Category Archives: Job Searching

Developing Your Résumé: Art In Motion

Creating a work history on paper in a readable fashion can be an overwhelming task. (Or it can be whelming, as Mel Brooks used to say.) In any case, it requires planning and strategy. Guidelines make it easier, and one way to create them is to use an older résumé as a sort of map, with the understanding that the boundaries may have changed. If you don’t have an old résumé, write up your work history, starting with your most recent position and working your way backwards. (Do not pass go and do not collect 200 dollars.) It is important … Continue reading →

Your Résumé and Difficult Questions

It is very important for your résumé to speak for and not against you. Some questions can present problems and need to be handled very delicately. For example, if you recently left a job or know that your job is about to end, should you bring attention to that fact by highlighting an ending date on your résumé? Or should you simply say “to the present”? The answer depends on what feels right for you. You can go “to the present” route as long as you come clean when the interviewer asks you if you are still there. Most résumés … Continue reading →

Still More Résumé Tips

Consider your résumé as a major tool in your box of “job tricks.” There are many aspects to preparing a résumé that will help to get you the job you want. What is the best and quickest way to handle difficult job titles and company descriptions? What about questions you might not want to answer or at least avoid? (The last time someone asked me my age, I replied: “Somewhere between forty and death.”) This may work sometimes, but not on a résumé. Besides, George Burns is dead. Help is on the way. Parentheses help a great deal in setting … Continue reading →

Other Tips for A Power Résumé

Although your résumé may never enable you to run a little faster or lift an extra weight or two, an effective one will give you power where you need it most, namely, the market-place. How so, you may ask. Good question. All of your tools are part of your job campaign, and that includes even those you might not consider as such. Take your phone number for instance. On a résumé, you must list one number where you can be reached during the day. (If you double as a vampire and live from midnight to dawn, this could be a … Continue reading →

Résumé Format: Is There a Right Way?

The answer is yes; there is a right way to present the information on your résumé. For all of the elements listed, one of the most important is where the dates are placed. It used to be more or less common practice to place them on the left side of the résumé. Since the number of jobs the average person is likely to have has increased over the years, there might be many dates, and such an arrangement is sure to attract the reader’s eye. The problem with this is that by setting up the dates in that fashion, they … Continue reading →

How Long Should Your Résumé Be?

The important thing about any résumé if it is to do its job is to capture the attention of a prospective employer in an understated way. It also must be easy to read as lines of type that go across the page from one margin to the other, for example, are very difficult to read. Use bullets to denote your accomplishments, as they will effectively break up the text. Deciding on length may not appear easy, but a rule of thumb which will never lead you astray states that your résumé should be as long as it needs to be. … Continue reading →

Some More Résumé Tips

The typical résumé is often historical in nature. This does not mean that a reader will find evidence of the exact location of Atlantis or the true meaning of the Declaration of independence within its words. It usually means that the résumé lists positions a person has had and what duties were involved in each position. It’s not that there is anything wrong with that; it’s just that it lacks impetus and direction. Where should the reader go after reading about all the places you have worked and all the things you have done? Perhaps directly to jail without passing … Continue reading →

Your Résumé: Some General Thoughts

Whatever you may think of your résumé, its goal is to make you look necessary to a potential employer. How do you do that, you may scream. Well, here are some thoughts on the matter. Make your résumé look different from the multitude of others that will cross a potential employer’s desk. Don’t go too far by being inappropriate, like printing your job history on yellow or orange neon paper, for example. Do, however, consider emphasizing those skills that an employer might be most interested in, even if there is no position immediately available. Your résumé serves as your market … Continue reading →

The Hidden Job Market: Part Two

Research is the most important tool the Internet can provide on any subject. It is estimated that 59 percent of Net-hired employees were found through tthe company’s own website. Job boards were utilized some 14 percent of the time. The hidden job market has a far-reaching but invisible arm. Even a formidable magician like Houdini couldn’t find it without the help of research tools. The “underweb,” which goes beyond the scope of the more traditional search engines may well provide some answers for the active job seeker. The Usenet News Groups offer little chat rooms that attract people with like … Continue reading →

The Hidden Job Market: Where Is It? Part One

Remember when you’re searching for a job that too much information can be just as bad as no information at all. The Internet is flooded with job boards and directories of varying worth and in some cases, suspicion. How can one sort through it all and still come out sane and smelling like a rose with a new job? The answer, my friends, is not blowing in the wind or anywhere else. Half of the solution lies in the available Internet search engines. The rest is still hidden, and no “x” save your own creativity and perseverance will ever mark … Continue reading →