7 Reasons Why a Potential Employer Won’t Read your Resume, and What to Do About it

When you write your resume (with or without advice and professional help), who is your target audience? Who are you trying to satisfy?
First of all, you’re not writing your resume to satisfy yourself. For that matter, you’re not writing it to satisfy any “expert” – the author of the resume book you just read, or the recruiter you’re working with, or your career guidance counselor, or your cousin Fred who is a human resources manager, or even a professional resume writer.
You are writing your resume for a particular kind of reader: a potential employer. And if you’re like most of us, you make some very, very optimistic assumptions about that reader. You are certain that your reader is eager to find the best person for the job. Your reader, you are sure, is going to read the important things in your resume, and his or her eye will be drawn to all of those clever formatting tricks you’ve used (columns, underlining, different fonts, boldfacing, italics, strong verbs, skills, numbers, results, etc.).
But you’d better take off the rose-colored glasses. Your resume has a better than 98% chance of ending up in the garbage can (real or virtual).
Here are 7 characteristics of the psychology of the typical resume reader:
1. Resume readers are some of the smartest and most skeptical readers in the world. They know that at least half of what they read consists of lies, exaggerations, half-truths, and semantic and formatting “tricks.” They don’t accept anything at face value. Remember, the typical resume reader sees literally thousands; they know every trick in the book by now. Continue reading …
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Are You Creating Your Own Circle Of Job-Dissatisfaction?

On a recent report that came out from The Conference Board, statistics stated U.S. Job Satisfaction at Lowest Level in Two Decades.
The report, based on a survey of 5,000 U.S. households conducted for The Conference Board by TNS, finds only 45 percent of those surveyed say they are satisfied with their jobs, down from 61.1 percent in 1987, the first year in which the survey was conducted. (U.S. Job Satisfaction at Lowest Level in Two Decades)
Those who have knowledge of the large losses that occurred in the 80′s, know that a number 61% below what happened is a shocking revelation. What exactly are employers doing to prepare for the backlash, or emotional aspect of workers who are no longer passionately tied to their positions, or company?

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Workers and employers are changing what “office” means

Or are they? According to new figures, they’re all the rage.
We all had a feeling that the traditional notion of an “office” isn’t what it used to be, and now the latest from the U.S. Census Bureau confirms that more Americans than ever are working from home. In the last year that the government has figures for, 2005, the number of home-based workers jumped by almost two million, from 9.5 million in 1999 to 11.3 million in 2005. The report “Home Based Workers in the United States, 1999-2005″ also shows that the number of people who worked exclusively from home jumped from 6.7 million to 8.1 million in that same period.
What this would seem to mean for employers is that workers are demanding more flexibility in their workplace. Among the top reasons cited in the 2005 census for reasons to work at home were “better child care arrangements,” “better arrangements for care of other family members” and “allows for school.”

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What it is like to attend Huntingdon College

Located in the capital city of Montgomery, in Alabama, which is well known for its history, from the Civil War to the Civil Rights Movement, is Huntingdon College. It is a private, four year, liberal arts school, affiliated with a Methodist church. The school enrolls just under 1,000 students. Montgomery is home to four residential colleges and offers cultural and entertainment opportunities.

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Restoring Your Joy in Job Search

Joy was palpable as the oversized airplane plane descended onto the tiny tropical landing strip. The pilot forcefully applied brake pressure, wings wobbled and dear, flying-averse hubby squeezed his fingers tightly into my arm as the plane safely landed. Applause erupted and a plane-FULL of passengers, many of whose travel had been delayed several days due to winter storms, were elated to finally embark on their Key West adventure.
This spirited introduction belies the full story of our Winter 2010 vacation get-away, as just two days into the long-awaited event (we’d been planning this trip for 6 months), I fell sick with a wicked, and somewhat debilitating cold virus that I still battle today.
As with most who experience life’s unexpectedly altered plans, my hubby and I first expressed upset and disappointment, then adjusted, simply, ‘dealing’ with the reality of my less than 100% involvement in our dream vacation — the first either of us had planned in over a decade.

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Find Events For Offline Networking on Facebook and LinkedIn

Article provided by Brand-Yourself.com
Your personal brand is divided into two parts, your Personal Brand Image and your Personal Brand Identity, where the Personal Brand Image is how your peers perceive you and your identity, personality, values, skills, and abilities. Your Personal Brand Identity is who you really are (identity, personality, values, skills, and abilities) and what you want to communicate to others.
There are a lot of ways in which you can align the two, but today we will focus on networking and events.
When you see someone at a restaurant, in a meeting room, or at a networking event, you will automatically add definitions to your image of that person. If she is having lunch with a head hunter that you recognize, it will probably empower certain areas of her brand image such as skill level and professionalism, while having dinner with her daughter will add to her image of being a good mother, emotional skills etc. The bottom line is, your brand image is affected by the company you keep.

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Even Granny Can Blog: Blogging Methods Anyone Can Use

Article provided by Brand-Yourself.com
Sorry, there’s no excuse. If you can use email, you can blog. And if you use Word 2007, you can use it to post articles to your own hosted blog.
Why blog?
Because if you can demonstrate your subject matter expertise, you’re going to get that job, promotion, or consulting gig you’re looking for. Last week I talked about doing things that are in your control – and top of the list is your blog.
Let’s get past the technical hurdles first. There are many ways you can blog, but to make your decision easier, I’m going to recommend three platforms.

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Traits of Successful Salespeople

When I worked in the agency world, there were certain individuals who could always be counted on to bring in the big clients. My boss used to say that these guys had “the magic touch,” but that wasn’t necessarily true. They actually possessed very concrete traits, including the following:
Good Listening: Top salespeople don’t go into a client meeting and dominate the conversation. Instead, they get the customer talking about what pains him and what he needs. They ask probing questions until they can determine the best way to solve the problem.
Concise Speech: People who close deals easily don’t waste the client’s time with a lot of irrelevant information. They communicate in a manner that’s easy to understand and follow and choose their words carefully depending on the specific situation.
Persistence: In most cases, even people will excellent persuasion skills will not be able to make a sale right away. A huge component of sales effectiveness is being able to stay focused and approach a goal from different directions.
Internal Motivation: Although some salespeople thrive based on external quotas and managers hovering over their shoulders, they are not in the majority. Top salespeople know how and when to begin an initiative and the steps they must take to see it through.
Confidence: The best salespeople are not deterred by negative customer reactions or temporary setbacks. They believe in themselves and their abilities, and this natural self-assurance makes it easy for customers to trust them.
Article by Alexandra Levit and courtesy of Water Cooler Wisdom blog.

Entry Level Jobs With The Economist

I’ll admit it, I don’t read The Economist regularly, but plenty of my friends do–mostly the smart ones. It’s a magazine (they call themselves a newspaper, but you’d likely identify it as a magazine) that stands apart from other periodicals in a variety of ways. It’s not the topics that they cover–they offer both news coverage and analysis and opinion on business and politics–it’s more the way that they cover those topics. The most interesting thing about The Economist is the fact that all of their articles are written anonymously. It’s about “a belief that what is written is more important than who writes it,” but you have to like the fact that anonymity allows the writers the freedom that they need to address topics in the ways that they should be addressed. The Economist is all about free trade and free markets, yet it “considers itself the enemy of privilege, pomposity and predictability.” The Economist is based in London, but they are very much an international business and magazine.
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Article by Willy Franzen of One Day, One Internship and One Day, One Job

Entry Level Jobs With the Appalachian Mountain Club

I don’t know if you’ve ever spent anytime on the Appalachian Trail, but if you haven’t, you should. The trail stretches from Georgia to Maine, while the range of mountains touches as far south as Alabama and as far north as Newfoundland. It’s 1,500 miles of natural beauty that is prime territory for naturalists and adventurers. Back in 1876 there was a club called the Appalachian Mountain Club started in Boston for people who enjoyed the range. Now the club consists of more than 12 chapters and 100,000 members–it’s the “nation’s oldest outdoor recreation and conservation organization.” They’re still based in Boston, and they’ve developed into a non-profit that promotes “the protection, enjoyment, and understanding of the mountains, forests, waters, and trails of the Appalachian region.”
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Article by Willy Franzen of One Day, One Internship and One Day, One Job