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!

More than 75,000 people applied to work at Google in just one week back in February 2011 (according to AOL.com) many of them new or soon-to-be-new college graduates (Google even has a “student site” for new grads to learn more about career opportunities at the company).

But you’re no Google. You’re no Nike or Accenture, either You have no “brand name” to attract new graduates.

So how can you become more attractive to the newly-hatched college grad? Read below for some tips.

Remember back when you had just graduated college? Remember what you were looking for in your first career position? Weren’t the things you sought something along the lines of

• work variety,
• potential for career growth,
• training and education opportunities, and
• interesting and fun colleagues?

Today’s grads are not much different. One thing they may look for that you may not have, however, is a work/life balance. Today’s grads are more concerned with “having a life” than high salaries (although they do want to make enough to pay off those student loans, save for the future and have a bit of fun).  In fact, new grads tend to say they’re more interested in your company’s ethics as well as training/educational opportunities than in benefits and salary.

Take a look at career growth ladders. Do you promote from within? Do you have a mentoring program? Do you nurture employees and help them become all they can be in their positions?

It can be tough to go from the days of sleeping in until 8, staying up until 2 in the morning, having three hours for a lunch break and not having to worry about getting to the dry cleaners before it closest at 6 p.m.

Help new grads acclimate to the world of work by possibly offering flex time schedules, delivery services for dry cleaning, an on-site gym, etc. Whatever can make a new grad’s – or even a seasoned employee’s – life a little easier.

Looking for new college graduates or experienced professionals for your Washington DC construction, engineering or architecture firm? Then contact a RealStreet Staffing recruiter. We can source, check and place new or seasoned workers for your temporary and direct-hire needs. 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!

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!

When writing a resume, we have a certain image of our career in mind, an image of how it has progressed, and what we have done. It is this version that we present to employers when we apply for a job.

But career counselor Penelope Trunk says that if we are looking to switch careers or change jobs, we need to reevaluate the standard interpretation of our career, the one we have always used.

There are different ways of looking at the same events, depending on what you want to highlight or what perspective you are looking from. And this is something that many job hunters overlook. They continue to tell the same story about their career, when what they need is a new narrative, which may be completely different, Trunk says.

It’s not like a math test, where there is a correct answer or version and an incorrect one. Depending on what you emphasize in your background, you can fashion your resume to fit multiple scenarios. As Trunk says there is “no one correct story of your life.”

Say, for example, that you worked in the human resources department, but that over time you became the IT expert for the department, mastering the applications and databases used. Although your field is human resources, you could just as easily fashion a resume highlighting your expertise in information technology.

Trunk’s plan to look at your life story for your resume is, first, to figure out where you would really like to be with your career. Then, think back over your life and what you have done, pulling out the things you have done that have a bearing on what you would like to be doing right now. Toss out everything on your resume that is not relevant to what you want to be doing right now. Then, pull things together – work backward in a sense from what you want to be doing right now, using all those things that relate and linking them together into your personal story, your personal narrative.

As Trunk says, the important thing to remember is that your career is not something static and immutable, but dynamic and something you control. You need to tell that story from different perspectives, and not let the one perspective that is your current resume rule your life.

Come to RealStreet Staffing when you’re looking for work in Washington, DC in the architecture, construction or engineering sectors and tell us the story of your career – we’ll help you take it to where you want to go! We look forward to hearing from you.

Sooner or later, every person in a position of leadership is going to make a mistake, one that will also entail the obligation of an apology.  We’re only human.

It might involve a snafu on the job, some action that was taken or not taken, or something that was said that shouldn’t have been.  Once it has occurred, what then?

The first thing to do, according to Dorie Clark, New Hampshire communications director for Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential campaign, is admit that you made a mistake.  If you are in charge of a business and something embarrassing has happened, you need to get it out in the open.  Without doing that, no one will be able to concentrate on business issues because they will be focusing on the mistake. Ignoring it may make you feel better, but it won’t make the problem go away.  Once you address the problem, you speed up the recovery.

Another thing that might help, according to Clark, is showing a little humor.  You have to be able to laugh at yourself.  You can’t take yourself too seriously.  If you do this, you let your workers know it’s all right for them to blow a little steam off that way, too.

Then, in order to get back on track, you need to refocus attention back on the task at hand and away from the gaffe.  You might want to take a different approach in addressing the problem, or get feedback from workers on how best to proceed.

The most important thing is maintaining the trust of your team.  If your error has disturbed that trust, the first order of business is to reestablish it.  If you or your business has made a mistake – it could be a new product that didn’t work out in the market, something you said that was inappropriate, or a public relations plan that went off track – there always will be some people who will be pitiless when you look for some sign of forgiveness.  You can’t worry about them.  What have to work to do is fix that trust with your team.

Errors happen, but communicating effectively can go a long way to repair the problem.

RealStreet Staffing can help Washington Metro construction, engineering and architecture firms meet and exceed their strategic staffing goals. Contact us today so that we may work with you to craft a staffing plan that will help your business grow and prosper.

We have lots of ways of measuring our physical well being that help us determine when our bodies are healthy and when we are pushing them too much.  But what we don’t have is a good measure of our mental well being, and it’s something we need because we’re pushing ourselves like never before.  We are doing more things, with more speed, being deluged with information, and scattering our attention as never before in history of humankind.

We really have no reliable information on good mental habits.  Business treats workers as if their mental effort were inexhaustible, an automatically replenishing resource. Yet in many organizations, the sense of being overwhelmed is one of the biggest problems workers face.  And if people don’t have reliable information about the mind and the brain and under what conditions they operate best, workers may not be aware how that is affecting their performance and their living.

Two physicians, David Rock and Daniel Siegel, have developed seven activities for mental well being.  By doing these activities every day, you will help improve your mental well being.

The first activity is focusing on a task.  When we do this in a goal-oriented way we make strong connections in the brain.  Another activity is simply taking the time to play, to do something spur of the moment or something creative, which helps make new neural connections in the brain.  Taking time to interact with other people also is important for building connections in the brain. Another way to strengthen the brain is through physical activity, as is simple reflection, turning inward to think about our thoughts and feelings.   We need to take time to relax, to just let our mind wander occasionally to help it recharge.  And we need to get enough sleep, which is crucial to mental health and the best functioning of our brain.

The physicians aren’t recommending that businesses drop everything and radically change in order to allow employees the time to incorporate each activity.  But they are saying that people should be more aware of these activities that help lead to good mental health and should make an effort to engage in some of them as often as possible.

When you’re looking for a position in the engineering, architectural or construction fields, contact a recruiter at RealStreet Staffing, your Washington Metro staffing firm. We look forward to hearing from you.

If you were upset at hearing about air traffic controllers falling asleep on the job, you shouldn’t be, according to Tony Schwartz, a business consultant.  The problem here is basically biological.  We have evolved to be awake during the day and to sleep at night.  The later it gets, the more tired we become.  Some of the worst accidents in history occurred at night – Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, the Exxon Valdez running aground.

The government did a study about the effects of napping on the night shift and found that the more time the air traffic controllers had to sleep, the more alert they were.  Other studies of airline pilots showed the same thing.

What all of this points to is the fact that our society does not value rest and recuperation as much as it should.  And this hurts us all.  When we have a lot to do, rest and sleep usually are the first things to go, even if by cutting out sleep we do a poor job.  Businesses tend to judge their employees purely by the number of hours they put in, rather than the value they create.

But rather than get to work early and stay late, it would be better to get to work at little later and leave a little earlier, and take a few more breaks at work.  The fact is, if you do this, you will be more alert and do a better job.  And you will be more productive, because you will get more things done in a smaller amount of time.

You can see for yourself if resting more really does work, according to Schwartz.  For the next few weeks, try getting about 20 to 30 minutes of sleep between 1 and 3 p.m. You shouldn’t sleep for more than 30 minutes, or you will wake up groggy.  Then, at the end of the day, see how productive you were during the time after the nap.  You will be surprised at how much of a difference it makes.  If for some reason you don’t have the opportunity to sleep for a short time, find some other way to get some rest during the work day.  The best time schedule for this is to do it every 90 minutes.

The bottom line, according to Schwartz, is that there is nothing more important to improving your productivity and effectiveness at work than making sure you get enough rest.

RealStreet Staffing helps Washington Metro-area businesses in the construction, engineering and architecture sectors find productive and effective professionals. If you’re a Washington Metro engineering, construction or architecture firm looking for help in sourcing terrific professionals, contact us today!

Recent business research has focused not on problem solving skills but on problem finding skills.  Having problem finding skills means finding problems before they become major hindrances to a business.

How does one become a problem finder?  It’s about more than just a set of skills, but a whole different outlook, one that takes curiosity as its starting point, a willingness to ask questions and to learn more both about what you do know and what you don’t know.

Problem finding requires an active mind, one that is never satisfied with conventional answers, one that is always looking at things in a new way.  It is a mind that is always willing to question, no matter what level of expertise a person has attained.  And it is a mind that never just defers to authority.  These are tendencies that go against the psychological grain in many ways.  Research has shown that people are unwilling to part with their existing beliefs.  But in order to have a problem-finding mentality, you must be willing to do just that — to look at things in a new way and always question your beliefs and assumptions.

A problem finder is always looking to learn new things in order to get a new perspective on what he or she already knows.  Problem finders are never satisfied with the status quo, but are always looking for new ideas and experiences.  It is this learning new things that keeps the mind sharp, able to see problems develop.  Indeed, research has shown that when the mind encounters new images it becomes more stimulated than by familiar ones.

Problem finders also look at the big picture.  They recognize that any problem is never an isolated event but often part of a larger, systemic condition that gave rise to it.  They look at the more basic organizational situation that may have led to the conditions that allowed such a problem to occur.  Problem finders dig beneath the surface and look at hidden connections and deeper meanings.

And problem finders also have a healthy sense of paranoia.  They realize that in any organization problems exist, and that this is not a problem in itself.  They know that these problems are not always readily apparent, but are there nonetheless.  So, they know they are fallible as well, and know they need to watch themselves and their organizations, to stay alert, and to understand that finding problems is an ongoing activity.

RealStreet Staffing is committed to helping you in your job search within the construction, engineering or architecture sectors in the Washington Metro area. Contact us today!

Keeping a diary is ordinarily not something we associate with a work strategy, but recording daily thoughts and events can actually help in providing focus to what we are doing, in giving us more patience, in providing ideas to help with planning, and in helping with personal growth.

At first, keeping a diary may seem a little awkward, and you may feel that you could be making better use of your time.  But recording thoughts on a daily basis can have valuable results.

By using a diary about work, you can gain a focus to help determine your strengths and to identify the things you do that give you the most satisfaction.  You may learn where you can be the most effective and successful in your workplace.  By sitting down to write each day and writing out your thoughts, you learn patience.

Your journal will become a record of your progress, and an aid in helping you to pinpoint where you might have made errors.  It will help you gain perspective on your career – looking back over time, it may show that what appeared to be huge obstacles were actually only minor disturbances.  It may even become habit forming.

Psychological research has also shown the value of writing about daily experiences.  Writing about traumatic or stressful events helps a person develop a stronger defense system to adversity and actually helps improve overall health and sense of well-being.  It may even lead to some unexpected discoveries.

One of the most important benefits to be gained from keeping a diary is personal development.  Keeping a daily diary will help you to gain a new perspective on yourself and your job and what you need to do to make yourself better.  One person who kept a diary noticed that in reading over his entries, he had a rather pessimistic attitude toward his days’ activities.  He now tries to approach new activities with a more optimistic frame of mind.  Another person said that keeping a diary helped him learn more about how to motivate and get along with the members of his team at work.

If you’re an experienced professional in the architecture, engineering or construction sectors in the Washington, DC area, bring your resume to RealStreet Staffing. We can place you in temporary, temp-to-hire and direct-hire assignments with some of the DC area’s top employers. We look forward to hearing from you.