Posts Tagged ‘resumes’

Need Help with Job Searches Online?

Monday, June 8th, 2009

One the ongoing questions I receive from customers, family, and friends are, “What should I be doing to find a great job?” So this week, I thought I would begin posting a series of all proven steps to landing interviews and ultimately a great job. Here are few steps to get you started.

-Start Every Day with Positive Attitude: This is simple step but the most critical in your job search. At some point, you will be faced with anger, frustration, and disappointment in your job search results. Remember you are competing against an unprecedented number of many other qualified job seekers. The key is to remind yourself everyday that you are going to land an outstanding job! See you nailing that interview and accepting a great high paying job.

Don’t fall into downward spiral of a pity party. If you have said this to yourself…

“No one wants to hire me”
“I’ve submitted tons resumes online and heard nothing”
“No companies are hiring”
“I don’t have the experience”
“I have not heard back”
“I give up”

You will fail and most importantly lose a tremendous amount of confidence in yourself during the process. What will define you from the competition is pushing yourself everyday and not giving up on your job search. Many will give up fast and spend over months or even years in this negative mindset. Don’t be that person.

Although a fundamental step, it’s the first point I make in coaching job seekers. If your head is out of the game, no career expert, book, or resource can ever help you. At the end, your relentless ambition is what will pay off BIG in this process.

-Identify & Establish Career Goals
As you look for your next opportunity, take some time to reflect on what your really want out of your career?

- What elements of your previous jobs did you find most fulfilling?
- What tasks or activities do you like to do?
- What is it that makes you want to get out of bed in the morning?
- Think about a time when you were praised or received recognition for something – what did you do
to earn the praise? How did you feel about it?
- What business environment do you thrive in (casual/formal, fast paced/steady, rules/less structure, individual/team oriented?)

By answering these questions you’ve basically created a profile of your main interests and the type of culture in which you want to work as you pursue those interests. These are your career goals.

-Enlist the help of Profession Resume Writer: If you like many other job seekers, developing your resume is a tedious process. Here’s why you should hire Resume Writer

o Very Difficult to Edit Your Own Work
o Writing Experts in the Field
o Understanding of what Employers want in Resumes
o Customized Resume & Cover Letter
o Faster 24-48 Hr Turn Around

CareerSolutionsCenter.com can help. Contact our Industry Leading Resume Staff Now: http://www.careersolutionscenter.com/resume_cat.php

-Define your Employer & Industry Focus: Hopefully you have already identified what type business environment you thrive the best in. Utilize these characteristics as you define your ideal companies and industries you want to focus on.

Research the company’s vision, culture, contribution to society, geographic locations, total compensation package, financial history and performance, etc… Make sure your interests and culture profile match up with your research and what you come to find from your interviewing experience.

-Develop your Professional Network Community– On average 50-60% of job seekers land jobs by tapping into their existing network or by actively networking with others. If you haven’t done so, start reaching out to your current network and build on it every day.

-Set up your Professional Networking Profile and expand your network on these sites:
http://www.Linkedin.com (Join Groups and Search Jobs)
http://www.zoominfo.com
http://www.naymz.com
http://www.konnects.com
http://www.biznik.com
http://www.plaxo.com
http://www.ziggs.com
http://www.Jigsaw.com
http://www.spoke.com

-Enlist the support of Professional Recruiters or Search FirmsI always suggest the support of Recruiters in your job search. They are well connected to reputable companies that are hiring. Another quick and efficient alternative is to distribute your resume

CareerSolutionsCenter.com has partnered with MyResumeAgent.com. Instant resume distribution to recruiters looking for you. Check out sites below.

https://www.myresumeagent.com

Directory of Executive & Professional Recruiters 2009-2010 is a critical resource for serious
Job-seekers.

http://www.recruiterredbook.com/

Set Your Resume On Fire with Resume Keywords & Phrases

Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009

What Are Resume Keywords?

Keywords are specific words or phrases that job seekers use to search for jobs and employers use to find the right candidates. Keywords are used as search criteria in the same way you do research on the web. The more keywords you use, the more closely the job will match what you’re really looking for.

Using the right keywords for your particular experience and education is integral to the success of your resume and cover letter if it is ever scanned or e-mailed into an electronic resume database. Without the right keywords, your resume will float in digital space forever waiting for a hiring manager or recruiter to find it. If your resume contains all of the right keywords, then you will be among the first candidates whose resumes are reviewed. If you lack only one of the keywords, then your resume will be next in line after resumes that have them all, and so on.

Your keywords are the experience and skills that come from the specific terminology or “buzz words” used in your job field. Where do can you find these key words and phrases? Here are some sources loaded with great industry key words.
• Major Search Engines (google.com, yahoo.com, msn.com, etc…)
• Online Job Postings on major job boards (indeed.com, monster.com, careerbuilder.com, hotjobs.com )
• Professional Association Sites (e.g. www.shrm.org, www.ieee.org)
• Free Resume Databases (e.g. jobvertise.com)
• Enlist help of our resume writing firm to assist in writing your resume
www.CareerSolutionsCenter.com

Most keywords are qualifications, and job-specific terms employers and recruiters look for in a job candidate. Here’s a list areas to consider when listing your keywords:
• Degrees or Certifications
• University or College Names
• Job Titles
• Product Names
• Technical Terms
• Industry Jargon
• Job-specific Buzzwords
• Company Names
• Service Types
• Professional Organizations
• Software or Hardware Packages
• Computer Lingo

Great Resume Key Words
• Strategic planning
• Performance and productivity improvement
• Organizational design
• Infrastructure development
• New media
• Internet
• E-commerce / E-Business
• Change management
• Team-building
• Leadership
• Competitive market
• Product positioning
• Investor and board relations
• Oral and written communications
• Problem-solving and decision-making
• MBA
• Project management
• Customer retention
• Business development
• Corporate vision
• Long-range planning
• Cost reduction

Resume Help: Action Verbs to Use in Your Resume

Acknowledge
Administer
Advise
Allocate
Anticipate
Analyze
Apply
Assist
Attend
Balance
Budget
Chair
Coach
Collaborate
Collect
Communicate
Compare
Compile
Complete
Comply
Comprise
Compute
Condense
Conduct
Consolidate
Consult
Counsel
Decide
Define
Design
Determine
Develop
Diagnose
Direct
Disseminate
Educate
Ensure
Establish
Estimate
Evaluate
Examine
Explain
Facilitate
Follow Up
Forecast
Formulate
Guide
Identify
Implement
Improve
Influence
Inform
Initiate
Innovate
Inquire
Inspect
Instruct
Interact
Interpret
Interview
Investigate
Lead
Listen
Maintain
Manage
Meet
Model
Monitor
Motivate
Negotiate
Organize
Participate
Perform
Persuade
Place
Plan
Prioritize
Process
Produce
Program
Project
Promote
Propose
Provide
Purchase
Recognize
Record
Recruit
Research
Respond
Restate
Review
Revise
Reward
Schedule
Search
Seek
Select
Sell
Serve
Solicit
Summarize
Support
Survey
Train
Treat
Troubleshoot
Update
Upgrade
Use
Validate
Write

Better Resumes Writing Tips

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

Hello all. Here are some resume tips that will help you during any economic conditions.

•Select the best format. A format that makes sense for someone else may be a big mistake for you. Use the format that fits your own history and goals. If you’ve worked in three positions for five years each and have no gaps, the traditional chronological résumé is perfect for you. If your work history is less straightforward, a format that emphasizes skills or accomplishments may work better. And if you’re just out of school, your work experience may be less important than the details of your education.

•Use an appropriate design. Your résumé should look good on the page, be easy to read, and bring the eye to the most important points.

•Make certain your document is error free. Check it carefully. Run the spelling checker. Inspect the grammar of every sentence. Read the résumé aloud to make sure you didn’t miss a few words. And get some friends to look it over too.

•Find a balance between wordiness and lack of detail.
•Do not use personal pronouns.
•Think “accomplishments” rather than “job duties.”

•Think like an employer. If you were receiving a 100’s of résumés for the opening you’d like to apply for, what characteristics would you want in an employee? These same characteristics should be highlighted on your résumé.

•Is one résumé enough? If you have multiple interests and careers, it may make sense to do several versions, rather than trying to cram it all into one unwieldy document. Customize as needed to each position.

•Always tell the truth. You may leave out information that hurts your chances, but anything on your résumé should be true — and you should be able to document all or most of it. Imagie, if a potential employer checks your information and discovers a lie, do you think you’re going to be offered a job? And more and more companies do check. In fact, if you’re not sure of any figures, it’s better to estimate too low than too high.

•Have your résumé reviewed by a professional! It’s very hard to be objective about your own résumé. A professional résumé writer can see very quickly if there are major problems or omissions that you hadn’t noticed. With their knowledge of the job market and current résumé trends, a few minutes’ review by a professional could be the difference between success and failure

For more information on professional resume writing services visit Career Solutions Center.
http://www.careersolutionscenter.com/resume_cat.php
OR Call #248-417-8705

Protect Your ID during your Job Search

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

This was excellent article and shocking to read. We all need to protect our identity. Good lessons for all of us in the hunt for jobs.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/05/18/news/economy/id.theft.fortune/index.htm

download Jacknife

1. Don’t put personal data on your resume. “Some information should never be disclosed on a resume, particularly if you intend to post it online,” says Miller. Do not list your date of birth, Social Security number, or home address. Likewise, if any of these, or a driver’s license number, is requested on a job application, says Miller: “You might consider writing ‘prefer to provide this during the interview.’ ” Employers don’t need to know this information until they’re ready to hire you, he notes — and in fact, asking your age is not legal anyway – and you should be suspicious of anyone who insists you disclose it before then.

2. Proceed cautiously with online job boards. “Not all job-posting sites are created equal,” says Miller. “Make sure you review the privacy policy and user terms and agreements before you post your resume.” When in doubt about a job site, Miller recommends checking it out with online resources such as the World Privacy Forum’s Consumer’s Guide to Online Job Sites.

Look for sites whose privacy policies, which are legally binding documents, state that the site won’t give or sell your resume or other information about you to third parties. The WPF also recommends checking to see if the site will let you “opt out” of tracking cookies (sometimes called profiling cookies or persistent cookies), which are tiny files some job sites allow advertisers to put on your computer so they can follow you everywhere you go on the Internet. Over time, this allows them to accumulate lots of information about you that you may prefer they didn’t have.

3. Know how to spot bogus job ads. “Despite the best screening efforts on the part of job sites, scammers always find a way in,” says Miller. You are probably looking at a fake job ad if it offers considerable pay with few or no duties; promises payment of wages in cash; includes no physical address or contact person; and/or requires you to open a new bank account or accept company checks to “test” a wire transfer service.

4. Keep a detailed record of your job search activity. Maintaining good records will not only help you track the progress of your search, it will also provide a paper trail if someone steals your identity. “Record where and when you distribute your resume, maintain lists of contact information for businesses and recruiters or hiring managers you come in contact with, and keep a record of any additional information such as job applications that you’ve provided to employers,” Miller says.

5. Limit the amount of information you post on social networking sites. A recent poll of Facebook users, by consumer research firm NextAdvisor.com, found that 27% listed their full name, date of birth, phone number, and e-mail address on their Facebook profile. An additional 8% revealed all that plus their physical address