Cover Letter Focus and Critique

A great cover letter can have as much impact as a great resume and increase your odds of landing an interview. To insure your cover letter is effective, a critique can arm you with valuable information to make this essential document the best it can be.    

The benefit of a cover letter critique is to not only catch blatant errors such as spelling, grammar and formatting, but to receive feedback on how well you address the employer's needs and separate yourself from the competition.

Follow these three steps when seeking a cover letter critique: 

  Find a reviewer

  Relate your background and a copy of the job posting

  Take any advice given that works

For the details see the article here

Job-Hunting Do's and Don'ts for Job-Seekers

Learning the do's and don'ts (rules) that job-seekers must know regarding the key strategies and tactics of successful job-hunting is essential. Presented in this article are 25 keys to successful job-hunting. Job-seekers who follow these rules and guidelines -- the do's and don'ts of job-hunting -- should have much more success in the job-search.

For more insight, click here.

Quantifying Achievements on Your Resume

When citing past work experience on your resume, it is important to articulate your achievements since employers are always eager to know how you have contributed to the organizations you worked for. By highlighting job achievements, you provide good evidence to demonstrate how you can use your skills to improve work results.

When developing your achievement statements, you are suggested to quantify your achievements with numbers that specify details such as project scope and work outcomes. As a result, readers can get a clear picture of how well you did.

For the "how to's" in writing strong achievement statements, click here for examples of accomplishing this

TagCrowd as a Job Search Tool

TagCrowd is a web application for visualizing word frequencies in any text by creating what is popularly known as a word cloud. - TagCrowd is particularly useful in making it easier to analyze a detailed job description for the particular requirements for each job by creating a screen with the most frequently mentioned keywords for skills and experiences emphasized in a concise manner. These keywords must be addressed and customized in your resume for you to have impact with each of your employment applications.

Topics covered included:

• TagCrowd as a job search tool
• How does TagCrowd Work?
• Any problems with TagCrowd?

Click here for more info.

Add Pizazz to Your Interview

The job interview is the most anxiety-inducing part of the job search; it's incredibly frustrating to spend time, energy and effort on making a great impression without getting the position as your reward. If you find this happening to you over and over, you may need to sharpen your interview skills. Make sure the following techniques are part of your strategy.

• Use your resume as a reference point
• Present your accomplishments numerically
• Understand the company
• Let your personality come through

For the details of these points see the complete article here.

Career Change Planning

There are many reasons that people face career change. Sometimes career change can comes as the result of a long anticipated layoff while other times it can occur suddenly without warning. But don’t think you’re alone. Know that career change (not job change) happens to everyone sooner or later. The average job-seeker will change careers several times over the course of a lifetime. Whatever the reason, the key to having a successful career change is having a good plan.

See several steps you should follow in order to have successful career change here.

Overcome Age in Your Resume

Older workers have an uphill battle when it comes to changing jobs. Although employers are not supposed to discriminate against older workers, some hiring managers do favor younger employees. If overcoming age bias is a concern, there are several things you should do when updating your resume.

There's no rule that you have to list every position you've ever held.  Overcome age bias early in the hiring process by listing only your most recent jobs on your resume. If you have been in the same industry for 25 years, eliminate information about jobs you held more than 15 years ago.

Click here the full article on Age and Resumes.