|
Organize and de-clutter your job search
Abridged: Jobing.com
DENVER, CO -- January always seems to bring about the urge to clean that manages to suppress itself during the rest of the year. Suddenly, you are motivated to organize and de-clutter your life. You should also be reassessing and reorganizing our job search tools. Now is the perfect time to sit down with your resume, cover letter and job hunting strategy to see what needs to be retired and what needs to be added .
Your resume is your opportunity to show an employer why you are qualified for their open position. Your resume should entice an employer to stop what they are doing, pick up the phone, and schedule a face-to-face interview. This is a good time to review previous experience that you may have left out of your resume. You may want to make a list of all previous positions and consider what is relevant.
Your cover letter is your introduction to a potential employer. It should tell the recruiter why you are applying and a little about you. Cover letters are meant to be brief. Elaborate on past experience as it relates to this new role. Review the company website for information you can use to show you're a good fit for their culture. Above all, stay focused. A cover letter should introduce who you are, discuss why you are applying for the position, and why you would be a great fit.
Get your resume critiqued by a professional writer
Staff Writer, The Career News
LOS ANGELES, CA -- You've got terrific experience. Your work ethic is superb. You're even willing to be flexible on salary. But after sending your resume to countless, perfectly matched management opportunities, you're just not getting the interviews! Why? It may be hard to believe, but there's a good chance your resume is the culprit. With the average employer spending less than 30 seconds scanning each resume they receive, your resume needs "The Right Stuff" to grab attention and get the interview.
What is the Right Stuff? To find out, The Career News arranged for its subscribers to receive a complimentary resume critique and price quote from a certified professional resume writer, specializing in resumes for management level job candidates.
You'll not only find out what's right with your resume -- but more importantly, if it is actually preventing you from getting interviews. While the critique doesn't cost you a penny and is valuable, you'll also learn how a professional writer might successfully re-vamp your resume and refine your job search strategies -- and exactly what that would cost. This may just start making you money quicker than you think! Get your complimentary resume critique today!
Make online job ads work for you
Abridged: www.3news.com
NEW YORK, NY -- How do you get noticed in a now crowded market? And how frustrating is it when you notice some jobs are advertised more than once? Karla Barker was made redundant when she lost her sales support role last October, but she was not panicking. She had been through recruitment agencies before and it was easy. However, this time she noticed something quite frustrating - some jobs were being advertised more than once.
It's not uncommon for some companies to put up the same listing seven or eight times of the same job. Unfortunately this creates a false impression of what is available. Why are some jobs listed over several categories? The main reason is that agencies have a quota on job boards that they have to use up. So if they have one job they may place it three times on the job board.
Don't be afraid to believe in yourself. The bottom line is that if you see a job ad and believe you are right for the job then send in your resume! After responding to the internet job ad, make sure to follow up with a call. The more you understand about what's actually out there on the job boards, the easier it is to adjust your goal posts and reset your expectations.
Recent job fair reports companies are still hiring
Abridged: TimesUnion.com
ALBANY, NY -- At a recent job fair at Marriott hotel, a Times Union - sponsored event, job seekers came by bus and by car. Some came dressed to the nines, while others wore T-shirts, jeans and baseball caps. They formed a line - hundreds long - before the 10 a.m. opening of the job fair. By the 5 p.m. closing of the fair, the total had reached nearly 2,000. And they all came with the same mission: Find. A. Job.
That's not necessarily an easy task in today's competitive job market. With the number of unemployed people climbing, the competition is tough and getting tougher. Despite the fear that the economy will only weaken, this job fair was an optimistic event - proof that some companies are still looking for new workers! Granted, few of the jobs at the fair would allow someone to buy a Ferrari or a second home in Vail. Many of the jobs were entry-level positions. However, they were still sought-after positions.
And recruiters said they found the job seekers to be more serious than at prior job fairs. They are seeing some real go-getters. The quality of talent is much better these days. Not everyone who attended the fair, of course, left with a job offer. However job seekers are advised to not get discouraged. There's still a lot more opportunity out there.
Job Seekers: Don't get beat by the competition
Staff Writer, The Career News
LOS ANGELES, CA -- To land a job over the competition, you have to work smarter. The hard part is to get your resume read by the right people at the right time. Good jobs aren't on the market very long. To succeed your resume has to be available to the employer the moment they decide to fill a position.
One easy way to be found by employers who are looking to hire someone with your skills, is to post your resume on all the top career sites. As soon as an employer needs someone, this is the first place they look. It's a proven, documented method of successful job searching. While it may take a fair amount of time to find and fill out the forms of all these sites, you will definitely multiply your chances of landing a job.
If you want all the benefits without all the work, you can use a service like ResumeRabbit.com to do it for you. You fill out one simple form and they'll instantly post your resume on up to 100 career sites like Monster, Job.com, CareerBuilder, Net-Temps, Dice and more. Then you'll be seen by over 1.5 million employers & recruiters daily. It takes only 5 minutes and saves you 60 hours of research and data entry. Give Resume Rabbit a try today!
Networking 'a must do' in tough times
Abridged: The National Post
SEATTLE, WA -- Janel Landon, who runs a small PR consultancy in Chicago, has long been aware of the potential of online networks. Now in her mid-fifties and facing a global recession, she has signed up. Professional networking is a 'must do' during unstable economic times. The global economic crisis has caused a spike in usage of professional networks as people hedge against losing work and laid-off employees seek jobs.
Given that a lot of professionals are losing or are worried about losing their job, it makes sense career-focused social networks should see a boost in traffic. It's estimated that the size of the online professional social-networking market for 2008 was $170 million.
Bryan Webb, a 57-year-old sales manager, said he has been looking for jobs on LinkedIn. It took him a while to build up his network that could help him find a job, but joining the network paid off last year. He started by sending an application in response to an ad, but later found three people from the firm including the head of operations in his LinkedIn network. He asked his network friend to pass on a recommendation to a third person, who was connected to the chief executive at the company where he had applied.
Complimentary business cards for networking
Staff Writer, The Career News
BOSTON, MA -- Up to 80% of job seekers today find their jobs through networking. That's because it works. Some great places to network are Alumni Events, Job Fairs and Professional Industry Association functions. No matter where you go, employed or not, you must always carry a fresh supply of business cards to hand out when the time is right.
There's nothing worse than making a great contact, searching for a pen and writing your number on a napkin - that they're sure to lose. Personal business cards project an image of professionalism and leave a lasting impression.
Complimentary for The Career News Subscribers: Get 250-free-premium quality, full color business cards, an $85 value (there is however a very small shipping and handling fee). Using pre-designed online templates, you can create professional, attractive business cards in seconds. Instantly preview the cards online before submitting your order. To get your complimentary business cards, go to VistaPrint.
How safe is your job?
Caela Farren, Ph.D., President of MasteryWorks, Inc
FALLS CHURCH, VA -- Is your job crucial to the organization's purpose and mission? Is your job directly related to income and the bottom-line? Do key people in the organization know the contribution your job makes to the bottom line? Would it be difficult to outsource your work? Are you seen as irreplaceable? Have you acquired the skills necessary to keep pace with changes in your industry?
If your answers were YES to most of the questions, chances are very good that your job is relatively secure. If your answers were NO, your job may be at risk. What can you do to safeguard your job? First and foremost, individuals must recognize their profession and must understand and assess where their profession fits into an organization.
You can best safeguard your job if you choose a profession that is crucial to the organization's mission, directly related to the bottom-line. If management recognizes the contribution you make to the company and you have achieved some degree of mastery in your profession, you will probably be seen as irreplaceable. |
