Amazing Resumes

Starting a job search can be an overwhelming and stress-provoking experience for some people. But it doesn’t have to be for you… Not if you approach it in the right way. You CAN have a successful job search, using the tips and advice you will find in this article.

Step 1: Know Where to Look for the Great Jobs

When most people begin a job search, they start with the Employment section of their local newspaper. But that is not the best place to find your dream job. Why? Simply because the best jobs are seldom found in the newspaper.

You may not want to hear this, but many times you can find the best jobs by tapping into “who you know.” Networking is absolutely the best way to locate a job. When you do a job search, talk to everyone you know about what you’re looking for. It’s hard to predict who might give you that valuable lead to your next job.

Recruiters or staffing consultants are also a great way to find a job. Many times, employers will outsource recruitment to a staffing firm. So those jobs are never listed in any public venue… only the staffing firm knows about them!

In today’s technologically-oriented world, the Internet is another way to conduct a job search. You still won’t always find the best jobs listed online, but you can get a much broader exposure by registering with a few online job search websites, such as Yahoo Jobs or CareerBuilder.

Step 2: Know What the Employer Wants

Employers care about more than your skills and experience. They’ll also want more intangible qualities, such as the ability to work as part of a team, creativity, and organization, depending on the job. They may also be looking for qualities unique to their corporate culture or employee expectations. Make it your business to find out as much as you can about what each employer is looking for before you begin your job search.

Step 3: Put Together a Powerful Resume and Killer Cover Letter

Once you’ve located a job you want to go after, you will need a resume and cover letter that will attract enough attention to make the employer want to interview you. You need to think of your resume and cover letter as a sort of “sales tool” that will convince the employer that you are the only one for the job.

There are many resources for writing resumes and cover letters on the Web and at your local bookstore and you are encouraged to learn as much as you can on this topic if you want to succeed in your job search. Or, if you prefer, you can always hire an expert to write them for you.

Here are a couple of quick tips. Your resume should be written clearly, simply, and to the point. Use lots of bullets and action words to highlight your accomplishments, rather than long paragraphs. Focus on quantifiable results, such as “Made a suggestion that streamlined operations and saved company $2500 in the first quarter”.

Your cover letter should not be a rehashing of your resume, but it can and should highlight specific points or expand on certain areas. Cover letters should always be customized to the employer and the job you are applying for. That is the single factor most likely to get you an interview.

Step 4: Prepare for Interviews Thoroughly

The interview is your opportunity to make a strong positive impression. It is essential that you prepare for it if you want to succeed in your job search. Take time to research possible interview questions the employer may ask and think carefully about how you plan to answer. Be prepared to discuss what you have to offer the employer.

It is also a great idea to have questions of your own for the recruiter. So take time to research the company before the interview. This is usually easy to do if they have a website. Think of some related questions about the company and about the job that you can ask and that will show your sincere interest, not to mention your thoroughness.

One set of questions you should always ask is what the next steps are after the interview. For example, how many other applicants do they have for the position, when do they expect to make a hiring decision, and will they let you know of their decision, one way or the other?

Step 5: Follow Up!

One of the most effective job search strategies, and one that is sorely underutilized by most job seekers, is following up. When you follow up consistently at different phases during the job search, you demonstrate your professionalism and your interest. As long as you are polite and considerate of the recruiter’s time, follow up should not be viewed as “annoying.”

After you submit a resume, application, and/or cover letter for a job opening, feel free to follow up within a reasonable time period to check on the status of your job application. As a rule of thumb, a week or two should be plenty of time.

After an interview, always follow up by sending a letter (or at least an email) to the interviewer to thank them for their time and for the opportunity to learn more about the job and the employer. This is also a chance for you to emphasize again what you have to offer the company.

And, if you haven’t heard about the employer’s decision on the job within a reasonable time frame (depending on what they told you about their recruitment process), it is perfectly permissible to contact them and ask.

Follow these five steps, and you are guaranteed to have a more successful job search.

Technorati Tags: education resume, job search, resume sample

Life experience
degrees are becoming increasingly popular for the many
people who want to receive credentials for credible work,
experience, education and skills. There are many professionals
who do not have a graduate or undergraduate degree in their
field of work and find life experience degrees appealing. They
have excelled and have the experiential knowledge of their
degreed counterparts who receive more pay and more status only
as a result of a college diploma. A life experience degree
provides recognition for personal and professional achievements
through many online life experience degree programs.

If you are tired of not getting that promotion just because you
do not have a graduate degree, a life experience degree may
provide the boost you need to succeed. Perhaps you want to
increase your earning potential by adding a life experience
degree to your personal resume. Life experience degrees are
offered online by many credible educational institutions. Life
experience degrees in the areas of business, education, fine
arts, and sciences can be acquired. There are many other
specialized life experience degrees from which to choose among
the many undergraduate and graduate life experience degree
levels.

A life
experience degree can be obtained through online sources
usually within a short period of time. Sometimes in as little as
two weeks, you may be awarded a life experience degree in the
field of your expertise. The cost of life experience degrees is
reasonable, usually not more than a few hundred dollars,
depending on the degree program and the requirements. You may
apply for a life experience degree online by filling out an
application form provided by many life experience degree
schools. Requirements for life experience degrees are based on
the amount of formal education you may have already obtained,
the length of time you have invested in your chosen field, and
your professional skill level obtained.

Life experience degree applications also take into consideration
any community achievements, any awards you may have received,
and other personal and professional successes. A special
educational board from the life experience degree source is
equipped to analyze and access the application. Most life
experience degrees can be expected to be conferred within a
couple of weeks, if all goes well. Many online life experience
degree institutions are accredited by the Association for Online
Academic Excellence. AOAE is a private accrediting agency that
insures educational excellence and consistent standards for
online learning. “Set your affection on things above, not on
things on the earth.” (Colossians 3:2)

For more information about life experience degree, visit: http://onlinedegrees
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Technorati Tags: degree, education resume, resume

For one, sales cover letters are pretty much identical to business cover letters in their format or rules, but differ crucially in their content. Your cover letter reflects directly on your ability to “make the sale”.

Sales Cover Letter Basics

So here are the basics of sales cover letters. Sales cover letters must be written on a clean bright white paper and must be delivered to the addressee in an equally decent, stiff envelope. It must have contact information and three paragraphs neatly typed in their designated places. Cover letters are completely devoid of trivial things such as spelling and grammatical errors. So, it goes without saying that the letters must be proofed and edited a couple of times to thrash the trash. So if you think the language or tone of the letter needs drafting and redrafting, just go ahead and do it. But at the same time, remember that the cover letter must be limited to less than a page long to ensure complete reading.

Selling Ice Cream To Eskimos

Making the big bang with HR is the fundamental quality of sales people. The fact is, all companies need sales people, all the time - the question is why they should hire you. In the body of the sales letter, usually the second paragraph, including a couple of examples of selling under trying, extenuating circumstances to hesitant/unwilling customers and making it the focus point of the entire cover letter will turn the tables in your favor. But this should be done with aplomb without throwing off the balance of the rest of the letter.

Dedicate a few lines to explain how you beat the competition – which eventually becomes the point of discussion among every company executive. Employers will be only too happy to invite you for an interview if you can prove that you can bring in money regardless of the circumstances. Sales cover letters should exhibit the character traits of successful sales people – friendly and pushy in nature and being able to effectively convince others into buying their products. Sales people are some of the most prolific speakers with a good command of language skills and voice modulation. They also get friendly with people easily and love to talk.

The bottom line is that landing a sales position is all about the money. If you can show in your cover letter good sales figures and compare and contrast positive figures before and after your tenure, then you will have a good shot at landing the interview. Balance this with examples of your aggressiveness, determination and ability to outwit the competition, and you will be well on your way to landing your next sales position.

Technorati Tags: cover letter, education resume

One of the biggest concerns in creating a resume has to do with your professional experience. Before you begin your resume, consider the following questions.
-    What is your career objective?
-    Are you changing careers or looking for professional growth?
-    What experience have you had so far that will help in meeting your professional goals?

To get started in developing your resume, list all of your previous experience, in chronological order, starting with your latest job on a piece of paper. List the dates of employment, your job title, the full company name and the location of your employment. Now, consider just how much experience you have had. In recent years, it has become more commonplace to change jobs more frequently and not build your career in one place. As such, it is possible that someone with ten years of professional experience following college has had over three jobs. That doesn’t seem all that much to include on a resume, right? Consider someone with over 30 years of experience. It is important to set limits on what you include and what you can freely exclude from your resume under your professional experience.

Ideally, your resume should not exceed two pages. Depending on the type of jobs you have held and your responsibilities, having only two pages doesnít account for a lot of space. The best practice for listing your experiences is not to exceed the most recent five jobs you have held. Again, keep the mind the length of the resume when you are deciding on the number of jobs you will list ñ if your last five jobs and their accompanying responsibilities will take over one page alone, than consider narrowing the experience down to the three most recent positions you had. Also, consider the time you spent at each organization you have worked for and list up to the last ten to fifteen years of experience. It is not necessary to list every job you’ve ever had to showcase your qualifications and years of experience. If you have a long professional career, focus on the last three to five jobs, but use the profile or summary at the beginning of the resume to highlight the number of years you have spent working, or the number of years you have spent in a certain industry, acquiring specific skills.

When listing your experiences, it is important that you do so in chronological order without skipping any of the jobs you have held. While you may feel that certain jobs are not particularly complimenting to your current career objective you should not avoid listing them on your resume. Work on highlighting the responsibilities that are transferable across various industries. Leaving any unexplained gaps in your work history will raise questions by your potential employer ñ thus donít create those gaps on your resume by listing your experience out of order or by skipping jobs you have had. Finally, make sure that your cover letter accounts for any additional qualifications you would like to bring to the attention of your potential employer that you didnít include on the resume.

Your resume should be concise, well written, and sell you as the best candidate for the job. Just remember that it is quality over quantity that counts.

Technorati Tags: education resume, experience resume, resume examples, resume how to write, samples resume

People think of their resume as a collective of their education, skills and professional experience. Many employers rely on resumes as form of job applications for the open positions within their organizations. Thus it is very important that you have a well-written resume prepared when searching for jobs.

Creating a resume is not an easy task, even if you are a professional with years of experience and many skills. However, composing a resume when you are looking to completely change careers, or when you are fresh out of school is much more difficult, because you do not have any experience to highlight.

If you are changing careers, and nothing from your past professional experience qualifies you for the new job you are seeking, highlight those qualifications that can be transitioned along the various industries. For example, if you’ve managed people, no matter the type of business, you should highlight this under your experience. Rather than not highlighting your professional experience, even if it is not directly related to the job you are seeking, you should consider writing a professional profile, or summary at the start of your resume. The summary will allow you to address the career change by highlighting your skills and how they relate to your career objective. In addition, this is one situation where it is ok to reference any volunteer or community service work that you have done if it can help promote your qualifications for the job.

If you are fresh out of college, and don’t have much to bring to the table in terms of full time professional experience, donít get discouraged in creating your resume. Focus on highlighting your skills and your education. Avoid using a professional profile, or summary. Rather, list your career objective and start the resume by listing your education. Make sure to mention any awards or honors you received while in school. Following your education, list all the skills that will qualify you for the job you are seeking. Make sure to mention any courses, such as project management or business communication that you have taken and can apply at work. Instead of listing any experience, title the section ‘Pre-professional Experience’ and divide it into categories applicable to your career objective. For example, instead of say that you spent a summer working at the Gap, use a sub-heading of ‘Customer Relations’ and list any responsibilities where you have provided customer service. Tap into any community service, volunteer, or school club positions you have held in order to highlight your abilities and showcase that you are the best candidate for the job.

Don’t be afraid of not having the right experience, or not having any professional experience to include in a resume. Focus on what you can do rather than what you don’t have the experience in doing and you will have a winning resume.

Technorati Tags: education resume, experience resume, how to write resume

Having a well-formatted resume is almost as important as having a well written resume. Most employers receive a stack of resumes of qualified candidates and scan them quickly before they decide whether or not hey want to read further. In addition to key words, what stands out the most about your resume is its format. It is essentially the first thing people will notice, whether on paper or in electronic form.

There are a number of rules you should keep in mind when formatting your resume. First, start with a blank page. Avoid using templates that are already available in Microsoft Word. These templates are outdated, and they will make your resume appear generic and uninviting. Additionally, these templates, while well formatted in Microsoft Word, will not translate well when emailed or uploaded to job search engine web sites. You can find samples of resumes on the Internet; search for resumes by your industry to find the templates that make most sense for the job you are seeking. Than work on a blank page to replicate the look and feel of the resume you like.

Ideally, your resume should fit on one page; if you have extensive experience, limit the length of the resume to two pages, but only list experiences and skills relevant to your career objective. Even if you are applying for a job in a creative field, do not insert images or pictures into your resume. If you are looking to show off your creativity, you can do so in a separate portfolio of your work.

The page should have one inch margins, top and bottom, right and left. Use left justification only ñ as a rule, do not center the content of your resume. The font and font size should be consistent. Your name, and any headlines in your resume should be displayed in the same manner. Typically, the headlines will be in all caps, and in bold. Try not to underline any of the information in your resume. In the world of Internet driven job applications, underlining in a document implies a web link. Thus, using underlining for emphasis is not appropriate. The font size for headlines should not exceed 14 points; the remainder of the text in the resume should not exceed 12 points.

When trying to align your resume, be ware of spacing and tabbing. Stay consistent in the way that you are spacing out the information on the page. Use tabs, rather than spaces. You always have to anticipate that the person you are sending your resume to may have a different version of the software than you and thus may not see the exactly the same resume you are sending ñ it is possible that the margins will reset, paragraphs will shift, bullet points will change shape, etc. This is why you must keep the spacing consistent, as well as try to keep the font and the bullet points as basic as possible.

As a last formatting check point, ask your friends or your family for help in reviewing your resume. Send the resume file via email to a few of your friends ñ ask them to review the resume and make sure nothing seems out of place. Print out the resume on paper and review to make sure that margins are accurately set, and that the content doesnít appear crowded on the page. Keep in mind ñ when it comes to your resume, sleek simple appearance, and great writing, will get you the job you are looking for.

Technorati Tags: education resume, experience resume, how to format your resume

A resume is a one- to two-page document summarizing your career objectives, professional experiences and achievements, and educational background. The heading of the resume should contain your name, address and contact information. The body of the resume should be broken into the following sections: career objective, profile/summary, professional experience, achievements, scholastics, and references.  Your career objective should be brief, up to two sentences; it should give your potential employers an idea of how you wish to move forward in your professional life. A concise profile or a summary should discuss who you are and how your skills and experience best apply to the job you are interested in. The summary, as well as other parts of your resume, should not contain personal information that discloses ethnicity, sexual orientation, marital status, age, living situations, or any other personal information that is not directly related to your career. Personal profile/summary should only contain a few well-written sentences that convey what you can bring to the table in terms of the specific job. Use this section to attract the employerís attention, but donít go overboard in trying to be creative ñ stay professional.  Your experience listing should include information on one to five jobs youíve held, starting with your current or last job, and listing previous positions in chronological order.

The listing should include the date range of your employment, name of the companies or person(s) you have worked for, and the city and state where the place of employment is located (full address of employment is not necessary). List your title and your main responsibilities, with emphasis on duties that are applicable to the type of work you are seeking.  Your education should include college, graduate and post-graduate work, as well as any courses or professional certifications that are relevant to your career development. Achievements, volunteer positions, publications and interests should only be listed if they apply to your professional work experience References should be listed if requested; best practices suggest not to list generic statements about references being available upon request as this is understood.

So what is a resume In the competitive, internet-driven world of job searches, your resume represents you to potential employers. It serves as your tool to attract attention, get the interview and/or get a job. A great resume will make you stand out from other candidates by showcasing your aptitudes. Think of your resume as your sales pitch ñ you need to sell yourself in the best possible way. Invest some time and research into developing your resume. You will want to make sure that your resume is error free ñ double check your grammar and spelling, make sure that all company and school names and cities are spelled properly. A resume containing errors, no matter how minimal, will give your potential employer an impression that you do not have attention to detail, that you donít take time to double check your work, and that you are a poor communicator. Additionally, make sure that your resume is formatted well. Stick to basic fonts, like Arial and Times New Roman.  Keep the font size and color standard; donít use large fonts or multi-colors in your resume. Donít go overboard with bold, italicized, or large-cap text. Keep your format consistent and make sure that the resume looks great when viewed online as well as when printed out. Keep your resume to one or two pages ñ any additional pages give an impression that you either donít know how to concisely summarize your education and experience, or that you are listing unnecessary information for the sake of taking up space. If youíve never written a resume before, reference books, Internet resources or seek assistance from a professional resume writing service.  A well-written resume can make a difference between being stuck at your current job and getting an interview to land the job of your dreams.

Technorati Tags: education resume, experience resume, how to write a resume