As you create your resume there are certain things you should make sure you do:

• Use action verbs
• Show real results (numbers, percentages, etc.)
• Remember that it’s a sales too, not a history of all the jobs you’ve held.
• And so on.

Below are some things you never should put on a resume as well as tactics that are best avoided.

• Demand that certain requests be met, such as a certain amount of paid time off, tuition reimbursement, etc. before you’ll even consider working at a company.
• A resume longer than two or, at the very most, three pages. One page is best.
• Photos, especially of your family members and pets.
• “Cute” e-mail addresses (examples: sexydancer@, dannylovesbeer@, even JohnSue1@). Instead, aim to have an email address that’s just your name: JaneSmith@, Jane.Smith@, SmithJane@, etc.).
• Including references you know will give you a poor one (such as when you are fired from a position). Honesty is good, but be judicious when it comes to references. Call everyone you plan to list as a reference and ask them if they will give you a good reference. If a reference can’t give you a good one, don’t list it.
• Don’t submit poetry, song lyrics, short stories, etc. (people have actually done this).
• Don’t use the same resume for every job for which you apply. You should tailor your resume to each job, highlighting the skills you have that best fit each position’s requirements.
• Don’t create your resume and send it without sending it to yourself first. How does it look when it arrives as a document? Does the formatting go all to pieces? Consider making it into a PDF.
• Don’t forget to proofread it for typos and grammatical mistakes.
• Don’t lie. Don’t exaggerate. Don’t create jobs, duties and skills you never had/don’t possess.

If you need help creating a great resume, contact a recruiter at RealStreet Staffing. We love helping construction, architecture and engineering professionals looking for work in the Washington DC area and we’d love to help you. We look forward to hearing from you!

You’ve been called in for a second interview. Yes, congratulate yourself; you truly should be proud.

But now you need to return to perhaps at least one or two of the same people – and probably some new ones — and wow them all over again. And you can rest assured that this interview will be “tougher” than the first.

Follow the tips below to help you ace the second round of job interviews.

1. Be especially prepared because the second round of interviews tend to be more intense than the first. The first interview tends to be a screening session. Now your hiring manager/interviewer will get to the meat of what it is you bring to the table.
2. Ask who will be at the second interview. You can ask this when you are notified that you’ve been selected for a second round. Will your direct supervisor be there? His or her boss? Additional colleagues and/or constituents?
3. Once you know names (and you should ask for names), start some online sleuthing. Check out LinkedIn profiles. Google a person’s name and see what comes up. Your aim is to learn about the person’s business past and see where you have commonalities (perhaps you went to the same school, or belong to the same business organization).
4. A second interview often is where hiring managers look to see how well you’ll fit in in the company and, more importantly, the department in which you’ll be working. So expect behavioral questions (“Describe a time when you handled an angry customer”) as well as queries your interviewer will use in order to see how well you think on your feet.
5. Second interviews sometimes can take place in a group situation, where you’ll meet with several people at the same time. These can be nerve wracking, but a great tip to help you relax is to answer questions by looking at each person in the group individually for a moment or two as you give your answer.
6. Don’t forget: you’re interviewing the company/department as well. When you leave the interview, ask yourself how you felt about your potential future colleagues/boss, how the company runs itself and other “intangibles” regarding how well you and your new employer will “get along.” If you don’t feel this is a good fit for you, you may want to take a pass on this opportunity and keep looking for the position/firm that’s best for you.

RealStreet Staffing can help IT, construction, engineering and architecture professionals take the next step up in their careers. Contact one of our recruiters today to learn more about some of the job opportunities we have with some of Washington, DC’s top employers. We look forward to hearing from you!

In today’s economy, the time to innovate isn’t when you begin your new job, it’ when you want to create an effective job search.

The first way to innovate is with the kinds of questions you ask, because they set the course for the direction you are going to take, according to business analysts Jeff Dyer and Hal Gregersen. For example, instead of asking what kind of job you can find, ask yourself what kind of job you can create. Dyer and Gregersen suggest spending several minutes each day writing down questions during your job search. You may start out by asking “How can I find a job that will pay a lot of money?”, but over time that may change into “What will make me happy in the long run?”

Another way to innovate, the analysts say, is to look at the work that companies need to have done, rather than focusing on the job that you used to do. You need to look at what people need products and services for. And then ask yourself what service or job are you good at that provides these products or services that people want. In fact, the authors suggest that to find the things that people want, you must spend some time routinely observing what people do to see what you could provide for them.

In the same way, you need to network innovatively by contacting people to create a job, rather than to just find a job. You do this not by talking with the people you would usually contact – those in the same area as you – but with people who are in different areas, people who look at things differently than you do. Then you talk with them about the jobs that need to be done, and in this way you can develop new ideas that might help your search.

Another way to be innovative is to experiment, to try new things, to take things apart, or to take an idea and see if it will work, no matter how oddball it may be. For example, if you want to try new things, you could look at hobbies or at developing skills you currently don’t have that might lead to something new.

Innovation in a job search is important, but don’t forget that a staffing service also can help you land work – and relatively quickly. Contact RealStreet Staffing today for positions in Washington DC’s IT, engineering, construction and architecture sectors.

For a long time, diversity training, normally the bailiwick of the human resources department, has been a staple of corporate education programs. The intention of such programs is to prevent lawsuits and also to create an atmosphere at a company where all of the employees are valued and respected regardless of their background. The idea also is that this training would increase diversity in the workplace.

The problem is that research is showing that diversity programs don’t work. For example, one study of more than 800 companies that took place over a period of more than 30 years showed that diversity training really had no effect at all on worker attitudes. Moreover, it also didn’t increase the diversity at the companies.

Diversity programs actually made the problem worse. This is because these programs, instead of highlighting people as individuals, emphasized people as members of a certain category, classifying them by age, gender, race, religion, or sexual orientation, for example. And this actually encouraged prejudice, because that is what prejudice is – shoving a person into a category without looking at him or her as a real human being, an individual. Putting people into categories makes them less human, it reduces the complexity of what it is to be a person, and so emphasizing the categories actually works to increase prejudice, according to business consultant Peter Bregman.

What businesses should be doing, Bregman says, is not focusing on diversity, but on people as people. Employees don’t need training in the concept of diversity, but in how to work with a variety of people, people who happen to have different personalities and backgrounds. What people need to learn is how to communicate well – conveying bad news as well as good with understanding and empathy. And employees need to be counseled against putting other people into categories, to not think of someone as a black person, a Muslim, or gay, but just as a person.

So, instead of focusing on diversity, companies need to focus on communication training, Bregman says. That way, people will learn to listen to each other, to talk with each other instead of talking at or past each other. And they need to learn to do this no matter who the other person may be, which in the end will go a lot further toward creating a diverse environment than any diversity training would.

Let RealStreet Staffing help your company find reliable and skilled IT, engineering, architecture and construction professionals for your temporary, temp-to-hire and direct-hire needs. Contact us today!

Recent surveys show that retirement planning issues have become increasingly important to employees, and that companies are doing more to help their employees plan for retirement. Some businesses are even rethinking the types of retirement plans they offer, and also making financial counseling available to employees.

The increased concern about retirement comes on the heels of the recent steep recession, which is still a big drag on the economy. Many suffered significant losses in their retirement investment accounts because of the downturn, which, they say, will mean a delay in retiring. Younger workers, seeing what has happened, also are concerned.

But, while many companies are investing in educational programs for their employees to help them plan for retirement, relatively few are doing anything to help smooth the actual transition from work to retirement.

This can be a stressful time for workers because it involves a huge change in their lives. For many, work has been the focus of their lives, the thing to which their self-esteem and even their identity is tied. Leaving it behind can be traumatic. It is an area where human resource departments can make a big impact by adding to services.

Companies can help employees better make the transition by helping them with financial and lifestyle planning.

One of the major concerns of people about to retire is whether they will have enough money for the things they want to do. Helping them with planning for expenses during retirement, planning about what their income will be, and what their healthcare, housing, hobbies, and vacations, etc. will cost, will go a long way toward making a good transition.

Helping workers cope with how the transition will change their lifestyle can be helpful too. Retirees will be facing such issues as keeping a daily routine, staying in touch with people, maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and following their interests, whether it be part-time work, or something such as volunteering.

Also companies can help employees make the transition by supplying them with resources. Companies can help them find information on getting a good financial advisor and even offer something such as a one-year free membership to a retirement organization.

Additionally, companies can provide soon-to-retire workers with material to read, such as Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes, by William Bridges.

If you’d like more information on how RealStreet Staffing can make your Washington Metro business thrive by providing temporary and direct-hire professionals in the construction, engineering and architecture sectors, just give us a call. We look forward to hearing from you!

Working in human resources – or in any other of your company’s departments – sooner or later, you are going to have to work with someone – or a group of people – whom you really don’t like. It may be someone who thinks that the world revolves around him and his brilliant mind, someone who is very judgmental of others, or someone who constantly complains about everything. Whatever the case, in this situation, you spend most of your time and energy trying to control your own emotions.

But don’t despair because there are tactics you can use, according to business strategist Amy Gallo, that can help you get through a situation like this.

The first thing to focus on, Gallo says, is what you can control, meaning your own reaction to the obnoxious coworker. That is, instead of focusing on how annoying the person is, focus on your reaction to him or her and try to manage it. You can do this, Gallo says, by practicing some methods of relaxation every day, which will help you handle the stress.

Another thing to avoid is griping to other colleagues about the obnoxious coworker. This really accomplishes nothing and only puts you in a bad mood. Plus, if you begin griping to others, you may affect the mood of the whole office. Moreover, it also may reflect badly on you, giving you a reputation as someone who does not behave in a professional manner.

Also, Gallo advises to take an honest look at yourself, as well. Could you be part of the problem?  Is this person’s behavior really that annoying, or are more personal resentments driving your feelings? Is the person just a very different personality type than your own, or does the person just remind you of someone you don’t like? Could your annoyance stem from the fact that the person got a promotion and you got passed over? Focus on the person’s behavior, rather than just his or her personality, to help you determine whether your own prejudices are coming into play.

Another strategy that might seem a little counterintuitive, and definitely harder to carry out, is to actually spend more time with the person. By doing this, you learn more about him or her, and may come to a better understanding of why the person is behaving the way he or she does – problems at home, maybe, or pressure from a boss. It may lead to more empathy.

Also, if you feel the person might be receptive, Gallo says give the individual some feedback about his or her annoying behavior. The problem may be that your co-worker really is unaware of it because no one has ever brought it up.

Finally, in a situation where you have little control, try to develop a sense of detachment, an “I just don’t care” attitude. If the person is being annoying, but you take the attitude that you just aren’t going to care about or acknowledge it, that may help.

When you need great construction, engineering, architecture or IT professionals for your firm, call upon the recruiting experts at RealStreet Staffing. We can find great workers for your temporary, temp-to-hire or direct-hire assignments. We look forward to hearing from you!

In today’s nonstop world of human resource management, you are bombarded with information, e-mail, text messages, voicemail and social media.

Many approaches to time management claim to show how you can accomplish all of the things you need to. But business strategist Peter Bregman says the idea that you can do it all is just a myth. Face reality, he says – there is just no way you can actually do all of the things you want to. We have our limitations, and there are only 24 hours in a day.

This might be disheartening, he says, but it can be uplifting as well, because once you acknowledge that you can’t do it all, you are better prepared to make the choices about what you can do. You can dump the unimportant things and focus on what’s most important.

But Bregman says there are two obstacles to doing this – figuring out what the important things are, and then actually taking action to get them done. Figuring out what’s important means going from reactive to proactive. Instead of just waiting to see what lands on your desk, think about what choices you need to make to get the results that you want the most. And that means that you will also need to make choices about what not to do.

To get to the actual doing part of things, Bregman says, we need tools. We need to know how to prioritize, get things on our calendar, and reduce the multi-tasking. So we first need to think about our time management issues – not getting to our most important work, not taking advantage of our talents and passions, getting distracted by little things, avoiding big projects.

Once you’ve figured out what your most intractable time management issues are, pick just one to take on, Bregman says. For example, you may struggle with prioritizing or it may be that you are a perfectionist. Whatever the case, pick one time management challenge you have, and then choose a strategy to solve the problem. If this works, move on to your next time management problem, and do the same thing. If it doesn’t work, try another time management technique.

If staffing is a priority with which you’d like help, call upon the recruiting experts at RealStreet Staffing. We can help your Washington, DC-area firm find top professionals in the construction, engineering and architecture sectors. Contact us today!

Despite the importance of human resources to businesses in handling the critical functions of recruitment, retention and developing the workforce, many of those in other departments look at HR with less than friendly feelings. Many managers perceive their company’s human resources department to be inefficient and more of a drag on progress rather than a contributor to it.

Business consultant Ron Ashkenas asks why this happens, and proposes that much of the conflict arises as a result of the transformations that are taking place in human resources today.

Companies are spending a lot of money to improve the basic functions of human resources and to develop the information processes involved with it. Naturally, it takes time to do all of this and (not unsurprisingly) there may be glitches now and then as the transition takes place. Moreover, companies are trying to give their human resources departments more of a strategic role in the business, taking over such things as assessing worker skills, developing leaders within the company, managing change and effectiveness in the business. This also takes considerable time.

Part of the challenge also stems from the role human resources plays and what managers expect from the department. The problem lies in educating managers about the need for them to step in and take the role in the development of their staff members. It is essential for managers to understand that they are accountable for things such as the assessment and growth of the employees in their own department, as well as rewarding and recognizing those workers.

By having department managers take over this kind of role, human resources is then able to focus on company-wide strategic planning, looking at problems that might crop up, seeing how business plans will affect employees and making sure that the best people are working on the most critical needs.

One way to help change department managers’ perception of human resources is to rotate people between human resources and management jobs, Ashkenas says. This will help whittle the perception that the human resources department is something separate and isolated from real business concerns.

When you need help finding great professionals for your Washington, DC-area construction, engineering or architecture firm, contact RealStreet Staffing. We can help you source, vet and place great workers for temporary and direct-hire assignments. We look forward to hearing from you!

With the uncertainty in the economy, and companies demanding more and more from their workers, employee engagement with their jobs has sunk lower and lower. Business analysts say that to keep your company productive, you need to have employees that are engaged with their jobs.

The experts offered a number of ways to build and maintain employee engagement.

One way to rev up employee engagement is right at the start when they are hired. You can use the process of bringing them on board to build their engagement. You have workers who are naturally receptive and enthusiastic as they begin their new job, and so onboarding provides a great opportunity to show how much you value them and what you can offer them, says business advisor Alice Snell. Making them go through a process where they sign the same forms five times or not having a computer at their desk is not the way to do it.

Also, when they start you need to let them know right away what the goals of the company are and how the employees fit in with those goals.

Another way to maintain engagement is to keep the lines of communication open, especially in offering positive feedback for a job well done.

Another way to keep the energy and enthusiasm of employees high is by giving them a feeling of community, such as sponsoring company activities or working on team projects.

The company also should offer employees chances for advancing their careers, help them develop their skills and potential, treat them like professionals, and give them a sense of empowerment by letting them know that their opinions are valued.

The company also needs to have an effective reward system in place. This involves more than just pay, because beyond a certain point, pay is not the prime motivator. Other kinds of rewards focus on giving employees more autonomy and authority to make decisions on their own, giving them more challenging work, and giving them more recognition, according to a number of business analysts.

Leadership is important as well – it is difficult to maintain engagement among employees if managers and executives do not appear to be engaged themselves, says business executive Judy Whitcomb. And finally, the image people have of the company matters also. If people feel they are working for a company that is respected and admired, they are more likely to be excited about their work and to stay as an employee.

When you need to bring in fresh talent, look to RealStreet Staffing to help recruit engineers, construction professionals and architects to your Washington, DC-area firm. We look forward to hearing from you!

A  recent survey has provided some evidence to suggest that people in human resources have become the target of aggressive actions by other workers simply because of their role in the organization.

Almost one-third of the Kentucky-based human resource workers surveyed in an online poll reported being the target of aggressive behavior, which included things like interference at work, verbal abuse, even threats and intimidation. The percentage of human resource workers who reported being bullied was about the same as for workers in general. However, more than half of the people in human resources believed they were targeted specifically because they worked in human resources.

An earlier study of nearly 1,500 human resource workers was conducted in the United Kingdom. In that survey, more than half of the people in human resources reported being the target of aggressive behavior at work.

The conflict may be the result of the changing duties of workers in human resources, which has become more strategic than in the past, according to Teresa Daniel, a human resources professor who conducted the survey. Because their job is to challenge and coach business leaders, their interactions can set off conflicts or defensive responses that might ultimately lead to more aggressive behavior, Daniel says.

Human resource workers offered their own reasons for the aggressive behavior. One reason may be that their role often is not fully appreciated or understood by others. Another is that they often have to deny managers’ requests, and another is that managers may feel they are not properly qualified to make the policy decisions they do. Another reason is that the human resource person is the firewall in many instances, protecting the interests of other employees, but taking heat in the process.

Daniel says there are several things human resource professionals can do to blunt the aggressive behavior. She says human resources should increase the communication with managers and do it before problems arise. Human resources needs to better educate managers on how to handle routine problems that relate to the workforce. She says human resource workers also need to become more knowledgeable about the business itself – the financial elements, customers and operations – to get a better understanding of what motivates the behavior of managers.

If you’re looking for talented professionals for your Washington, DC architecture, engineering or construction firm, contact RealStreet Staffing. We look forward to hearing from you!