Your employer just let you go. You need to find another job, but how should you handle your termination on your resume? The days when you signed on with a company and stayed with it until retirement are gone. In today’s climate, employers are much more understanding when they see a less-than-perfect work chronology, but you still have to be careful how and when you present a termination.

Do not put the termination or the circumstances surrounding it on your resume. You will have a much better chance of impressing hiring managers if you deal with this question in face-to-face interviews.

If you were recently let go, resist the urge to keep your position listed as “to present” on your resume, giving the appearance that you’re still employed. You will have to explain yourself later on, and potential employers might think you tried to mislead them.

It’s a different matter if you were laid off instead of fired. In this case, you can mention the lay off in your cover letter. Employers are more forgiving of layoffs, so mentioning this might work in your favor.

Focus on your accomplishments in your resume. Your goal is to wow your potential employers by highlighting those accomplishments and skills. Even if hiring managers are wondering why you left a certain employer, your resume should be strong enough for you to receive invitations to interviews in which you can explain your situation in person.

Be sure to list all of your contributions about a previous employer, even any that laid you off. This too can be a red flag to hiring managers. Talk about your responsibilities, overall contributions to the company and if you received any awards or special recognition. All of this will go a long way in your favor and that’s what you want.

A lot of people have probably already done this, but it is important to make sure your executive resume is customized, tailored, and geared toward you in a good light. The best way to know if your resume is working is this: Have you been called in for a job interview? If the answer is no, then it’s time to customize your resume and try something different.

Of course, you want your resume to be a professional piece and it will be, but think about something. How quickly does someone scan over your resume? Interviewers are looking at your skills and experience, which will alert them to the needs that they are hoping you will fulfill. That takes maybe 20 seconds, tops.

So, what do you need to do? Make it pop! Bold certain words throughout your resume so they pop off the page at someone. You’ve got their attention now, right? An example would be: “have 10 years experience as a Project Manager”. OK, that sentence is just sitting there. But if you use “have 10 years experience as a Project Manager“. Much better, right?

Also, be sure to use the same phrases and job descriptions that the potential employer is using. This makes them feel as if you have really read the job requirements and understand the position. It’s only a matter of critiquing your resume so that when viewed it takes on a whole new life.

There are a number of ways of customizing your executive resume. Find the ones that work best for you. You can always find suggestions and help online; it’s just a matter of where to look.

Who is the first person to see your resume when searching for a new job? It is usually the Human Resources Manager. That person probably will see dozens of resumes for a new job posting. It is imperative that you grab their attention with the cover letter to make them pause and look at your resume.

You don’t want your resume to be tossed to the side because of a sloppy cover letter or because you left out pertinent details. That is the quickest way to lose the prospect of a top executive position. Or any position for that matter.

The cover letter needs to be as well thought out as your resume. It needs to enhance your resume by highlighting the qualifications you have for the job you are applying for. Things to consider are:

• Research well the position you are applying for. Highlight your qualifications for that position. Make sure you include any achievements in that area of expertise.
• Introduce yourself in the first paragraph. Tell them about yourself (briefly) and why you would be the perfect person for the job.
• Keep the cover letter to one page and make sure all spelling, punctuation and grammar are correct. HR managers will quickly toss you aside if the cover letter is illegible.
• If sending via snail mail, don’t forget to sign the cover letter.

Make sure your resume and cover letter are on good quality paper. I prefer ‘White’. ‘Ivory’ tends to look dingy or dirty when compared with another candidate’s white resume. You don’t have to list all of your jobs for the past 20 years. But, make sure your qualifications and other skills are included in a positive way.

A strong, confident resume will go a long way in getting you in the door. You then have to carry that same confidence with a face-to-face interview. There are still a lot of executive positions in the job market, but qualifications alone won’t get you there. Be sure to explain your problem solving skills, how you have helped any previous companies save money, or if you have experience with managing multiple people.

Take a second look at your resume. If you think it needs improvement, consider using a resume writing service that will make your resume shine. Let the professionals help you stand out from the rest so you won’t get tossed in the corner.

You have just seen a posting for a job that you really, really want. Your resume is ready to be emailed, you just need to fine-tune your cover letter and hit “send”. One thing is holding you up…this job is asking YOU to communicate your salary requirements. Exactly how are you going to do that? No need to worry-we offer a few tips to get you on the right track.

• Look at the job title and description of qualifications/requirements. First, do you meet all of the requirements they are asking for? Even if you only have a portion of the qualifications listed in the job description, as long as you have the majority of them, you should still apply for the job.

• Research similar positions that are out there and see what salary ranges are being offered. There are hundreds of job sites (glassdoor.com is a good one) on the internet that post salary ranges for specific positions, and some will even show what those positions make in different geographic areas. If you are able to get compensation information, that would help you as well.

• What are you making at your current job? If you are making $55,000 per year now, it wouldn’t look good to demand $85,000 for the same type of position (unless the new position has more requirements and/or is a managerial role). Yes, you will want to up the ante from what you are making, but you still need to be realistic.

• If the salary range is not listed on the job posting, contact the employer and ask what the range is. If you have a lot of experience, put your salary requirements toward the top of the range. If you are basically new to the field or only have a few years of experience, go mid-range or a little lower. You can always move up the scale once you get your foot in the door and show them what you can do.

• Never list your salary requirements at the beginning of your cover letter! Draw them in with your qualifications and achievements, then end with your salary requirements.

• Once you have done all of your research and have established the salary requirements you’re going to ask for, list those requirements, as well as the compensation package in your current position toward the bottom of your cover letter. You can even let them know that you are willing to negotiate based on your qualifications, benefit structure, job responsibilities, and advancement opportunities.

If you do land an interview, revisit your facts and research and be prepared to discuss your salary requirements during the interview. While communicating your salary requirements may seem awkward at first, presenting your information in a professional manner based on facts and research will impress the employer and hopefully get you the job you are trying for.

The days of having a generic, all-purpose resume has been replaced by the need for highly developed, targeted resumes. Now you must tailor make your resume to fit into the job description offered by the employer. Targeted resumes aren’t just a necessity, they are critical to you finding long term employment. Targeted resumes put forth your best face and allow HR Managers to see exactly what you bring to the company.

Targeted resumes enable a job seeker to market their skills by addressing a specific concern for the company.  It allows them to see how your skills and past experiences will fit in closely with what they require. They also use targeted keywords that closely fit and attract attention to the needed qualifications for the position. You should play up your strengths and focus your attention there, but do not dismiss your past failures, embrace them and take responsibilities in them. But you don’t have to make them the focal point.

Chances are your resume is an all-purpose resume. What everyone likes about the all-purpose resume is that its broad and captures the wide appeal of employers. But saving time is not important, if you really want that job you have to have a complete targeted resume for each position you apply for. But don’t toss that original resume just yet, you still can use it as your base for completing your targeted resume.

Steps to creating a targeted resume

Use your all-purpose resume to build off of, this will save you some time in creating a brand new resume every time you apply for a job. It’s actually fairly easy to take your existing resume and tweak it to fit your needs. So here’s how you proceed:

Create your all-purpose resume

Think of everything that you’ve done in past jobs, experiences, education, clubs, sports teams, anything that you could use as a basis for who you are. Your all-purpose resume is the heart of your resume, employers will never see it but it will allow you to paint a lush picture of your overall capabilities.

Review the job requirements

If you find a job you are interested in, look over the job requirements in the ad. Review the requirements and see how your education and experience stack up with what they are looking for. You want the job to be a good fit and this is an important step of the process. Use the job requirements as your basis for altering your all-purpose resume. Highlight what the job requirements highlight. Tailor make your resume to fit what the company is looking for. Be careful not to overindulge.

Develop your targeted resume

When finished with researching requirements, you need to actually alter your resume. Look over your existing resume to see how you can alter it into the final product you will send to HR Managers. Add secondary keywords, accomplishments, training and skills to round out the resume. Your all set, now you just need to ace that interview.

 

You know how you always hear, “Typically, recruiters and HR managers look over a cover letter in less than a minute to determine if you’re a strong candidate?”  Well, I’m here to tell you that it’s TRUE. Your cover letter must prove to readers that you are a viable choice for the position, and we can show you just how to do that.

Make sure to choose the right greeting in your follow up email or letter.

If you have the person’s name and gender, include this in your greeting. Make sure to use the proper Mr., Mrs., Dr. or title along with their last name. Do not use their first name unless you know the person. If you do not know the gender of the person, you can use an introduction such as “Dear Danny Smith”.

It’s important to have the HR manager’s name correct. If you have questions, then call and ask for the information through the company, or look them up on Facebook or LinkedIn.

Reference the position title, company name and where you learned of the position.

An example of this: “I recently heard of Telecomm International’s open Corporate Liaison Officer position on Monster.com.” This information shortens the time it takes for HR managers to sort through resumes and increases the chances that your resume will be chosen.

Explain why you are the best person for the job.

You don’t want to do a repeat of your resume, but you do want to state how your background, qualifications and abilities will help the company succeed.

Example: “As my resume states, I have the talent, versatility and experience that comes with 20 years in corporate marketing, branding and public relations with Large Multinational Corporations as well as Local Well-Known Businesses. I also have years of experience as a Digital Freelancer working with Company Wide Initiatives that will definitely benefit your company.”

Be sure to include keywords from the job description and make use of power words to elaborate on your capabilities. Reinforce your relevant experience working with the job’s specific duties as well as your knowledge about needed computer programs which were indicated in the job description.

Be Brief.

If you send your cover letter through the mail, make sure it’s one page. Email messages should be kept to around 3-5 small-ish paragraphs. Your paragraphs need to be brief as to not take up too much time.

Include contact information and the best time and way to speak with you.

List your cell phone, home phone and the email address you use the most and let HR managers know how to best contact you through your preferred method. If you are currently employed or in a situation where you cannot return calls, make sure to leave a call back number, or list some times where you are free to talk.

Proof read your cover letter and email message.

Do this over and over until you are sure that everything is in place and you have mentioned the position, company name and included any applicable contact information.

Following these tips will help you to create cover letters and emails that will stand out to HR Managers and recruiters looking for their next candidate.

Many job seekers stress over cover letters more than they do their own resumes. It may surprise some, besides cover letters are typically a one-page preface to your intricately prepared resume. But, the truth is, that your resume may look dull without a good cover letter to introduce it. Cover letters introduce you to HR managers and set the tone for how your resume will be received. You can have a perfect resume, but if the cover letter is not well done, then your resume will not get the type of attention it deserves. Everyone looking for a job should have a professional cover letter and resume in order to find the career that’s right for them.

When you first enter the job market (most of us at around 21 years of age) don’t know how important cover letters are for you, much less how to write one that sells you. Many people are not aware of the benefits that a simple, well-crafted cover letter to a prospective employer can have. They introduce you to your prospective employer, but also they give a glimpse of your personality.

Just a few weeks into your job search, you will realize that a well-crafted cover letter is not an option, it’s a necessity. Through the support of a professional resume and cover letter writer, you can finally have the cover letter that sells your individual personality and traits. If you have a cover letter, it could always use another eye on it in order to see where you can make changes or additions. You want to sell yourself in your cover letter, your resume speaks to what type of experience and qualifications you have, that’s why it’s important to have a cover letter that sets you apart.

But, just having one is usually not enough. After a few weeks or months of unanswered applications and fruitless job searches, you begin to come to a final conclusion.

When you, or your cover letter writer, writes your first letter, the primary focus is on presentation and the format. How long should the cover letter be? Where to assign the date? What type of font is right for my cover letter? But, throughout you want to focus on one thing – quality content. If your cover letter is full of buzz words or just inane babble, then it’s not worth the paper it’s printed on.

It’s always important to remember, before you start writing, that content is king. It’s fairly easy to lose sight of what’s important and lose focus instead of paying attention to what’s important. That doesn’t mean that there are not guidelines to follow, but your cover letter writer can help you deal with the details. You do not want to have spelling or grammatical errors in your cover letter. That’s an instant turn off to any prospective employer. Remember that the main point of your cover letter is to get noticed and sell yourself.

The following is a guest post from careers writer, Brendan Cruickshank.

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The idea is such a joke that there is now a book out by this name, Overqualified by Joey Comeau. Comeau writes cover letters to send with resumes, but they are not your run of the mill cover letters. Instead, they are outrageous, over the top cover letters. Comeau writes cover letters that say things like “It sounds like the sort of job that I don’t even need to think about while I’m doing it,” and “I have been programming Perl for eight years, on every business appropriate platform there is, and I’ve been around long enough to understand that there are no human beings reading this.” Comeau writes his letters as a joke, but as with all jokes, there is a kernel of truth here.

And the truth is, people who are overqualified for a job get cynical and jaded. Please don’t apply for or take a job for which you are overqualified. Even if you are hired (and most employers know better than to hire someone who is grossly overqualified), that job will not only make you unhappy, but make everyone around you, at work and at home, utterly miserable.

Good human resources managers know this already: an underqualified and inexperienced candidate is preferable to an overqualified one any day. Why? If you are underqualified, but enthusiastic about a job, you can and will learn how to do it. Learning the job will give you a challenge – and employees who are appropriately challenged are a joy to be around. They approach their work with creative, open minds. They don’t bring with them any preconceived notions or entrenched bad habits that they learned from previous coworkers or managers. Most importantly, they are not burned out.

If you lack experience for the work that you are applying for, don’t try to hide that fact. Instead, play up the advantages: you are enthusiastic, eager to learn, bright, open, full of energy and ideas. Once you get to the interview stage, it will be relatively easy for you to show your enthusiasm for the job. But in your resume, it is harder. If you want a potential employer to notice your energy and enthusiasm, and ask you in for an interview, use your resume to highlight the experience that you do have, and to point out areas of your life in which you show tremendous energy and motivation, even if those areas come from volunteer work, internships, extracurricular activities, or sports that you participate in.

Then, write a compelling cover letter - not a Comeau-esque letter like the ones I’ve quoted above, but a letter that shows your personality and the ways in which you are personally a good fit for this kind of work. Take a humble approach. Write about what you think you can learn from the job you are applying for – what you can learn from your supervisors, from your colleagues, from the company itself. This might sound like a risk. It might sound as though you are highlighting your own lack of experience. In a sense, you are, but that’s okay. What you are really doing is showing that you are ready for something new – and that you are smart enough to recognize a good opportunity when you see it. Have you ever heard the expression, “flattery will get you everywhere?” Flattery may not get you everywhere, but in a good cover letter, it will get you in the door for an interview – and that’s exactly what you need it to do.

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In his 8 years in the job search and recruiting industry, Brendan has served in senior client services roles with major sites like Juju.com and JobsInTheMoney.com. He has been regularly quoted on topics such as employment as well as jobs. His opinions have appeared in the Wall Street Journal and US News & World Report as well as other major publications.

When you’re out of work, you need to use every advantage you can think of to increase your chances of finding a job. With today’s fluctuating job market, there are more people applying for the leftover jobs than there are jobs available. This makes finding a job incredibly difficult. Of course there are some things you can do to help improve your chances of finding a job.

Make finding a job a full-time job

• If you are looking for a job, then you probably spend most of your time looking for a new job. While you’re looking, it can become tempting to watch TV or browse the internet. But, instead set a schedule for yourself and follow it. Every day your schedule should reflect your job-hunting efforts.

Start working on your resume

• You need a resume that will stand out above the mass of people applying. The average hiring manager spends between 10-20 seconds reviewing a resume, so it has to be eye catching to get noticed. You want to have more than one resume when applying for jobs, so it helps to have professional resume writers review your resume and make needed changes. Depending on the job you’re looking for, you will need to highlight different aspects of yourself on your resumes. Professionals are great at creating different resumes for every client.

Don’t skimp on the cover letter

• Think of the cover letter as a quick handshake introduction to a prospective employer. Your cover letter should be unique to the job you are applying for – don’t send out a cover letter addressed to “Sir or Madam”, you want it to be personal and show that you put some effort into the process. Highlight your skills that will set you apart from other prospects, and never, ever use a generic cover letter. HR managers can spot those a mile away.

Get your networking on

• Networking is a great resource for professionals seeking employment. With websites like LinkedIn and Facebook, you can connect directly with people in your industry, in the area that you wish to find employment. Let people know that you are looking for a job–there’s no shame in asking if someone is hiring. Other professionals can often connect you with HR managers when your skills are qualified. But, you need to do more than just network online, get out and go to some networking clubs or events. You can meet more people over a drink than you can with blasting out your resume to Facebook friends.

Start expanding your search

• Sending out resumes in one industry may have worked in the past, but that’s simple not the case, today you have to be well versed in many different fields. You never know what your next platform for success will be. If you have experience in marketing, then your next career may be in sales or advertising. Just try to branch out and see what’s out there.

Many women choose to stay at home for several years after having children. While this time frame varies, it always creates a period of time during which you had no ‘real’ job. Once a mother is ready to go back to work, one of the first problems they face in deciding how to write a resume that not only accurately describes their professional experience and career but also properly addresses extended maternity leaves. By using tact and creativity while remaining professional, it is often possible to ‘spin’ an extended leave for the purposes of resume writing and interviewing.

Be honest. Some job seekers mistakenly believe that extended maternity leave is an automatic black mark. Because of this, some lie and claim they were self-employed during their maternity leave. This is a patently bad idea. While it is unlikely that a future employer will investigate the claim, lying during the job seeking process is unethical and can lead to problems down the line. Instead, be honest about your extended work leave. I have found that all hiring managers want is an answer. Where were you all that time? On an extended vacation? Watching Oprah? In prison? They just want to know about the gap.

There are two ways to present extended work leave during the resume writing process. The first is to simply include one or two sentences in the cover letter explaining the reason for your extended leave, the birth of children, and that you are ready to re-enter the work force. Job seekers who opt for this option should keep it short and focus on logical reasons versus cute stories about their children (please don’t do that). Remember to keep it professional.

A second option is including your work leave directly on your resume. Some job seekers have had success by including their responsibilities and skills used during their extended leave. Scheduling, organizing and multi-tasking are just a few of the skills new mothers hone during their absence from work. These skills, and others, can be beneficial in the work environment.

Unfortunately, the human resources community is divided on the subject. While there are laws governing hiring practices, the truth is a resume and cover letter is your first and often only chance to sway a hiring manager to meet with you. While an extended leave of absence for child care reasons may be admirable to some, actually giving the job seeker a leg up, other hiring managers may shy away from resumes that do not adequately cover the subject.

The best advice may be to carefully research the company and hiring manager for each job you are submitting your resume for and to craft a specific resume and cover letter for each job. Carefully reviewing a company website and Internet research may very well give you inside insight into the company and their practices.

Finding a job after an extended maternity leave can be a long process. In fact, it seems like the longer you were out of the workforce, the longer it takes to become employed again. Try focusing your efforts on professionally representing your time off and be as honest as you can. Remember that finding a job is a job in itself so stay positive, craft custom resumes and cover letters whenever possible and use your interview as a chance to really showcase what you can offer the company.