management | Robin's Resumes (r)

Resumes for Spa Managers

Feb 27 2022

Although spas were never considered essential services during the pandemic, people rushed back to their spa regimes in the first six months of 2021. While spas still have not returned to pre-pandemic levels, they did see a 26% growth during the summer of 2021, according to Yelp. Smaller, boutique spas have recovered better than larger spas.

For spa managers, therefore, the job market is softer than for many other careers. However, if you want to progress in your career as a spa manager, there are several steps you can take:

Get a college degree, preferably in hospitality, business administration, marketing, and/or finance. Many spa managers have learned their careers on the job, with perhaps an associates degree, but a 4-year degree will give your career a boost.
Hone your people management skills. If you lack opportunities on the job, then grab the chance to manage nonprofit volunteers or get certifications. For example, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) offers a People Manager Qualification training program for anyone who manages a team.
Practice your communication skills. As a spa manager, you must interact with staff, clients, and vendors; you may need to oversee or write marketing materials; and you may need to present reports to spa owners or stakeholders.

The many types of spas, from boutique to medical, offer different opportunities, and you should have a clear understanding of the type of spa that appeals to you and suits your personality. According to Zippa Careers, most spa managers in the United States are female (over 79%) but that still leaves opportunity for males. Most of them work for companies with over 500 employees. However, some spa managers are entrepreneurs, owning their own local spa. Spa management is also a international career; for someone good at languages, opportunities are available on every continent.

If you are ready to start or grow your career in spa management, contact Robin’s Resumes®. We provide resumes, LinkedIn profiles, and career marketing packages that make employers take notice.

Strategic Talent Development and Your Resume

Dec 04 2016

Strategic talent development has several aspects: the ability to mentor others, the leadership and other soft skills required to advance oneself, and the perspective needed to see talent gaps in an organization. If you are applying for a job in middle to upper management—up to and including the C-level—your resume must reflect your abilities in strategic talent development and management.

First, strategic talent occurs at every level of an organization. Your ability to recognize and mentor it is an important soft skill. Your resume should show solid results from your mentoring, perhaps by reorganizing teams for greater productivity, developing direct reports into management roles, conducting training at your company’s request, or reducing turnover.

Second, your resume should show your commitment to developing your own talents. Perhaps you were chosen out of a number of candidates for a particular role; perhaps you were quickly promoted within your company; or perhaps you took courses in leadership or in a technology important to your company. Speaking engagements and opportunities to serve as a subject matter expert in your field are excellent indicators of your talent.

Finally, companies need employees who can help to reach their goals. The achievements on your resume should show that you understand the strategic goals of organizations and how to reach them. Your resume should show how your talents align not only with the goals of your current company, but with the goals of the company where you want to work. You should research the pain points of that prospective company and address them in your resume or cover letter.

Did you help create job descriptions and performance metrics that built a clear path for employee advancement? Did you find ways to engage employees who were resisting change or seemed unable to meet goals? Did you turn around a division or an entire company? Did you help identify areas where your company could better align existing talent and strategic goals? Did you institute training or mentoring programs? All of these activities show that you are aware of the importance of strategic talent development and management.

Robin’s Resumes® helps management and C-level professionals to create resumes that reflect their skills in strategic talent development and management.

Management Resumes: Leaving Management

Feb 07 2016

In a company where I used to work, a newly promoted manager decided after a year that he did not like management. He wanted to remain hands-on with projects rather than dealing with people issues and paperwork. Fortunately, he worked in a large company that was responsive to the employees. His request to step down from management was accommodated with few problems.

But if you are a manager who wants to step down from management, you may have to look outside your current company for an opportunity. Here are a few points to keep in mind:

Make sure your problem is with the management role, not the company. You may find that you like being a manager if you are in a smaller or larger company or different industry sector or different company culture.
Make sure you are clear about your reasons for leaving management. When you network and interview, you must be comfortable with your decision. If you are comfortable with your decision, others will be comfortable recommending you and considering you for job openings.
Make sure your hands-on skills are still current. While technical skills are the most likely to become dated, every field has some aspect that changes over time. If your skills need refreshing, take relevant courses and obtain relevant certifications.
Consider whether you would accept a contract or consulting position to transfer back into the hands-on arena. A temporary or consulting position is a good way to transition and to hone your hands-on skills.
Make sure your resume puts the correct emphasis on your hands-on skills. You might create a section called (for example) “Relevant Experience” that lets you highlight hands-on achievements before you describe your management achievements.

As a professional resume writer, I can help you refocus your resume toward a company where you would be happier as a manager or away from management entirely.

Management Resumes: Changing Companies

Jan 31 2016

By the time most people reach a management position, they may have spent years in a particular industry or a particular company. Moving from one company or industry to another while keeping or advancing your position may be tricky. Here are a few important tips for your resume:

Make sure you know your own strengths and highlight them. “Management” covers a lot of skills, including people, financial, regulatory, production, assets, vendors, subcontracting, and office management. Where do you want to focus your career? Where is your expertise? Hiring managers and recruiters are not going to hunt for your strengths; your resume has to tell them.
Many individuals enter management positions from other fields, such as finance, legal, or technical. Your prior positions may give you a depth of industry experience that other managers lack. By keeping your goal in mind (a management job in X industry with X company), you can decide how much emphasis to give to that earlier experience.
Job titles vary from industry to industry and from company to company. Do not become so stuck on a title that you miss the opportunity to broaden your managerial experience and move to the next level.
Focus in on the keywords most important to the industry or company you are targeting and then demonstrate through achievements that you have the skills and experience represented by those keywords. For example, in your profile you might say, “managed P&L.” But in the bullet points, be sure to give the details: “Held full P&L responsibility for $45 million autoparts division.”
As always, numbers speak. Indicate the value of your accomplishments in dollars, percentages, or other figures (“increased closure rate on sales 25% in first six months by removing underperformers and mentoring remaining sales staff”). Employers like candidates who can deliver tangible results.

It may have been years since you sought a management job on your own, relying instead on promotions or calls from headhunters. If you need the help of a professional resume writer for any reason, please contact me.

Management Resumes: Applying for Your First Management Job

Jan 24 2016

At some point in your career, you may be ready for the responsibilities and challenges of managing other people. The company where you work may not recognize that moment as quickly as you do. If you feel you must move on to move up into management, Robin’s Resumes® can help.

Here are a few things you can do to strengthen your resume for applying for management positions:

Attend courses, webinars, and seminars that focus on managing people, time, and/or finances. An MBA is not essential for all management positions, although it can be helpful, but you should show that you have educated yourself on the role.
Obtain any relevant certifications in your field (for example, Project Management Professional or Six Sigma or LEED certification). Again, these certifications may not be essential but they add to your qualifications.
Take advantage of opportunities at work to lead, whether as a member of a 2-person committee or as a supervisor of 20.
If you cannot find any opportunities at work, then find them in volunteer or civic leadership positions.
Keep a careful record of the impact of your leadership. For example, if you are asked to choose a new vendor for the company, make sure you know where the previous vendor failed, where the new vendor succeeds, and the impact on the company: “reduced time to respond to help desk requests by 5 minutes per call by changing telephone providers.”
Remember that you are applying for management. You should be prepared to help your resume writer with examples of how you motivated people, defused difficult situations, liaised with other departments or vendors, saved an organization money, and so on.

And finally, hire a professional resume writer who will focus your management resume, identify hard and soft skills you may have overlooked, and make sure that your resume and cover letter contain the keywords that hiring managers and recruiters are looking for a manager. Contact Robin’s Resumes® today.