If we liken the job search to a game of Monopoly, and compare job applicants to the playing pieces moving around the board in search of prosperity, know this.  Without keywords as well as their proper placement in their resumes, job seekers will not advance past Go.  They will remain in holding patterns while their competition sails on, en route to securing choice jobs.

Read the rest of this entry »

“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” wrote Shakespeare, but remember, the Bard lived in a world more than four centuries ago.  In today’s cutthroat job search arena, the presentation of your name could very well be the make or break factor in securing employment.

Employers confronting thousands of resumes do not have the time or patience to struggle with the pronunciation of a candidate’s name.  If your name is lengthy, intricate, or exotic, consider altering it to something easier to pronounce.  We are not suggesting that you legally change your name; we are advising you to modify it as it appears on your resume and cover letter.  Arpin Chanawalla, for instance, can be abbreviated to Art Chana.

Read the rest of this entry »

Every rational job applicant wants to put his best foot forward with his resume, and this includes the addition of formal awards and honors.  But, before you take up the valuable limited space on your resume with these, think about what you will include.

As God is our witness, we have seen grown men (a number of them, in fact) insist that we add high school awards from many years before to their resumes, and women bent on including their standing in local beauty pageants (who’ve applied for positions in which physical appearance was a non-factor).

Read the rest of this entry »

Just as doctors normally make the worst patients, writers are often ineffective in conveying their skills and accomplishments on documents intended to create career opportunities.  And while core competencies may be apparent, the achievements of writers can appear elusive, at least, on a resume.

Unless one is a successful novelist or author of short stories, most writers hammer out and edit material in order to promote a product or a service, or persuade audiences to agree with a specific point of view.   The aspiration linked to this goal is usually the generation of revenue.  And while it can appear difficult to quantify revenue generation in terms of writing expertise, consider that “squeeze pages” have been known to spawn Internet campaigns netting hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars in sales volume, and that other forms of marketing material, at their most effective, have done the same.  If you can connect your abilities with similar feats, you will have identified your accomplishments for potential employers. Read the rest of this entry »

These days there’s dudes gettin facials;
Manicured, waxed, and Botox’d
With deep spray-on tans
And creamy lotion-y hands,
You can’t grip a tackle box.
With all of these men lining up to get neutered,
It’s hip now to be feminized.

(Brad Paisley, “I’m Still a Guy”)

The gods may be vain, but men are vainer.  As county music icon Brad Paisley points out in his hit song, aesthetics and cosmetic surgery are no longer confined to the female gender.  Individuals of both sexes invest in eyelifts, tummy tucks, personal trainers who whip them into shape, and colorists who convert gray hair into richly hued tresses.   Cosmetic subterfuge, however, cannot alter one’s circumstances in life.  And, after a while, one usually reverts to how one appeared prior to the transformation.  So why invest in something so transitory?

Read the rest of this entry »

Consider the import and content of a resume.  The essence of an applicant’s work history, education, professional training, and other relevant data must be contained within one or two pages.  If this seems a daunting task for the applicant, consider the onus placed upon the hiring manager.  He or she is compelled to sift through a multitude of resumes in order to distill the sea of candidates down to a relatively small pool.  Even with the use of talent acquisition management software, the hiring manager’s task is enormous.

Make that manager’s task easier, and you’ll increase your potential for interviews.

Read the rest of this entry »