, and dress up as you please.

But for the sake of workplace harmony, we’d steer clear of clown costumes. Just in case…

 

*May not be productive

 

Still searching for your perfect position? View all available jobs now

 

FlexCareers welcome new employer partner Xero to bring great opportunities to job seekers in Australia and New Zealand.

Who is Xero?

Xero was founded in New Zealand in 2006, and is one of the fastest-growing software as a service (SaaS) companies globally. Xero was created to change the game for small business, with their cloud-based accounting software connecting people with the right numbers anytime, anywhere, on any device.

We’re proud to be helping more than 1.4 million subscribers worldwide transform the way they do business. And we’re just getting started.

Why work at Xero?

Xero takes pride in their progressive flexibility and diversity policies, and all employees are eligible for great benefits.

Diversity and inclusion at Xero

Xero are members of Rainbow Tick New Zealand, a quality improvement cycle designed to make an organisation a safe, welcoming and inclusive place for people of diverse gender identity and sexual orientation.

In Australia, they are members of Pride in Diversity, which is Australia’s first and only national not-for-profit employer support program for LGBTI workplace inclusion specialising in HR, organisational change and workplace diversity.

Xero was also awarded a Highly Commended in the Work Life Balance category of the 2018 Diversity Works NZ Awards for their flexibility policies. You can read more on their great flexibility policies below.

High-tech HQs and offices

Xero’s new office in Auckland. Source: Idealog

Xero will be opening a new office in Auckland in November, which is being hailed as “one of the most innovative offices in Aotearoa”. Some of the on-site perks include barista coffee, gym, well-being spaces, and free fruit. Other office locations include an HQ in Wellington (recently opened) and Hawkes Bay.

It’s not just Kiwi Xeros that get slick offices. Xero have a head office in Melbourne, as well as offices in Sydney, Perth, Canberra, and Brisbane. On-site perks across their Australian offices include central CBD locations, yoga, food truck visits, and event spaces.

More of their employee benefits include:

• Enhanced leave, parental leave, and well-being leave
• Xero shares
• Health and wellbeing programs
• One paid day a year to volunteer for charity
• Training and development opportunities

Flexibility at Xero

Xero supports flexible working and will consider candidates looking to work both full-time and part-time. They encourage activities and projects outside of work, and offer a variety of flexible options for people to also thrive outside of Xero.

Some of the flexibility policies that Xero have introduced are:

• Children in the Workplace – this allows parents to bring their children to work if needed
• Activity Based Working (ABW) – this allows individual teams to organise areas within the office to fit in with how they want to work, instead of giving each employee a desk in a fixed layout
• Xero Snooze – this allows employees within the Customer Experience department to start 30 minutes either side of their start time, and finish either earlier or later at the end of the day.
• Xero Bounce – this lets employees in the same department who wake up feeling unwell take a few hours extra rest to see if that will fix the issue

Interested in working at Xero? Check out their open roles here (New Zealand) and here (Australia).

If the above title applies to you then don’t worry you’re not alone. Many of us have experienced problems with productivity in the past but fixing this problem is usually easy than you might think. It takes some self-reflection and can’t usually be done overnight but you can conquer your productivity woes!

First things first you have to identify the problem or problems that are affecting your productivity. So, how do you do this exactly? You need to reflect and be honest with yourself about why your work output is lacking. Could you just need a break or have you been trying to do too much lately?

Or does your workplace need to adopt a more innovative and helpful OKR framework? If you can’t work out exactly what the problem is then don’t panic because it could take you some time and as I mentioned earlier it could be more than one thing. To help let’s look at some of the common reasons people suffer productivity problems at work.

Multi-Tasking

Let’s get a controversial choice out of the way first shall we? Multi-tasking is a good skill to have many jobs will require you to be an active multi-tasker but trying to juggle too many tasks at once is going to cause productivity problems at some point.

You can’t really stay focused on one job and do it well if you’re juggling multiple different ones can you? Multi-tasking is a great skill to have but it shouldn’t become the norm if you spend your days at work switching between multiple jobs and never getting anything done or not completing it to a high standard you should reassess your workload and spend more time focused on one job.

You’re Working Too Much

If you’re spending too much time at work then expect your productivity to take a hit sooner or later and it will most likely be sooner. You have your annual leave so make sure you use it and don’t take on too much overtime.

If you’re the manager or owner of your business then it’s understandable that you might go beyond the standard 9 to 5 hours of work however you should still make sure you take adequate breaks throughout the day and enjoy time away from work.

An Uncomfortable Workplace

Now this one is more common than you might think because an uncomfortable workplace can take many different forms. Your office doesn’t have to be falling apart or full of dust and clutter to be an uncomfortable place to work it could be down to the climate or simply be because your place of work is a little dull.

Thankfully these problems can be corrected easily in most cases some good tips to remember are to add some plants or a splash of colour about the place. You should also have some heaters and fans at the ready for when it gets too cold or too hot to ensure your staff (and yourself) are cool and comfortable at all times.

However, it also important to remember a workplace isn’t all about the climate or how it looks there are other important areas to consider as well. Because even the most luxurious workplace can still be an uncomfortable place to work if your staff doesn’t get along, which leads me to my next point.

Noise and Distractions

This one incorporates a lot of different issues and some of them aren’t easy to solve or even identify especially when it comes to productivity. Noise, however, is usually one of the easy problems to notice and solve when it comes productivity problems a noisy office isn’t going to be a productive one.

But noise isn’t always caused by outside sources like traffic is it? If it’s being caused by noisy employees then that’s going to be a more difficult problem to stamp out. Light talk is good at work although not all the time and too much talk is going to be a distraction.

So, make sure your employees know the rules and do your best to deal with any problems quickly. It could turn out you yourself are the problem do you spend a lot of time at work talking and gossiping when you have work to do? If so then you need to be firm with yourself and ensure you don’t fall into old habits.

No Sense of Growth

This is a difficult problem to fix and it’s one that will likely crop up in your working career from time to time. Sooner or later you might simply not feel as passionate about your daily routine and this can be a tricky problem to solve and it will surely impact your productivity over time.

You could try talking to your manager and ask for more responsibility or look for advancement opportunities or it might simply be time to move on and try something new. Think very carefully when deciding what you want to do and make sure you speak to your manager as well. Once you’ve decided how to proceed your productivity should improve.

No Training or Guidance

This is one that new employees are more susceptible to but it can affect anyone and it’s another issue that will be sure to hamper anyone’s productivity. If you don’t have adequate training or guidance then you will find it very difficult to stay productive while you work.

Because you just won’t feel confident doing your job, to tackle this problem you should be open and honest with your manager. They’ll be able to help you and could possibly offer you further training to help put you at ease. With the right training and guidance, you’ll be able to get your productivity back to normal in no time.

So, that’s a look at 6 very different ways your productivity can be affected at work. There’s quite a variety of ways your productivity can be lowered but thankfully when you’ve identified the problem fixing it usually won’t be too difficult.

The power of community

We love sharing our community member’s stories. Storytelling and sharing remind us we are all human, and we all go through experiences through our lives. It is an opportunity to share and learn from each other by way of those lived experiences.    

This is Amna’s story:

‘I was in the Middle-East working in the Energy sector with an organisation that greatly valued me, I was treated like family.  A few years later, I had my first-born and soon after I started to feel restless, I wanted to go back to work but the opportunity was not easy to see. It felt as though my industry didn’t know how to reconcile work and family life’.

It’s true, many traditional male-dominated industries, like the energy sector, are only just beginning to see the benefits of flexible working. However, in Australia and New Zealand, we are starting to see a shift in the mindset with some big organisations, like AGL or Viva Energy, two FlexCareers progressive employer partners, leading the way.  

‘My son was a baby when we relocated to Australia as a family. We were excited, confused, happy and overwhelmed all at the same time. We saw it as a fresh start in every sense, particularly for me starting my career again and joining the workforce full-time.  In the beginning, I was fortunate to support my previous employer in the Middle East from Australia in a telecommunications role part-time. This allowed me to get our family settled and find quality child-care for my son.’ 

Whether a recent migrant to Australia or not, finding the right childcare is something we all think and talk about. Researching the childcare centres around your area and understanding the costs involved are paramount to setting you up for success as you return to work.   

While Amna could tick this first step off her list with confidence, she says this is where the real challenges for her started: ‘Some of the challenges I came up against were 1. Education and experience outside of Australia considered lacking, 2. A career gap with no full-time experience for several months, 3. No professional network in Australia (being new to the country), 4. No friends/family for support. The recruiters I presented to and the job applications I submitted were getting me nowhere. The process was exhausting, I wasn’t hearing back from employers, and I was losing hope and confidence’.  

The way Amna felt is not uncommon for many women looking to return to the workforce. Traditionally recruiters try to predict whether the candidate will be an asset to the company based on criteria such as skills, previous performance, and recommendations from other employers: ‘The recruiters categorized me as ‘High-risk candidate’ based on those four reasons. Naturally, it did hurt my confidence level when I repeatedly got a negative response from the recruitment industry’.  

Although this is true, where a job-seeking-support platform like ours can really help you and lead you, is to find your ideal career with a progressive organisation. Plus, it comes with support from coaches and an online community.  

‘Henry Ford once said, ‘If you always do what you’ve done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got’. I knew I had to change my strategy and shake things up. Although I was tailoring my cover letters and CV, I needed to find out why is wasn’t working and I needed support…This is when I came across FlexCareers, a business ahead of their time and redefining work’.  

When Amna joined our online community, she was instantly welcomed and accepted as a member of the community: ‘FlexCareers offers a great forum through their Facebook group. I was able to talk to so many wonderful people. And find support from some of the best career coaches. People who really understood the Australian market and who helped me align my strategy with the requirements.  With all the support and guidance offered, I was soon able to identify the gaps in my CV, cover letter and my overall approach.’ 

More than just helping her with her approach, her CV and cover letter, Amna was able to connect with individuals who could relate to her situation and experience and even offer her direct help: ‘The most important thing I learned after speaking with the Flexcoach was that I needed to be very specific in what I wanted to do including industry and my experience.  During my online exchanges within the group, a woman, who was also a member of the FlexCareers community, stepped forward.  She referred me to her hiring manager in her workplace. Soon after I was called in for an interview. Two weeks later I was an employee of one of the most progressive organisations in Australia.’ 

Shared experiences, like Amna’s, bolster our sense of belonging which in turn makes us feel worthwhile. Sharing personal stories with others, including an online community like our Facebook group, makes the experiences more intense and memorable.  You’re helping others learn from you:

‘What helped the most was connecting with others. Knowing who to talk to, who to get support from, and knowing that there are some amazing people out there who understand the challenges we go through and who have the knowledge to make our journey a little bit easier and us – a little bit wiser.’  

In a nutshell, Amna said her journey was not smooth, in fact, quite the opposite. Yet, through our platform and its community, she learnt the best way to showcase her talents and experience and has found a rewarding career.  

To find out more about our community, sign up to our blog and become a member of our Facebook Group. If you are looking for a career with progressive employers, register here and download your FREE copy of ‘Kick Start Your Career e-Guide’.  

Most university students begin their education in the hopes of moving on to having a great career in the years after. During your years in university, you will learn a lot about yourself, which can equip you with some valuable life lessons. However, it is not just general life university prepares you for. In fact, your years there will also give you some important skills to take into the working world. Such skills can help you land a dream job, impress your employer, and enable you to start your own business. In any case, it is important to be aware of the key ways in which university can prepare you for your career.

Communication

One of the first things you will do when you start university is tosocialize with people from all walks of life, who you have never met before. This can be tricky for some people, but it is an impressive skill that can be built over time until you are confident in speaking to people in a friendly and relaxed manner. Just as these communication skills are essential to maintaining friendships, they are also desired in any kind of graduate job.

 

Teamwork

When you leave university, your new job will throw you into some situations which require effective teamwork to complete a task successfully. While your newfound communication skills will help with this, you should also spend much of your time in university learning about the importance of teamwork. Arguably the best way to do this is by playing for a university sports team.

Leadership skills

Sports not only enables you to be a team player, but it can teach people how to be leaders. If you want to be successful in your career, you should develop leadership skills as much as possible. Many students find they can do this by seeking sports scholarships to see them through university, where they won’t be hindered in their future career by financial problems. Such scholarships are also ideal for those wishing to pursue a profession in the sports world.

Financial management

University can be a tough time financially for many students. However, the one silver lining here is that it teaches you how to manage your money to maximize its use. When you are going into the world of business, this becomes an ever-important attribute to have. For example, showing your prospective career providers that you have navigated your way through university on a shoestring budget may impress them. This isn’t just in respects to financial management but in terms of your dedication and perseverance.

Resilience

Some careers require you to have a certain level of resilience, such as those working on the front line or in high-pressure environments. It is a sad truth that many students will suffer through life-changing events or mental health problems throughoutuniversity. Although it may remind you of some hard times, the key here is that you lived through those times with undeniable strength. This strength can be taken into any career, as you can show your ability to take on feedback and push through it.

Choosing a WordPress theme when you are building a WordPress hosting website can be tricky. Not because of a scarcity of themes but because finding a theme or a template that fits your business is challenging. So, what is it that goes into selecting a great WordPress theme? What parameters should one take into account?

This article is an extensive guideline that will answer such queries. So, without further delay let’s take a look at some key pointers that should go into your research while choosing a WordPress theme or template.

1. Aesthetically sound

Users decide whether they want to do business with you or not in the first thirty seconds of scrolling through your webpage. A good looking website is like giving your customers a peek into what your product or service can offer them. Which is why ensuring that your website has a clean layout, great colour combination and splendid typography is extremely important. When all these elements come together on a canvas that your website is, no person has the audacity to take their eyes off it. While narrowing down on the theme you choose, make sure that the entire website maintains consistency of its theme with blogs, posts etc.

2. Relevant to the business / industry

We might have started off with the ‘looks should be better than the engine’ argument but hold your horses. We feel that aligning your theme with your category of business is a must. There is no compromise here because if a user can’t make out what business you are into, how will he or she be intrigued enough to go through the rest of your website? Make sure you sync your theme to your industry.

3. Compatible with the browser

You don’t know what your users prefer when it comes to browsing through websites. Some prefer Chrome, some prefer Internet Explorer, or Firefox or even Safari for that matter. Make sure before you launch your WordPress website, you have made your website compatible with every browser under the sun.

4. Ensures protection to the website

In order to select a good WordPress theme, ensure that the theme supports security. A sound way to develop a safety mindset would be to avoid trusting user input or any third party APIs. Or even any kind of data inside your database without verifying it. Instead, make sure that you trust the functions provided by WordPress. One more way ensuring you choose a safe theme or template is by going through reviews to gauge how safe that theme is.

5. Allows plugin integration

Getting a WordPress theme for the website is one part. But extending its functionality is an equally important aspect. Some concerns of a website like seo, social media, page load time etc. are universal in nature. In order to reduce a good amount of workload, WordPress allows for installing plugins and extensions. While choosing your WordPress theme, make sure what plugins are allowed for those themes keeping your requirements in mind. Some freemium extensions include Yoast for SEO, Schema for rich snippets, W3 total cache to enable caching in WordPress and Jetpack for overall performance of your WordPress website.

6. Multilingual Ability

If you as a business are catering to markets worldwide, especially to non-english speaking countries, make sure your wordpress theme supports other languages as well. If you as a business are willing to enter into a market and adapt yourselves to the environment and the culture of that country, so should your website by being able to switch languages.

7. Responsiveness across platforms

Responsiveness across mobile, tablets and desktop is the order of the day. Make sure your WordPress website supports all platforms and maintains a great user experience throughout all the platforms.

Apart from these pointers, also put other parameters such as support tools, page builders, simplicity of website (which you should consider while keeping the aesthetics in mind) in your list.These parameters will leave no stone unturned while you are choosing a WordPress theme for your website. In case you feel that there is a particular theme that does not go well with your business needs, trust your judgement. In the end your website powered by WordPress hosting should do justice to the business. Someone who can help you host your website on WordPress and also provide outstanding themes is ResellerClub, a trusted name in the domain and hosting industry. We strongly suggest you to take their offering into account.

 

Hostinger is known all over the world to have a strong office which is localized, and one can start his or her website with free hosting. Hostinger has all such things in it which can make risk free option for the beginners and also can be an advanced option for the experts. One can start the online experience on Hostinger so that the experience is the best one. The services of Hostinger range from the advanced VPS cloud hosting plans to the fresh beginners who want to get started with their online experience in the safest form.

Few things about Hostinger

This company set in first as a personal company back in the year 2004. Later on, the company decided to change the name and launched 000webhost.com which grew very popular web hosting service which offered the services for free. The first milestone that came their way was when they were able to get 1 million users in just six years from the very day they set in their feet in this field.

These days the company has managed to get around 29 million users all over the world. Moreover, the company has been successful in establishing localized offices around 39 countries all over the world with 150 employees in each office. This company offers a set of web hosting service to name few; they would be shared hosting plans, website builder, VPS hosting plans, etc.

Pros:

The service of Hostinger is accepted by people all over the world due to the pros it has. Some of them are enlisted as follows:

The price structure formulated for the premium features it provides is something that makes Hostinger the best option to set and experience the online presence. It does provide with a large variety of services at a very affordable cost. Some of the features of the Hostinger services are: They provide the SSD disk space which gives better performance for the website, Optimized WordPress speed that boosts the website to four times that of the normal speed. It also provides with the doubled crucial resources which simply doubles the processing power as well as the memory. There are many more to the features of the service of the Hostinger.

The site has ensured the security as it is protected by Bitninja. Thus, this lessens the risk for the beginners as well as makes it a better choice for the people to rely on.  The key concern is the security of the website and the BitNinja’s DDOS protection helps to avoid any cyber threat or cybercrime to the fullest. How far the security of the websites are concerned this is the best VPS hosting service.

• Hostinger Service Uptime record:

In accordance to some reports which came in the year 2018 in the later June, they tracked Hostinger for a month and they found that the server was never down for a moment. When there was a maintenance which was pre-scheduled, there was no problem in the server and its speed. Thus it is the best VPS hosting service that one can available at an affordable price

If it is the matter of performance then their service can be put to no doubts as they manage to lead in the speed as the response time is impressive. And this way it is the best VPS hosting service provider.

• Friendly for the beginners:

This can be a great option for the small business set up as well as the startup businesses. Moreover, the services provided by the Hostinger is especially helpful for people with no technical knowledge or less technical knowledge. It is the best VPS hosting service provider. It helps them to create a better website. The Hostinger also offers people with a large library which consists of well-designed templates which can help for the search engine optimization. You are exposed to large varieties of templates where you can make the choice of the one that goes well with the outlook of your website.

• Opportunities to grow the website:

Hostinger service offers people with different hosting plans. There are services to handle a website at a time while on the other hand there are premium services provided by the Hostingers which offers more additional features which largely focus on the eCommerce. If you have a bigger website than you must seek the Hostingers assistance as they are the best VPS hosting service which can provide you with amazing speed and resources as well.

• Business-friendly services:

Hostinger is renowned to provide best hosting service which is also appropriate in the business aspect as well. They essentially include some features which make them the appropriate choice for the business owners. Some of the features of the offers for the business are:

1. A daily backup for the website.
2. A domain nameHostinger VPS review.

Hostinger is known all over the world to have a strong office which is localized and one can start his or her website with a free hosting. Hostinger has all such things in it which can make risk free option for the beginners and also can be an advanced option for the experts. One can start the online experience on Hostinger so that the experience is the best one. The services of Hostinger range from the advanced VPS cloud hosting plans to the fresh beginners who want to get started with their online experience in the safest form.

Hostinger offers an affordable package for the registration of Domain.

The Hostinger hosting services come with a whole lot of things which is quite easier for the beginners of the field. Some beginners are technically not sound, and the services provided by the Hostinger is just like an all-time support system so that they can end up managing their website efficiently.

The Hostinger hosting services come with a whole lot of things which is quite easier for the beginners of the field. Some beginners are technically not sound, and the services provided by the Hostinger is just like an all-time support system so that they can end up managing their website efficiently. They can also have access to the essential system function as the entire layout of the Control Panel Dashboard is easy for the beginner as especially the people who are technically not so sound. Moreover, the payment option in Hostinger is easier which allow people to have access to the service provided by the Hostinger.

Whether you see it coming from a mile away, or it comes as a complete shock, losing your job in a layoff can rock your world.

To help you find a job after being laid off, we created a step-by-step list of 7 things to do the first week after being laid off.

Follow the simple steps and you’ll be organized, calmer, and on the path towards finding a new job, even if you still feel like you don’t know which end is up. Let’s get started.

7 Things to Do After Being Laid Off:

Day 1: Take a break

Layoffs, as we’ve mentioned, are often unexpected and can leave you feeling vulnerable. Immediately after it happens, do something kind for yourself.

Call a friend and grab a drink or two (or three). Get a massage. Take a hike in a beautiful place. Make an appointment with your therapist.

This is one of the most important things to do after being laid off, because it’ll help you relax, come to terms with what happened, and prepare mentally for the next steps…

Losing your job can feel like rejection, and it’s important to process the emotions associated with that loss. Let yourself feel all your feelings; they are valid and taking at least a day to process them will give you the strength to take the next steps.

Day 2: Get the paperwork out of the way

Unfortunately, there is a lot of paperwork associated with a layoff.

First things first: get your unemployment paperwork and your health insurance paperwork filled out and squared away. You’ll feel better immediately without these administrative tasks hanging over your head.

The health insurance piece will look different depending on your situation. Depending on your severance package, some employers might extend your health coverage for a period, while others will offer you COBRA. Some people might choose to explore other options.

However you decide to handle it, sorting out health coverage right away is important. After all, you never know when you are going to need it.

Your employer should provide you with information about how to apply for unemployment in your state if you qualify.

Even if you’ve received a severance package, it’s a good idea to get this piece of the puzzle figured out right away since it can often take several weeks for unemployment checks to begin rolling in.

Day 3: Rework your resume

Whether you hope to jump back into the same role as before, or if you plan to make a career change, every job search requires a resume refresh.

After a layoff, spend a day creating an updated resume that reflects the skills and experience you gleaned in your most recent role. If you don’t know where to start, consider putting a resume builder to use.

Wherever possible, include data and numbers to show off your accomplishments. This step is never more important that after a layoff, when you are eager to prove your value to a new employer.

There are many ways to quantify your achievements on a resume, regardless of your field or job title. Do some research to uncover the best way to articulate achievements in your field.

Day 4: Write a cover letter

While many job seekers erroneously believe that employers don’t read cover letters, they are a powerful tool in any job seeker’s tool box.

When faced with candidates who possess similar qualifications, recruiters and hiring managers often turn to cover letters to help them decide which candidate to interview.

For that reason, a well-written cover letter can be the tiebreaker between two similarly qualified candidates.

Take the time on Day 4 to write a fresh cover letter that highlights and expands upon the skills and experience in your resume.

A cover letter shouldn’t rehash your resume; it should illuminate those resume qualifications and paint a picture of who you are as a person and as a candidate.

For those who have recently been laid off, a cover letter is also a chance to offer an explanation of why you are no longer in your most recent role.

No long account of the layoff is required. Rather, just a line or two will suffice.

Here is an example of what you might write:

“Although I was a top sales person for my company, my position was eliminated during a restructuring after the company was acquired. I am now looking forward to applying my sales skills in another role.”

Day 5: Start spreading the news

This is one of the most important things to do after getting laid off.

Even though you may feel a sense of embarrassment about losing your job, the truth is that layoffs are a fact of life. These things happen and it doesn’t necessarily reflect what kind of employee you were.

Once you’ve had a few days to process and take care of the administrative tasks, start reaching out to your contacts and networking to let them know you are looking for work.

Spreading the word in your professional circles is a great way to start the ball rolling on a job search. Some studies indicate that up to 85 percent of all jobs are filled through networking.

Day 6: Account for your availability

Regardless of the reason for your layoff, during the networking and interview process, you are going to have to explain to contacts, colleagues, and recruiters why you are back on the job market.

Take the time to decide how you plan to articulate your layoff. Write a short, simple explanation of why you lost your job (“Thanks to budget cuts, ten percent of the company lost their jobs. Unfortunately, I was one of them.”) and what you hope to do next.

Keep it brief and positive. Never share negative details about your former employer.

Do your best to be upbeat about the possibilities this turn of events has opened in your professional life. For example, you might say something like:

“I had such a great learning experience in my last role but now I have the opportunity to apply my skills to another area of the business and expand my skill set.”

Day 7: Use your freedom wisely

It’s often hard to relax and enjoy yourself during a layoff. Money might be tight, or the stress of the job search could be weighing on you.

However, it’s wise to do your best to enjoy this time away from the daily grind. If you have the money to travel, do it now.

Take advantage of this break to get back in shape. Or, use your free time to take an online course to learn a new skill!

Remember, staying positive and productive during a layoff is critical to performing well in job interviews. You will get a new job; in fact, most job seekers find a new role within six weeks of launching a job search.

Follow these tips for how to find a job after being laid off, and you’ll have the best chance of getting hired quickly while staying sane in the process.

About this guest author:

Since 2005, LiveCareer has been developing tools that have helped over 10 million users build stronger resumes, write persuasive cover letters, and develop better interview skills. Land the job you want faster using our free resume examples and resume templates, writing guides, and easy-to-use resume builder.

 

One of the most common questions I get: “what do I need to put on my resume? And what order should I put it?”

There’s a lot of conflicting info out there about what goes on a resume and how to structure it.

So I’m going to share exactly what to put on a resume, based on my experience as a recruiter.

Let’s get started…

What to Put on a Resume:

These are the key pieces you should put on your resume:

• Name and Contact Info
• Career Summary Paragraph
• Employment History
• Skills
• Education
• Community Involvement (Optional)
• Awards/Achievements You’ve Received (Optional – Can be combined with other sections)

Now that you know what goes on a resume in general, let’s look at these sections step-by-step so you’ll know how to write each one…

1. Name and Contact Info

At the top of your resume, put your full name and a professional-looking email address.

Your phone number and street address are optional, but for most people, I’d recommend putting it.

If you’re applying for jobs out-of-state, it might make sense to leave your address off.

Now, for formatting and design…

I’d keep it simple and “clean”-looking. No distractions. Not too many fonts and colors. In fact, this is good advice for how to format your whole resume.

Here’s a screenshot of what a simple resume header with your name and contact info might look like:

You can add a bit more in terms of design, but don’t go overboard.

2. Summary Paragraph

This is the next section of your resume, and should go right after your name and contact info in most cases.

This is a two or three sentence summary of your qualifications and accomplishments throughout your career (or throughout your education if you just graduated).

Note: this is not an “objective”. I’d advise against putting an objective on your resume. Hiring managers know your objective is to land a job in their industry that will utilize your skills, etc.

So put a summary paragraph instead.

If you need help writing this paragraph, here’s an article filled with great resume summary examples.

3. Employment History

If you have held any previous jobs (including internships!), this is where to put it. And it’s one of the first things a hiring manager wants to see on your resume…

So it should be on the top half of the first page – visible without scrolling down.

Overall, you should put it in chronological order (most recent first), and list job titles, company names, dates (you can choose to put just years, or month and year you started and ended each job – just stay consistent).

And then of course, put bullets highlighting what you did in each job. I’d suggest 4-8 bullet points per job.

In these bullet points, don’t just talk about job duties; talk about what you actually accomplished. There’s a big difference.

Here’s an example…

Rather than saying, “responsible for managing 5 sales associates”… try to say something like, “successfully led 5 sales associates to achieve 139% of team sales goals for Fiscal Year 2017.”

The image above is an example of a resume Employment History section with accomplishment-driven bullets.

If you want more help, here’s an article with more resume employment history examples.

4. Skills

This is the next big section to put on your resume.

You might be tempted to put it before your Employment History… and people might have even told you to do this. But the only time I think it makes sense to list Skills first is if you have absolutely no work experience.

Here’s why… Hiring managers don’t want to see a long list of skills without being able to see WHERE you learned/used each skill (and how recently you used them).

This is why they’re much more likely to scan your resume for your Employment History section. And that’s why we put it higher up!

Skills should come after that.

In your Skills section, you can put a list of your top skills that are relevant to the job you’re applying for, and you can even put them under a few headers/categories if you think it makes sense for your job and industry.

There’s no “magic” number of skills to put. Some people might only need 3-10; others might put 20. It really depends on how long you’ve been working and what field of work you’re in.

Make sure you think about what’s relevant for the job though; don’t just list a bunch of skills that won’t help you in their job.

And think about keywords too – this is a great place to put keywords on your resume so you can get past online job application systems.

5. Education

Put the name of your school(s), your field of study, and graduation date – unless you feel your graduation date will leave you open to age discrimination on your resume. If you graduated a long time ago, feel free to leave the dates off.

You can also put your GPA in this section. I’d only recommend doing that if it was above 3.0/4. Otherwise, leave it off.

You might be asked about your GPA in the first few years of your career, but you’re very unlikely to be asked about it again after that, so don’t worry if your GPA is below 3.0/4. Just exclude it from your resume.

6. Community Involvement (Optional)

If you’ve done any volunteer work or helped in your community in other ways, this is where to put it.

You can list the location, dates, and your contribution/work.

If you haven’t done any volunteering or community-related work, don’t worry – just don’t put this section on your resume.

7. Awards/Achievements (Optional – Can be combined with other sections)

Any time you’ve received awards or other recognition for your accomplishments, you should put it on your resume.

However, you don’t always need a separate section for it. That’s up to you…

If you got an academic award, you can list it under your Education section (beneath your degree, GPA, etc.)

If you received an award or recognition for outstanding performance at a previous job, you can list it as a bullet point or a note underneath that specific job in your Employment History section.

So while awards and achievements are a great way to boost your resume overall, they don’t always need their own section.

What Should Go on Your Resume if You Have No Work Experience?

Now, if you just graduated and have absolutely no work experience, here’s what I recommend…

(Note that if you even have an internship, or a part-time job that you’ve worked while going to school, you should use the steps above! Any work experience at all is worth showing on your resume).

However, if you have absolutely ZERO work experience, here’s what to put on your resume…

We’re going to follow the sections outlined above, but move #5 (Education) up to #3… so it will be right below your Summary section.

So it will look like this…

1. Name and Contact Info

As mentioned earlier, you should put your full name and professional-looking email address.

Your street address and phone number are optional, but for most people, it makes sense to include those too.

The big exception: If you’re trying to get a job in another state. If so, consider leaving the address off.

2. Summary Section

Even if you have no work experience, you can say something like, “Recent Finance graduate with training in ____ and ____ seeking an opportunity to do ____.”

3. Education

If you have no work experience, put more information in your Education section.

Were you involved in any clubs/activities at school?

What were some key projects you completed or coursework you did? (Specifically, key projects that related to the jobs you’re applying for now).

Your resume should take up one full page, even if you have no work experience, and your Education section is a place where you want to provide additional detail to fill out the page.

4. Skills

You can list skills that you learned in your studies, or skills you’ve developed on your own.

Only put skills you’re really comfortable talking about and using, because it’s very likely they’ll ask about this in an interview.

If done right, the Skills section can be a powerful tool to help you get more interviews though, for two reasons:

First, it’s a great way to put a lot of relevant keywords onto your resume, so that you get past computerized job application systems.

Second, it’s an easy way to show employers what you know that’s going to help you succeed in their job. Always re-order and re-adjust your Skills section to fit what you think this specific employer wants!

More info on how to do that is coming up, but let’s finish the list first…

5. Community Involvement (Optional)

Any volunteer work or community service you’ve done. This shows employers that you’re enthusiastic and involved in the community, which can help set you apart (while also filling up your resume).

6. Awards/Achievements (Optional – Can be combined with other sections)

If you have no work experience, these would likely be academic achievements. Go ahead and list them underneath your Education section.

So don’t put this as a separate section, but do include awards, achievements and any recognition you received when you write your Education section in Step 3 above.

What NOT to Put on Your Resume:

Now that you know what to put on your resume, let’s at a few things you should leave off if you want to get interviews.

Irrelevant jobs

If you have a long work history, considering removing some jobs that aren’t relevant, or were at the very beginning of your career (especially if you’ve been working 15-20 years or more).

Note that you shouldn’t remove an irrelevant job if it’s going to leave your employment history empty. For example if you’ve only held one job but it’s not relevant to what you want to do next, you should still keep it.

Why? It’s better to put a job that don’t seem closely related to your current job search, than to put nothing for your “Employment History”.

And you can always show traits like leadership, accountability, hard work, problem-solving, etc., in your past work history, no matter what job you had! So hiring managers might still find it relevant and impressive.

An “Objective” section

Use a Career Summary section instead, as mentioned earlier in the article.

Anything that makes it more than 2 pages

Unless you have a Ph.D. and are writing an academic CV… or unless you’ve been working for 10-15+ years… your resume should not be more than two pages.

For 75-80% of people, it should really only be one page.

So focus on what’s most important and keep the length short.

As a recruiter, I’d rather see 8 specific skills that are relevant to the job I’m hiring for, rather than a list of 30 general skills that you’ve used throughout your career but might not be relevant to the job. So make your resume laser-focused and target their needs!

Spelling or grammar mistakes

Proofread and spellcheck everything.

You are very unlikely to get called for an interview if you have a spelling or grammar mistake on your resume – and nobody’s going to tell you either.

So you need to find it yourself, or have a friend proofread it carefully for you!

Here’s a little trick if you proofread it yourself: temporarily change your resume to an unusual font before proofreading. It will help you spot errors (sounds crazy, I know. But it works).

Final Step: “Tailor” Your Resume to the Job Description

I’d recommend “Tailoring” your resume to match the job description before sending it out for each job.

It’ll take you a bit longer per job application, but you’ll get far more responses.

Would you rather apply for 50 jobs and hear back from 1? Or apply for 25 jobs and hear back from 4?

That’s the type of difference tailoring your resume can make. Here’s a full article on how to easily tailor your resume for each job. (This method will save you a ton of time).

Now you know what goes on a resume and how to make each section attractive to employers.

If you follow the steps above you’re going to have a great resume that grabs attention and shows recruiters and hiring managers why they should interview you immediately.

 

When running your own business or launching a startup doesn’t pan out, many people choose to return to a corporate job for more stability and a steady paycheck.

But making the transition and finding a job after self employment isn’t always easy…

In this article, I’m going to share some of the best strategies for how to find a job after being self employed. These tips will help with your resume, LinkedIn, interviews and more.

How to Find a Job After Self Employment

Articulating Lessons Learned

For most people, a failed business venture is a tough pill to swallow.

However, it’s not unusual at all. In a Startup Business Failure Rate by Industry study conducted by Statistic Brain, the 5-year failure rate of all U.S. companies is >50%, and >70% after 10 years.

There are many reasons why startups fail, from breakups with co-founders to a lack of funding.

And there are plenty of reasons why you might choose to leave your small business or startup behind even if you’ve been operating for a couple years or more.

Whatever the case may be, when hunting for a new role, the important thing is to be able to showcase the role you played in getting the company off the ground, growing the business, and how you’ll use those lessons learned to be valuable to employers now.

Many Hats, Many Roles

When it comes to staffing or hiring, no company operates more leanly than a startup. As a result, most employees end up wearing many hats – and the founder(s) do as well.

From sales to marketing, finance to HR, deal-making to operations – the early employees/founders at startups do it all.

This is a value-add! I recommend calling out the skills that you possess and highlight examples of where you used them. By positioning yourself as a jack-of-all-trades integral to running all aspects of a company, you appear to the reader as someone with skills diversity.

Transforming Chaos into Order

Those who establish startups or small businesses often describe a “Wild West” environment lacking process, structure and continuity… at least in the beginning.

By laying the groundwork and instituting policies, controls and standard operating procedures (SOPs), you have created a viable infrastructure and effectively created order from chaos.

Highlight this talent by noting your efforts at creating operations, sales, marketing, communications or finance frameworks from the ground up.

A Vast and Deep Network

Regardless of the role they’ve been hired to do, in my experience people who come from startups (especially early stage ones) are more often than not involved in some phase of business development – from creating sales and marketing collateral to actually delivering the pitch.

When the startup fails for whatever reason, they are often left with a respectable list of contacts. This network is often a value add for your next employer, as is the fact that you built it from the ground up. If you can claim a vast, deep and perhaps even loyal network, be sure to spell this out!

By the Seat of Your Pants Flexibility

Many entrepreneurs note that every day brings something new and unexpected.

The ability to succeed in a “by the seat of your pants” atmosphere can translate on your resume, LinkedIn profile, and interviews.

Show that you’re someone who can stay flexible and productive in an ambiguous work environment.

This is a highly-desirable job trait often seen on job postings!

You’ll notice many job postings make note that they’d like to hire someone who is able to adapt quickly, work in a fast-paced environment, etc. Running your own business goes a long way toward proving you are ready to for this type of challenge.

Influencing, Buy-in and Funding

More often than not, a small business or startup’s ability to get off the ground and continue to the next level is dependent on funding.

The skills and expertise critical to securing large sums from investors and obtaining financial support are the same as those essential to succeed in sales, business development and even project management.

In all of these roles, one must be able to develop powerful business cases, present them before senior leadership and gain buy-in from decision makers.

If during your startup tenure, you created compelling presentations, pitched persuasive cases and succeeded in securing some much-needed cash, be sure to note this success.

Applying Lessons Learned

People who leave startups or small businesses often have had the time to reflect on what worked, and what didn’t – from improper user testing to mismanaged funds to improper planning.

Whatever the case, you can now go into a conversation with potential new employers and talk about bringing this experience to the table.

Highlight how you can help your next boss or company to avoid these same mistakes.

“Tailor” Everything to the Employer’s Needs

Now, you might be thinking, “I did so much while self-employed that I’m really not sure what to mention, and what not to mention.”

Here’s an easy way to decide… think about what’s most relevant to the employers you’re sending your resume to.

For example, if a role you’ve applied for involves direct management, you’d be wise to highlight any leadership and people-management early and often on your resume.

On the other hand, let’s say you’ve applied for an individual contributor role with no management involved.

In this case, you’d want to spend much more space on your resume and LinkedIn (and more time in your interviews) talking about the technical skills that will help you succeed in this job.

So instead of thinking of your resume and interview answers as a summary of everything you’ve done, think of them as an opportunity to showcase *specific* things you’ve done that’ll help this particular employer.

Need more ideas of what to talk about?

If you need more help brainstorming what to talk about from your time being self employed, here are more ideas of skills where you might have more experience than the typical job seeker:

• Productivity/time management
• Business strategy
• Negotiation/selling
• Lean operations/managing costs
• People management
• Vendor management
• Hiring/recruiting
• Growth hacking/rapid growth strategies
• Customer acquisition
• Customer service
• Networking/relationship-building

These are just a few ideas. They might not all apply to you – it totally depends on what type of business you were involved in – but hopefully this gives you some idea of where to start!

Turning Self Employment Experience into Job Search Success

Startup and entrepreneurial endeavors don’t always work out – often for reasons beyond our control.

However, even a failed venture can be used to show others how you’ll help them succeed if they hire you.

Identify what skills will be most beneficial to the employer in their job, and then show them how you’ll use your experience to help them.

Do this on your resume and LinkedIn, and throughout the interview process.

If you do this, you’ll give yourself the best chance of finding a job after self employment.

About this guest author:

In need of some career advice, a refreshed resume or rebranded LinkedIn? As the founder and chief writer at Virginia Franco Resumes, I offer customized executive resume and LinkedIn profile writing services for the 21st century job seeker. I would be happy to chat!