Many college students join the Greek systems on their campus for housing, a meal plan and a place to socialize. Some also realize that it is a great way to build a professional network before they have to start the job search process at the end of their college years. Even if you are long out of school and in what career development theorists call the “maintenance stage” of your career, you should still put your Greek affiliation on your resume.

Fraternity and sorority membership benefits go way beyond building a professional network. Your affiliation helps reach out to hiring managers who have either been a member themselves or who know the value of participation in the Greek system. This could be the tipping point in your favor for getting that first interview. The Greek bond of fraternity brothers or sorority sisters may be enough to get a hiring manager to want to help you.

Greek system participation on your resume is a plus because it demonstrates that you know about teamwork. Many Greek organizations also participate in public service projects or what is known as philanthropic work. This shows your willingness to volunteer and give back to your community.

Get involved with the alumni group associated with your Greek chapter. Look for all of the places your alumni group may have networks set-up-your alumni association, Facebook or even on  LinkedIn.  People often feel uncomfortable networking with friends and colleagues with whom they have not spoken in many years. However, these types of alumni groups are set up to make networking easy. They also give an opportunity to help the active student chapters on campus, giving you more public service points on your resume.

Resume distribution is paramount to landing the job you want. If you don’t get your resume out there, then you won’t get hired. It’s that simple.

Here are 5 ways to distribute your resume without having to beat the pavement and hand-carry it to every single potential employer:

1. Networking – Whether networking online or off, one thing rings true: Everyone you know knows someone you don’t. Ask everyone within your circle of friends to carry your resume with them and pass it around when they bump into a potential employer. In fact, you should carry your resume with you too. You never know who you’re going to meet.
2. Job fairs – If you don’t go to job fairs, you should. Job fairs are a one-stop-shopping experience for candidates searching for the perfect job. Always bring plenty of copies of your resume with you to a job fair, as well as your professional references, in the event you are lucky enough to score an on-site interview with a potential employer.
3. Post it online – There are a ton of resume posting websites online. Find a few that target your specific industry as we as some of the more popular sites.
4. Recruiters – Job recruiters specialize in one thing: Matching candidates with employers. Send your resume to a handful of recruiters and see what happens.
5. Targeted database blasting – Another way to distribute your resume is to a targeted list of employers who are actively seeking new recruits. Many professional resume writers have such a list available.

Resume distribution is essential to landing the job you want. Get your resume out there and get it out there fast. The more widely you circulate your skills and experience, the more likely you are to land the job of your dreams.

With all of the new ways people are looking for jobs (online job boards, social networking sites, etc.), many people forget that job fairs are just as popular as ever in today’s employment market.

Job fairs normally offer employment opportunities at companies in your local community. They are full of small companies and large corporations looking to recruit new candidates. Thinking about relocating to a new area? Larger corporations may also be willing to discuss opportunities at other locations, as well.

Job seekers are just as likely to be able to secure an interview at a job fair as they are posting their resume online. Better yet, some job fairs offer on-site interviews during the job fair. A good candidate is a prepared candidate. Research in advance which companies are at the job fair and decide which ones you need to spend time with. Have plenty of copies of your resume with you and dress in professional attire. If you have business cards, pass those out as well. Networking is key in any job search!

The next time you see a job fair advertised in your area, take the time to attend. Being active in your job search does not mean just sitting by your computer or phone waiting for someone to reach out to you. Check your local news stations, newspapers, and professional organizations to find job fairs in your area. You never know where your next employment opportunity may come from.

Many people feel that consulting job hunting resources and looking for a new job are things that only people who are unemployed should be doing. It is often assumed that the only time you need to be aware of what jobs are on the market and the opportunities that are available for you when you don’t already have a job.

Quite the contrary. Experts agree that it is a good practice to always keep an eye out for job opportunities, as well as the average rate of pay for jobs you may be interested in. Of course this isn’t something that you’ll want to do every day, but staying in the loop with jobs and salary changes in your industry could eventually help you move up the corporate ladder.

By keeping apprised of trends in job openings and salaries in your industry, you can ensure that you’re getting the best salary for your value, and that you are aware of changes in skills and experience needed for certain jobs. In addition, this knowledge could also give you great bargaining power when the time comes to negotiate your next salary increase!

While you may be happily employed today, we all know that with our country’s current economic situation, people are still continuing to lose their jobs everyday and are finding themselves actively searching for a new job. Job hunting doesn’t have to consume a lot of time, you just need to keep your resume current with your most recent employment history and achievements, know the best job search resources for your industry, and be willing to network with colleagues and friends in other companies who may know of opportunities for someone with your skills and expertise.

Being prepared for your job search will result in a a more effective, targeted search, and ultimately success!

 

We all know the importance of having a professional resume when it comes to applying for jobs and helping to find our way up the career ladder. When it comes to the content that needs to be included in our resume there are loads of places you can look for help and advice with what to include and how to lay it out. At the end of the day, the look of your resume is important because it is all about creating the right impression and giving yourself the best possible chance of job success.

One thing that many people don’t give consideration to is the contact information that we include on this and the impression that can give our potential employer. The biggest downfall for this is the email address that we choose to put on our resume.

Many of us have a personal email address that we have had for a number of years, maybe even dating back as far as our teenage years. There are different trends for setting up an email address, but it stands to reason that anything like “VodkaLover@email.com” or “SexyGal@email.com” aren’t really suitable for a professional  resume. As your contact information is the first thing an employer will see on your resume, having a silly email address will get you judged immediately, and could prevent you from getting an interview.

Be safe and professional. Create a free email address along the lines of “firstname.lastname@email.com” to use as a contact address on your professional resume. Using your actual name, rather than a silly email address will give the reader a much better first impression.

LinkedIn has become one of the most effective social networking sites for business professionals. Some people have used it to find better jobs within their industry while others do well using it for prospecting. Whether you are actively searching for a new career, or just checking out what opportunities are out there, having a strong LinkedIn profile is a must.

Not sure how to get your LinkedIn profile ready for the job search? Here are some tips to get your started…

 

1. Write a dynamic headline with a summary on your profile. Use your most important keywords in both for search engine optimization purposes, but speak directly to the person you’d most like to connect with. Keep it concise and communicate clearly.
2. Use a professional photo that makes you look serious about doing business. Don’t use a full body shot or a photo that includes other people. Use a great head shot and smile.
3. When you include a link to your website, select the “other” block and use keywords so that you can build better inbound links to your web properties.
4. Include a call to action in your profile. Say something like “to get more prospects for your business in a shorter time, call xxx-xxx-xxxx or message me directly through LinkedIn”.
5. Get rid of LinkedIn’s dynamic URL. They’re ugly and ineffective. Instead, edit the link and use your name.
6. Make sure to complete your education and experience sections. Again, use keywords. Keywords help to ensure that your LinkedIn profile can be found in the search engines.
7. Proofread your profile before saving it. Be sure to correct any spelling and/or punctuation errors. Your profile is a reflection of you, so you want it to look professional. Consider having a friend or colleague look over it before you publish it.
8. Is your profile public? It should be. Making connections with others in your industry is key to staying in touch with job openings, industry trends, etc.
9. Ask people you know and with whom you have done business to “recommend” you. DO NOT blast all of your contacts and ask for a recommendation. Only ask people you know and have done business with.
10. Finally, add a few widgets to your profile. You can add your blog feed, Twitter feed, and other widgets that help flesh out who you are.

If you follow these 10 tips to improve your LinkedIn profile you’ll find yourself making more contacts and quite possibly, score your next big career opportunity through LinkedIn.

Job hunting isn’t easy, which is reason enough to get it right the first time. Whether you are looking to change jobs or you need a new career because you are unemployed, it makes sense that you try to get a job as quickly as possible. You don’t want to spend months trawling job hunting websites and applying for jobs, instead you want to be as successful in your job hunt as quickly as possible.

When it comes to job hunting, many of us go about it in the same way and this means that we make the same mistakes. If you are searching for jobs but are being unsuccessful, then it is time to rethink your job hunting strategy and look at ways of helping to make your job hunt as successful as possible.

One of the most common mistakes when it comes to job hunting is applying for too many jobs and spreading yourself too thin. You need to decide what career you want to follow and the jobs you want to apply for. It isn’t going to work for you just to apply for as many jobs as possible. You also need to make sure that your resume is suitable for the jobs you are applying for – sell yourself! Don’t just have a resume that is generalized rather than being tailored towards a particular industry. That will do you no favors.

Don’t just assume that the longer your resume is the better. Remember that potential employers are likely to be reading a number of resumes so they are going to scan them quickly rather than paying major attention to them. This means that if your resume seems too long or full of too much text, then they will be put off at first glance – which is something that you want to avoid at all costs!

Remember as well that job hunting isn’t easy for everyone, so make sure that you don’t give up at the first hurdle. There is a perfect job opportunity out there for everyone so you need to keep up the hunt in order to be successful in your quest for a brand new job or step up the career ladder.

Since a lot of businesses now use the internet to check potential employees, it’s very important to know what your personal brand says about you. So, how do you do that.

For starters, search for your own name on Google to see what comes up about you. Sometimes, there will even be other people with the same name so you need to make sure you know which searches are relevant to you.

Google will find you especially if you have any Google accounts such as email, Google Voice or Google plus. Additionally, make sure your social networking pages are more professional than casual.

Be careful of the things you post on networking sites. You don’t want it coming back to bite you, and it will if you aren’t careful. It doesn’t matter what others are posting on their own sites, but if you are trying to build a brand, yours needs to be more professional than that.

Register for online forums that are relevant to your type of skills so that you can build your personal brand better. Forums are an excellent way to find business relationships and information.

The more you keep your presence alive on the internet, the easier it will be for potential employers to find you and to become acquainted with who you are.

Last, but not least, tailor your resume so that it details all the relevant skills you have and your expertise. Once that is done, post your resume in as many places as possible on the Internet. Before long, you will have built a professional brand that others will contact you instead of you always having to seek job positions.

The electronic age has revolutionized the way job seekers and employers meet. Online services take the volume of resume traffic to levels unimagined only a few years ago. With services to job seekers expanding continually, it’s important to understand the different options available to increase exposure of your resume to potential employers and recruiters. Two types are resume posting and resume distribution.

Resume Posting. This is a service where job seekers post their resumes to a job board for employers and recruiters to find. This is a passive approach in that the employer or recruiter must find you within the resume database. They usually find you by calling up resumes via key words. The chances of their finding you depend greatly on your including all the appropriate key words in your resume.

This service is normally free to job seekers, and used only by those employers and recruiters who have paid a substantial fee to access the resumes. In other words, when you post your resume to an online resume posting service, not every employer or recruiter will find you.

Resume Distribution. This is actually opposite of a posting service. With a resume distribution, the job seeker has access to a select database of well-qualified employers and/or recruiters to email his/her resume to. This service does cost the job seeker a fee. The amount will vary depending on the service you use.

There are several advantages of a distribution service. The advantages include not having to wait to be found, you decide who receives your resume and you are in control of who actually gets your resume.

Make sure the distribution service allows you to target the employers who receive your resume. At a minimum, you should be able to query the employer/recruiter database by industry, job function and geographic region. If the service offers no targeting capabilities, your resume may be sent out indiscriminately to employers and recruiters who do not match your employment criteria.

For optimum resume distribution or posting effectiveness you’ll want to make sure your resume is updated. If you are not currently getting the response rate from your resume that you’d like, using a resume distribution service will only be marginally helpful, because you will still be distributing a resume that is not working for you.

Both services, resume posting and resume distribution, are valuable strategies for your job search. Don’t be turned off by the fact that one is free and the other you must pay for. The money spent on a good quality resume distribution will repay you over and over again with valuable job leads and introductions to influential recruiters. After all, aren’t you worth it?

There was a time when job seekers only had to be concerned about background and reference checks. That seemed intrusive enough. Now comes along social media and the possible damage it can do to your job search.

Almost everyone is on social media sites now, which is great. People can connect now like they never have before. But, here is a big BUT, potential employers can see this as well during the hiring process. When building a personal brand, this will all become a part of that brand as well.

Potential employers will do a Gooogle search of your name to find out more about you. This is not illegal and is becoming more popular with employers. This is an excellent way for them to really know who they are interviewing.

Some things you can do to prevent your personal life from spilling into the interview process is:

• Remove anything on social media sites that may not picture you in a good light. Photos, comments and personal views. You can set your profile to private so they will only see basic information about you. It might not be a good idea if they see you with a drink in your hand in a bar or something.
• Update all business social media sites with an updated resume, pertinent business information and a tasteful photo.
• Do not use silly email addresses like “want2chat” or “prowler” or something to that effect. You will want an email address that is much more professional.
• Do the same type of search on potential employers. Use sites like LinkedIn to see what type of business they are, what they are talking about and who works there. This gives you excellent leverage during the interview process as they will be impressed with your questions and statements about the company. They will know you have done your homework.

If you are not sure what is going to pop up about you or how to prevent it, there are always companies that can help you clean your act up. They can search through a lot of venues to make sure that nothing embarrassing will affect your job search.