Resume and Job Search Secrets

Are you trying to win the job search game? Have you found the process of finding your next opportunity a real challenge? Are you unhappy with your current job and considering pursuing other opportunities? Are you wondering what kind of resume will get your phone ringing. Do you wonder why some people always to get the great job or promotion? 

If want the answers to these and other job search related questions please join us for the exciting new webinare “Winning the Job Search”. Join our newsletter for additional information.

Happy Job Searching

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Sometimes people get all sorts of crazy college degrees to avoid something. I’ve seen people spend five years getting a bachelors degree only to go back and get a Masters degree in basically the same subjects. Thousands of individuals finish their Masters and decide to go on and get a PhD. All of this money, time, and effort is sometimes spent  avoiding one simple question.

That question of course is “what do you want to do with your life?” People, do you realize how short life is? Its way to short to spend one more day working toward a degree in order to avoid facing the fact that you don’t know what you want to do with your life. If I’m describing you then here is what you need to do. Find a career coach who can help you figure out what you want to do with the rest of your life. Instead of wasting your money and time getting often useless advanced degrees, spend some time and money trying to identify which career path is most likely to make you happy.

I say this as someone who doesn’t offer career coaching, however I get calls from clients all the time that are unsure of what they want to do, and it kills me when I see them using the persuit of a masters degree to avoid facing their fears.  I guarantee that if you face this issue head on you will have a much greater chance of finding happiness and success in the short time we have on this spinning marble.

P.S. Please contact me HERE and I can refer a world class career coach to you.

Happy Job Hunting

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The job search blues can happen to anyone. One day you unexpectedly get a pink slip. After cobbling together a resume and blasting it to thousands of job boards, you wait by the phone. Nothing happens! The days turn into weeks and the weeks turn into months. Your phone rarely rings, and when it does ring, the job is totally wrong or you don’t make it through the interview process.

Mild depression starts to set in. Maybe you sleep all the time or start overeating. I’ve seen some people start to withdraw from friends and family while struggling with a job search. Pretty soon you feel like a total failure and start to wonder if you’ll ever find another job.

You start to lower your job standards and even jobs that held no interest start to seem appealing. “Hey someone’s got to clean up those cages at the pound.”

Before you pick up your broom set, here are seven way to beat the job search blues:

1. Stop and take a breath. Forget about your job search for a weekend and do something that you love. Go golfing, fishing, scuba diving, or even bowling. The purpose of this is to break out of your negative state.
2. Target your job search. When someone is having problems finding employment they tend to start broadening their job search. Rather than increase your chances of finding a job, this approach actually ensures that you will remain on the bench longer than necessary. Employers are much more likely to call if your resume is specifically targeted to the position they are trying to fill.
3. Visualize your perfect job. Many people use visualization to help them achieve goals. First thing in the morning, visual your perfect job in vivid detail. What are you doing? Where are you doing it? How short is the commute? What are you co-workers like? How much are you getting paid? There is nothing magical about visualization. When you visualize your subconscious kicks into gear and helps you take steps to make your vision a reality.
4. Leverage your network. Your network is much larger than you realize. Have you spoken to aunts, uncles or cousins about employment opportunities? How about former co-workers? Have you successfully worked with a recruiter or head hunter in the past? Don’t be afraid to contact someone that you haven’t spoken to in a long time. If you are trying to find someone, use social networking sites such as Linkedin.com. If a former contact has created a profile on Linkedin.com, you can easily reconnect with them.
5. Get involved in the community. Don’t stay home thinking about your job search woes. Get out there and participate in community you live in. The list of potential organizations to join is endless, and includes the local Chamber of Commerce, Junior Achievement or Kiwanis. Don’t just join and attend meetings passively. You want to identify a committee to participate in. Sign up for a committee and offer to do a task that on one else wants to take on. Show people that you have skills to contribute and they will be more likely to open doors for you.
6. Target a Company. Identify your dream company and focus some of your job search efforts towards that company. Research what industry they are in and who the key players are. Find out how this company hires new employees (do they hire direct or use a recruiting agency). If they use a recruiting agency, try and find out which agency they typically use. Then find out who the key recruiters are for that agency. Next, try and meet these recruiters. You always want to be as targeted as possible when trying to find a job.
7. Seek professional help. Engaging the services of a professional resume writer or career coach can dramatically reduce your job search time. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve worked individuals who have been looking for work for months. After redoing their resumes and helping them target their job search, suddenly their phone starts ringing, and they start booking interviews.

If you are dealing with the job search blues call us at (954) 839-8552 or visit our website. Take action today and get closer to your dream job.

Kenneth Lowrey

A Plus Professional Resumes Inc

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Business owners are obsessed with search engine optimization (SEO). SEO can consume hours of time, thousands of dollars, and lead to sleepless nights. The reason that business owners do this is because success with search engines leads to money in their pocket.

Most job seekers aren’t aware of it, but they can play the search game also. Not with search engines, but with job boards.

Employers who use job boards to find candidates are performing searches. For a job seeker to be successful with job boards, it helps to be aware of two job board search optimization (JBSO) techniques.

The first technique involves an understanding of how job boards sort resumes. When an employer does a search, looking to fill a position, the results are returned with the newest resumes at the top. This makes sense when considering that older resumes are more likely to have already found employment.

If some time has passed since you posted your resume to a job board, you need to do something in order get your resume back on top of the search results. All you need to do is update your resume and repost it on the job boards. Don’t radically rewrite your resume, simply change a phrase or two. After you repost to the job boards, like magic you will be back on the top of the search results. Do this every week in order to stay on top.

The second JBSO technique involves keywords. Keywords are the search terms that an employer uses to find candidates for a particular position. For example, a search for a database administrator would include the following phrases: database, DBA, SQL, SQL Server, Oracle, DB2, etc. I’m sure I missed some, but the point is made. You must know what the appropriate keywords for the position you are trying to obtain and make sure those words appear in your resume.

Use these two tools to increase your success with job boards. If you need help with you job search please visit my website or call me at (954) 839-8552.

Happy Job Hunting

Kenneth M. Lowrey

A Plus Professional Resumes

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I write resumes for a living. That is correct, I spend my days helping people achieve their career goals. Most people struggle with writing a resume for the simple reason that it is something that they don’t do very often. Unfortunately, a poorly written resume will lead to problems finding that next opportunity.

In this blog, I will be offering information about how to be successful in your job search. Please feel free to contact my company by visiting our website.

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