May 2023 - Page 5 of 12

Great Benefits Of Using A Letterhead

All organizations and companies often use stationery sets, which include business cards, letterheads and envelopes. While things such as envelope design might be important, it is essential to have abusiness letterhead. All kinds of communication from a legal organization or institution cannot be taken as official without a letterhead. Since this element is so important, you must put careful thought into its design and layout.

Numerous designs are available but you should pick one that not only can serve the legal purpose but also appeals to the eyes. You might also have different designs for different letters for different officials in the organization such as for the CEO, business manager, treasurer or head of sales.

What it consists of

Mainly, business letterheads consist of a logo, telephone number and a return address. Some may also include a backdrop in different colors. The design of the letterhead will vary depending with the company or purpose of the letter. For instance, it is best to have a unique letterhead for each promotional letter you write. If you are organizing a fund-raising event, the campaign letter should have a simple letterhead with a simple black and white design instead of a gothic, color-embossed one that might appears fancy.

Benefits of a letterhead

· Increases credibility – If your letterhead contains the right information about your business or company, it will aid you in creating a sense of trustworthiness and reliability. In other words, you are letting your clients or customers know that your company is real and they can contact you any time they want. Clients are more inclined to trust you if you have an appealing letterhead.

· Increases brand awareness – It is important for your letterhead to have the name of your company and contact information. This will make your company more popular since your customers will immediately recognize your business when they see the letterhead icon. This helps to market the company and increase profits. This is another fine way of making your company popular as well as successful.

· Portrays the company as professional – When you use a letterhead, it offers a corporate view of your business or company. It is important to have the design of your letterhead done professionally. This gives the readers a sense that you are not an ordinary company. In addition, investing good quality materials on your clients makes them feel valued and they will in turn invest in your company.

Best Kept Publicity Secrets of the Big Red Envelope

Two years back I interviewed a self publishing millionaire who had sold 500,000 copies of his Special Effects Cookbook, and had a great way of getting free publicity.

Here is what he said ..

“As the author of a cookbook, I’ve been on full page in the food section of a Newspaper – full color. The whole first page is my face and my story and all my contact information. And if you get a big story in Boston or LA or Chicago or New York, millions of people are going to see that.What do you think happens when a full page comes out in a big city like that?”

I’ll tell you what happened to him…

When a full story breaks in a big city like that, you sell a lot of books! And he did!

As a self-published author, publicity becomes your new best friend. And in most cases, there’s no perfect time to launch a publicity campaign for your self-published book. You do it pretty much all year long.

He began sending press releases by mail during a time that email wasn’t as prominent, but even now, email and just doesn’t work as well. Neither does fax. Instead, direct mail is the way to go. There are special ways to do direct mail. You put your press release in a big red envelope and you use a magic marker for your return address and you just write in big letters all over it so that this envelope really looks special. I’m talking a big red envelope, 8 x 10, #10. You can get them at Staples.

Just be outrageous. Like the guy who wears a red suit, he walks into the room and you’ve got to see him.

So you send your press release out in a big red envelope and with a black magic marker you just write the guy’s name in big black letters. Use a couple of stamps, and hand-write the address. You only need ten a day.

He sent out hundreds a year for his book. You can do a little bit every day so that you get that constant flow of interest from TV, radio or newspapers, lastly of which can work the best because you can get a write-up; usually a full page.

He puts an 800 number in the press release, and a computerized system where it’s all automated that can handle 10,000 calls simultaneously. Calls can come directly to you from the press release.

The way a press release works and looks is that if you have to follow a format. At the very top of the press release, the upper left hand corner, you just type in for immediate release.On the other side, right across from that, you say for further information, contact… and then you’ve got to have your name and your office phone number. You can leave a number with an answering machine, but I don’t recommend that. You want to handle all the media contacts yourself.

The person who calls you is usually a journalist and they have an editor. And the whole point of writing a press release in the format that I recommend is that you’re not selling anything. You can’t sell anything with a press release. Make them look good with your story. When they go to their editor and they say “hey Mr. Editor, I found this great story”…. it makes the editor look good, so you let him write and let him sell it for you. It works like a charm. It really does.

If you want to see your sales skyrocket, put together a publicity campaign that will get you noticed. Be Unique. Let them know there’s no one like you out there. Use his advice on using this big red envelope. It works.

What Are You Looking For in a Resume?

Recruiters and hiring managers are busy people, especially when trying to select candidates for many jobs or many candidates for one job opening. Often, there is a rush and a sense of immediacy to find and select the right candidate for a critical position.

Even if there is no rush, it can be a daunting effort to work through a pile of resumes to select those that offer any correlation between skills owned by the candidate versus skills needed by the company. Most leaders wish for an easy way to quickly identify the most promising resumes, and easily identify those to disregard. But, how do you do that? How do you recognize when a resume indicates promise and justifies interviewing the candidate and probing deeper into the candidate’s personality, knowledge, and abilities. Likewise, how do you decide that a resume does not warrant any further investigation and consideration?

Here are some guidelines that are used to decide “yea” or “nay” about a resume. Additionally, many of the items may not immediately disqualify a resume, but they should raise questions for you to ask candidates if they are invited to an interview.

Look First for Gatekeepers

Gatekeepers are those criteria that a candidate must have to be considered for a position. For example, if one of the requirements for the job in question states that the candidate must have a college degree in a particular field, examine the education portion of the resume to see whether or not that qualification exists. Another example is the eligibility to work in the United States. By the way, I hope you listed these requirements in the job posting you created and published!

Evaluate Career Progression

Regardless if the applicants are from the same firm or have experience in many different firms, look for a progression in job responsibilities and skills. In addition, assess the level of responsibilities and how the candidate contributed to the organization meeting its goals. The candidates you want to interview are those that have demonstrated growth and increasing levels of responsibility. Note: In today’s turbulent economy, some candidates that have demonstrated growth may have taken a step back to stay employed. Don’t overlook these candidates because they demonstrate the ability to adapt and the courage to keep going, as well as the ethical perspective to not rely on the government for handouts.

Caveat: Many job seekers submit resumes that are functional in nature and not chronological. Since the functional resumes do not list current and previous jobs in chronological order, look for the same clues on the job application.

Examine Resume Construction

The resume tells a lot about a person beyond the information listed. Resumes give insight into levels of professionalism, quality orientation, and thoroughness.

How well is the resume constructed? Are there spelling errors? Is the resume neat and clean? Is it easy to read and understand? How well does the candidate express ideas or portray information? Is the resume formatted in a way that appears professional? Do the sentences make sense? How well does the candidate use grammar and vocabulary? Is the use of tense consistent? Does the candidate jump between first and third person? Often these errors are grounds for quick rejection.

Since many candidates use professional resume services, you may not see such errors, but many candidates still create their own resumes and these errors can appear. Whether professionally prepared or not, poor spelling and grammar are no excuse especially with the capabilities of text processors and publishing software available today.

These same principles apply to cover letters. Evaluate cover letters with the same standards as the content of the resume.

The resume should be easy to read and easy to find names of companies, positions held (or better yet, responsibilities), and dates employed. Hiring managers spend only a maximum of 20 seconds to determine whether they want to interview the candidate or put their resume in the “Not Considered” pile.

Assess Relevant Skills and Experience

Does the candidate have the relevant skills and experience? Basically, can the candidate solve the problems that will be encountered in the job? Identify the most qualified candidates based on skills and quantified positive results. Look for recent experience that reflects skills being sought. Does the candidate have experience in the same industry as the job? Are measurable accomplishments listed? Can training quickly provide any missing skills?

The skills that most hiring managers look for include:

Management/leadership

Effective communications
Intermediate level user skills with computers and common software
Analysis, problem-solving, decision-making, and implementation experience
Strong work ethic and tenacity
Relationship, interpersonal, teamwork, and collaboration skills

Most Recent Role

What is the current status of the candidate?

Is the candidate employed or unemployed and why?
Laid off or terminated? Why?
How long has the candidate been in the current role? Sufficient time to gain the skills needed for the open position?
Is his/her most recent experience relevant to the open position?

Self-Promotion

How well does the candidate’s resume and cover letter “sell him or herself to you? Has the candidate indicated a higher level of understanding about job searching by supplying sufficiently interesting information to get your attention, or has the candidate just listed job titles and dates? Look for resumes that answer these questions:

What is our return on investment if we hire you?
How can you make our company and results better?
How can you make the company more profitable?
How will you fit into the company’s culture?
Are you familiar with industry-specific language?
What well-known companies did you work for?
What educational credentials do you have?
What training are you bringing with you to the job?

Assess Keywords

Look for specific words, technologies, or company associations that are pertinent to the position or that are contrary to what the company is looking for. For example “was an Executive at Enron” or only knows the technology that your company doesn’t use, or has no mention of software knowledge required to perform the work. Keywords can be technical in nature, educational, or actually, anything you can think of. Examples include MBA, networks, foreign languages, software name like Visual Basic or Java, or.NET to mention a few.

Stability and Tenure

Examine the work history to quantify the candidate’s length of service at the companies listed. Are there any gaps? Does the work history indicate frequent change of jobs/companies? I had one candidate explain in his cover letter that I should, “… not label my 9 jobs in three years as job-hopping. I have never quit a job!” So, you’ve been fired from each job?

There may be valid reasons for frequent job changes in small numbers like 2 or 3 in a row, but a large number should send up a red flag.

Irritations

Here are few things that may or may not cause a resume to be rejected, but I personally find them to be irritating:

The use of “cutie” resume templates – I hope that people would be more focused on presenting and selling capabilities rather than using a cute method of gaining attention.

Resumes written in the “First Person.”

Including “Career Objectives” at the top of the resume. It’s nice, but it doesn’t really tell me anything other than, “I want the job!”

Exaggeration of titles, experience, and skills. Like my kids already know, I get to the bottom of things, usually through properly designed interview questions to bring out the facts. If I discover any exaggerations, misinformation, or outright lies, the candidate is written off. By the way, if I find out the truth after I’ve hired someone, I immediately have grounds to fire that person for dishonesty on the application or resume, or lying during the interview.

Using colored paper or odd-sized paper to make a resume stand out from the others, or anything other than “normal” type fonts like Arial, Helvetica, and Times New Roman do not impress me. They strike me as being more manipulative than adding to the candidate’s abilities.

Listing personal/private interests and activities if they have nothing to do with the job. I don’t care if you take in stray cats.

Extra Credit

I’ve taken the liberty to include some items that frequently make a positive impression, at least to me. You may have some other preferences or find fault with some of mine – use whatever works best for you and gives you good results.

E-mailing resumes rather than faxing, mailing, or personally delivering more paper. Also, I prefer resumes in pdf file format, because I don’t have to deal with differences in software versions, and they are easier to pass on to others. However, many companies today want resumes in MS Word or text so their software can scan, store, score, and prioritize resumes.

Well-organized and professional appearance – I don’t include correct spelling and proper use of grammar here, because if the candidate did not use them, I probably already bypassed his/her resume.

Short and concise cover letter – less is more. Again, many companies require cover letters now to evaluate communication and writing skills.

Specific skills that match the job posting – It shows that the candidate read the posting carefully and matched his/her skills to what is being sought.

Skills listed in the same order as the posting listed them, in priority order – You did list desired skills in priority order on the job posting, right?

Complete and correct web addresses if used and applicable – they make research easier.

Bottom Line

You and I spend enough time in completing the hiring processes. There are criteria that help us screen resumes quickly, and isolate the better candidates more effectively. Failure by a candidate to properly represent him/herself helps to determine that the candidate isn’t worthy of an interview. Resumes are actually “sales literature” for candidates. If they did not take proper care in building their resumes, they do not reflect expected work ethics, habits, and processes.

The Resume Skills Tier Method

Because so much is riding on your resume writing such as your career, future, and income, you need all the power you can get into your statements. Often one statement on a resume cannot sufficiently depict or cover your skill, experience, or knowledge. A project, task, or accomplishment is often too complex for one sentence to justify your involvement and contribution.

The ‘Resume Skills Tier Method’ for resume writing is a solution of skill building with multiple statements that support a primary statement. This can greatly enhance the descriptions of your achievements and create a resume that is more illustrative, interesting, and readable.

Using this method you create related statements presenting your skills and accomplishments in primary, secondary, and even tertiary statements and skills. The secondary and tertiary statements support, relate to, or are a result of the primary event or action.

You can use a bullet point format with this presentation that can cause an employer to pause and read your resume instead of hurriedly scanning. This can give you an advantage for generating employer interest and getting an interview.

Here’s how this works:

1. Take one of your resume skill statements or write one just as you normally would. (Select a skill and create an accomplishment statement showing a time you used that skill to do good for your employer preferably with measurable results such as time or money saved.)

2. Now choose a second and possibly third skill that you used at the same time that relates to or is a result of the primary event or action in your first statement.

The following example leads to statements that show a secondary and tertiary skill stemming from the original accomplishment statement:

Example:

Primary Skill: Analytical Skills

Primary Skill Statement: Analyzed 24 months of accounting data and determined in what areas the company could be reducing expenses.

Secondary Skill: Creative Skills

Secondary Skill Statement: Wrote new policy and procedures for purchasing for our department that decreased bid review times by over 35 per cent saving an estimated $341,000 in costs during the next year.

Tertiary Skill: Communication Skills

Tertiary Skill Statement: Conducted training sessions on my methods for satellite offices around the world.

How this would look on a resume:

Analyzed 24 months of accounting data and determined in what areas the company could be reducing expenses.

Wrote new policy and procedures for purchasing for our department that decreased bid review times by over 35 per cent saving an estimated $341,000 in costs during the next year.
Conducted training sessions on my methods for satellite offices around the world.

Expert Federal Resume Writing Help – Certified Professional Career Help and Assistance

Expert Federal Resume Writing Help – Certified Professional Federal Resume Writing Service

The federal resume is one of the hardest documents you will ever prepare. It is a time-intensive, labor of love that requires dedication, advanced grammar and editing skills, and the ability to draft a 2-4 page document about yourself. That doesn’t sound hard to you? Okay, try sitting down and describing your current life in a paragraph. Now, do that 2- 8 times over with respect to each job position and life experience you have had and then maybe you will see my point.

Unfortunately, even though the Obama administration got rid of the KSAs, the federal resume still looms. And, don’t be fooled by the fact that the government has done away with KSAs – that is not the case. Rather, the only difference is that now many of the agencies require that the KSAs be integrated into your current resume. How’s that for difficult – Basically the KSA is still a requirement for almost every government agency, only they are requiring that it be included in your resume, as opposed to submitted in a separate document.

What can you do to try to ease the pain of creating a federal resume – here are a few tips from a 10th year nationally certified resume writer who has served as a federal resume writer to several of the web’s top resume writing companies.

1. Brainstorm: When you apply for Federal and Government positions, they are sticklers for accuracy. Saying you started a position in 2010 is not enough – they want dates, including months and years. And, once you are on the interview and request that you complete a job application, they will require even more specific dates such as the exact date you started and ended the position. Therefore, take some time and think of each position you’ve had, the title, the supervisor, the months/years, and whether you will agree to let the potential employer contact your old employer.

2. Outline: Just as if you were back in high school or college, the key to any great essay is the ability to gather, organize, and execute your thoughts. Therefore, the first step in actually drafting the resume is for you to outline a job description that adequately describes each position you have had for the last 15-years.

3. Fine Tune the Outline: The next step should be taking the information and turning it into a story. Unlike a civilian resume, which is the equivalent of telling a story, a federal resume is the equivalent of writing a really, really boring story. It is important that you detail everything you did, but not overstate it. This is because with federal jobs, they WILL check your references, and WILL check you confirm that you actually completed what you said you did. (Not that you should ever lie in a civilian resume).

4. Give up and Hire a Resume Writer: Make SURE you have an EFFECTIVE FEDERAL RESUME: Government resumes generally will require the help of a professional resume writer. This is because the format is entirely different, the verbiage is more straightforward without being repetitive, and the content is much more dense. In addition, the job descriptions are much more detailed and in paragraph form. For the best results, do yourself a favor and hire Certified Professional Resume Writer with a strong background in creating Federal Resumes.

GOOD LUCK!

The Biggest Blunder You Can Make When Publishing Your Book

A killer headline for your book, sales letter or article can be the most important factor in the success of your product.

Here’s why..

A headline that I used in my first press release worked so well I still use it 12 years later.

Not only will a great headline garner attention, but good publicity can save you thousands of dollars in marketing expenses.

Here’s how I did it…

First I studied publicity. I learned a lot from a guy named Paul Hartunian. He probably has the best course on publicity out there.

Ted Nicholas was also one of my big influences. He was the space ad guy for a long time. That’s where I learned the majority of my space ad stuff.

So, I gave publicity a try with this crazy idea – a science fiction cookbook. Then I wrote a press release.

I followed Paul Hartunian’s format the tee, and I sent that press release out.

I was just inundated!

This was before email, so I mailed it out. I mailed it to radio stations, newspaper.

I still use it. Every year I send these things out. I’ve been doing it for 12 years.

The headline on my press release is, Kids Eat Their Own Faces; Mom’s Laugh Their Heads Off.

There’s a recipe in the book called the Eat Your Face gelatin mold. You can make an exact clone of your face in gelatin and serve it up for the salad course. That’s your Halloween party.

I mailed out about 100 on this first press release. The phone started ringing! It started ringing at five o’clock in the morning.

Just send your press release out first and then when an editor or disc jockey calls you, then you offer to send them your bio sheet and your question and answer sheet.

They think you’re very professional and you’ve done this before and actually you haven’t. You’re still blurry eyed in your pajamas.

I started to get calls, especially from these morning zoo shows on the FM stations. They just thought it was hilarious. They let me talk about my products for five or ten minutes.

Give my 800 number out and my website address and hang up the phone and go check and I got orders pouring in immediately.

A good thing about publicity is that it creates a lot of this marketing…word of mouth, which is the best kind that you can get.

A big upside to all of this is it’s free. You don’t have to pay a nickel. Of course you do want to continue to advertise so you’ve got that one-two punch, especially if you’re going to be on a radio show in Denver.

So, then you buy a little space ad in the Denver Post or something so that a lot of people will see that and say Hey I heard this guy on the radio!

This is how it worked for me.

They would call and say, “Hey, aren’t you the guy with these exploding cakes, or whatever? They called because they heard of me, and they had heard of me because of my publicity.

Remember: If you’re self publishing a book, maximize your investment by seeking out publicity.

Write a press release with an eye-catching headline and send out as many as you can.

If you land on a nationally syndicated radio show, your book may become an overnight success as the show is aired across the country!

What is a Federal Resume and How To Write One

The federal resume is one of three documents required for official applications for jobs within the federal government. The other two are the OF-612 and the traditional SF-171 – and it’s hard sometimes to figure out which agency wants what document, because some offices prefer one over the other So your best bet is to submit a federal resume – it’s considered the most current type of resume for government employment and, even if the department in question would prefer a different style, you’ll still look like you know what you’re doing!

A federal resume should be developed in the “chronological” resume format, listing your work history in reverse order of when you were employed. It must also include some additional information that’s not usually requested by civilian employers. You’ll need to include:

Job Information (job/listing number, title, series and grade of job)

Personal Information (full name and address, day and evening phone numbers, social security number, country of citizenship, veteran’s preference, reinstatement eligibility, highest federal civilian grade held)

Education (high school, including name, city, and state, date of diploma or GED, colleges or universities, including name, city and state, majors, type and year of any degrees received)

Work Experience (job title, duties and accomplishments, employer’s name and address, supervisor’s name and phone number, starting and ending dates, hours per week, salary, references)

Additional Qualifications (job-related training courses, skills, certificates and licenses, honors, awards and special accomplishments; for example, publications, memberships in professional or honor societies, leadership activities, public speaking and performance awards)

It may seem odd to provide so much information before you even get an interview, but keep in mind that applying for government jobs is very different than applying for private ones. The purpose of the federal resume in the private sector is to get an interview, after which an employer will ask for more information. In the government, the purpose of the resume is to present your qualifications, proving that you meet eligibility requirements, so that you can be approved by the Human Resources office. Your federal resume, therefore, needs to include similar language to that in the job announcement, because the HR specialist will be looking for applicants with experience that meets the requirements of the open position.

Your federal resume should cover about ten years of employment, with details describing your accomplishments. Focus on highlighting skills that are compatible with the the position for which you are applying. The resume should be no more than three to five pages long, plus pages outlining your knowledge, skills and, where applicable, performance ratings. Start with three pages as a goal. If you don’t have the work experiences to fill three pages, that’s okay – just make your on to two pages the best they can be.

If you are looking for additional information on federal resumes, KSA and ECQ documents, and Resumix applications, check the other articles we have published here.

How to Build an Impressive Teacher Resume

Teachers are considered to be mentors who guide us on our career goal and help us be a civilized individual. It is believed that both parents and teachers help us go through each and every motion of life. They help us boost our skills, enhance our knowledge, improve our social well-being, impart values and beliefs, and also help us gain self-esteem and self-confidence. They together help us improve our social, mental, and emotional well-being and make us complete. Parents are god’s gift but teachers are a choice given to us. Henceforth, when it comes to selecting a teacher, every educational institute desires to have one of the best teachers to boost the academic and personal skills of every student. The best way to enter a good educational organization is to build an impressive teacher resume.

To build an impressive and expressive teacher resume, first build up an organized format of the resume. Think before you write about all the features related to a teacher’s job. Frame all your skills, abilities, talents, and credentials in small sentences. Each and every sentence of your resume should be simple and explanative in an easy layout and an organized format.

Begin your teacher resume with your complete name, postal address, contact numbers, and e-mail address. Your personal details should be clear and easily noticed by the potential employer.

Then write your qualification summary that should cover your teaching skills, ways to tackle with students, how you deal with parents, classroom management skills, and ways you meet changing needs. You should also showcase your commitment and dedication to your work and your value proposition. Even better way to impress the potential employer is to show your positive approach towards the organization you are applying. Express why you want to join their institute and how will you benefit the same.

Then continue the resume with your relevant work experience in the teaching field. Under each job you have done in the past list the job tasks and all your teaching styles that you have used in each of the job position. The job tasks should include everything in just a few words. The employer should have a clear picture of how skillful you are and should realize how valuable you will prove to their organization. If in case you are a fresh candidate with a teaching degree then highlight your credentials and skills catering to the teaching field.

After the work experience, list your educational qualifications. Also list all the certificates and training courses done in the field. Ensure that you highlight all the teaching related courses and certificates. This will help you get better response from the employers. Underneath your educational listing mention all the awards and honors you have received to add more value to your resume.

Here you can end your resume but make sure you thoroughly check it twice or thrice and make your resume free from errors. There is no place for even a smallest error in a teacher’s resume as a teacher is considered to be perfect in all ways.

How to Write an Effective Resume – Top Ten Tips From a Recruiter’s Perspective

Your resume is one of your most important marketing tools. But remember, no matter how great it is, your resume will NOT get you a job. If it if written properly, however, the odds are much greater that you may gain a recruiter’s interest and be invited to interview.

As a Senior Recruiter for both small firms and large corporations, I have reviewed thousands of resumes during my 15+ years of recruiting and HR experience. My experience is that applicants often tend to miss these most important aspects that could make their resume more effective in attracting the attention and interest of recruiters and hiring managers.

Resume purpose: to market and sell your background, skills, accomplishments, and experience to those who have a need for your expertise or a problem that you can solve.

Resume role: to create interest, to show that you indeed have the requisite skills and experience, and to get a recruiter and/or hiring manager interested enough to invite you to interview.

Top Ten Tips for Writing an Effective Resume (from a recruiter’s point of view):

1. You can (and should) have more than one resume! Create a separate resume for the top two to three main areas of your expertise. (For example, one resume for marketing, one for sales, one for engineering). Each resume should highlight specific examples of your accomplishments, skills, and experience from your current and previous roles that directly relate to that particular area of expertise.

2. Two Pages in Length, Max. Condense, condense, condense! Pretend that each word costs you $100 and you will write less, enabling you to fit your most important information on two pages. (Exception: doctors and other published professionals often need a few more pages to list their credentials and published works. But even they should keep it as short as possible). Have someone whose opinion you trust proofread your resume and edit where necessary before sending it out.

3. Choose an Appropriate Format. The best and easiest resume format to review is chronological (starting with most recent job and date and working backwards through your job history). However, a functional resume format is often suggested as an option especially for those who have been out of the job market for a while or who want to change careers. But it can raise red flags that could stop your resume from being reviewed further. Recruiters know that a functional format is often used to hide gaps in employment dates. In addition, details for skills and experience are lumped together into separate functional areas, instead of under each particular job held in the past. In many cases, because of the time and difficulty involved in reading a functional resume, recruiters often pass them over and move on to the next one.

4. Focus Your Attention on The Most Important “Real Estate” on Your Resume: the top half of the front page. Why? Because recruiters today are inundated with resumes, especially in these tough economic times when so many are out of work. Often, recruiters are managing anywhere up to 50+ jobs at one time, with each one having hundreds and hundreds of resume submissions. The average time an experienced recruiter spends initially scanning a resume to determine if it is relevant to the position is approximately 7 to15 seconds. If the top half of your resume does not quickly differentiate and sell you as a viable candidate with recent and relevant skills and experience for the specific job for which you are applying, the recruiter will simply move on to the next one.

5. Develop a Keyword Rich Resume. Be sure to add the main keywords for your skills and experience as well as your industry and organizational keywords all through your resume. Recruiters use various types of search tools in ATS (applicant tracking systems) where they type in main keyword terms for the specific job and position qualifications to search for related resumes. They also conduct similar keyword searches online on major job boards and even some social media sites. Only resumes that contain those keywords will appear in their review box and those are the only resumes that they will scan for consideration. If your main keywords are not in your resume, it is very likely that your resume will not be reviewed, even though you may be very well qualified.

6. Create a Brief Bullet Point Summary. At the top of the front page of your resume, list 5 to 7 bullet point phrases that highlight your most compelling skills, experience, accomplishments, training and education. This summary should be located somewhere within the very top third section of the resume underneath but close to your name and contact information. Critical: avoid “fluff” or trite phrases such as “Good at multitasking” or “Detail oriented”, etc. The reader’s eye should be able to quickly scan the summary section and determine at a glance that your resume is one worth continuing to read through to the end.

7. Quantify and Qualify Your Experience. Recruiters and hiring managers highly value proven accomplishments and results. The more you can quantify or qualify your bullet point statements under each of your position listings, the more strongly you will be perceived as a person of action and results. After each statement, ask yourself, “What did I accomplish?” or “What was the result?”. Try to tie a quantifiable result to the end of each statement if possible, such as, “and as a result, saved the company $X” or “increased revenues by X%”, or “sold the most widgets on the team and was selected as employee of the year”.

8. Focus on Your Most Recent and Relevant Job Information. Recruiters and hiring managers want to know what you have done most recently that is relevant to the position for which they are hiring. Write the bulk of your resume information about your skills, experience and accomplishments for the most recent 5 to 7 years of your job history. Unless your experience past that point is unusually helpful for stating your case, minimize that information to save valuable resume space. Beyond 7 to 10 years of job history, you can just list one or two line entries for each position held. Save the rest of the details of those positions for the application form and interviews.

9. Place Your Key Credentials, Certifications, and Educational Experience Sections In a Conspicuous Place. A bachelors degree should typically be located near the end of the resume under the educational section heading. However, do you have a job-related advanced degree such as an MBA, PhD, or other certifications or credentials that you want to make sure a recruiter or hiring manager sees? Place them toward the top front section of your resume, right before or after the summary section. Why? If you bury them at the end of your resume, they may never be seen. (See Tip #4)

10. List Organizations, Associations and Affiliations of which you are a volunteer or member. Often overlooked, this information can be a great way to show an employer that you stay current with information and contacts in your industry. If you volunteer for positions, especially leadership roles, be sure to list those as well. This information is especially important for those applying for roles in financial services and sales and marketing firms who need to show that they already have an established network. Place this section of information near the end of your resume.

This final tip is a bonus. However, it is THE single most important tip of all in writing an effective resume.

Always tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth on your resume…always! Never, ever misrepresent what you did or be tempted to tell a “little white lie” on your resume or to a recruiter – period! Be especially careful with job titles and job responsibilities you list. Make sure that the job title and responsibilities you put on your resume can actually be verified if someone were to call your current or former employer or colleagues and ask about you. Untrue and misrepresented statements, no matter how innocent they may seem, are a breach of integrity and can come back to haunt you many years later. You could even be fired as a consequence! It just isn’t worth it.

Use these ten tips to tighten and refine your resume and then you can submit it with confidence!

Writing a Press Release

The word Press Release seems to scare most people to death. On top of that not many people take the time to even think of writing their own Press Release. We hope this brief article will help clear up some of the mysteries surrounding this simple form of marketing.

The first thing you have to remember is that a Press Release is a news item. It needs to inform people, NOT sell them something. For example, you are reading this report because you want to learn something that will benefit you. You are not reading it just so you can buy something else. If money is the deriving force in your business you would not go too far. Your main goals should be in pleasing customers, providing them with a high quality product and more than their moneys worth. The trick is to do all this while still making money. People do not care what mountains you had to climb, what seas you had to cross or what tribe of people you had to learn the ways of just to find a secret formula. Instead they want to know what the secret formula is.

The sales circulars you print and mail sell your product. A Press Release informs others about your product. Instead of your main objective being to sell the product and have the customer send in an order immediately, a Press Release informs the customer exactly how your product will benefit their lives. This must be conveyed in the form of a newsworthy Press Release. If you have a sales circular to sell a product, you can easily turn it into a Press Release without much difficulty. It is just a new marketing angle of presenting your product to the public.

The following is an example of a typical Press Release for our publishing services: So many people are entering the mail order market these days, but so many of them are getting ripped off by a bunch of hype. People are promised untold riches in a short period of time. The hype ads play with their emotions by making them believe it is so easy to make money through the mail. It is sad.

However, a new book has just been released to help solve these problems for the average person. For the first time in history a real directory has been compiled listing the actual name and addresses of 179 honest and trustworthy mail order folks. People can write directly to these people and receive free information to get them started in their own business now.

It is unbelievable. Without trying to sell you anything else, you can get this book for only $4.95 a price anyone can afford. Meet the real mail order dealers who are about their products and want to help you get started doing what they are doing.

Only available from Graphic Publishing, PO Box 488, Bluff City TN 37618.As you can see, this is a short but sweet Press Release however, you should be able to see the newsworthiness in it. Its main focus is on the fact that most people get ripped off when they start their first mail order business. The solution to this problem is a new directory that is available for the first time in history. The sell is slowly led into because the reader will naturally want to get their hands on this one. It does not ask for money it only tells the reader how to get a copy if they want one.

Here is a great test for a real press release. Since your final sales pitch is included in the last paragraph read the Press Release aloud. Would it still be worth reading without your sales pitch? If so, it is probably a Press Release.

Press Releases come in many forms due to the product you are writing about. However, the basic rule of thumb still applies. If you have never wrote one before it may be a little difficult. Do not despair. Grab the latest daily newspaper and read some of their informational articles. Notice how each article is written and pattern yours after the same format. After you do a few of them – you will be able to get the picture.

When your Press Release is written to your satisfaction, the proper way to submit it to a publisher is: Be sure and type it on a typewriter or computer. Standard format is doubling spaced and not longer than two 8 1/2×11 pages. Be sure and put your name, address and page number at the top of each page.

Write the note for immediate release at the top. If you are only sending the press release to one publication tell them it is a first run.

Regards,