In today’s current era of technology, social media, choppy economies, and 14-year-old executives, it pays to learn the job search process. Anyone, whether employed or not, can benefit from learning how to streamline the job search process.
With over 40,000 websites and companies competing to offer job search services, it is easy to get confused. Career websites are set up so that you can submit resumes electronically to businesses. Applying for jobs takes time, and landing one is really a numbers game. Almost all potential jobs can now be examined, located, and applied for from the comfort of your own home. Follow these simple steps to learn how to manage your time and resources in an effort to get more interviews.
Write Down your Goals. Before even writing a resume or applying, write down your goals. If you don’t write yours down, you will just be helping someone else achieve theirs. Decide what you want, write it down, and create a plan to get what you want.
Get a Resume and Cover Letter. Write your own or use a service. If you think about the cost/benefit analysis of purchasing a resume, it really makes sense to invest in a custom resume written by a professional. This could be the difference between two jobs and big salary differences. There are numerous experts that say a cover letter is imperative. Most resume services will write a cover letter with the resume you purchase. Then all you have to do is change the company and contact name in the letter. Another reason to use a professional resume service is because they know how to write resumes integrating all the right keywords in all the right places.
Research Companies. Research the companies for which you want to work. When interviewing it is always better to keep focused on the company and how you will benefit them. Don’t sell yourself short.
Get Organized. When you find a job of interest, be sure to make a list of their contact people and email them your resume directly if possible. If there is a phone number, pick up the phone and call the headhunter. Log everything. You never know when HR will call. You will look really good if you know something about the representative.
Submit your Resume. This is by far the most important step. Most of the time, jobs will find you, not the other way around on line at various job boards.
These five steps, if followed, will guide you to an interview. Always remember that your thoughts control your destiny. You have to be positive and patient. You can do it. Always remember, if you don’t respect yourself, no one else will.
Are you a fresh graduate? Have you been seeking a perfect career for yourself for the future? Do you want to know how you can get a perfect career that best matches your abilities and expertise? These and other questions are exactly what a fresh graduate is considering and who also needs a proper consultation. Choosing a career path is the most important part of your professional life. Many graduates and young students get confused when they are asked about their career path.
You may have fallen into the trap of thinking the sole reason for work is to bring home enough money to live comfortably. While adequate compensation is important in any job, it’s not the whole story. If you are unsatisfied with what you are doing every day, it will take a toll on your physical and mental health. You could feel burned out and frustrated, anxious, depressed, or even unable to enjoy time in your own home knowing another work day is ahead.
The best time to choose your job path is when you are tagged with “Graduate.” Yes, when you graduate, it is the perfect time for you to consider your career route. You need to have an analysis on your own overall graduation performance. Your own result can give you an idea which particular field you are sufficiently good to explore yourself. You need to concentrate on that very field. If not, then you may start your career in a direction you don’t want to go.
Until you decide on the type of career, you don’t need to select any kind of field. Another possibility is when you are going to apply for a job. You must believe in your expertise. If you are confused about what constitutes a good decision for your career, it would be a good idea to discuss it with a career expert. Professional consultants are a good choice for having different alternatives that will be a better fit for you and your qualifications.
Personality and common sense is also very important. You need to judge your personality in comparison with your job or perhaps your career. Personality judgment gives you some tactics and some choices that might be very helpful for you in deciding your career path. It allows you to judge your inner personality to see how well you are able to adjust to a particular career path.
Consult with someone you have a lot of respect for. They can act as a neutral party and let you know what your options are and what direction you should take.
Firstly, if you have gotten as far as the interview stage of a job application, then well done! There are many people who will also have applied for this job and who haven’t been as successful. It is a fantastic feeling when you know that a company likes the sound of you enough to invite you to an interview and now is the time to really showcase yourself. One of the most important things to do is not to panic. It is easy to worry about a job interview and let nerves build up; this can ruin the whole experience for you and make it much harder to showcase yourself as much as you could.
There is a famous saying: “fail to prepare and you prepare to fail.” There is not a situation that relates to this more than a job interview. If you do your homework and preparation when leading up to a job interview, then you are going to be in a much better position to give yourself the best chance of success.
What you do need to make sure you do is read up about the company that you are being interviewed for. Being able to ask relevant questions about the company or drop in facts that you know will really please the person that is interviewing you will put you leaps and bounds ahead of the competition. Knowing everything that the company does and all about them will also put you in a great position to be able to answer any questions that they ask you with the relevant answers.
When you are attending a job interview, it is obvious that you need to make sure that you create the right impression. This means you need to dress to impress, turn up with everything that they may have asked you to bring and make sure that you are on time. Show willingness at the interview and be keen when they are talking to you. Remember that it isn’t just being able to do the job that matters, but you also need to show them why they would enjoy working alongside you and how you are going to fit in amongst their already formed team.
One of the most important things that you can do when it comes to attending a job interview is to ask questions! Making sure that you attend the interview with a number of questions in mind will really help, so make sure that you have these in mind ahead of your job interview. This will help to impress the person interviewing you and will give you the best chance of being successful during your job interview.
The Internet has definitely transformed how jobseekers contact hiring companies. Most company’s now have an option on their website to submit resumes, which makes it much easier and more convenient. You don’t have to spend hours printing and mailing or faxing resumes to countless recipients.
Because of this convenience a breeding ground for scam artists continues to grow each year as well. Identity thefts have increased to an overwhelming 10 million cases per year, and many of them are the result of phishing and the employment industry is under attack as well.
Phishing is an attempt to extract personal information through what appears to be authentic emails. You may get emails from a recruiter that looks legitimate but may not be. Knowing what to look for and how to spot fraud (or potential areas for abuse) can be the best way to ensuring you have a safe experience while conducting your job search.
Be careful of invitations to submit your resume. Scammers and spammers follow the same patterns. Mass emails are sent to a lot of people at once. Receiving an email from a recruiter who sends you an email to the effect: “We saw your resume on the Internet and we find your skill set to be perfect for one of our clients. Please complete our online application through the link below. Be very careful and think before you respond. Did you send your resume to this recruiter? Do not click on the link in the email, instead visit their website from a new browser window. Make sure everything looks right first. Always proceed with caution when you receive a cold-contact email from someone.
Do not give out personal information unless you know for sure the email is legitimate. Reputable companies will not ask for personal information via email.
Don’t just give your information freely. If a job application wants more information than you’re willing to provide, be very careful. With safe online practices, you’ll get the best return from your job-search efforts instead of filing a police report and/or calling credit bureaus and credit card companies.
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?
Both cover letters and resumes are essential when applying to a job. However, each format has its own specific style so it is important not to confuse the two in the preparation process.
The cover letter introduces the candidate as well as explains to the prospective employer the reasons and qualifications for applying to the specific job.
A resume is the listing of experiences, accomplishments, and education that one has accumulated over the years.
These are the five ways that cover letters and resumes differ:
- While the resume is brief in nature, the cover letter should expand on any details that the resume may have left off, including explanations for inconsistencies.
- The cover letter should be an actual letter with complete sentences and divided paragraphs while the resume can have bullet points and phrases.
- The cover letter attempts to get further consideration from whomever reads it while the resume is the basis for which they see the candidate’s background and qualifications.
- A resume outlines past accomplishments and experiences while a cover letter expresses future goals.
- The cover letter can express more enthusiasm in the language while resumes should follow a rigid and professional tone.
As you can see, the two go hand in hand. So, be sure to have your cover letter prepared and detailed for each job posting that you apply for.
It’s funny how job titles have changed over the years. You know, titles like “nurse’s aide” are now called “patient care representative” and “janitor” is now called “sanitation engineer.” The newer job titles of the 1990s had all positions sound much more glamorous than they really were.
Other phrases that were popular on resumes in the ’90s were “team leader,” “coordinator,” “communication manager,” blah, blah, blah. Employers of today do not want to see those types of phrases on executive resumes. While you may very well have developed skills in these areas, it is important to word your resume a little differently so it won’t sound as boring as the other resumes.
Instead of using a catch-all phrase like the ones listed above, employers are now looking for pieces of information within your resume. You need to tailor your resume to be more specific about your skills and accomplishments.
For example, team leader. Detail what you were a leader of or what you coordinated. Not just the phrase “team leader.” It is important to be much more creative with resumes because that more than anything else will make your resume stand apart from the rest.
And with the job markets the way they are and more people competing for the same jobs, you have to have something on your resume that will catch the attention of a recruiter so they will stop and really read your resume.
Resources and resume examples are available for you to help you transform your resume into a completely new one – one that will stand apart from the crowd.
