Ex-Military Fire Chief Returns to War Zone

Ex-Military Fire Chief Returns to War ZoneEx-Military Fire Chief Returns to War ZoneHow Air Force veteran-turned-fire-chief Sandy Sanders tailored his resume to land a hot new job.Sandy Sanders is a trained leader. After 20 years in the Air Force, the last 10 as a fire chief, and several more as a civilian fire chief, he welches looking for a job that would use his skills managing a big fire department or multiple operations.Two years ago, he was fire chief at an airport in Curacao - a job he knew would be ending after a change in management. At that point, he posted his resume on OpsLadder and decided to take advantage of Ladders resume-writing services. The resume rewrite prompted him to consider how he wanted to proceed with his job search.Casting a wide net(I was looking) for fire-department positions on Ladders but never found any before, Sanders said. What I did find was operations jobs and director of quality assurance roles, which are positions I qualify for. I thought, Mayb e I need to make a career change. But my heart always belonged to the fire department.When I redid my resume, the woman who helped me asked, What are you really looking for? I told her, Im looking for a fire-chief position, but here is everything I am qualified to do. We focused it more on operations because I was seeking a director position, and those are the words that would pop up for recruiters more than other things. The resume included my background in fire service and quality control.In July 2007, that resume helped him to land with Pro-Tec Fire Services Ltd. to manage the Bob Hope airport in Burbank, Calif.,. And while he was happy was about the job, Sanders said, he still held out hope that he could find another job as a fire chief.Keeping your options openHe changed his resume again to focus on his experience as a fire chief and added Operations and Quality keywords to fill out his background history. He kept his resume on Ladders, knowing that jobs for fire chiefs at larg e locations are few and far between. I posted my resume, and it stayed there for quite some time, he said.Meanwhile, Sanders was taking on more responsibility at his job at the Burbank airport. He spent a good amount of time making sure the airport met all Federal Aviation Administration standards. Inspections from the FAA passed with flying colors, and Pro-Tec put him to work at other properties the company managed. The company asked Sanders to take his training manual to other airports to improve ratings of those airports. He began traveling to these other airports to train staff and troubleshoot issues.And then, a year after posting his rewritten resume, he unexpectedly got a bite.In August 2008, KBR, the huge construction- and engineering-services company, was looking for a fire chief to work in Asia and the Middle East. He was contacted by a recruiter who spoke to him about his work history. And a few weeks later, he spoke to another recruiter. The more KBR recruiters got to kn ow about Sanders, the more tailored to his experience the job description became.We talked about once a week, Sanders said. As each recruiter called me, wed bring it to the next level. The more we talked, the more we got into my background, my experience, my education and how I got to the point I was at.Creating your own adventureSanders and KBR spoke over the next four months. By New Years, Sanders said, KBR told him, We are looking at a different position. This is what we want. How can you help us? We talked from January to April, defining my role and responsibilities, and how this program will grow and change.In the end, he was able to tailor his job to his specific strengths. Since April he has been the executive fire chief for KBR. His family will remain in California while he spends much of the next year traveling. And, while he will get a couple of weeks of vacation every four months and fly his family anywhere in the world to meet him, hes hoping the overseas part of his job is temporary. My goal is to get everything straight in the first year and then move up to a corporate level and return to the States. If I do everything right, my replacement will be able to take it from there.After he finishes a training program in Houston this June, he will be in charge of fire stations in 44 locations in Asia and the Middle East. His job is to make sure all these locations, many of them in war zones, are running smoothly.After 20 years in the U.S. Southern Command, he had become familiar with working in war zones. He was part of both Desert Shield in 1990 and Desert Storm in 1991, helping to put out those fires spouting from oil wells in Kuwait. Its no surprise that KBR was confident in his ability to stay cool in hot spots.

5 famous novels that will reignite your creativity

5 famous novels that will reignite your creativity5 famous novels that will reignite your creativityI am a writer, and part of being a great writer means reading - a lot.Butreadinghas so many other benefits that people tend to forget, one of which being it works your brain in a different way thanreading blogs(like this one) or magazines or social media posts.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and moreReading a masterful novel and immersing yourself in the story is a workout for your brain. Youll be amazed how much richer your creativity will be after finishing a classic piece of literature.Here are 5 of my favorite novels ever written1. Lolita by VladimirNabokovLolitawas, and will forever be, an extremely controversial novel.It was written in the 1950s, and is the story of an older man who loves from afar a very young girl. Even in todays society, you can imagine peoples response to an ol der narrator that speaks delicately of the temptations this teenage girl arouses in him. It makes sense then why in the 1950s this story raised hell.Honestly, this book is tied for 1 for my favorite books. If you havent read it, you must. It is far from the creepy and inappropriate tale my synopsis paints it to be. The narrator is darkly hilarious, and will leave you laughing and astounded that something so uncomfortable could be so rich with material.Its a beautiful story, to say the least.2. Portnoys Complaint by PhilipRothAnother uncomfortable but uncontrollably funny story,Portnoys Complaintwas written in 1969 and is a fictional story about what it was like growing up as a child in a Jewish household.Philip Roth, himself, was Jewish, so Im koranvers you can imagine the storm this novel caused when it was published. Of course, he chalked it all up to fiction but later admitted of course that he used his own upbringing as inspiration.There is a reason this book has become an Ameri can classic. The writing style is brilliant It is told from the perspective of a boy, many years later, on a therapists couch, reflecting on his childhood. It is extremely self deprecating, and that is what makes it so fantastic.If you havent read it, you must.3. The Old Man And The Sea by Ernest HemingwayAn American classic and Pulitzer Prize winner in 1953,The Old Man And The Seais a novella and tells the tale of a fisherman and a young boy.In less than 130 pages, Hemingway has wrapped his characters so tightly in description and quirky traits that you cant help but wonder what the story is truly about - is it the fisherman, the boy, their relationship, the old mans relationship with the sea, etc.This is a very short story, but it is intended to be read slowly. Its writing style speaks of the story as much as the words themselves. Its rhythm moves like a tide, its sentence structure vast with a depth and yet still so very simple. The book is a reflection of the sea, and should be taken as such.You will emerge from this novel feeling renewed, that much I can promise you.4. The Glass Bead Game by HermannHesseAn obscure but magical story,The Glass Bead Gamewas published in 1943 in Switzerland.The author, Hermann Hesse, would go on to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1946, for hisclassical humanitarian ideals and high qualities of style.The Glass Bead Gameis not an easy read. It is a challenge because it is filled with so much so many themes, so much symbolism, and so many deeply complex messages. It is about a futuristic world existing without all the flying cars and robots and blah blah. Its primary setting, Castalia, is instead a place where extreme intellectuals devote themselves to what is called the glass bead game - a highly complex combination of music, mathematics, history and sciences.One of the key themes, of course, is the idea of mastery - and how far one will go to master their craft.It is a book that takes a few readings to fully unders tand, but even the first read will leave you more open-minded than when you began.5. The Firm by JohnGrishamAnd of course, a candy read.The Firm, later adapted into a film, is the book that put John Grisham on the map. It wasnt until this book was published that his first book,A Time To Kill, really picked up traction - and then from there, the rest is history.The Firmis a thick book that, I swear to you, I read in less than 24 hours, holding my breath the entire time. If there is one reason John Grisham has become such a successful author, it is the feeling he evoked in me, the reader, duringThe Firm. The story moves pages, and keeps you barreling towards the end the entire way.One part law, two parts mystery, you will be hooked from the first chapter.This article originally appeared on Inc Magazine.You might also enjoyNew neuroscience reveals 4 rituals that will make you happyStrangers know your social class in the first seven words you say, study finds10 lessons from Benjamin Fr anklins daily schedule that will double your productivityThe worst mistakes you can make in an interview, according to 12 CEOs10 habits of mentally strong people

What Makes a Recruiter Stop Reading Your Resume [Infographic]

What Makes a Recruiter Stop Reading Your Resume Infographic What Makes a Recruiter Stop Reading Your Resume Recruiters claim to spend five minutes reviewing each resume they receive, but they actually only average six seconds per resume, according to MightyRecruiter (full infographic below). Thats a 5000 percent discrepancy.Clearly, recruiters want to be perceived as being thorough when reviewing resumes. However, many recruiters dont have enough time to be as thorough as theyd like to be with each resume.Time Spent vs. Information LearnedBut how efficient can a recruiter be? Because good recruiters create good systems to increase the volume of resumes they receive, they are often looking for reasons to eliminate an applicant so that they can move on to evaluating the next talented candidate. A recruiter simply doesnt have time to consume an applicants entire professional story.Warren Myers, a seasoned automation professional, succinctly explains on Quora how resume evaluation can m ove from three seconds to fifteenseconds to actually reading the entire documentRead Warren Myers answer to Do hiring managers/recruiters really only spend 6-10 seconds reading each resume? on QuoraResume Red Flags Have Little to Do With QualificationsWhat causes a resume to be flagged as unqualified? According to MightyRecruiter, the top six resume red flags for recruiters areGrammatical mistakesQuirky and unprofessional email addressesShort tenures andno career progressionPoor content and organizationInconsistencies within a candidates online presenceIntangibles (e.g., voice, personality) that suggest a candidate wont be a good cultural fit.For a resume to pass the first round of screening, it must present professionally. In particular, that means eliminating grammatical mistakes and unprofessional email addresses, fixing poor content and organization, andmaking sure the document is consistent with your online presence.Time Is a Recruiters Most Valuable AssetWhile I dont condone r ecruiters recommending applicants based on traits unrelated to the job, I do understand that a recruiters ability to move quickly from a long list of applicants to a short list of quality candidates will determine a lot of their professional success.Techniques that can efficiently red-flag applicants are as important as techniques that can efficiently fast-track applicants. If recruiters use resumes asthe primary collateral for evaluating candidates, then recruiters must learn to evaluate resumes asefficiently as possible. Its an ongoing battle between meeting a companys qualifications and giving each applicant a ritterlich evaluation, all within the limited time of a recruiters day.Would be great to hear from you How can resume evaluation become more efficient?David Smooke is CEO and partner at the digital storytelling firmArtMap Inc.and its media arm,AMI Publications. You can read more of his recruitment content on42Hire. Find him onLinkedIn,Twitter, andFacebook.Master the art of closing deals and making placements. Take our Recruiter Certification Program today. Were SHRM certified. Learn at your own pace during this 12-week program. Access over 20 courses. Great for those who want to break into recruiting, or recruiters who want to further their career. Like this article? We also offer tons of free eBooks on career and recruiting topics - check out Get a Better Job the Right Way and Why It Matters Who Does Your Recruiting. document.write(Read more ) in Resume