How to Articulate Your Career Achievements in 7 Steps

It's amazing how many people can't describe their achievements in order to maximize its impact. Whether its in a resume or in a job interview, your ability to describe your achievements is a critical factor for success.

So many people underplay their achievements! Question is, do YOU?

Are you submitting your resume for that job you want, or even need? Or perhaps you're preparing for an interview?

When you finally get the opportunity to talk about what you have achieved, it's an opportunity you won't want to waste. I've pulled together 7 keys to guide you on describing your achievements for maximum impact.

1. Clarify Your Involvement in the Achievement: Use powerful words that describe your contribution. For example, 'created', 'reorganized' or 'established'. Passive statements like 'did', 'performed' or 'was involved in' don't indicate your level of involvement - they're worthless, so don't use them.

2. Describe a Start, Middle and End: mention the starting conditions, such as 'poor performance', 'high costs', 'unpalatable risk', and follow with a statement on what you made happen (the project, change initiative, etc), and cap it off with the result - was the desired outcome achieved?

3. Quantify the Achievement: use numbers and hard measures where you can. For example, say 'saved $50,000' rather than 'saved operating costs'. The more specific you are, the greater the value of your statement of achievement. In almost all cases, a percentage value has a higher-impact than an absolute number. In some cases, what might look like a minor achievement, when quantified, it could be a major achievement as perceived by others.

4. Don't Forget Over-Achievement!: If you set out to save $50,000, but instead saved $60,000, then make sure this is known. So many people forget to do this.

5. Indicate Your Personal Award: Some achievements warrant special reward, so mention them. If you were promoted, or awarded a bonus, then add it into your statement of achievement.

6. Include details of challenging circumstances: If the achievement was tough due to business events or conditions, then make sure you say what they were. It's important to describe any challenges you faced. For example, if there were many layoffs in your organization whilst you were tasked with improving team morale, then make these conditions clear.

7. State the Effect of the Achievement, 360-degree style: Describe the achievement not just from your own perspective; also describe what it meant for your colleagues, subordinates, management and customers (where appropriate.) Don't forget to quantify the effect for each of these groups of people too.

By Simon Stapleton

The author of this article Simon Stapleton is a coach helping Information Technology professionals with their Career Development, Commercial Development and Personal Development. He has 15 years in the IT Industry and shares his knowledge and tips through his website http://www.simonstapleton.com You can sign up for his free newsletter to enjoy Development too.

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Communicating With Gen Y Employees

Gen Y (often described as those born after 1980) are typically technologically savvy and creative, with lots of energy, strong informal networks and a fresh perspective. They can be great employees for any organization; however, Gen Y employees have a different set of needs to the generations of employees preceding them.

Communicating with Gen Y From a communications perspective, Gen Y employees tend to prefer technology over face-to-face communication and are good at multi tasking. Other characteristics and preferences include:

Information in very small chunks. Gen Ys prefer to absorb information in small chunks. Concise updates with further information available via hyperlink suit this generation well. Consider scrolling news feeds, short articles in electronic magazines (even better if content is user generated) and short video updates.

Communicate through photos and video. Gen Y's, as the biggest users of sites like YouTube and Flickr, engage well with images and video. Turn screensavers into interactive bill boards and bring internal communications messages to life by communicating visually. Stock photography sites provide a wide range of images to convey any type of message for as little as $1.

Screensaver messaging tools allow you to embed hyperlinks into screensaver billboards allowing staff to interact with messages and follow links to more information.

Video delivery tools allow you to deliver short video updates directly to targeted staff groups.

Humor and irony. Use Staff Quizzes to support internal communications messages or to reinforce learning. Include a humorous option to ensure that Gen Y employees enjoy participating.

Instant rewards. The Gen Y worker typically wants instant gratification. Staff quizzes can also reinforce key corporate messages and to build knowledge and capability.

Cynical of corporate spin. The unethical behavior of corporate organizations has become more visible online due to the rise of social media. Everything from a single instance of poor customer service to massive corporate scandals are under the social media microscope. Gen Y's tend to be idealistic and judgmental and, as a result, corporate mouth pieces and top down formal communications can be viewed with cynicism.

Avoid polished formal communications with little interaction and provide a more 'unvarnished' message with lots of opportunities for questions, discussion and interaction. Sometimes, not having all the answers ready but saying, "we'll get back to you on this" can make communications seem more genuine (as long as you actually follow up).

Employee discussion forums can be used to back up more traditional communications and provide the means to allow staff to provide feedback, ask questions and have their say around a particular initiative or formal communication.

Need to be consulted and involved. Gen Y employees want to add value from day one. They like to be consulted and involved. Two way communication is critical for Gen Y staff who will be turned off by top down, one way communications. Provide opportunities for dialog, for example a CEO blog needs to have a tone that is genuine and open, where questions and comments are welcomed and responded to.

Alternatively an electronic staff magazine that utilizes user generated content can be a good way for staff to have a voice in a more structured, readable and manageable format than an employee discussion forum.

Value ideas. Create an open environment where young employees feel like their ideas are valued. Involve staff by running quizzes around the naming of new initiatives, projects, products etc.

Regular feedback. It is pointless to gather ideas and feedback unless staff see how the information is being used and making a difference. Keep staff up to speed on progress using tools like staff magazines and scrolling news feeds.

Engaging Gen Y

Many Gen Y employees aren't as willing to sacrifice as much as the Baby Boomers for their work so engaging them is particularly important.

It's more than money. Gen Ys think like entrepreneurs but value relationships over money. Find ways to capture ideas and innovation in formats that allow staff with similar interests to connect. Use staff discussion forums to allow this process to happen.

Gen Y work hardest for a cause or an end result where they can see how they have made a difference. Provide staff with regular updates on the progress of projects and initiatives. Staff magazines that support user generated content can allow teams or individuals to submit their own updates about their own team's results. News feeds offer a way to provide status updates as a scrolling news tickers that deliver content onto targeted employee computer screens.

Environmentally conscious. Of all the generations Gen Ys are the most environmentally conscious. Sustainability messages can often become buried due to information overload. Raise the profile of sustainability initiatives by promoting them visually using interactive screensaver messages and back them up with appropriate articles in staff magazines.

Benchmark awareness and behaviors around sustainability both before and after an internal communications campaign. Promote and celebrate the shift in behaviors visually using digital signage on screensavers and by getting staff to submit appropriate articles into staff magazines.

The risks of Gen Y:

Gen Y employees bring a great many benefits to employers prepared to take the necessary steps to engage them. However, there are some risks:

Generation 'Why Not?' Gen Y staff are more likely than others to see unethical behavior as justifiable in pursuit of their goals. They may believe it is sometimes necessary to cheat, plagiarize or lie in order to succeed.

Use communications channels which are hard to forward on and offer a means to 'burn after reading'. I.e. once sensitive content is read, it can be automatically deleted from employee's computers.

Difficult to manage. Middle managers are often ill equipped to manage Gen Y employees. It is important to train managers in this skill, to gather feedback from their teams and to measure their effectiveness.

Not loyal to their employers. Gen Y are the least loyal generation and it is common for them to leave or change jobs after 2 to 3 years. This has an impact from recruitment, training and knowledge management perspective as well as increasing the risk of intellectual property leakage.

Tools like staff quizzes can help manage and build capability, and the interactive web 2.0 helpdesks and Q&A channels can help newer staff come up to speed quickly.

Very idealistic. It's easy to disillusion Gen Y staff with behaviors that other generations are more willing to dismiss as 'typical and normal' for corporates. For example; poor change management, politicking and silo behaviors. Plus Gen Y's tendency to have unrealistic expectations about career advancement and salary can mean that a Gen Y employee is more likely to leave an organization disenchanted.

Highly connected and vocal online. Once a Gen Y becomes disenchanted, the risk to an organization's brand is higher due to the fact that Gen Ys tend to be highly connected and vocal online. Negative messages can spread quickly and be hard to clean up. One blogger can trigger a news cycle which stays in Google's listings for years. It is therefore important to gather regular feedback from staff and keep lines of communication open. It is no longer acceptable to avoid using social media internally with the excuse that "it turns into an online complaints department". It is important to provide channels such as secure employee discussion forums where people can voice issues and concerns securely (and anonymously if necessary). This way an organization can address and manage issues internally before they become an external PR nightmare.

Communicating with and engaging Gen Y employees can be a daunting task, but with the right internal communications channels and approach in place, Gen Y employees can offer organizations an innovative, energetic and tech savvy addition to the workforce.

By Sarah Perry

Sarah Perry is a Director of SnapComms, a company which provides specialist Internal Communications Solutions. Her specific area of expertise is the use of new technologies in the field of Employee Communications.

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Emotional Intelligence - Paving The Way to Success

Let me begin with a small story...

Brian and Martha were classmates in their high school. While Brian was voted the most popular student for his friendliness and charm, Martha was not so popular but she was an intellectually brilliant student with high hopes for her future. She found it difficult to mingle with most of the students as they were not as smart as she was. Years later, Martha is a lawyer; however she still has the same problem of forming relationships. On the other hand, Brian is a happily married man and running his own business. He did not go to a college but is happy and contented in his life. Ironically, they lived in the same neighborhood where Brian is the most talked about person and President of the neighborhood whereas Martha still chooses to live aloof. Though she is professionally sound, yet not many of her clients do like her as she cannot empathize with them.

Thus, Martha though intelligent but lack of EI is a hindrance to her being a popular lawyer where as Brian with average IQ becomes happy and successful in life with his excellent EI skills.

But, what is EI and why is it so important for success?

Emotional Intelligence (EI), often measured as an Emotional Intelligence Quotient (EQ), is a term that describes the ability to identify, assess and manage the emotions of one's self and appropriately respond to others and motivate them.

Hiring the right person with right skill is of main concern for the head hunters. With the advent of technology, hiring process has become increasingly complex; companies not only focus on the hard skills (e.g., technical expertise, work experience and education) but also the assessment of personality traits. Competencies like stress management, assertiveness skills and empathy are critical success factor which should not be overlooked.

Competences
Emotional Intelligence consists of several, well-defined basic competencies that absolutely anyone can learn. Some of the competences which an emotionally intelligent individual should have are as follows:

• Self-Awareness - the ability to know one's internal states, preferences, resources and intuitions. This includes:
  • Emotional Awareness: recognizing one's emotions and their impacts
  • Self-Assessment: knowing own strengths and limits
  • Self-Confidence: believing in one's self-worth and capabilities

• Self-Regulation - managing one's internal states, impulses and resources. This includes:
  • Self-Control: keeping disruptive emotions and impulses in check
  • Trustworthiness: maintaining standards of honesty and integrity
  • Conscientiousness: taking responsibility for personal performance
  • Adaptability: flexibility in handling change
  • Innovation: being comfortable with new ideas, novel approaches and new information

• Self-Expectations and Motivation - the emotional tendencies that guide or facilitate the reaching of goals. This includes:
  • Achievement Drive: striving to improve or meet a standard of excellence
  • Commitment: aligning with the goals of the group or organization
  • Initiative: readiness to act on opportunities
  • Optimism: pursuing goals despite obstacles and setbacks

• Empathy - awareness of others' feelings needs and concerns. This includes:
  • Understanding Others: sensing the feelings and perspectives of others and taking an active interest in their concerns
  • Developing Others: sensing the development needs of others and bolstering their abilities
  • Service Orientation: anticipating, recognizing and meeting customer needs
  • Leveraging Diversity: cultivating opportunities through different kinds of people

• Social Skills - adeptness at inducing desirable responses in others. This includes:
  • Influence: employing effective tactics for persuasion
  • Communicate: listening actively and sending convincing messages
  • Manage Conflict: negotiating and resolving disagreements
  • Leadership: inspiring and guiding individuals and groups
  • Change Catalyst: initiating or managing change
  • Build Bonds: nurturing instrumental relationships
  • Collaboration and Cooperation: working with others towards shared goals
  • Team Spirit: creating group synergy in pursuing collective goals
  • Political Awareness: reading a group's emotional currents and power relationships
  • Emotional Sensitivity : ability and capacity to effectively understanding intensity of emotional arousal, managing the immediate environment and controlling negative emotions like anger, irritation, excessive anxiety etc.

Impact in Workplace
Ever since the researchers found out that individuals with high EQ are more productive that others, importance of EI in workplace has been acknowledged. Since, workplace includes groups of people with varying ideas and opinions, effective EI or EQ is necessary to achieve target. We are emotional beings and all our actions and reactions are determined by our emotions. EQ is not about being nice neither about unleashing our emotions. It is about being aware of our emotions and able to express feelings appropriately and effectively. Effective management of emotions improves the quality of our decisions thus making us more productive.Studies show that people with high EQ are the best performers and have high levels of interpersonal skills and thus are more satisfied at work. Emotionally balanced employees are empathetic, adaptable, self-aware, self-confident, transparent, optimistic, inspirational leaders and good at managing disagreements and stress. With strong EI one can control, direct, lead and manage his or her own moods and impulses, and communicate with others much effectively. Individual with high EI are good problem solvers and decision makers. They can skillfully prioritize their task and quickly realize their goals.

An exciting fact about EQ is that unlike our IQ which does not change after our teens, EQ can continue to grow and develop as it largely is a learned area of expertise.

Pat J. is a contributing writer to Jobsbridge. Jobsbridge is a fast growing I.T Job & Career Portal. Thousands of jobs are posted by technology staffing companies, recruiters and direct employers on a regular basis. Employers & Jobseekers will find this site very uncluttered and has some great feature set.

Jobseekers, give this site a spin! May be your next job is on us. Visit us at http://www.jobsbridge.com.

By Pat J.

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Job Hunting in Today's Erratic Economy

It is no surprise many people are experiencing difficult times in this economy. If you are in the current job pool seeking employment you probably have noticed that it is an employer's market. What do I mean? Well, with unemployment rising the number of job seekers out there are increasing. There are job openings, but companies can be selective, and depending on the need, they can take their time in finding the best-fit candidate.

So what can you do? Here are some tips and suggestions in finding employment:

1. First, make sure your resume is up-to-date, and clearly outlines your skills and experience. (Getting some professional assistance in crafting a well-written resume may not be such a bad idea)

2. Be proactive by generating a list of companies. Go to their website and see if they have posted job openings. Not all companies post on job boards. If there are specific companies you are targeting you may want to contact their HR department or hiring authority, depending on the size of the organization, and contact directly. This can take some time and practice. I know people who've taken this assertive approach and landed a job.

3. Create a blog to market yourself or find and participate in other people's blog.

4. If you are in the IT (Information Technology) field you can search online, and attend local user groups. I know personally, there are several local user groups for various skill sets like .NET developers, Java developers, Oracle, and graphics/multimedia to name a few.

5. Network, market yourself. Join one or two social networking sites. As a recruiter, I like LinkedIn.

6. Organize and keep track of where you have posted your resume, and also what companies you've applied to. Create a spreadsheet and basic info of company name, position, contact or any other useful info.

7. In addition to the previous tip, I would take an extra step and for any contact names and info you have gathered, I would follow up by calling the person listed in the job description. This could show initiative and set yourself above the competition.

8. Contact a recruiter, especially if they specialize in your field or industry.

By Robert Bertino

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