The format of the job interview was simple: two rounds of interviewing with 2 people present in each round. We interviewed 5 candidates for the job. As a general comment, any one of those 5 candidates could have been hired based on qualifications and experience. When you get down to a small group of potential job applicants, you are as much looking for fit as skill-set (and I would argue a pure focus on skill-set for a non-technical job is a poor way to recruit and maintain employees).

Thus, I would suggest that younger job applicants should not beat themselves up if they don’t get a job if they made the interviewing round. In many ways, a job applicant does not make it to another interviewing round or get the job not because they are not qualified or able. Instead, the employer is often looking for fit once you get down to the last few candidates (this was subsequently confirmed to me from a friend who is hiring a mid-level position).

In no particular order, here are my 5 do’s and don’ts of job interviewing based on my experience sitting on the other side of the table.

Do

1. Say you are interested in the job at the end of the interview or as a follow up. We disqualified candidates who did not say they were interested.
2. Address everyone in the room. One candidate only addressed one of the interviewers and made no attempt at eye contact or engaging the other interviewer.
3. Review your resume. We asked one candidate about an extra-curricular activity they had listed in their resume. They “forgot” what they did.
4. Engage, engage, engage. The interviews that ranked lowest were the pure question and answer, back and forth formats. The best were the ones where a conversation flowed.
5. Do not be afraid to relay a bad experience.  I think we have gone overboard on the “do not say anything negative in interviews” tip. We asked all the candidates the same question: “describe the types of personalities you like working with?” We got a lot of “I like working for everyone” answers which is a completely harmless answer but one that does not differentiate the job candidate from others. It is ok to say that you like working for certain types of personalities- it shows how you would fit in the office. Obviously, you do not slag the types of people you do not like working with but it is ok to show preferences in people, places and responsibilities.

Don’t

1. Nitpicky but this bugs me to no end. If we call you to arrange an interview, return the courtesy through a call and not an email. I find emailing when someone called shows passive aggressiveness.
2. Just be nice- be positively memorable. I came away from several interviews thinking “well, that was a really nice person” but with no other impression. Funny stories, a general desire to work with the organization, great non-canned answers, these are the things I remember (many years ago, I hired someone whose every answer was straight out of an interviewing guide- just a little too polished. They did not last long and it is something I am leery about now).
3. Take the opportunity to ask questions at the questions and comments part. We got a lot of “I have no questions at this time” when we asked if they had any questions. I would have been impressed if they asked me questions about the training we would provide, what types of opportunities are there for advancement, who they would be working with, a typical work day, why the interviewer went into the field of work they did, what types of events the organization holds outside work hours (a good peek at corporate culture), what the interviewers do for fun (great opportunity to ask that question is if they ask about your extra-circular activities) etc. etc. These are questions were the job candidate is thinking about how they would fit into the position.
4. Fidget. One candidate played with my business card the entire time as most likely a sign of nervousness. If you are the nervous sort, do not put anything in your hands. It is ok to be nervous but if you are visibly nervous playing with things, people will notice.
5. Forget to breathe. I find interviews tend to work at two speeds- too fast or too slow. Too fast is where they talk too fast and are rushing through the questions. Too slow is where they believe the interview is a question and answer session and each answer is followed by a long pause. I cannot stress enough that good interviews arelike good conversations- lots of back and forth, different speeds, different tones (yes, it is ok to appear emotional in interviews- see comment above about the bland nice interviews).

To my last point, I always say this: once you are past the HR stage of the process and interviewing with your potential co-workers, you have to remember that these people do not interview for a living- they sell, operate, practice, count, administer, build etc. etc. If you can turn the interview into a real conversation talking about yourself and them and your common interests, the entire process will be positive rather than nerve-wrecking.

Best of luck.

I typically do not post severance related comments on the blog to shield the privacy of the commentator who may be sharing very personal information. However, the common theme centers around where one can go to determine whether they are receiving a fair severance pakcage. Keeping in mind that I live in Ontario, and the information I provide is confined to this jurisdiction, I would offer these practical steps if one has been dismissed.

(as per usual, I use the term “severance” in its non legal sense and the below is only informational. Please consult a qualified legal professional for assistance)

First, do NOT hide in shame if you have been dismissed. In this day and age, everyone gets down-sized, right-sized, dismissed or however they spin one’s dismissal. As a non-financial comment, things happen for a reason and being asked to move on may sometimes be the best thing for someone.  Instead, discreetly ask if others are in the same situation. There is strength in numbers (see below).

There are typically three common avenues to explore to ensure one is receiving reasonable compensation: the appropriate ministry of labo(u)r, an employment lawyer and the human rights tribunal.

Minister of Labo(u)r

The ministry of labour is mostly an information resource which is most appropriate if one believes that the severance is below the statutory minimums (for American readers,  as I understand it, “at will” employment states do not work on minimum standards regime, like Canadian provinces, so the first question to ask the state government is what type of employment regime does the state follow), one is due over-time not paid, working condition issues and changes in one’s employment for the negative (aka constructive dismissal).

In certain jurisdictions, the ministry of labour can investigate if minimum severance was not paid and penalize the employer for infractions and order payment to the ex-employee.

The advantage of going to a government resource is it is free and is very helpful from an informational perspective but not from a personal advice perspective (for obvious reasons). The disadvantage, as one commentator noted, is that, as a government resources, it moves with typical government speed if an investigation is opened to ensure an employee’s rights have not been violated. One is looking at a maximum speed of slow and a minimum speed of glacial.

Here’s the catch as well. In many jurisdictions, if one requests a ministry of labour investigation, one is barred from taking legal action at the same time. In essence, one is trading in cost (none) in exchange for delayed justice if forthcoming.

See a lawyer

Let me get two points out of the way quickly: (i) many lawyers offer free consultations; and (ii) seeing a lawyer will not result in an all out brawl ending at the Supreme Court. Lawyers who deal in employment law are good for several things (no snickering):

(i) A lawyer who handles a lot of employment cases will know whether a severance package is in the ball-park or not. Unfortunately, the ballpark changes by industry, economic cycle and timing (for example, if one is dismissed in December, one should receive more for both the heartlessness of the dismissal and the difficulty in finding a job in December and January). This is not even to mention the personal circumstances of the employee. A good lawyer will give you context of whether one’s package is fair or not.

(ii) They can negotiate. A polite but firm letter asking for a better package may compel the employer to negotiate something better. The employer wants to avoid legal expenses as much as the employee.

(iii) Justice is quicker. Lawyers want to get paid and they know that their payment is either: (i) being paid for by the employer (sometimes offered as part of the package to cover everyone’s behind); or (ii) out of the severance payment.  As a result, in many cases, the negotiations can be wrapped up relatively quickly.

To circle back to my earlier point, if many employees in the same work-place have been laid off, the best thing to do is to round everybody up and share the expense of hiring a  lawyer to represent all the ex-employees. It is easier for the employer to fight off one ex-employee than multiple ex-employees with combined resources to hire a lawyer.

The downside of seeing a lawyer is cost and reputation. If one belongs to a small industry, hiring a bulldog lawyer may give one the reputation for being a trouble-maker, making finding the next position harder. This is why it is important to stress to the lawyer what is and is not acceptable conduct while they work on your behalf.

Human Rights Tribunal

Depending on what side of the fence you sit on, human rights tribunals/commissions are the greatest or worst things to happen. If one’s dismissal has some type of human rights issue to it (think of dismissal based on race, gender,  religion, sexual orientation etc), there are mechanisms to pursue remedies through these bodies.

The advantage of this route is that justice is paid for by the taxpayer (in many human rights tribunals, the complainant bears no cost to pursue the complaint). The disadvantage is that justice may take a long time. Finally, depending on the jurisdiction, one can or cannot bring a human rights complainant concurrently with legal action and/or government investigation.

Most human rights tribunals have a thorough resource section on one’s rights. Their websites are good places to start. One can also ask a lawyer if they have both an employment issue and a human rights issue.

__________________________________

The above is not meant to be an exhaustive review of where to go for help if one has been dismissed. Instead, if nothing else, it should underline that negotiating a fair severance package is not a do it yourself exercise and one should use the resources available to them. Good luck.

She said no.

This to me was a head-scratching move. Summer jobs are hard enough to come by even if you know the employer. But to turn down a chance to have a resume passed along with a reference is tantamount to ensuring your summer spent unemployed or in summer school. Not surprisingly, I have not heard from this summer student since.

We often use the phrase “it is not what you know but who you know” to emphasize (both positively and negatively) that your network is sometimes more important than your credentials.  Yet, when confronted with an opportunity to expand one’s network, some of us turn down these opportunities.

The notion of human capital, often called the most over-looked aspect of personal finance, is traditionally seen as an output of education and experience. However, one could argue it also encompasses the power of one’s network. After all, the foundation of desirable personal finance outcomes- getting a good job, being invited to invest in businesses/products, listening to experts give advice- are often an outcome of people you know.

Every single job I have been hired to do, except for my entry-level lawyer position (done through a formal recruiting process) was someone connected to someone I knew (sibling, boss, friend, professor, client and colleague in my networking group off the top of my head). The investment advisors who gave me the greatest advice and/or tips are/were advisors with whom I had drinks or dinner with- they weren’t my investment advisors but they offered free advice as a friend. Best tax advice? In a gym locker-room with my accountant. Best ways to obtain new clients? Have clients introduce you to their friends.

(complete tangent here- want to get invited to high-net worth investment advisor lunch and/or dinner and learns? Befriend a lawyer or doctor. Every other week they get hit up with offers to attend seminars. Having attended some of these, they are pretty good and the advisors are pretty realistic about only getting 1 to 2 follow-up meetings so there is no hard sell).

We often have negative connotations of networking. Think of politicians glad-handing, pointing at VIPs in a room, kissing babies etc. It is not like that at all. To paraphrase Woody Allen, it is about showing up. To mix metaphors, networking is like dating. The other side is just as nervous as you so just be yourself.

Who do you network with? Anybody. The conventional analysis is to find the VIP and become part of their network. But everyone is doing that already. The power of networking actually lies in the power of the weak link. Think of your group of close friends. You all know the same people. You all hang out at the same place. But find someone outside your immediate circle and one is introduced to new opportunities.

If you are looking for a job, I would suggest that not only you engage in traditional job search strategies but also volunteer for a worthy cause. It is a good way of meeting new people, expand your network and show people you are just not in it for yourself. If you are in school, I would take every opportunity to meet people outside your immediate circle; I was once told by a successful entrepreneur that his first external investor was his dentist who he had befriend as a teenager. Don’t know anyone? Join a club or association where there are structured opportunities to meet people.

The point is that net worth is not only a function of assets and liabilities but relationships which fulfill both personal and finance needs.

Let’s take as a given that there will always be an inherent tension between employer and employee- the former wants the most for the least and the latter wants the least for the most. Let’s also assume, in the words of one of my friends, that the modern work-place is now like university: you want to take interesting courses/work without an unreasonable work-load and to obtain a good reference letter and move on to the next course/degree. The sometimes unspoken deal is that the employer gives you an opportunity to gain experience, obtain training and build contacts in return for your labor.

If you believe in the above, the interview process is not only a crucial process for the employer but also for the potential employee in understanding whether the job will be a good or bad one. Let me explain.

There appears to be one common dominator in employees that did not work out; we botched the interview process and did not set out clear expectations or attempted to determine fit properly enough.

Having made these mistakes, a potential employee should watch for the following warning signs in an interview:

1. A failure to articulate how the candidate is supposed to perform the job responsibilities. If the answer is “you just show up and do it”, this may be a sign of a bad job experience. Good organization understand, no matter how qualified or talented the candidate, a failure to integrate an employee properly (both cultural and technical) is often a road to a short employee stay.  To flip this around, if the employee can articulate its employee processes both at the in-take and continual training, it will give some signs of its culture; if the process is very top down (“you report to the same manager every hour on the hour…”, it may not appeal to someone who requires less structure.
2. Hiring in a hurry. Rarely works out. The old businesses saying is that bad businesses hire fast and fire slow and good businesses hire slow and fire fast. Do you want to work for a good or bad business? Other than seasonal or temporary work, someone who needs someone now may be showing it does not think ahead or is under-staffed and needs to throw someone into the trench quickly. Neither is particularly a good sign for the employee.
3. Not exploring cultural fit. My experience has been to hire reliable and hard-working rather than look for the brilliant but maddening inconsistent. It is not that I dislike brilliant people. It is because reliable and hard-working is a culture we try to cultivate (whether this is successful or not is not a judgment I can make). But you can get a sense in asking people about their backgrounds; did they put themselves through school? Did they help the family business as a kid? What do they do on weekends? If your potential employer is over-focused on your skill-set and could not care less about who you are, this may be a warning sign.

Even if you have a position already, the above applies as well. Use your annual performance review to ask your employer how they will give you the skills and experience necessary for you to develop (whether there or at another shop). The trend is to have employee write business plans for the next year and to submit to at their annual review. I have often wondered what would happen if the employee turned this around and said “now that you have my plan, let me see your plan to help me develop my plan.” (I would not phrase quite so bluntly but the point remains the same).

You want to impress at the interview but listen as much as you talk. There may be clues in the interview process on whether this position is ultimately right for you. Good luck.

From the nearest I can tell (and I do not profess to be an expert on this), these adjustments arise from at least 3 main differences between the class room and the work-place. Mainly:

Prioritization is key in the workplace. I remember as a student how we could negotiate our test dates if we had another test or assignment due in a different class or universities have rules on how many exams you can write in a period of time. The workplace is not so forgiving. As anyone working knows, everything given to you is seemingly urgent or a high priority. I found in our younger employees that this was a problem. If given many different tasks to do, the tendency was to do none, opting to freeze in terror or to believe everything was priority and spin themselves into a panic over non-priority things.

The two pieces advice I often give and is to sit back and sort the work out. If task A is for a project due Friday then this was more pressing than task  B for an internal presentation next week. Alternatively, have the assignors of work duke it out- indicate that one cannot do task A and task B at the same time and perhaps the respective assignors fight over the employee’s schedule. If both want the work done at the same time then requests should be made to pull in other resources.

There is no answer key in the workplace. This is not so much a younger work problem than a worker problem in general; if given a task, the employee assumes the boss have the answer and gives up quickly if they encounter resistance, believing the answer will be given to them. The implication of this thinking is that if the boss is doing your work, why does she need you? However, in my experience, younger workers tend to somehow think the boss has the answer (of course, as we all know, the boss doesn’t have all- or even some- of the answers).

Ultimately, the good employees are the problem solvers. Problem solvers tend to look at things from many different angles rather than taking one approach and giving up if it does not work. Since there is no teacher to give you the answers- and, unlike school, the workplace will let you fail-it is best to think oneself through a problem.

Failing that, at least you can approach your boss and tell them your thought process. A business coach once taught me the 1-3-1 rule of training employees: the employee could only come to you if they had 1 problem, 3 possible options and 1 recommendation. Even if the recommendation was not correct, the employee has at least shown the boss that they thought the problem through rather than give the impression they gave up and are looking for the answers (a common annoyance among employers).

School is me centric, work is you centric. Schools are built around meeting the needs of the students. Workplaces are built around meeting the needs of the employer. School are about me. Workplaces are about “how can I help you”- the you being your boss, supervisor, shareholder etc.

One of my younger employees once told me a story about how a friend quit their job because they felt that they were working a lot to make someone else richer. After a pregnant pause, I said “yes, people call that life…”

The employees that never worked out (and I readily admit employer-employee relationships are two way streets) always voiced the same displeasure; the work is dull, I want to do X (crap work) instead of  Y (exciting work), I would like more recognition.

The hard truth is that, yes, the work is dreadful dull but the new guy is doing it for a reason; it is a way of showing that: (a) you can handle simple tasks effectively and move up the chain; (b) what is your attitude like when things don’t go your way; and (c) can you integrate yourself into the workplace by going through the same crap everyone else did (initiations into social circles become more subtle as we get older).

To go back to an earlier point, people promote problem solvers because they make other people’s life easier. Again, the problem solver is you centric. They are making your life easier.  This doesn’t mean being a suck up or being a work slave. It does mean developing the ability to think from other perspectives.

For example, when I was a young lawyer, the senior law clerk told me when she first started as a junior law clerk she pulled aside a senior associate and asked him why he wanted things done a certain way on a common type of transaction. By learning his thought process, she could figure out how to make other lawyer’s lives easier. She was (and is) widely considered one of the better law clerks in the firm for her ability to make the deal run smoothly.

My observations are mostly aimed at younger workers but I hope they are applicable to everyone. Best of luck.

If the script holds true, many of us are also under-employed. Work is not extremely stimulating, the pay is mediocre and, given education and experience, there is a waste of human potential and talent. In the 1990′s, the term “McJob” was popularized by author Douglas Coupland to describe low-paying, no benefit, no future jobs Generation X was taking. What can you do if all you have are a series of part-time, seasonal or no-future work?

We have had a series of temps in our office to complete some projects. I would hardly describe the work as stimulating and, if this was a full-time job, there would be no future. But, it puts a few bucks in people’s pockets if nothing else (the temps have mostly been students or recently graduated students).

It is what it is -a McJob. However, knowing what I know now, I would take the following out the position:

1. Chance to network and meet people you otherwise would not meet.
2. Make a good impression by being positive and enthusiastic about things. The impression you make by being positive, not over the top Pollyanna positive though, and having a good attitude cannot be under-estimated in impressing people in work environment.
3. Learn by doing and, equally important, by observing how successful people interact with others. Every office has an alpha dog- pick and choose the characteristics you admire about the alpha dog. If you learn one soft-skill trick from each alpha dog you meet, it will help your career development as much as any technical training can.

Number 1 is probably something most University Career Centres do not emphasize enough to grads- expand your network to people you otherwise would not meet in your normal day-to-day life. If you are a younger person, network with older people. If you have worked in one industry only, network your way to other industries (remember you are just another Jon or Mary in your industry; outside your industry, you are something new and refreshing). Again, my broken record advice is volunteer. It will be a good way to meet new people.

A friend of mine once gave some really good advice-  move from McJob to McJob after a modest period of time; the fact you are employable by many different employers says something about you and your network will eventually grow that you end up where you want to be- maybe not necessarily in the order you thought but the journey is as exciting as the destination.

Good luck.

…and here is the depressing Monday morning statistic: if the United States created 250,000 jobs a month (it created 290,000 in April), it would take 7.5 years for the country to recover all the jobs it lost before this rescission.

Where are all these jobs going to come from?

It is not, contrary to popular opinion, going to be from large and mature companies. Meeting quarterly earnings expectations of shareholders (for those companies which are public) means that expanding head-count is not in the cards. Instead, think small, entrepreneurial and immigrant based businesses as the source of your new job.

The United States Census Bureau statistics from 1980-2005 found that job creation came almost entirely from firms from 0-5 years old; without these young firms, job creation in the U.S. would  be negative in most years. In other words, the captains of industry have not been net positive job creators for more than 25 years.  New firms average 4 positions per year in the time-line studied. In 2007, 8 of the 12 million jobs created came from young businesses of 0-5 years.

In 2008, 320 of 100,000 adults opened a new business a month or a rate of 0.32% of the adult population. This is over historical norms of 0.28 %. However, among the immigrant population in the U.S., the entrepreneurial activity rate was 0.51% in 2008, again, above the historical rate in the 0.40′s. The gap between immigrant and non-immigrant entrepreneurial activity is also a historical pattern.

Quite simply, immigrants are more likely to open a business. Since young businesses are the greatest source of job creation, it stands to reason that immigrant owned young businesses are more likely to hire than non-immigrant mature businesses.

Job seekers may well rethink their job seeking options to smaller and younger firms rather than larger and mature firms. Working for smaller and younger means being able to contribute many different skills rather than mastering one small skill and thinking more like a business owner than a traditional employee (since equity is often given in compensation in lieu of benefits).

While the age of the fully-benefited job may be over, its possible replacement towards employees who work in and are asked to contribute to independent, innovative and wealth creating firms may not be such a bad thing for an economy set on consumption for the last 10 years.

(the above stats were from the U.S. Census Bureau and The Kauffman Foundation. Errors are my own)

I told my friend that we may be hiring a summer student and their reaction was “what if they are spoiled and basically useless?” (Generation Y- please hire a public relations firm. Your rep is terrible in the work place). The answer to that question may contain one of the keys to obtaining a summer job.

Most students working at McJobs- low paying, command and control jobs requiring minimal thinking. Yet, many upper mobile students aspire to gain some experience where they can use their mind and pursue their passion. The gap between experience and desired position can be puzzling to some employers (this one in particular). Realistically, students do not have a wealth of experience to fall back on and only the most unrealistic of employers would expect a student, even one in university, to have a industry ready skill set.

In some senses, the saying “hire for skill, fire for fit” does not work in the context of hiring a summer student. Instead, what I am finding anyways, is “hire for fit and teachability” may be more adapt. In the first interview I conducted, I had to stop myself asking the typical “tell me what you liked and disliked about your prior position?” question since: (a) the experience of all candidates will be shallow; and (b) realistically, other than the co-workers, many McJobs have numerous things to dislike.

I ended up focusing more on having conversations about what they did outside of school, who they were, what their interests were etc. The candidate’s answers tend to tell the employer about their personality, their ability to interact with others and adaptability (Did they participate in group activities? Did they stay with something for a long time? Did they work their way up their interest level? Did they live anyway from home for long periods of time?).

For job seekers in their early 20′s, this says almost as much as any experience they may have. Employees don’t enter the work force, summer job or full-time position, not only with a set of skills but with a set of experiences that can help or hinder their performance.  When there is less skill to rely on, life-experience may end up being the differentiation.

It has often been a pet theory of mine that volunteering, playing sports (especially team sports) and pursing passions will give to someone certain intangibles that strictly obtaining an advanced degree alone, with no other interests, will not. I am not sure if there are any parents helping their children to find summer jobs but I hope the above is some food for thought.

Above and beyond explicitly looking for jobs posted on social media sites, the largest advantage of social media in finding a job is expanding one’s network before one even becomes a job seeker. A site like LinkedIn allows a job seeker to expand their network and stay connected (since many contacts do change jobs over time and social media has made it much easier to track people down). Well-executed blogs also allow people to build creditability on the internet to reinforce whatever is stated on a resume. Finally, there is the obvious social media sites that help you find jobs. I did not realize this but many companies now post jobs on twitter before its web page.

However, social media is a double-edged sword. Every post, comment or photo posted on the internet should be thought of as a mini-business card handed out to the world. I routinely Google anyone who has made the short list to be interviewed for two reasons. Firstly, to serve as quick and dirty diligence to confirm what was written in a resume is true. Secondly, to ensure that the applicant is not hiding anything. Although not in a job interviewing context, it is easy to vet potential vendors and suppliers by Googling their names. Although the truthfulness of some of the information should be questioned, a consistent theme, good or bad, about a person does tend to form impressions. The same holds true for job seekers.

Ideally, one should scrub their social media presence well before applying for a job. Take down those college day party photos, set privacy settings to the maximum and, if there is anything remotely embarrassing on the internet that cannot be gotten ride of easily, make sure the issue is tackled head on in the interview. Better to deliver bad news yourself than have the potential employer surprised by something later.

How then do you prove your value in the workplace?

I recently handed my employees a blank piece of paper with two headings on it. At the top of the page, there was heading stating “skills learned” and on the middle of the page a heading stating “projects worked on.” My instructions for my employees was simple. Save the sheet on your computer and update it at your convenience. However, I fully expect at performance review to be completed.

It is not a complicated concept but the point of this exercise from the employee’s perspective is as follows:

1. Employee are tracking their development. Employees tend to stagnate for a wide variety of reasons. One reason is that they are no longer engaged at work, doing the same thing over and over again for a long period of thing will make even the best of employees perform poorly.  A simple log of skills learned and experiences can tell the employee whether they are growing or just going sideways.  It can be used to show your boss that (a) what you have done; (b) assuming you have mastered the skill, you need opportunities to spread your wings which, hopefully, aligns with the business as well.
2. Employee prove value to the employer. Skills and experiences not in your job description, working on projects above your pay grade or above what your contemporaries are doing, showing how you saved money or made money, are important in focusing the employer on your value to them and the business as a whole. As I indicated before, do not assume your boss is keeping track of your career development. They may appreciate you but until you show them (see below), they may not be focusing on your worth to them.
3. It shows you actually care. A friend once described his co-worker as follows: “she actually cares about the business. How many employees can you say that about?” In my experience, more employees are indifferently carrying out their job than those who display a passion for what they are doing. An employee who is actively engaged in improving themselves and logging how they are helping the business will tend to separate themselves from their peers (the key is not to pitch this log as purely a cash grab but as wanting to contribute to the business for fair compensation).
4. It makes it easier to update your resume. I am very realistic that my employees will not be life-time employees so my deal always is my employees should work hard and, in return, I will make sure they learn enough to make themselves employable in case they do leave; it creates goodwill, potential referral opportunities and it is just the right thing to do. But part of the issue for most people who have never written a resume, or not written one for a long time, is that they forget what they did.
5. Quantify the feeling you are providing value. This is most likely the largest disconnect between employers and employees. Employees feel they are under-appreciated or valued poorly. Employers look at statistics (the larger the company, the greater the reliance on “objective” factors). A work log showing that you are carrying out the job of 1.5 employees for the compensation of 1 employee may turn your boss’ mind towards your value.

Obviously, value also depends on “soft-skills” as well. For example, do you get along with your co-workers, do your customers ask for you or does your boss like you as a person? But with so many businesses trying to do a lot with a little, you need any edge to show your value and separate yourself from others. Good luck.