Career finder: It seems like everything you read about social networking these days contains some dire admonishment about the importance of keeping your social outlets squeaky clean. While it’s unwise to post compromising photos or fringe political statements on your Facebook profile treating everything as if it were your resume takes a lot of the social aspects out of social networking.   Clearly there is a balance between a staid, bland, joyless profile and one that fore...

      career finder: Finding work can be tough, and it can be even more difficult when you don’t have a laundry list of references or a surplus of experience to work off of. It often seems like a catch 22; employers don’t want to hire you without experience, but you can’t get experience without being hired in the first place. The good news is that there are ways to fill up the blank space on your resume even when it seems like you don’t have much to put on there in the first pl...

    Do you really need cover letters?   The answer is, “Yes!”   Recruiters and hiring managers read cover letters and cover e-mails for three main reasons:   To find out information that may not be in your resume or immediately obvious To get a fast overview of your most relevant experience To find out why you are interested in their company or their opening   The cover letter—or cover e-mail—should not be long: two or three paragraphs wit...

Recruiters have one job: find the right person for the position           Recruiters have one job: Find the right person for the position.   Their performance is evaluated on how efficiently and effectively they match top talent to job requirements.   Ironically, in the current economy, recruiters are finding their jobs harder than ever. I’m serious.   There’s too much talent for them to weed through. What used to be “finding a needl...

    Fox and Friends recently invited me to to share some of my favorite interview tips. Here’s a recap of what I shared, along with some additional tips to make sure you ace your next interview.   Interview Don’ts   Show up late.  It seems obvious, but it is so important. Make sure you know where and who you are meeting with and arrive with 10 to 15 minutes to spare.   Get too personal. You want to focus on your professional work experience and n...

  Major job boards like Purejobs and Monster are one of the most popular ways for companies to develop a candidate pool when looking to fill an open position. With high unemployment and candidate competition increasing, how does a candidate stand out from the virtual pack when posting a resume on a major job board? Here are six tricks to increase your odds on job boards:   1. Your Resume Title First impressions are important and the title of your resume...

  So, you got the interview for the job of your dreams. You check in with the receptionist and they ask you to have a seat. What you do in the next few minutes can be the deciding factor on your future with the company.   There are interviewers who regularly ask their receptionists what the prospective employee was doing while waiting to be called in. According to CEO Andy Ory, first impressions are generally formed while the applicant is waiting in the lobby, and th...

  I have a good piece of advice – stop looking for a job. Yes, you read that correctly – structuring one’s activities around trying to land a job increases one’s frustration level, as well as the likelihood almost every day will end in failure.   Those in search of a “job” are constantly throwing away opportunities to meet more people, to increase their visibility, and to position themselves as a solution to an employer’s problem – instead of a problem in search of a solu...

  So, you didn’t get the job. Or, you didn’t get the in-person interview after the phone screen. Or, maybe you didn’t even make it to the phone screen. They all share the same result: You got rejected… and it hurts. One of the reasons I built CareerHMO was to help people cope with job rejection. Unlike professional salespeople, you haven’t had the opportunity to develop your ability to manage rejection.   Here’s why…   You Aren’t A Professional Salesperso...

  A basic tool used in strategic planning is SWOT analysis. This is where you take a hard look at your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, and plan accordingly. I am a firm believer you should perform this analysis on your career at least once a year.   Strengths Make a list of all your strengths. In particular, consider what skills, knowledge and experience you have that makes you indispensable to your employer. Also consider what the demand for these ski...

  If you ask 10 people to review your resume, chances are good that you will get 10 different answers. Unfortunately, there is no magic formula for resume success. There are, however, some steps you can take to present your work history in a way that will get a recruiter’s attention:   1. Start With Your Contact Information At a minimum, provide an e-mail address and phone number where you can be reached easily. If you’re using a personal e-mail account, stick to using just your na...

  Great news! You received a call out of the blue from a recruiter who wants to see your resumequickly. But what if you haven’t kept it current? First of all, consider asking for more time to pull things together. After all, the recruiter’s job is easier if your resume clearly tells the employer why you’re a strong candidate. Now, on to getting that resume in shape! Here are three tips to help you craft a compelling document—even if you’re short on time:   1. Focus Squarely On The...

  LinkedIn is gaining more and more importance in the job search and career development. But just signing up for a free profile isn’t enough; you need to invest time optimizing your profile and getting involved in LinkedIn in order to benefit from it. And, of course, you need to avoid five of the most common LinkedIn mistakes.   1. Incomplete Profile LinkedIn routinely reports complete profiles turn up more in searches, receive significantly more views, and generate more inte...

  As an HR professional, I cannot tell you how many resumes I have received from candidates that were so unqualified, so out of reach, so uninteresting to me as a hiring managerthat I had to look twice to see if I was putting them in the right pile for the right job.   Introspection is a critical part of your job search. Before you send your resume to every opening you find, you should sit quietly and ask yourself whether YOU would hire YOU if YOU were the hiring manager. If you fee...

  Well-known fact: Job search and unemployment can be some of the most discouraging and ego-smashing things a person could ever experience. Rejection is common, and there is a tendency to end up in a very unhappy place.   Then, there’s the chaos. If you’ve previously been working for most of your career in a full-time position, you’re used to having structure and routine to each day. Being out of work, you find yourself in a drifting miasma of “What do I do today?”  ...

  My friend and I were talking recently about how to research company culture before you start working there. In the past, we’ve both been burned by companies that looked good on the surface but eventually turned out to have a terrible culture of one sort or another. Honestly, if it was fool-proof, people wouldn’t be suckered into it as often as they do. And since my friend and I (and others) actually work in HR/recruiting, we should know better than anyone how to unearth this stuff,...

    This may sound odd, but if you’re unemployed, you actually have BETTER opportunities to promote yourself on LinkedIn than other users. Openly displaying your personal brand and skills is simpler than fretting over the possibility that your boss is reviewing your Profile changes with suspicion. Still, marketing yourself on LinkedIn when you’re openly seeking a new job can be daunting. What should you disclose about your job search and goals – and how much? Use these ...

  You sent out the resume– you’re a perfect fit – and yet no one calls. Sound familiar? In fact, a majority of candidates today do not receive a response on a submitted resume.   So, the big question is, “When is it appropriate to follow up with an employer on my submission and how do I do it?” There is no answer that will fit every scenario, but there are some good rules you should follow.   Here are some general rules:   Use The 1-2 Week Rule Follow up one to tw...

  A CV is your chance to sell yourself to a potential employer and it has to be well written. Don’t waffle, don’t underplay your skills and definitely don’t lie… just be honest, be YOU.   After all, in a job interview they will soon work out the real you. Here are some CV tips that could help you sell yourself to a potential employer:   Set The Scene Whether you call it a personal statement or simply label it ‘core skills and experience’, every CV should start with...

  One of the easiest things to do at the start of your job search is to sign up for a new telephone number. Your don’t have to abandon your old one, of course, but there’re good reasons to consider getting a new, clean phone number that doesn’t come with any of the baggage of your current one.   1. Local Area Code One of the biggest advantages of getting a new number is that you can get one with an area code that’s local to your target market. A local area code also rein...