How We Helped This Professional Who Was Stuck In His Toxic Job

How We Helped This Professional Who Was deckenfries In His Toxic JobHow We Helped This Professional Who Was Stuck In His Toxic JobHow We Helped This Professional Who Was Stuck In His Toxic JobWhen you are too busy dealing with life to edit your resume for your job search and leave your toxic job, then its time to get some help.There are many factors that compel a professional to start looking for a new job while still employed and just as many reasons they might feel trapped or bullied into staying in a dead-end job or toxic situation. Ken Morrison is no stranger to feeling stuck and helpless in his role and turned to TopResume for help and support moving forward in his career.Ken is a self-described professional tinkerer. With several patents to his name, his passion for invention led Ken to a lucrative career in programming and business intelligence spanning the last 20 years. His favorite aspect of the job? Helping people understand the data he works with. I love building reports where you can give information to people managers, clients, or whoever and help them visualize information, Ken revealed. Yet, despite this experience and enthusiasm for the job, Ken is currently employed at a company where his manager creates a toxic work environment for elend only him, but all of the programmers in his department.Dealing with a toxic workplaceAfter talking with Ken, we learned he was denied a raise repeatedly, had his job threatened after emailing the IT department about a server malfunction, and received negative performance reviews for seemingly no reason.My manager is very hard to work with, almost abusive, Morrison laments. He rejects our raises and we suspect that he gives us negative reviews to prevent us from showing prospective employers. I feel trapped.Along with a boss who is potentially sabotaging his job search, Ken is also nervous to look for a new job because of his age.Related Signs Youre in a Toxic Work Environment and How to Handle ItFacing ag e discriminationI know it exists, Ken told us in regards to age discrimination in the workplace. Ive been bitten by the age bug before. You walk into the room and they can make a pretty good guess about your age. For Ken, age is a limiting factor. But, regardless of this obstacle, he doesnt plan on slowing down anytime soon. I dont have in mind a retirement age because I like my work. But I know what employers must think about me when I walk in for an interview, he said.However, age has also been an advantage for Ken. Rather than actively looking for jobs, Ken has grown accustomed to being approached by recruiters who are in need of his technical expertise and extensive experience. In fact, this is how he landed the job he has now. Despite this ongoing attention, Ken has largely ignored their offers due to the state of his resume.In need of an extraordinary resumeFor Ken, its simple he doesnt have the time or desire to rewrite his resume for his job search.I dont want to be a resum e writer, Ken told us. You put this off, you put that off, and you spend so much time working that you dont want to get out the old resume, dust it off, and edit it.And who blames him? Editing your resume takes a lot of work, especially when you have as much experience as Ken. Knowing which information to keep and which information to cut is no easy feat. The fact that a resume is also an incredibly personal document of your past achievements and future career intentions makes it even more difficult for job seekers to be 100 percent objective.Everyone always says if you dont catch them on the first page they are going to toss it, but I hate boiling it down. I want people to appreciate all the different mindsets and talents I bring to the table, Ken added.Luckily, Ken decided to enter our resume-makeover contest and became this months winner. Then, thats where Anne, one of TopResumes professional writers, came in. Before Anne put her resume-writing skills to the test, Kens resume was six pages long and included much more information than was needed to showcase his skill set. You can check out the first four pages of his before resume here.Is your resume looking a little on the longer side? We can help cut it down Just trust our experts.A resume fit for the job searchSome of the major changes that Anne made to Kens resume revolved around concision and language, cutting the resume way back. You can see the final product here.Cut unnecessary pronounsAnne changed the language to what resume writers refer to as the silent first person. By taking out unnecessary Is to keep his resume from becoming repetitive, she helped save precious resume space.Combine consulting jobsAnne grouped Kens multiple consulting jobs under Independent Contractor and separated them by company and job title, effectively grounding his runaway resume while leaving Ken satisfied that all of his achievements were not being overlooked. She also removed indications of his age by cutting positions from more than 15 years ago that were no longer relevant to his current job search.Describe your ideal careerAnne edited his resume to indicate the type of role he wants to work in next, which involves creating and inventing in the business intelligence industry. Instead of describing his achievements as doing, she formatted the language to center around what he accomplished in his years on the job, quantifying his achievements to help him stand out in all the right ways. When it came to the process, Ken was very pleased Everyone at TopResume was very nice and personable, and engendered a certain comfort level that made this process that much easier.In the end, Ken learned to leave his tinkering for his inventions and let the experts handle his resume. Now, he is no longer ashamed of his resume, and is ready to actively put himself out there.Are you feeling stuck at your job, but your resume isnt helping? Our TopResume professional writers will help get you out of the resume rut. Ch eck out our packages todayRecommended ReadingHow We Took This Professional From Overwhelmed to Confident10 Powerful Changes for Your Senior-Level ResumeHow to Overcome Age Discrimination in the Job Search

6 Steps to Figuring Out If Youve Got The Right Job Offer

6 Steps to Figuring Out If Youve Got The Right Job Offer6 Steps to Figuring Out If Youve Got The Right Job Offer Youve landed a job offer. Congratulations Now, you have to decide if youll accept it. Occasionally, an offer is so good that the choice is obvious, but most of the time, thats just elend the case. Every position has its benefits and drawbacks, and no two companies are exactly alike, but there are some common questions you should ask yourself and factors you should contemplate before saying yes or no to an offer . Here are six key things to consider. Before you think about negotiating or even get into the details, take a moment to consider your initial reaction to the offer and the job itself. While data is important, you also want to trust your gut, says Mikaela Kiner, an executive career coach and CEO of uniquelyHR . During your interviews, were you hopeful things would work out? Or, would you have been relieved if they chose someone else? Dont dismiss concerns, even if they were just fleeting thoughts, she says. Your instinct and intuition about whether or leid a job is a good fit are usually right. Ask yourself how you felt when you first got the offer. Was it excited? Disappointed? Something else? You answer can be incredibly revealing about whether this is the right opportunity for you or notlage.Step 2 Ask yourself the big questions. Before diving into the numbers and other specifics in the offer, you should ask yourself the following important questions, according to Dana Manciagli , a career coach and speaker Are the tasks and responsibilities of the job something you want to do full time? Did the team and environment you will be working in seem pleasant and safe? What are the sacrifices youre making by taking this particular job, and are any of those sacrifices things you dont want to give up?Basically, you want to be sure that youre going to be happy with your day-to-day life in this new gig before getting any further a long in the process. If you feel good about your answers, then move along, Manciagli says. If not, ask for another meeting to get some questions answered OR communicate it is not the right position and youll pass. The key is not to accept or negotiate an offer if you are not willing to work there. Step 3 Decide if taking this position will help you advance your career goals.If youre job hunting, youve probably taken the time to think about what your career goals are. I recommend my clients make a list of what they are looking for even before they begin searching for a job, says Amy M. Gardner, Certified Professional Coach with Apochromatik . If youve done that, go back to the list you created and evaluate the offer against the factors you initially listed. How does this current job offer measure up in terms of opportunity to accomplish these goals?Its also key to look beyond financial objectives, Gardner emphasizes. Money is important, but for long-term job happiness, it shouldnt be the only thing you consider. The list of questions to contemplate, Gardner says, should include Are there enough other areas within the organization that you can have room for advancement, even if your immediate supervisor is there for eternity? Does the company support and encourage employees to continue to learn and grow? Will you be able to get home in time for the non-work things that are important to you? Will your stress level be what youd like it to be? If you feel good about the answers to these questions, move on to the next step.Step 4 Carefully evaluate the salary and benefits package. Obviously, compensation matters. Its important that your needs are met by your job, says Carisa Miklusak, CEO of tilr , an automated recruiting platform. When evaluating an offer, you need to look at the entire offer, not just the salary. Often, the cousine salary alone does not provide the whole compensation picture. It may be that the salary is $5,000 lower than you had hoped for, but the full package being offered counterbalances it, Miklusak explains. What does the total package contribute to your partal and financial needs? Sometimes, a job that at first glance looks like its paying less can actually provide more financial security than a job with a higher salary. Take into account benefits like subsidized child care, bonus opportunities, and health care options.Step 5 Understand who youll be working with on a day-to-day basis. This is easier said than done, but its important, because youll be spending a lot of time with your new team. While its tricky to execute, if you can find out more about your future team, youll be able to make a more informed decision. Its important to ask yourself whether you will be working with the kind of people who will engage, excite, and challenge you- without driving you crazy, Gardner says. Whether and how you can get to know people in advance varies depending on whether you are in the same city as the employer, what your r ole will be, and how big the group is. But do what you can to get a sense of your future team, because they will have a huge impact on both your job satisfaction and your success, she adds. Step 6 Decide whether the company is really somewhere you want to work.If youve made it this far, the main thing left to determine is how well the company fits into your life , not just in terms of location and size, but also in terms of company culture . Ask everyone you can about company culture- not just their brand, but what its really like to work there day to day, Kiner recommends. No one is going to say Our culture is toxic, but you can figure it out through a combination of questions and observations.Ask about what youd look for in a healthy work environment. That might be access to training, how often people get promoted from within, flexibility, recognition, or teams that celebrate together, she says. If too many of these are missing, its a red flag.Another thing to consider is why t he job is open in the first place. Im always cautious when a position is open because someone left the company, says Laura Handrick, HR Analyst at FitSmallBusiness.com . If HR tells you the company is growing, thats great If the former person whose job youre replacing moved up in the organization, thats also a positive sign. But if you see job openings at this company all the time, it may be a telltale sign that its not a great place to work. In other words, turnover can be an important clue as to what its really like to work somewhere- one you shouldnt ignore.

Archimedes

Archimedes Archimedes ArchimedesOne of the greatest minds of classical antiquity, Archimedes (c. 287 BCE c. 212 BCE) was a scholastic triple-threat who made astonishingly original contributions to mathematics, physics, and engineering. His c.v. includes some three dozen new tools and weapons systems as well as a pioneering role in plane and solid geometry. He even gave scientists and engineers their ultimate catch-phrase, EurekaWith all that going for him, Archimedes was no doubt the ancient worlds poster boy for science and technology careers, right? Wrong. His famous inventions brought water to arid lands and held invading Roman armies at bay, but he vocally disdained them. Compared to the conceptual rigors of his favorite academic pastime of geometry, engineering and other pursuits that addressed worldly necessities of living were to him sordid and ignoble. His obsessive interest in mathematical abstractions came at the expense of personal hygiene and earned him a reputation as a ncient Greeces first absent-minded professor. He is fruchtwein widely known for running naked through the streets of Syracuse. One wonders how the man whose brilliant feats of engineering include the compound pulley and the theory of hydrostatics would fare in todays job market.And so it is with Archimedes. With little in the written record to go on, most attempts to chronicle his life invariably comprise some gemisch of fable, fact, and fudge factor. Unlike his mathematical work, he left few formal treatises behind describing his inventions. Accounts of his life were written decades after his death, and leave plenty of room for uncertainty about his actual accomplishments and the true nature of his character.His own writings disclose that he was born in Syracuse then a self-governing city-state and the most important seaport on the Greek-controlled island of Sicily. His father was the astronomer Phidias, which could account for his natural bent toward the sciences and one of his p rimary later inventions, an early planetarium.Archimedes Thoughtful was painted about 1620 by Domenico Fetti in Mantua. Presently, the picture is located in the art museum Alte Meister in Dresden, Germany.He spent formative years in Alexandria, Egypt academic ground-zero during the Hellenic period where he reportedly worked and studied with the successors of the great mathematician Euclid. It was Archimedes passion for geometric abstractions that led to his disdain for engineering. Yet he is said to have invented his most lasting practical device the Archimedes screw while immersed in these lofty concepts in Egypt. Developed initially to irrigate croplands along the Nile delta, his water screw was also used to drain water from underground mines, to water the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and to pump bilge from the pharaohs ships. Today it is standard issue in sewage treatment, irrigation, and other applications where it is vital to move large amounts of water with minimal effort.Du ring Archimedes lifetime, his most famous inventions, and presumably the bulk of his income, came from his friendship with King Hieron II of Syracuse. Hieron marveled at his mastery and frequently put him to the test.On one occasion, the king asked Archimedes how a great weight could be moved by a small force. The inventor proceeded to demonstrate how, with only a series of compound pulleys, he was able to singlehandedly drag a fully loaded three-mast ship out of the harbor and across the beach. The story of his famous bath, the discovery of the principles of hydrostatics, and the ensuing naked run through the streets is not universally believed, but it is indicative of the close connection between the king and his prize engineer.Millennia before weapons of mass destruction, Archimedes used his unique understanding of mass to cause new levels of destruction with devastatingly ingenious weapons created for his king during the Second Punic War. He developed specialized catapults that hurled blocks of stone and logs at invading ships. He developed the Archimedes claw, a hidden crane with an enormous hook used to raise invading ships out of the water and either flip them upside down or allow them to crash back down into the surf, crashing them to bits. Less certain but no less impressive are the historical accounts of Archimedes use of giant mirrors to incinerate enemy ships with reflected sunlight.Despite having kept the invading Romans at bay for more than three years, eventually the island colonies on Sicily were sacked in 212 BCE. The Roman emperor had specifically asked that Archimedes be brought back alive, but Roman soldiers found him working on a math problem at his desk and tried to seize him. Mistaking his mathematical tools for exotic weapons, a soldier killed Archimedes on the spot.Archimedes true accomplishments may be shrouded in the mists of time, but his genius shines through loud and clear today.Michael MacRae is an independent writer.With little in the written record to go on, most attempts to chronicle his life invariably comprise some mix of fable, fact, and fudge factor.