Resume Tips – 5 Ways to Circulate Your Resume For Job Search Success

Too many people are out of work now, and many are giving up on the chance of finding a job. Sometimes, having a different mindset of how to market yourself can open the possibilities for job search success. There are a number of ways to use your resume, and trying one of these methods might make the difference in finding your next job. If your job search plan is diversified, you will have a better chance of obtaining an interview because your resume will have been circulated to a larger audience of people.

Networking

Networking is one of the best ways to distribute your resume. Networking is getting someone you know to introduce you to somebody that you haven’t met before. While there may not be an obvious job opening, networking could prove valuable at introducing you to that position before it becomes public. This might give you the leverage needed in today’s job market. It certainly can improve your chances at securing an interview.

You don’t need to know a million people to network. Start with the obvious – friends, immediate and extended family members, club or association members, service professionals you’ve hired, and even your hair stylist might know someone who knows about a position that you fit.

As you speak to these individuals, or communicate with the contacts that they provide you, make sure they have a copy of your resume. It’s natural for people to help each other; however, it’s not always natural for us to be comfortable asking for help. Practice asking, “Would you hold onto my resume in case you hear of someone who needs my skills?” Chances are, you will get a friendly yes more often than not.

Advertisements

It is expected that, when answering a classified ad, you will need to submit a resume. Make sure that your resume and cover letter are tailored for the specific requirements of the advertisement. And, read the entire classified section. Sometimes, a job posting appears under a different title than what you might think as normal.

Understand the requirements posted in the advertisement, and be sure your resume fits those requirements. Adjust keywords and critical elements to make sure your resume sells you for that specific position. After all, you wouldn’t try submitting a resume for short-order cook when answering an advertisement for catering and event planner! Although there are similar functions in both positions, the level of your qualifications should fit the position you are competing for.

Employment Agencies

Employment agencies are another place to circulate your resume. If you’ve been out of work for a while and need to start finding something for income, try a temporary agency. Their positions can sometimes develop into permanent placement, and you have a chance to prove your loyalty by working through an agency.

Other employment agencies utilize a fee structure approach to placement. Check the fee arrangements and distribute your resume if their business practices would be beneficial to your job search. Many of these agencies work under a fee structure where the employer pays a finder’s fee for the position opening; and these are often for jobs requiring specialized skills or hard-to-fill positions.

Recruiters

Executive recruiters typically work with companies to find qualified candidates for senior-level positions, and work with the company on either a fee or a retainer contract. Submitting your resume to an executive recruiter may not see immediate results, but it is a chance to get exposure to some of the higher-level positions that wouldn’t be advertised in the classified sections.

Make sure you have a top-class resume for the recruiter to use, and that it is specific for your professional position. Recruiters have a better chance of matching you to a company when you are very clear about your accomplishments and the expertise that you can bring to the next company.

Bold and Direct

The direct approach is still a popular way of circulating your resume. Perhaps you have identified a company or industry for which you’d like to work. Although they haven’t posted any job openings, you can drop off your resume with a good cover letter. Sometimes, this will result in a request to complete an application, or even an immediate interview! At the very least, they will keep it in their candidate file for a short while, and an opening may come up that you are qualified for.

Think about the many different ways to circulate your resume. Don’t wait for opportunity to knock at your door; you need to get your resume out there to find the best opportunities! Follow guidelines when preparing your resume that ensure you end up with a quality, professional document. Once you have polished and perfected it, try some diversified ways of circulating your resume for job search success.

Customize Your Resume to Jump Start Your Job Search

Your resume is a sales letter promoting your background, abilities and potential. A good resume will get lead to interviews and poor one will keep opportunities out of reach. It is important to develop the best sales presentation to differentiate yourself from your competition.

Many job seekers get frustrated sending out lots of resumes and never hearing anything in response. They apply to a few dozen companies and hear back from a couple and sometimes none. The reason is simple – when companies post a job, they receive thousands of resumes that have nothing to do with the job.

Some job seekers, frustrated with the lack of response, resort to a mass mailing approach. The idea is to send out massive volumes of resumes and hope a few will get a response.

The problem with this strategy is the poor quality of the resume that is sent. Generalizing your background to be suitable for almost any job results in your resume looking like everyone else’s. This ensures you will not stand out and will not get attention.

Customization

The solution is to customize your application. The more you can do this, the more successful you will be. If your job search is stalled, working to customize your resume for each position will help jump start your efforts and get your search back on track.

Taken to the extreme, you would write a custom cover letter and resume for a position, address them to a specific individual, and hand deliver your information to the hiring manager – ideally with someone from the company referring and recommending you to the hiring manager. In this situation, your resume is going to get a very close look and you will get a response.

Unfortunately, this level of customization and personal contact isn’t always possible. So what should you do? Customize the sales pitch as much as possible.

The first step is to have a cover letter. Many job seekers omit a cover letter, but including one can help differentiate you from the other applicants.

Second, customize your cover letter to the position. A cover letter, specifically mentioning the position and company, along with a persuasive reason why the job seeker will add value to that company, is more likely to generate interest.

Third, customize the objective statement on your resume. Make sure it indicates you are interested in the position.

Fourth, customize your skills, highlighting the skills most important for the position. Often, this requires only a slight change to your resume, but it can make a huge impact. Look at the job description and make sure you show your skill level with any required technical skills. You may think that the skills you include in your resume imply that you would have other related skills, but you can’t count on this. It becomes especially problematic if the person doing the initial resume screen doesn’t understand the technical details of a position. In this case, they may have a checklist of skills – if you mention everything on the checklist, you pass, if you don’t you’re rejected.

Fifth, customize the accomplishments on your resume. Look for key elements of the job description, paying particular attention to the goals, expectations or challenges of the role. Include examples of how you have met similar goals or expectations, or have overcome similar challenges in the past.

If you adjust all five of these elements on every resume you submit, you will greatly improve your success rate. Making these modifications takes time, but it is worth it. The tighter the job market gets, the more important it is to maximize your chances for every opportunity.

Search Engine Optimization

World’s major SEO companies

Google, AOL, Info Space, Yahoo, Askewest, MSN, AltaVista, Lycos, AllTheWeb, Netscape, Looksmart, Go/ InfoSeek, Overture, NBCi/Snap, Kanoodle, IX Quick, Northern Light, Excite, DMOZ, WiseNut, Teoma, Hog Search, MetaCrawler, Dogpile Web Search Eureka, EuroPages, Free Find, Go.com, Mirago, Nerd World, Northern Light, Open Directory Project, OpenText, Planet Search, Scoot, Starting Point, UK Directory, Webtop, Yellow Web

SEO an Overview

The objective of Search Engine Optimization is to increase web visitor counts by ranking very high in the results of searches using the most appropriate keywords describing the content of your site. This relative ranking is often viewed as a struggle to best use a few keywords, instead of a struggle to out-do your competition. If you search on your target keywords, you will see the leading site in the rankings. All you need to do is to be better than that number one site. This page suggests ways to optimize and improve search engine results with ranking and placement advice, placement hints, tips, and clues to improve your search engine keywords relative to existing leaders. After all, better keyword ranking is your real objective.

It is not enough to simply add META tags and do search engine submission of your site to a million search engine indexes and directories. The first placement step in obtaining significant web visitor counts is to seek first-page search engine results. An early step is to build a great content-rich site. One of the last steps is the proper submission of your great site to the search engine or directory. In the middle is a step that is VITAL if you want to obtain front-page results, and most sites skim past this step because it is forgotten or too complex, but without competent Search Engine Optimization you are destined to be search engine fodder.

There are no Search Engine Optimization secrets — just ranking and placement methodologies to follow in order to beat your competition in obtaining a high ranking for desired search keywords. This site targets improving search engine rankings by using a “follow the leader” approach to keyword selection and page wording. Once you know what keywords and search engine marketing services (not spam) worked for the “leaders”, you can “beat the leader” and do even better! Proper Search Engine Optimization requires that you beat your competition, so knowing the keywords and criterion used by your competition is the most important first step. It will become obvious that good ranking excludes keyword spamming the search engine, and that with the careful selection of your keywords that you will fare well for a little effort. Bruceclay.com offers help, hints, and tips for improving search engine results via a specific search engine keywords placement methodology.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the science of search as it relates to marketing on the web. It is mostly technical in nature, combining programming with business, persuasion, sales, and a love for competitive puzzle solving into a written form capable of maintaining desired revenue goals while achieving high rankings in the organic sections of search engine results pages. It is not just technical, nor copywriting, nor links, nor just search engine submission, but an intricate blend of over a hundred variables into the fabric of a website. It is difficult to accomplish without a formal proven methodology and strong proprietary tools. We offer you a tutorial on all of that and more on these pages…

Before you start, you should understand that top 10 rankings with every single major search engine and directory can be obtained, although very few sites can get there and the effort is often beyond reason. Note: URL ranking results change week-to-week due to competition, so maintaining a top ranking requires constant keywords monitoring and information rework. Search Engine Optimization never rests, much like your competition.

The key information on this page includes how to prepare both you and your site for the search engines, choosing the right keywords, how to analyze your competition, what is submission and how is it best accomplished, when to monitor your ranking, instructions for performing an analysis of your site results, complete with tools and aids. This site covers all basic and advanced strategies and the common mistakes to avoid.

The overall SEO involves:

o Attracting prospects to a web site

o that is properly designed to encourage visitors to browse like Web Site Design

o leads the visitor to a completed transaction by offering products easily and without undue complexity like Web Site Navigation

o Addresses concerns (perceived risks) that can scare off the potential buyer if left unanswered like risk avoidance.

The overall SEO involves

o Attracting prospects to a web site

o That is properly designed to encourage visitors to browse like Web Site Design

o Leads the visitor to a completed transaction by offering products easily and without undue complexity like Web Site Navigation

o Addresses concerns (perceived risks) that can scare off the potential buyer if left unanswered like risk avoidance.

SEO Case Study
o Do you have any intent to sell your product yourself?

o Do you have any intent to sell this product through a traditional retail channel?

o Have you decided to sell this product via the Web?

o Determine What You Have To Sell

o Determine Who Already Needs What You Have To Sell

o Determine What They Will Pay For What You Have To Sell

SEO Guidelines –

o Obtain A Domain Name And Site Host

o Search Engine Marketing Through Links

o Search Engine Marketing Through Public Relations

o Search Engine Marketing Through Banners and Print Media

o Search Engine Marketing Through Strategic Relationships And Reciprocal Links

o Search Engine Marketing Through Email Discussion Groups And News Groups

o Search Engine Marketing Through A Bulk Email Program (Careful!)

o Measure Progress And Change Only One Thing At A Time

o Proceed to Search Engine Placement Tactics and Tools Page

Develop A Website Using These Principles:

Before submission you must have prepared your site for search engine placement. If your site is not prepared for top ranking then a submission service can only give you many, many poor rankings.

Consider techniques for counting visitors and have a demographics collection process (newsletter registration or perhaps a Guest Book or equivalent) for capturing visitor name and email information.

1. It must showcase the need that your product addresses (public interest)

2. It must showcase the solution that you are offering.

3. It must provide instant gratification (for information and access to the solution).

4. It must provide appropriate and timely information (in images and words) to allow the visitor to make a decision. Help them to decide that your product meets their needs.

5. Allow the visitor to buy your product (or, if a service, allow them to contact you).

6. Allow for easy information requests if questions arise anytime, day or night. Always respond promptly!

7. Consider techniques for counting visitors and have a demographics collection process (newsletter registration or perhaps a Guest Book or equivalent) for capturing visitor name and email information.

8. Change the site often (at least once per week) to give users a reason to visit again and again.

9. Consider offering a “gift” to visitors (free is best, perhaps a contest) to have them tell their friends to visit your site. Word of mouth is a powerful tool. We have our own “tell-two-friends” referral script on our site.

10. Have the site be “High Class”. Curb appeal is important in determining if you want surfers to stop and visit. Opinions will be formed early about whether the customer wants to do business with you. Plan improvements.(Regardless of what you may think, every site on the Web is under construction all of the time). Make sure that your web site design does not violate any taboos.

11. Design for the masses. Do not use exceptionally advanced technology unless that is your product. The Web is still connected to a lot of slow computers, and many do not operate on the latest Netscape or Internet Explorer products. Keep it simple and still meet your web site design and promotion goals. The toys must be appropriate to the mission of your web site.

12. Write the text and “storyboard” your site much like creating a good product specification. Use a word processor to lay-out all of your pages. Make sure that the flow is simple for the novice Internet user. Try to keep the body content each Web page to one to two 8½ x 11 sheets of paper, or if heavy information, minimize graphics and limit the size to no more than six pages. Focus on making the message clear. Creativity, and how quickly the page loads, is more important than the use of extra artwork for the sake of “cute”. And when this is done, call a Marketing Consultant first, definitely before you call a web page designer. Message and Placement sell on the web.

13. It is important to consider some aspects of eCommerce: web-based commerce with a human touch is very effective in most cases, especially with 60% to 70% of all shopping carts being abandoned. Do not design around human contact if it increases the ability to sell your products. Factor it into your design. While this may be against the Amazon.com hands-off model, some firms like Face Time Communications are integrating AOL Instant Massager with their website eCommerce applications to answer last minute questions. Reports are that buy decisions increase six-fold if questions are answered. Customer Service is evolving, and it is alive and well on the web.

14. Double check the site architectural concepts.

15. There are obviously “things” that a Web architect must know. Much of this is contained in this site and many others linked to this site below. You still need to have a minds-eye image of what is possible before you spend too much money doing it. We recommend that for optimal search engine placement that you start by reviewing this site once, and then on the second pass spend more time on the Web by “surfing” my links and those linked from our links.

16. For all sites that you identify, go to their website and visit their home page. Choose the browser option to view their Home Page HTML source (this might be a complex process). Scan these sites for search engine placement keywords and terms to make sure that your list is as complete.

17. Marketing is everything. It brings potential buyers to your door. But proper design is vital, because without effective design the buyers who see your home page will leave before it finishes loading. The average home page loads in 48 seconds at 28.8, and the average visitor stays at a home page for 35 seconds, obviously many leave before the page finishes loading. We can learn from this.

18. Create/Design the site by taking content and art, mixing it with navigation and style, testing it on family and friends, and always listen to comments, grunts, pregnant pauses, and blank stares. Specific advice on development of a page is at our Quality Site Criteria page and we suggest that you visit it now, before you code your first Web page! Try not to copy a page layout from another site. Use your own words, ideas, and artwork whenever possible, making sure that the message in the image matches your text. Make sure that the visitor knows what you are saying/selling at all times.

19. Carefully consider the use of database tools, visual tools, and java tools. These are areas receiving a lot of interest, and technology work, and they might be right for your site. Carefully consider your options since some could adversely affect search engine placement.

20. Use the smallest graphics that you can to relay your message. It is estimated that 20% of all Web users surf the Web without graphics enabled! But always have graphics if it helps sell your product. Don’t add graphics just to be neat — an animated mail box is really not something to add to a commercial site.

Follow these rules (mandatory for Free Site Listings)

o Make sure the site is rated for Family Viewing (keep it clean).

o Be courteous to other authors at all times — respect their copyrights, trademarks, and intellectual property.

o Make sure the site is NOT a multi-level marketing site, a network marketing site, or a get rich quick site (although some MLM sites can get into the free lists if they are not moderated).

o Make sure the site is NOT graphically overburdened. Minimize the use of CAPITAL letters, large fonts, and extensive graphics, especially animation.

o Make sure the site Home Page loads quickly and informs the visitor what you have to offer them right up front. If using sounds, use MIDI files whenever possible instead or WAV files, and default to off unless sounds are short. Be careful, some browsers crash with sound enabled.

o If you entice visitors with a FREE OFFER or CONTEST, make sure you explain how to obtain the gift or prize in an obvious manner. (FREE is good, but contests usually don’t work and there may be legal problems).

o Always choose to communicate information rather than to display wiz-bang nifty technical skills. These gadgets are a no-no to many free sites even if mandatory for some award sites. Animation, although exciting to see sometimes, is a real distraction on most pages and actually decreases sales. Avoid it unless there is a purpose.

o If you are going to be selling a service or product, take the time to establish a merchant account and accept credit cards. The good news is that this is easily implemented with or without a store. The bad news is that it takes effort to set it up. It is strongly suggested that you visit our page on e-commerce considerations and follow those instructions carefully!

Search Engine Placement through Search Engines, Links, and Awards
Before submission you must have prepared your site for search engine placement. If your site is not prepared for top ranking then a submission service can only give you many, many poor rankings.

There are many Web businesses offering to list your site with search engines or directories for FREE for a few sites, and for a small fee for other sites. The key is that over time, the categories change, the registration format changes, and there is a great difference between being submitted and being registered. At present, there is a 25% mortality rate for search engine sites every few months, and those that survive do so by upgrading categories and registration formats.

Search engine placement requires some homework. Before making this commitment, make a written note with the below information:

1. Your Web address (URL) in the form of http://www.yoursite.com

2. Your email address in the form of yourname@yoursite.com

3. The title of your Home Page in the form of “your site -products for (need}”

4. A 40 character product description

5. A ten to twelve word site description (your site TITLE probably)

6. A twenty-five word site description

7. A forty word site description (keep in your paste buffer). Consider using this text at the top of the displayed area on your home page.

8. A list of sixteen to twenty words best describing criteria that a prospective visitor would use in a search engine to find your site

9. A complete list of keywords (up to 1000 characters) sequenced with the most important first (possibly from your HTML Keywords line)

11 Tips to an Organized Job Search

So, you are searching for a new job? Perhaps you are making a voluntary career transition. Maybe you have been laid off, or worse, fired. Regardless of the reason for your career move, one fact remains true: if you are conducting a job search, it is vital that you take an organized approach. Managing this search is just like managing any other major project. You must create an infrastructure that allows you to operate in an efficient and productive manner. A successful job search requires forethought and action. Here are some tips for conducting an organized job search.

  1. Declutter and Pre-Purge – If you are looking for a new job, it will be difficult to do so if your physical space is covered in clutter with piles of papers everywhere. Take some time to declutter. Purge any unnecessary items, file papers that you need to keep, recycle junk mail, and get some order back into that space! It will be easier for you to concentrate on your job search without all of that chaos and clutter around you. Just be careful that you don’t spend too much time decluttering that you start using it as an excuse to procrastinate with regard to your job exploration. A few days should suffice.
  2. Create a Job Search Schedule – Let’s face it – searching for a job is hard work! If you are still employed while you are looking for a new position, be prepared to have an extremely busy schedule. If you are currently unemployed, realize that you do, indeed, have a job – conducting a job search! Create a schedule that gives you ample time for all of the activities you need to focus on in order to succeed: resume and cover letter preparation, surfing the web for jobs, networking, interviewing, follow-up, etc. Block out time in your calendar for job search activities and treat that time as you would any traditional work commitment. Be consistent in the amount of time you spend each day and week on new job activities so that you keep your momentum going, and don’t lose focus and miss valuable opportunities.
  3. Get Your Gear in Order – Update your resume, cover letter, references, and writing sample (if applicable). Ask for letters of recommendation and testimonials from previous or current supervisors, co-workers, and professional colleagues. Get some nice new stationery, and stock up on print cartridges for your printer. If you want to use an outside source for printing, some local printing shops will copy resumes for free during an economic downturn, so ask around! Be sure to have a computer with high-speed Internet access. An all-in-one machine for printing, copying, faxing and scanning will also come in handy during a career move.
  4. Create Job Search Central – Set aside space at home (or wherever you will be conducting your search activities) and make it job search central. Keep all of your job-search related supplies in that location, which will make it easy for you to find them when you need them. This will also help you to get into search mode when you are in that space.
  5. Create a Career Move Paper Management System – You may be acquiring a lot of paper in your search: resources, articles, sample resumes and cover letters, business cards of networking contacts, contact-us-later or rejection letters, etc. To the extent that you can maintain these items in a paperless fashion, go for it. But if you have to maintain hard copy paper, be sure to create a job search paper management or filing system, to be stored in your job search center. Keep it simple and use whatever system makes the most sense to you for ease of use (binder, portable filing bin, traditional filing cabinet, etc).
  6. Plan Job Search Activities – Plan out job search activities on a daily basis, such as phone calls to make, resumes to send, online applications to fill out, informational interviews to conduct, etc. Write down your search activities as calendar items, to-do’s, or tasks so that you take them seriously and treat them as measurable goals. Be realistic with regard to what you can reasonably accomplish in one day, but also challenge yourself!
  7. Track Activities – Organizing your job search involves keeping track of all information and communications. Keep a record of where you sent your resume and when, whom you have spoken to, when interviews took place, etc. This information will prove vital when deciding when to follow-up with leads. You can track all of this information using a calendar such as Outlook or Google, or an online tool such as JobFiler.com. Whatever tools you use, it is important that you be able to track the status of your job search.
  8. Manage Job Search Email – In today’s world, much of your job search will likely be conducted by email. Therefore, before you even start your search, whittle down the amount of email in your inbox so that you can hyper-focus on your job search emails, which will add up quickly. Create folders within your email system using categories that make sense to you, such as Companies Applied To, Contacts Submitted Resumes To, etc.
  9. Polish Your Online Profiles – If you are searching for a new job in today’s market, you would be remiss not to develop an online presence on social media sites, especially LinkedIn, which is the most “professional” of the social media sites and can essentially serve as your online resume. But also consider other social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. The opportunities are endless for employers and contacts to find you online. You may even have your own website, e-zine, or blog. Maybe you post articles on various article-marketing sites, or serve as a guest blogger on other blogs. If you maintain profiles on any of social media sites, or have any type of online presence, be sure to polish your profiles so that they promote the image you want potential employers and contacts to see.
  10. Change Your Greetings – Change the message that greets callers for any phone number that you plan to use for your job search so that it sounds professional, and conveys the information you want callers to hear. Be prepared, not embarrassed!
  11. Stay Positive – The longer a job search takes, the more chance you have of becoming negative about it. Try to maintain a positive attitude to the extent you can by monitoring your progress and staying active in your search. When the going gets rough during a job search, many people take a back seat and give up, which is counter-productive. Try to stay focused and make valuable contacts that are likely to lead to a job. However, don’t be all consumed by your search for a job! Maintaining some balance in your life at this time will serve you well. Get adequate sleep, eat well, see family and friends for pleasure, and make time for exercise.

Organization is one of the single most important things you can do to keep your job search manageable. Just like being organized helps you improve any other area of your life, home, or work, it will also help move along your job search in quick and efficient fashion and with less stress. It may even wind up being the key to finding that dream job you always wanted.

Good luck!

Functional Resumes- Is a Functional Resume The Best Choice For Your Job Search?

Functional resumes are formatted to focus on your skills and experience instead of on your chronological employment history. In this format, you will organize your information under headings representing expertise and experience rather than by job titles.

In straight functional resumes, your employment history is avoided entirely, however this can raise alarm bells with some employers. If this is likely to be a problem, it may be wise to use a combination resume format which includes both functional and chronological components.

A functional resume format is the best choice if you have gaps in employment history, are returning to the workforce after raising children or are newly entering the workforce after leaving school or college.

Functional resumes focus on the functions of your various roles and your job is to highlight the relevance of these functions to the job you are applying for. This means you need to be very aware of the requirements of the job and company you are targeting.

The first step to writing a functional resume is to evaluate the tasks you performed in each of your previous jobs and group them into functional areas.

For example, you may have done a lot of different types of accounting or clerical jobs but within these roles you may have had diverse functions such as training a staff member, liaising with government departments, writing a training manual, supervision, staff evaluation, as well as the functions typically associated with accounting.

It is important to consider all functional aspects of your previous roles as these could well provide the foot in the door you are looking for.

Once you have identified common elements of your skills and experience, you can compare these to the specific requirements of the jobs you are applying for. Re-word them to suit the language and terms used in the selection criteria of your targeted position.

It can be helpful to browse job ads of other similar positions to remind you of work you have done in the past as well as to guide you in how to express your skills and experience in the most appropriate way for your target audience.

If you feel you need some help putting together your functional resume, functional resume templates are available online for download. Simply do an online search to find them. They can save you a lot of time and make the resume preparation process a lot easier.

As with all resumes, functional resumes will need to include your objectives, personal details, experience and skills, education, training and certifications, and a list of referees.

Make sure your resume is printed on white or off-white stock paper with wide margins and one and a half line spacing to make it easy to read. Have a reliable person read it to make sure there are no errors you haven’t picked up.

You now have an effective, functional resume targeted to the job or industry you are aiming for. Once you write a highly targeted cover letter to send with it, you are ready to apply for your job and you have given yourself the best possible chance of obtaining an interview.

Functional resumes are well worth the time and effort it requires to create them. If this format is best suited to your employment history and personal circumstances, using it to write your resume can be the difference between job hunting success and failure.

Resume Cover Letter – How Being Selfish Kills Your Job Search

It’s wonderfully human…we all have our self-indulgent, downright selfish little moments. Relaxing in a steamy bubble bath, candles glowing, sipping wine, jazz playing, nothing in the world but you and happiness. Or kicking back, feet up in front of your favorite movie, freely popping a 2lb. box of Sees Candy in your mouth, grinning, with the phones shut off (I kind of like that one!).

It’s no crime, right? We work our butts off. And after slaving away all week, we certainly deserve our sweet, selfish little moments.

But when you’re creating your resume cover letter, it’s best to reach deep inside yourself and turn off this selfish mode. Completely.

When drafting your resume cover letter, one of the biggest mistakes you want to avoid is focusing too much on yourself. How far you want to move up in the company and the salary you’re after isn’t what the employer cares about. I think it’s safe to say, employers care most about one thing: exactly how you can benefit their company.

So here’s a great idea: before writing your resume cover letter, do some research on the company you want to work for. Yeah I know, it’s extra work, but believe me, it’s worth it. Find out what the latest happenings are. What particular challenges they might be facing. An exciting product they might have just developed. With our technological blessing we all know as the Internet, we can find information on just about any company these days.

The best way to find information is to take a trip to the company’s website. If you don’t have their web address, do a Google search–something is sure to pop up. When you find the website, read every single page, from start to finish. Read over the “About Us” section, recent press releases, their company philosophy, and the products/services they’re currently offering.

Now don’t grit your teeth if you can’t find the company’s website. There are other sites you can check out that specialize in helping you find information about a specific company. Two of these sites are Vault.com and WetFeet.com.

Mention something interesting you’ve learned about their company in your resume cover letter. Doing this will show that you have a genuine interest in their organization, and a strong drive to work for them. Why? Because you took valuable time and effort to learn about their company.

Here’s a paragraph from a resume cover letter that concentrates on the company’s needs (this person applied for a position as a copywriter with a marketing firm):

I’ve heard that you’re looking for a copywriter with great research skills and the ability to create persuasive sales copy. I have over 5 years experience

doing this, and would love to share a few ideas I have for your new ‘Healthy Diets’ ad campaign.

Focusing on what a company wants and showing them what you can bring to the table can add tons of value to your resume cover letter. It also helps you to greatly stand out as one of their worthy applicants.

And when you’re ultimately hired for the position you want, feel free to celebrate with your own creatively selfish little moment. You deserve it!

Search Engine Optimization Intro

There is a lot to search engine optimization, so I am going to cover some basics and leave it at that. First let’s go over some key parts to SEO. Keywords are words that people use on the search engines to find your website. These keywords can help determine your rank on the search engines. This is why keyword research is a great way to assess which ones to use and which ones would be too difficult to rank with. There are some great tools out there for this research. One of the best to use is Google AdWords Keyword Tool, if you are looking for a free resource. If you are willing to pay for more options that will assist in this you can use SEOmoz’s Pro subscription. These keywords should be used in several different places such as: images, categories, header tags, title tags, URL, meta tags, and on your pages. These need to be specific to each page and need to be relevant. You don’t want to just be stuffing these keywords in and not having them at all related to what is on the webpage. The search engine crawlers will not be happy if you do this and this will result in you not ranking well. These crawlers are programs that will scan the web in a mathematical fashion and assess sites for where they rank. A great thing to add to your website is a sitemap plugin that will auto generate your sitemap. This gives a great road map to your website for the web crawlers to use. This shows that your website is search engine friendly.

An important fact to emphasize is that content is king. Your content is very important to SEO. You must be a resource to your website readers providing quality content, not just writing the content around the keywords. This is not to say that you cannot write the content with keywords in mind, but you must not make the keywords come before the quality of the content. If you write with the notion that the content is king, you will provide a great content for your website and therefore rank higher in the search engines. Another great way to be a resource and provide quality content is to provide information through social media. In other words, write articles, blogs and social network posts that provide useful tips and information to your audience. If you do this on a consistent basis and your followers share this information, you will become a well respected site and will in turn rank higher on the search engines. I cannot emphasize enough that consistency is very important.

It is also important to measure and track the stats of your website to assess the results of your efforts. This is done through installing analytics through a tool such as Google Analytics. This will give you demographics, keywords used, sources of traffic, repeat versus new visitors and so much more. Let me state that SEO is not a quick thing. It takes effort, patience and careful study to see results. But when the results happen, it is worth every bit of effort put into it.

The Real Difference Between Job Hunting and Job Search

Any active job seeker will find that these terms are used interchangeably in articles, blogs and other literature. There is in practice a fundamental and distinct difference.It is important to embark on both a structured and a more flexible approach to job hunting to secure a new role successfully.

In a recent study, a group of executives were studied prior to making a presentation. By observing these executives at an evening party, prior to making their presentations the following day, researchers were able to correctly predict the winning presentation, just by observing and listening to the way these executives. Their language, the way they talked and listened were all valuable clues about the level of the effective interaction and communication skills.

Job search can be defined as the systematic and structured process of searching for a new role, as a result of outplacement or the desire to change roles or careers. Common methods include job search engines, job boards, newspaper ads, recruiters and company web sites.

Job hunting is a more creative, unconventional and non-rational process by using a variety of effective methods to find new employment, but relying more on informal networks and unconventional approaches to find jobs in the hidden market.

Let me share with you one example in my own career of using job hunting effectively to secure good roles. Years ago I decided to immigrate to New Zealand and during my first holiday trip I was talking to my immigration agent. When I mentioned I had a strong interest in technology she suggested I meet with an IT company. After a couple of meetings the company created a new position and offered me this role, which I held for three years. It was never advertised and I was the only applicant. All it required from my side was effective sharing of my skills and connecting with the right company, using effective networking skills.

Since that role, I have also been appointed into two other roles that were never advertised:

(1) As part of my consulting practice I was doing a strategic assignment for a large recruitment company. After the assignment, they mentioned to me that one of their clients was looking for a new head of HR. After a meeting with the MD and another meeting with the Board, I was offered the role and worked seven years for this company.

(2) After being invited to complete a strategic consulting assignment with a listed company that took six months, they asked me to join their executive team. I was known the MD and Board, there was little due diligence required, and again the position was never advertised.

Let me close off with a good example of job hunting. If you have ever been to Africa, one of the things most people on a wildlife safari strive to do is to take pictures of the Big Five (elephant, rhino, lion, buffalo, and leopard). Finding these five animals on an African safari is no mean feat.

How would you go about making sure you get these five animals in your sights? Well, first of all you would want to go to a safari camp that have all these animals in their reserve. Then you would want to get a good tracker and game ranger to help you find these animals. You would need to bring with you a good camera and ensure you are in the right position to take your picture, so that months and years later you can still savour the memories of taking those perfect pictures.

As you embark on your job search, ensure you incorporate a bit of the primitive hunter in your job hunting, using your instinct and gut feel. In today’s competitive market, it is really survival of the fittest.

How To Get More Interviews In Your Job Search

Richard Bolles, job search guru and author of What Color Is Your Parachute? predicts that you can expect to search for work 1-2 months for every $10,000 you hope to earn. So, if you’re looking for a $40,000 a year position, you may search for 4-8 months to land it. Back when the economy sizzled, that job search length would have seemed outrageous, but now, many people would be thrilled to only search for 4-8 months.

Now the question is: How can you limit your job search length regardless of what’s happening with the local economy?

The answer to that question depends on the strength of your job search campaign. Take a look at these common job search problems. If your campaign is suffering from any of these symptoms, try one or more of the tips suggested for each.

If you’re mailing resumes but aren’t getting interviews:

o Your campaign may not be intense enough. Remember that searching for a job is a full-time job. Increase your employer contacts by phone, fax, mail and email to 10-20 per week. Gather job leads from a greater variety of sources than you have been using, such as networking, newspaper ads and Internet sites. But most important of all, tap the hidden job market.

Bottom line: Getting interviews from resumes is in part a numbers game. Contact more employers to increase the odds in your favor.

o Your resume may reveal that you do not possess the skills sets employers want. Get them! A tight economy means employers can command whatever skills, credentials and experience they want, so why argue with them? Volunteer, take a class or create a self-study program to learn what you need to learn. Or, take a lower-level position that will prepare you for advancement to the job you really want.

Bottom line: It’s up to you to qualify yourself for the job you want. Demonstrate your initiative and enroll in that class now, then be sure to claim your new skills on your resume.

o You may not be contacting the employers who are buying the skills you’re selling. First, identify the three skills you possess that you most want to market to employers. Second, match those skills to three different kinds of positions that commonly use your preferred skills. Next, tie each of the positions you identify to specific local industries and employers who hire people with the skills you’re marketing. Then create different resume versions for each of the types of positions you intend to seek. Make sure each version highlights and documents your ability to do what you claim you can do.

Bottom line: Different employers need different things from their employees. Know what you have to sell and sell it to the companies that want it. At all costs, avoid genericizing your resume with clichés and vague statements.

o Your resume may poorly communicate what you have to offer. If you have weaknesses in your employment chronology or if you are changing careers, you will need to take great care in structuring your résumé’s content to overcome any perceived deficiencies. Create a powerful career summary statement which emphasizes your primary skills, qualities, credentials, experience and goals. Group your most marketable skills into an achievements section and showcase those using numbers, concrete nouns and clear indications of the results you accomplished. Use company research and the employer’s job description to focus your revised resume on the company’s needs.

Bottom line: The person who decides whether or not to interview you will make that decision in a mere 15 to 25 seconds. Be clear, organized and achievement-focused to use those seconds to convince the employer to interview you. If you’re getting interviews but no job offers:

o You may have the basic skills the employer needs but not the advanced skills they prefer. Review the second bullet above and act on the suggestions presented. Once you have updated or expanded your skills through additional education, experience or self-study, begin building a career success portfolio to prove your success to prospective employers. This will also help you respond to those behavior-based interview questions that are the rage these days.

Bottom line: It is up to you to advance your career. Figure out what you lack, then learn the skill or develop the ability.

o You lack strong self-marketing skills and this is showing in your interviews. To improve the quality of your interpersonal communications and interview responses, take a class. Invite someone to role play an interview with you. Practice answering behavior-based interview questions. Arrange to participate in a videotaped mock interview. To project your personality positively: Select three to five about yourself that you want the employer to know about you by the end of your interview. Brainstorm ways to weave those things into your responses to common interview questions. Learn about personalities different from your own. Smile and relax! Make strong but not excessive eye contact. Go into the interview armed with 5-8 words or phrases that positively describe your workplace personality and use those words or phrases throughout the interview. Match your communication style to the interviewer’s questioning style. Know your resume and defend it. Keep your responses brief and always to the point.

Bottom line: Your interviewing performance serves as a preview of your on-the-job performance, so project your best. Research, practice, and sell! To job search is to make mistakes. Question is, are you learning from the job search mistakes you’ve made?

Evaluate your search every two to three months so you can fine tune your campaign on a regular basis. You probably get your car tuned up regularly. Why not do the same for your job search? With the right knowledge and proper tools in place, there will be no stopping you!

How to Search The Best Outsourcing App Development Company

App development has been the recent trend. Each and every website is developing the apps so that they can reach out to the maximum number of customers. This has been a great step to increase the brand awareness among the customers. It is worthy to note here that one cannot develop the app on their own. It needs the endeavor of several hardworking developers who are skilled enough to perform the job.

If you want to get an app for your website it is better that you follow the steps below to make your choice a better one in choosing a professional Android app development company. Most of the android development companies offer the best type of app development for the customers that denotes the business priorities and services.

Skills of the Developers

To measure the skills of a company you need to go through the company’s Android app development services. This means that you have to check the portfolio to find a justified answer. Their earlier projects will show their skills and expertise. Most of the reputed Android app developers have many years of experience and knowledge in this field. They work delicately to bring out the best results.

Ask For References

An unavoidable part of the screening process is asking for references from the company. If the company has a good reputation in the market they will not hesitate to show their work as references. This will reassure you the kind of services they offer. References and testimonials will help you to search the best companies in the market. Go through the testimonial section and check out the client’s testimonials once.

Delivery Time Frame

The company you choose should be the one to deliver your projects in a given time frame. Make sure they are not the ones that miss out deadlines and make you fall in trouble. They should be capable of delivering quality work at pre-mentioned deadlines. They deliver the services in short period of time.

Awareness of Tools and Technology

Make sure you ask them the tools they are using for the development of the website. If you want to develop an iOS app then make sure you will take the help from the best custom iPhone application development company.

If you really want advancement for your company, make sure that you take the help of an app development company who is having the above-mentioned qualities.

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