Let me know if you hear about anything I would be interested in.

Recently I was introduced to someone who almost immediately told me he was looking for a job. Then he said those deadly words: “Let me know if you hear of anything for me.” What a networking killer.

I didn’t know enough about him to even be able to identify a good “anything” yet here he was asking me to let him know when I found one of those. At this point, unfortunately, people often say “sure” and then move on. Don’t kid yourself the way I used to. They won’t remember you.

The Easy Way Out (Leading Nowhere, unfortunately)
It’s hard to think about, but right now we should ask ourselves, “Have I done that?” If you have, think about what you were hoping to accomplish. And how did you feel when you said it?

Remember the words and tone of the response you got. That memory alone may convince you not to make those requests any more.

Help Them Be Able to Help You!
I told him I wouldn’t know how to identify a good “anything” for him. He paused, and then said, “Oh, I’m asking you to do all the work here, aren’t I? Not only do I want you to let me know when you hear about something, but I am leaving it up to you to figure out what I would want to hear about.” He got it!

Sample of Email Requests that Get You Nowhere (again!)
I wanted to share a portion of an email I got from someone just a couple of days ago. I did not know this person, and there wasn’t any way I could be of any assistance to him based on the information in the email.

In addition, I have no idea what “seek your advice on any current and/or future searches for your clients” really means. Strangely that phrase or something similar is in almost every email I get from job seekers.

“I’m currently in a career transition following the elimination of my position due to a company-wide reduction in force.

A copy of my resume is attached and I can be reached on xxx-xxx-xxxx. Please let me know if you hear about anything that might be of interest to me.

I’d appreciate it if you would let me know when you have searches for your clients that would be a good fit for my experience and skills.

Thank you for your time and consideration and I look forward to hearing from you.”

Heartbreaking Results from so much Effort
If I hadn’t been curious about where he learned to write this kind of networking email and how he expected it would help him, I would never have called him. I would have deleted his email and not kept his information. I bet he sent a lot of these out, and I know that was a lot of work.

When I spoke to him, he admitted that he had been coached on how to write this email. He said he had sent it to a lot of people, and was really disappointed in the results. I was the only person who had contacted him!

Tip to Try: Help Others Help You
Please be specific about how others can help you in job search. People do really want to be of assistance. Give us specifics about how we can help you, and you’ll be delighted at the good information that starts coming your way.

Author: Katherine Moody

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1. Top 7 Resume Mistakes to Avoid For College Graduates
2. Job Interviews – 101 Common Mistakes to Avoid
3. Five Ways to Improve Your Job Search

Your resume is the greatest major asset in your career management inventory and job search. Its job is to provide the evidence that you are a candidate that should be seen.

There is no one right way to write a resume. The important point is to keep it relevant and interesting and avoid key pitfalls.

1. Not including an Objective. Although it may narrow your options, an Objective gives the reader an idea of what you want to do. When responding to an employment opportunity, you may mention it in your cover letter or email, but often employers won’t save this correspondence, so it is valuable to include it on your resume.

2. Not having any “real work” experience. Summers in the sun may have been nice, but employers want to see what you can do in a work environment. Whether an internship or volunteer experience, it helps employers see your ability to function in the professional world. Sometimes being creative in your descriptions can be helpful, for example, waitresses need to have exceptional customer service and people management skills, so include those words on your resume.

3. Listing a phone number you rarely answer. If you are never home, don’t give a home phone number. Rarely will employers or recruiters leave a message, unless your name is on the message tape. If you are a cell phone addict, use only that number and remember to answer it professionally. And speaking of the message, record one that includes your name and “please leave a message.” The old “Hey man you know what to do after the beep” isn’t appropriate now.

4. Not having a professional email address. It might have been fun to have the email address of “beerdrinker@yahoo.com” or “balletgirl@hotmail.com” in your younger years, but now it is time to find an email address that is more business appropriate. The best email address is to use your own name in some format of first name or initial and last name.

5. Not including school internships, etc. Long-term academic projects can be valuable experiences to include on your resume. For example, doing a month long research project during your schools “I-Term”. Assisting a professor with data analysis for his research project or being part of your university’s yearly fund raising endeavors are significant events to include on your resume.

6. Using fancy fonts and formatting. Your resume should be easy to read and follow for anyone. Script or fancy fonts don’t give a professional look. Too much formatting (italics, bold, caps, mixing fonts) will only distract (not add) to the ability to easily read your resume. Pick a universal font like Times New Roman, Times, or Palatino.

7. Not filling the entire page. Resumes should fill an entire page. A half-page resume doesn’t say much about you. Start planning your work experience early in college so you have something to write about. If your work experience is lean, make your margins bigger and font a little larger, but never larger than 12 point.

Author: Marilyn Vojta

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2. Digital Resume – Writing a Plain Text Resume
3. Resume Writing Do’s and Don’ts

Use a Combination Resume

A combination resume is much more effective than a chronological one because it lists your skills and accomplishments before the experience with actual dates. When writing a resume objective or profile section use memorable and effective words to help with the key-word search and hook the reader into your resume. After that include a “Highlights of Accomplishments” section which shows your outstanding accomplishments and results and quickly communicates why you are a good fit for the position. You can write it as a list of five or six sentences in bold type to make it stand out.

Use Just the Years

It’s not necessary to provide months on your resume so you can list just the years. And if the gap is small it will help caver it. Is it a lie? No. You are going to present exact dates of employment in an application later on. But the aim of a professional resume is to get an interview where you will be able to explain the reasons for the gap in employment and show why you are the right candidate for the job.

Use a Cover Letter

When compensating for a gap in your employment a cover letter is exactly what you need. You can explain the gap to the potential employer: if it is some life event you can simply tell about it (e.g. caring for elderly parents). If not you should show what you weren’t just unemployed but did some job skills training courses, learned something work related or contributed something positive to a society, did any volunteer activities, show that your gap was a valuable and helpful time for you which developed your skills and made you an ideal candidate.

Omit One or More Jobs

If you have a lengthy work history there is no need to include all of your experiences on the resume. It’s reasonable to put jobs that extend beyond 15 years in a previous experience section and point out just company name and title.

No matter what the reasons for your employment gaps are, use all the tools to present yourself in the best possible way and remember to remain optimistic and show that you are ready and willing to return to work.

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2. Resume formats – Choosing the correct format for your resume
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A good resume blog will showcase your future goals, projects you have finished, application of skills, and your embrace of technology. Your resume blog should include any information that will help an employer get a better sense of your character.

This can be portrayed through the use of personal projects or larger scale projects with a company. If you have graphs, charts or pictures relating to the projects, this is your chance to get imaginative.

If you are a graphic designer or someone in a field related to visual communications, you should be taking advantage of every medium out there. Put pictures and graphics on your resume along with text that can convey your style and skills. You may think the addition of pictures makes a resume look childlike and unprofessional. This is far from the case. Even an unorthodox resume layout can garner more attention.

Buy a couple of advertisements on popular social networking sites like Facebook. Create a good sales pitch and tagline to your resume advertisement. Make sure it’s targeted to the job employers you are seeking. Put your best skills on the ad without sounding too generic. For example if you are a programmer, put something like “John Smith, C++/PHP programmer willing to code for you.” Put the position you seek in the title and make sure your name is in the advertisement. Then direct the ad to your resume blog. Any prospective employers will be able to read more about your skills and projects.

Make a video. If you are willing to talk on video, you can sign up with popular video streaming sites like YouTube and express your desire to work. These are only a few of the new resume techniques people are using.

Author: Lucas Clarke

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Now the “waiting” game begins. After sending your resume you think that all you have to do now is wait for the employer to contact you.

This is a big mistake; you have to choose the right way and the right moment for the next steps. Most employers recommend you wait for a week after sending your resume.

Send a short email

Email represents a perfect way to contact the company, because you can remind them that you applied for the job and you can resend your resume without fear you’ll appear too insistent.

A week after sending your resume, write an email to the employer. Here are some ideas that should be included:

- Write your full name and job title that you applied for in the Subject of the email
- In a professional manner repeat your interest and qualifications for this job
- Attach the resume to this email, so you don’t force the employer to search through old emails to find it.
- Include your full name in the filename of the resume

Contact the employer by phone

If you decided that instead of sending an email it is better to contact them by phone, repeat what you want before talking to them.

Be brief and to the point. Introduce yourself and remind to the employer that you recently sent a resume, also mention the job you are interested in. You can ask if they received your resume and if they recruit more candidates.

Try to maintain a short conversation and don’t call more than once because you will start to annoy them. After sending your resume and a few weeks pass don’t try to resend the resume again because they keep the resumes and they can think you forgot you applied for the job. Send your resume only if you apply to another job, otherwise send an email or contact them by phone.

Author: Brad Grayson

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Is there something wrong with your resume? Chances are your existing resume is acceptable, although not the best that it could be. Here are some quick tips on things you should do to strengthen your presentation, and some things to avoid.

Resume Do’s – Substance

• Include a Summary Statement rather than a resume objective. This should be a short narrative of 3-5 sentences describing your key strengths and experience.

Resume Do’s – Style

• Vary the font used in your resume to create some contrast between sections. Some bold and italics work well provided they are not overdone.
• Make sure your font is readable. Arial or Times New Roman are preferred.
• Avoid tables in your formatting. They do not always open correctly.
• Leave plenty of white space to ensure that your document is easy on the eyes. Small margins and cluttered text will not be well received by the person screening your resume.

Resume Don’ts

• Your resume is not your job description. Don’t be tempted to use your current job description in writing your resume. Think accomplishments rather than what your daily responsibilities are.
• Resume objectives are limiting. Avoid them.
• Don’t write your resume in the first person. “I” should not appear in your document.
• Make sure your contact information is professional. Your email address and voice mail message should be employer worthy. Your 2 year old on your voice mail is not professional. Likewise, “putterbill at anydomain.com” is not appropriate.
• Avoid expressing dates in months/year. This format highlights any gaps in your record. Since your resume is used to screen you out, not in, you want to avoid this level of detail. You will have an opportunity to address any gaps in your employment record when you’re interviewed, assuming you’re asked!
• Don’t list every organization you’ve ever belonged to. Avoid listing political and religious organizations. You don’t want to be screened out because an interviewer is biased.
• Don’t include a picture.An employer is not permitted to ask you any questions related to race, religion, age, ethnicity, etc. Including a photo can be problematic for the employer. It might be easier for the employer to have a policy that eliminates all resumes that contain a photo.
• Don’t include personal information – marital status, children, height, weight. Again, these are things an employer should not know.
• Don’t list your references on your resume. There are better ways to handle this important part of the hiring process.
  Take stock of your resume and make changes as needed. You can’t get the job if you can’t get the interview! Use these tips to put your best foot forward, and more importantly, avoid costly mistakes. Your resume only gets a 15-20 second review before the screener decides if you are a potential fit with their requirements. Make the best of it!

Author: Cindy McGeever

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Below we present 9 Tips to help you find your new job!

Network

Think of all the people you know — relatives, friends, teachers, classmates, old co-workers, and others. Now you have to start to make more of an effort to meet with people, and use these conversations to ask their advice and to make them mindful of your job search. Ask them about their job and their organizations. Try to get the names of others who might be useful in connecting the dots in your job search.

Targeted job search and Resume

Make sure your resume is targeted to the employers who are receiving it. Make sure that your resume is easy to read and the most important details stand out on the page. Always have more than one resume ready and available if you’re applying to different industries for a job. Don’t apply to different industries with the same resume. Tailor each resume to a specific industry.

Be prepared

You should always have a copy of your resume on you at all times! You never know who you are going to run into while you’re out. It is also a good idea to have a fresh copy of your resume prepared in case you are called to an interview at the last minute. Always bring a copy of your resume with you to the interview along with a couple of questions to ask the employer.

Create a contact database

Write down all the employers that you contact along with the ones that contacted you. Write down or make note of, the date that you sent your resume, any contact made, people you talked to, and any important info. Keep a notepad with you at all times — take notes any time you hear about an opportunity or when you leave an interview.

Learn how to talk about yourself

I know for some of you this is a hard concept, but you have to get comfortable with it, if you are going to land a job. Throughout your job search you will be speaking with many people in many different positions at different levels. You must be comfortable having conversations about yourself with others. Keep in mind that you never know what or who may end up being useful to you in your job hunt.

Prepare a speech

You never know who you’ll meet in an elevator, in line at the coffee shop, or on the street. Know what your skills are and how to communicate them to others. You should be able to talk to prospective employers along with others you meet about what you can offer there company or industry. You should also be able to talk about how your skills will relate to the industries that you’re interested in.

Find out all there is about the employers in your field

This means research! Try to remain current on all the issues or developments in your field, read trade journals, professional publications, or the newspaper. You can always jump on the Internet and Google it. It is extremely impressive to employers during an interview if you know all about the latest merger or industry updates and news.

Follow-up with leads immediately

I cannot stress this enough. If you find out about a position late in the day, call right then. Don’t wait until the next day. You have to jump on any lead that you find when you find it. And if all possible get a phone number and call them directly to get them on the phone.

Stay confident and positive Job hunting is going to take time and energy.

Remain confident, but prepare yourself for all the challenges ahead. Don’t get disgruntled if you are still looking for a job and it seems like everyone you know has an offer. You will find something if you keep positive and keep moving forward.

Article contributed by http://www.JobBrite.com

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This can happen for a number of different reasons such as raising a family, taking care of a family member who is ill, not being able to find the “ideal” job, recovering from an illness, travelling, or simply taking a break after graduating from college.

If there are gaps in your work history, for whatever reason, there are essentially two ways you can deal with them.

Firstly, you can draw the reader’s attention to them by presenting your reasons in the most positive way you can. For example, Career Break – state this and show the relevant positive experiences that you gained during your time off.

Alternatively, you can change the format of your CV from the more traditional chronological style to the functional CV. The functional CV focuses more on your skills in different areas rather then a timeline of your employment history. Also, it allows the opportunity for you to include any experience you gained while you were out of the workforce under a separate heading such as “Additional Experience”.

The Functional CV

For example, let’s say you’ve been out of the workforce for several years and are now looking for a job. Your CV should start out with a brief “Summary of Qualifications” which is a paragraph containing an overview of skills and areas of experience.

Under the next section entitled “Areas of Strength” either lists key words appropriate to your professional experience or break it down into several distinct areas of experience with bulleted items. Maybe your “Areas of Strength” include Sales and Marketing or Teaching and Office Administration. You can make each one a separate category and list three or four items under each heading to indicate your experience and skills in each area.

The next section, “Professional Experience” lists related jobs, titles, and responsibilities. But do not omit the dates! By leaving out dates of employment on a CV, you will raise more questions.

And finally under the section Additional Experience, you can put any skills learned while you were on your break – include any classes or technical training or part-time or volunteer work while you were recovering from a car accident or caring for an elderly parent. This draws attention away from the gap itself and attracts more attention to your experience and capabilities.

If you took time off to raise a family, for example, you used various skills, such as managing a budget and time management, that would be excellent skills to be used in your new job. If you took time off to travel, pull pieces of information from your travelling experience that would be valuable skills in your next job.

Especially when visiting foreign lands, you may pick up on some basic foreign language skills or learn about the culture, traditions, and customs. This would prove to be a valuable asset to companies that engage in international business. And if nothing else, it may show that you are a well-rounded person.

Be creative

You should think of filling gaps in your employment history creatively by thinking of useful tasks done during this period. Sometimes you might not be paid but might have received experience relevant to your job. Community projects, special projects, freelance consulting engagements, continuing education etc., could all be used in the experience section in place of paid employment.

Whichever way you choose, it’s important to emphasise that you should acknowledge that these gaps exist and be prepared to address them in your CV and at the interview, since potential employers may view any such gap as a red flag.

Debbie O’Halloran – Career Columnist,

www.irishjobs.ie

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How to write a resume?

You have skills that employers want. But those skills won’t get you a job if no one knows you have them. Good resumes, applications, and cover letters broadcast your abilities.

They tell employers how your qualifications match a job’s responsibilities. If these paper preliminaries are constructed well, you have a better chance of landing interviews; and, eventually, a job.

Modern technology has added a new twist to preparing resumes and cover letters. The availability of personal computers and laser printers has raised employers’ expectations of the quality of resumes and cover letters applicants produce.

Electronic mail, Internet postings, and software that “reads” resumes help some employers sort and track hundreds of resumes. Technology has also given resume writers greater flexibility; page limits and formatting standards are no longer as rigid as they were several years ago.

When writing your resume, you still have to consider what is reasonable and appropriate for the job you want. Advertisements for a single job opening can generate dozens, even hundreds, of responses.

Our article on how to write a resume describes what information they should contain and how to highlight your skills for the job you want.

Resumes: Marketing your skills

A resume is a brief summary of your experience, education, and skills. It is a marketing piece, usually one or two pages long, designed to make an employer want to interview you.

Good resumes match the jobseeker’s abilities to the job’s requirements. The best resumes highlight an applicant’s strengths and accomplishments.

There are four main steps to creating a resume:

Compiling information about yourself and the occupations that interest you, choosing a resume format, adding style, and proofreading the final document.

You may also want to prepare your resume for computer scanning, e-mailing, and Internet posting, especially if you are pursuing a computer-intensive field.

Gathering and organizing the facts

Start working on your resume by collecting and reviewing information about yourself: Previous positions, job duties, volunteer work, skills, accomplishments, education, and activities. These are the raw materials of your resume. This is also a good time to review your career goals and to think about which past jobs you have liked, and why.

After compiling this information, research the occupations that interest you. Determine what duties they entail, what credentials they require, and what skills they use. Your resume will use your autobiographical information to show that you meet an occupation’s requirements.

You will probably need to write a different resume for each occupation that interests you. Each resume will emphasize what is relevant to one occupation. Remember: Even if you do not have many specialized and technical skills, most occupations also require abilities like reliability, teamwork, and communication. These are particularly important for entry-level workers.

The next step is to organize the personal information you have assembled. Most resume writers use the following components.

Contact information

This includes your name; permanent and/or college campus addresses, if they are different; phone number; and e-mail address, if you have one.

Place your full legal name at the top of your resume and your contact information underneath it. This information should be easy to see; reviewers who can’t find your phone number can’t call you for an interview.

Also, make sure the outgoing message on your answering machine sounds professional. If you list an e-mail address, remember to check your inbox regularly.

Objective statement

Placed immediately below your contact information, the objective statement tells the reviewer what kind of position you want, for example, “Seeking a position as an administrative assistant.”

Some objectives include more detail, such as “Seeking an administrative position using my organizational, word processing, and customer service skills.” Objective statements are optional and are most often used by recent graduates and career changers.

Writing objectives can be tricky. A vague statement, such as “Seeking a position that uses my skills and experience,” is meaningless. And an overly specific objective can backfire, eliminating you from jobs you want that are slightly different from your objective. If you decide to include an objective statement, make sure it fits the job you are applying for. Tailoring is expected. A statement should show that you know the type of work the company does and the type of position it needs to fill.

Qualifications summary

The qualifications summary, which evolved from the objective, is an overview designed to quickly answer the employer’s question “Why should I hire you?”

It lists a few of your best qualifications and belongs below your contact information or objective statement.

A qualifications summary, like an objective, is optional. It can be particularly effective for applicants with extensive or varied experience because it prevents the important facts from being lost among the details.

Most resume writers choose either an objective or a summary, but some use both.

Education

List all of the relevant training, certifications, and education on your resume. Start with the most recent and work backward.

For each school you have attended, list the school’s name and location; diploma, certificate, or degree earned, along with year of completion; field of study; and honours received. If you have not yet completed one of your degrees, use the word expected before your graduation date. If you do not know when you will graduate, add in progress after the name of the unfinished degree.

The education section is especially important for recent graduates. Include your overall grade point average, average within major, or class standing, if it helps your case.

The general guideline is to include averages of 3.0 and above, but the minimum useful average is still widely debated. Graduates should also consider listing relevant courses under a separate heading. Listing four to eight courses related to a particular occupation shows a connection between education and work. College graduates need not list their high school credentials.

Experience

Resumes should include your job history: The name and location of the organizations you have worked for, years you worked there, title of your job, a few of the duties you performed, and results you achieved. Also, describe relevant volunteer activities, internships, and school projects, especially if you have little paid experience.

When describing your job duties, emphasize results instead of responsibilities and performance rather than qualities. It is not enough, for example, to claim you are organized; you must use your experience to prove it.

Job descriptions often specify the scope of a position’s duties—such as the number of phone lines answered, forms processed, or people supervised. If you worked on a project with other people, tell the reviewer your accomplishments came from a team effort. Also, mention any promotions or increases in responsibility you received.

Use specific accomplishments to give your experience impact. Note any improvements you made, any time or money you saved, and any problems you solved—for example, were you praised for handling difficult customers? Were you always on time or available for overtime? Did you save time by reorganizing a filing system? Did you start a new program?

Mention quantifiable results you accomplished, such as a 10-percent increase in sales, a 90-percent accuracy rate, a 25-percent increase in student participation, or an A grade.

Activities and associations

Activities can be an excellent source of additional experience. Activities might include participation in organizations, associations, student government, clubs, or community activities, especially those related to the position you are applying for or that demonstrate hard work and leadership skills.

Special skills

If you have specific computer, foreign language, typing, or other technical skills, consider highlighting them by giving them their own category even if they don’t relate directly to the occupation you’re pursuing.

Awards and honours

Include formal recognition you have received. Do not omit professional or academic awards. These are often listed with an applicant’s experience or education, but some list them at the end of their resume.

References

Usually, resumes do not include names of references, but some reviewers suggest breaking this rule if the names are recognizable in the occupation or industry.

Most resume writers end with the statement “References available upon request.”

Others assume reference availability is understood and use that space for more important information. Regardless of whether you mention it on the resume, you will need to create a separate reference sheet to provide when requested and to carry with you to interviews.

A reference sheet lists the name, title, office address, and phone number of three to five people who know your abilities.

Before offering them as references, of course, make sure these people have agreed to recommend you. At the top of the sheet, type your name and contact information, repeating the format you used in your resume.

Other personal information

Your resume should include any other information that is important to your occupation, such as a completed portfolio or a willingness to travel.

Your resume is your own, and you should customize it to fit your needs. However, some information does not belong on a resume. Do not disclose your health, disability, marital status, age, or ethnicity.

This information is illegal for most employers to request.

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Each is defined by the way it organizes your experience. Choose the one that shows your experience to its best advantage.

Chronological Resume format

This resume type is the most common. It organizes your experience around the jobs you have held. This format is an excellent choice for people with steady work histories or previous jobs that relate closely to their career objective. To create a chronological resume, list each position you have held, starting with the most recent and working backward. For each position, give the title of your job, name of the organization you worked for, and years you worked there.

Next, relate the duties and accomplishments of that job. When describing your jobs, use action statements, not sentences. Instead of writing “I managed a fundraising campaign,” write, “Managed a fundraising campaign.” Use strong verbs to begin each statement.

Be specific, but not overly detailed, in describing what you did. Employers say three to five statements are usually sufficient for each job. And no job should have more than four consecutive lines of information under it; large blocks of text are difficult to read. If you must use more space, find some way to divide the information into categories.

Your most important positions should occupy the most space on your resume. If you’ve had jobs that do not relate to the position you want, consider dividing your experience into two categories: Relevant experience and other experience.

Describe the relevant jobs thoroughly, and briefly mention the others. If you have had many jobs, you probably do not need to mention the oldest or least important ones. Just be careful not to create damaging gaps in your work history.

Because the chronological format emphasizes dates and job titles, it is often a poor format for career changers, people with inconsistent work histories, or new entrants to the work force.

For these applicants, the functional resume is a better choice.

Functional Resume format

The functional resume organizes your experience around skills rather than job titles. “I often recommend the functional format to students who have not had positions that relate directly to the job they want,” says Bryan Kempton, Program Director of the Career Centre at the University of Maryland, College Park. “By organizing their experiences around skills, they can connect less relevant jobs to the career qualifications they need. For instance, a job waiting tables can be combined with other examples to show organizational or customer service skills.”

To create a functional resume, identify three or four skills required for your target job. For each skill, identify three to five concrete examples to demonstrate that ability. Again, use action phrases—not complete sentences—when writing your list. Arrange your skill headings in order of importance. If you have a specific vacancy announcement, match the arrangement of your headings to that of its listed requirements. The closer the match between your skill headings and the reviewer’s expectations, the more qualified you seem. The last part of the functional resume is a brief work history.

Write only job titles, company names, and employment years. If you have gaps in your work history, you could use the cover letter to explain them, or you could fill them by adding volunteer work, community activities, or family responsibilities to your job list.

Combination Resume format

This format combines the best of the chronological format with the best of the functional format. Combination resumes are as varied as the histories they summarize. One variation begins with a chronological format but then subdivides each job description into skill categories. Another variation uses a functional format but, for each example of a skill, identifies the organization where the example occurred.

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