Does your resume fail?

from getpickd by Adam

image from Bart Clays

Welcome to the getpickd blog! We'll be launching our new online resume service on June 23 at getpickd.com, but in the meantime, be sure to follow our blog for updates, resume ideas, and interview tips. You can also follow us on Twitter @getpickd.

For quite some time, my colleagues, friends and family have been asking me to review their resumes. After years of hiring numerous young professionals for a non-profit in Washington DC, I've reviewed countless resumes. I can say, without hesitation, most resumes are simply not up to par. Beyond being fraught with grammatical errors, most resumes do a poor job emphasizing the uniqueness of the candidate. In addition, they visually fail to stand out from the crowd. Here are a few specific reasons why the average resume fails:

The average resume contains spelling, grammatical, and formatting errors. This one seems obvious, but honestly, over 90% of resumes have at least one serious spelling, grammatical and/or formatting error. Most have multiple errors. The last job opening I supervised had close to a thousand applicants. We probably spent an average of one minute looking at each resume; those with errors were immediately eliminated.

The average resume is poorly designed. The average resume looks no better than the average Word document (many look even worse). This is a tough one, because most people don't have access to or experience with more advanced design software. However, a professionally designed resume will catch the eye of potential employers and really helps you stand out from the crowd.

The average resume fails to sell your assets. Most importantly, the average resume fails to sell the candidate's assets and unique qualities. Unfortunately, people are generally bad at marketing themselves and overly concerned with modesty when it comes to their resumes. Modesty is great, but your resume is a brochure of your professional life. It's a time to be proud and sell yourself!

If you're struggling with finding a job, there's a good chance your resume is preventing you from even getting your foot in the door. Get connected with getpickd and let us help you shine!

Adam Sterling is the founder of getpickd

Anatomy Of A Winning ‘Elevator Pitch’

From Anatomy Of A Winning ‘Elevator Pitch’

I was once told that if I can’t explain my company and what it does in a sentence or two at most, then I have no idea what the company does. Ever since then I have tried to fit most of my ideas and soon to be start-up into a sentence and that task is not so easy. Maybe it’s not so easy because I always feel the need to explain in complete detail, thinking that will help the other party understand better and want to work with me. But really, most people that matter and could help grow your business rarely have the time to listen to your “detailed explanation”. They will rather hear a succinct description A.K.A. elevator pitch.

The term ‘elevator pitch’ has been coined with respect to the expected duration of the presentation. An elevator ride is usually short (bar power failures) and lasts about 60 seconds averagely. So the challenge here is can you win over a potential investor in 60 seconds? Many entrepreneurs and investors actually believe an elevator pitch could do more than a complete business plan that even includes the financials. I once watched a YouTube video a while back where a VC explained that he received about 100 new business plans every day, each plan averaging 45 pages. He went on to say he barely ever reads a complete plan, that most times the names on the team sheet, their experience and executive summary is enough to decide whether to keep the plan or toss it. He finished by saying over 60% of the deals he decided to fund was because of what he gathered from the first few minutes he spent with the entrepreneurs. First impressions could make or break your dreams!

There are two bits to a winning ‘Elevator Pitch’: Planning and Delivery. Both are completely important and must be treated as such. An elevator pitch is different from when you have to sit down face to face with investors where you have excel sheets to back you up and a number of PowerPoint slides. In this case it’s just you, so you must commit what you need to say to memory; you only have a minute after all.

Planning: This is the point where you sit down and think about what your company is, what problems it solves and then summarize well until it fits into a 50 second time frame. Everyone loves a product that solves problems so make sure you emphasize that when you are planning what to say. Here are a few pointers to help you plan.

• Be concise. They only have so much time to listen to you, so put your best foot forward and tell the other party right of the bat what you do. Research in detail what the problem is and how your product solves it. Have you personally faced the problem yourself? And is that what inspired you to come up with the product? No need for pleasantries beyond “Hi Mr. X, my name is Y and I have this product…”
• Prepare for Questions you could be asked and have a business plan plus financial in hand. The person you are pitching might have a bit more time and want to find out in more detail about a thing or two, so be prepared for questions so you don’t look stupid and get caught off guard. Remember to also have a copy of your complete plan in case he/she asks for it.
• What is unique about your product and what makes it different from others? Make sure to research your competition and have valid points about what makes you better than them. Never say you have no competition, there is always competition. It might not be close competition, but there’s always competition.
• If the product has launched and is doing well, make sure to point this out. Tell the other party that the company is already starting to make its mark but with the large market for it and how well it is being received, you are looking to expand.
• If you have already built a successful start-up in the past, include this in your pitch. It shows that you have experience and know what it takes to succeed in business, making you even more investment-worthy.

Delivery. This bit deals with how you physically pitch the potential investor. Have you ever heard that investors don’t invest in ideas? Well now you’ve heard it, they invest in people. So how you carry yourself and your persona does count for a lot. Here are a few things to remember:

• Be confident. Nothing is more attractive and comforting than confidence. If you don’t look like you are completely sure about your business, why would anybody want to invest their hard earned cash in it?
• Be Personable. This also has to do with the fact that investors invest in people. If they are unable to connect with you, they won’t want to work with you. You don’t have to act like a clown to make the guy laugh but you do have to make the person interested. If you must come up with hooks in your pitch or general discussion, then by all means, please do.
• Leave a calling card. It doesn’t have to be an actual card, it could be your business plan, you setting up a meeting e.t.c. just anything to make sure you will be able to reconnect after that day. It’s one thing to leave a lasting impression and another for them to be able to reach you after you might have successfully won them over.

Low-Tech Ways To Twitter From A Cell Phone

Low-Tech Ways To Twitter From A Cell Phone: "

Twitter – the most popular micro-blogging platform available today. I’m a proud member of Twitter and I tweet on an almost hourly basis. My twitter profile contains tweets of all variants such as “at home, chilling”, “doing some work in the office” and “in town having lunch…”. In fact, it was this last tweet which I made yesterday that inspired me to write this article.

You see, I didn’t tweet from a PC, nor am I the owner of a high-tech iPhone. I am what you could call a “low-tech tweeter”. I own a Samsung Tocco Lite mobile phone which cost me just under 130 Euros – pretty average if I do say so myself. When you dismiss the touch screen, all the other features are basic and it’s a little slow with carrying out tasks. There is no Wi-Fi and no 3G. Yet, I still tweet while on the move with photos, links and status updates. I would like to demonstrate a few low-tech ways to Twitter from a cell phone.

Firstly, let me say that to tweet from the top deck of a bus, the beach or a mountain all you need is a mobile phone such as the ancient artifact seen here on the right. Twitter supports SMS tweets. All you have to do is log into your Twitter account and select ‘Settings’ up in the top right-hand corner of you screen. From the list of tabs that appear, select ‘Devices’ and enter your cell phone number. Then, verify your phone by texting the code that appears on your screen to the Twitter phone number beside it. Also, save this number as this is the number you’ll send your tweets to via SMS. If you live in the US, UK or other major territories then you can toggle whether or not you want to receive tweets from other people to your phone by sending ‘ON’ or ‘OFF’ to that number.

This is all well and good if you’re a basic tweeter but many of us like a little more interactivity. A previous review of mine here on MakeUseOf holds the answer – Snaptu. In summary, Snaptu is an application for basic cell phones that uses GPRS to get you the weather, film reviews, news, sports updates, allows you to use Facebook and more to the point in this case, Twitter.

The Twitter function is highly detailed and better than what you’d expect for a basic cell phone app. You can tweet till the cows come home by selecting ‘Update Status’, scroll down through hundreds of tweets, reply to tweets, follow links in tweets and view people’s profiles. More information on that little gem in my original review here.

But hey, what about pictures? Well, I tried several applications and I can safely say that for basic cell phones they just don’t make the cut so e-mail is your best option. I actually think this is better than using applications which require you to start them up and take the picture using their bad camera function. With e-mail, you simply snap and send when you wish. I suggest using TwitPic, which Mark recently reviewed. Go to their site and create an account using your Twitter ID.

Then, click ‘Settings’ and use the options there to set up your e-mail function. You’ll be given a unique e-mail address to which you can send your snaps. A sample one might be JoeBloggs.4528@twitpic.com. Also, when you’re sending the e-mail from your phone, use the subject line as your tweet. As you can see from the picture I tweeted above, my subject line was “My train is here! Yay!”. Needless to say, this will also appear in a link and message on your Twitter profile.

You can use the above methods of low-tech tweeting on basically any cell phone that is post-2005. Once it has a camera and GPRS or EDGE, you should be fine. One tip I will give is to watch out for GPRS charges. They can be costly on some networks. My carrier has a cap of 99c per day and many others the world over offer similar packages. Just phone your network to enquire.

So, how do YOU tweet? Are you old-school or high-tech?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too.

9 Tips To Finding A Job With LinkedIn and Twitter

9 Tips To Finding A Job With LinkedIn and Twitter: "

As a freelancer, I consider myself a perpetual job seeker. Here’s how I use LinkedIn and Twitter to find jobs.

This a guest post by designer Mirko Humbert.

The past two years I started to use LinkedIn and Twitter more seriously and quickly noticed how useful it could be to find gigs.

Here are a few things I learned along the way.

Use LinkedIn the right way

You probably noticed that attending a networking event without talking to anyone doesn’t get you anywhere, and the same applies for LinkedIn.

• Build yourself a solid profile
  This should be a no-brainer. In some ways LinkedIn is like a dating website where users with pictures and a completed profile get more connections than others.

• Ask your friends or colleagues for recommendations
  Being recommended increases the trust level of your profile viewers, and even if your contacts like you, they will not always think about recommending you, so why not just ask?

• Expand your network
  Start by adding people you already know, then browse their contacts and ask them for introductions. You can also add people from other social networks. Important: add a personal touch to the email sent when connecting with people.

• Promote your profile elsewhere
  Email signatures are a good place to mention your profile url. If you have a blog, add a link back to your LinkedIn profile.

Start tweeting

From my own experience, Twitter has been the best relationship-building tool I’ve used by far. However, there are some things you should know to make it more effective.

• Connect with people in your industry
  No need to have thousands of followers on Twitter, just try to find the right people to connect with. People in your industry will have interesting news and could be very helpful.

• Tweet about industry-related topics
  Just like for the previous advice, tweeting about your industry will show people what kind of news they can expect from you, which is a great way to attract the right followers.

• Help others
  The best way to be remembered by other Twitter users is to help them, they’ll also be aware of your capabilities.

• Follow these Twitter users

• Visit Twitter JobSearch or TwitHire

About the author

Mirko Humbert is a freelance graphic designer from Switzerland publishing the popular Designer Daily design blog and CSS Orgy CSS gallery, and you can also find him on Twitter.

This article is part of the 3rd Annual JobMob Guest Blogging Contest. If you want Mirko Humbert to win, share this article with your friends.

Subscribe to JobMob via RSS or email and follow me on Twitter for more ideas on using LinkedIn and Twitter in your job search.

-- Jacob Share, Job Search Expert and Professional Blogging Consultant

12 Solid Tips To Enhance Your Twitter Reputation

12 Solid Tips To Enhance Your Twitter Reputation: "

Whether you are a freelancer, employee, professional, or a business, it is becoming increasingly important to manage your Twitter reputation. In this article, let us see what is meant by reputation in the world of Twitter, and how you can use free Twitter tools manage and enhance your reputation.

What Is Your Twitter Reputation?

Can your reputation be measured? Yes, there are many services that claim to do that using different methods. You can check your reputation on free Twitter tools like Twitterank, Twitter Grader, Twitterholic, Twinfluence, Twitalyzer, and Klout. There is no single model that defines Twitter reputation, and this guide tries to combine all the different approaches used by such tools and suggested by experts.

Your Twitter reputation is important because:

• It may well be the first impression you make on the social web.
• Everything on Twitter is public (assuming you don’t protect your updates, which is 90% of Twitterers). This means your colleagues, current employer or potential recruiter can always see your Twitter profile and your tweets.
• Reputation will play an increasingly important role in search rankings. Already, third-party Twitter search engines like Topsy and Tweefind incorporate ranking in their search results, and Twitter itself is also on the way to ranking search results.

Convinced? Let’s get started.

1. Your Profile

Use your real name, a (decent) profile picture, a meaningful bio, and a link to your website, blog, or social profile. If you have a custom background on your profile page, people are more likely to follow you back.

2. Follow Authentic People

Don’t engage in any “get hundreds of followers quickly” schemes. Follow people you’re already friends with on other social networks. Then grow your Twitterverse as you get comfortable. Use our previously covered 9 sites and 4 ways to find Twitter friends based on geography and common interests.

I use the free Twitter tool Topify to get informative emails when someone follows me. It shows useful information like level of engagement, percentage of tweets containing links, and recent tweets to help decide whether to follow back.

3. Manage Your Followers and Friends

The days of “higher the number of followers, higher your reputation” are becoming a thing of the past, thanks to paid services that allow buying followers. Think of your reputation if there were half-naked women showing up as your followers!

Block suspicious accounts, spammers and bots from following you. I have recently started using Tweet Blocker to filter and clean my followers list and it works like a charm. Another service I find indispensable is Twerp Scan, which shows me a list of my contacts along with details of their number of follows, followers, ratio, etc. You can easily sort the list to weed out nasty spammers and indecent folks right within the app.

4. Get ReTweeted

The best way to increase your reach and influence on Twitter is to get retweeted. Statistical studies of retweets have found that links, quotes, trending topics, breaking news, questions, and creative/novel tweets are more likely to get retweeted. Shrink your tweet and reduce its length to around 100-110 characters so that it becomes easier for others to retweet without editing.

5. Mix Your Tweet Types

Do not restrict yourself to tweeting out informative links or indulging in pointless babble. Use a mix of tweets that are status updates, links, retweets, questions, and self-promotions for your blog posts.

6. Spread Your Tweets Over the Day

Services such as Tweet Stats let you see how your tweets are distributed through the day. Don’t send out a large number of tweets in short time spans and then disappear. Distribute your tweeting activity evenly through the day, using planned “Twitter-breaks” from your work. If you are going to be offline for a considerable amount of time, let your followers know.

7. Be Responsive and Engage in Conversation

Tools like Topify and Mr. Tweet now show your level of engagement. This influences whether people using such tools will follow you back.

Reply to others’ tweets using @Replies. Answer all @Replies and Direct Messages sent to you. Let people see that you don’t use Twitter simply to promote your links. Try to answer people’s questions and if you can’t, be a helping hand by retweeting them.

8. Don’t Misuse Hashtags

A UK furniture firm suffered a huge blow to their reputation on Twitter as they sent out marketing messages using #hashtags that were meant for completely unrelated topics. The Twitter community uses #hashtags for tracking specific topics they are interested in, so stick to conventions.

9. Avoid Many Twitter IDs from a Single IP Address

Some experts have proposed that multiple Twitter IDs created from the same IP address should have a lower Twitter rank in searches. This is a counter measure against spammers and bots who abuse Twitter accounts. If for whatever reason, you need to create a large number of legitimate Twitter accounts, don’t do it from the same computer.

10. Use DMs with Discretion

If I get automated DMs after I follow someone, I unfollow them. The same with people who play mafia-style Twitter games and send me invites to play via DMs.

Do not send Direct Messages to people you’ve recently started being friends with on Twitter. Most people consider DMs to be private messages that they share only with good friends. Use @Replies wherever possible, unless you want to discuss a sensitive issue that warrants a DM.

11 Use Recommendations

Recommendations are a great way to discover and be discovered. The most popular method on Twitter is the #FollowFriday hash tag. Like everything else in social media, the more you give, the more you get, so if you like this method, use it to give recommendations to others.

A better recommendation engine is Mr. Tweet, which is getting popular. It gives me decent recommendations since I joined, along with useful statistics.

12. Monitor Your Brand

If you own a brand name, create a search to monitor for all mentions of your brand. Most popular Twitter clients let you create saved searches, some like Seesmic Web even let you sync your saved searches with those on Twitter’s website.

Will these techniques help you enhance your Twitter reputation? Have any other suggestions? Do let us know in the comments!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too.

Success Story: How I Used Twitter and LinkedIn to Find a Job During the Recession

Success Story: How I Used Twitter and LinkedIn to Find a Job During the Recession: "

An ex-job seeker shares her story of how she used social media to find a job.

This a guest post by Lisa Damast.

I’m an early adopter when it comes to Web 2.0 and social media.

I joined Facebook two or three months after it started during my freshman year of college in 2004 and have been on sites such as LinkedIn and Twitter for 3 years and nearly 2 years, respectively.

When I joined these sites, I never really thought about the full potential they would have for helping me find a new job.

However, in February 2009 I decided to look for a new position as a marketing manager and noticed that one of the people I follow on Twitter had tweeted that he was looking to hire a social media expert and included a link to the job description.

Once I decided to use social media for my job search…

I checked out the tweeted link and decided to apply with my LinkedIn profile, which is essentially a virtual resume, being the focus.

Earlier in the month, I had updated my LinkedIn profile to reflect the changes in my work (I was doing marketing for a phrasebook company at the time and also included my blog and position as co-organizer of a popular local business networking group) and to make sure I had recommendations from former bosses and co-workers at previous jobs.

I also made sure to include a brief summary about myself - which LinkedIn recommends - and added my specialties to that section.

After I interviewed with the owners of the marketing agency, I made sure to again direct them to my LinkedIn profile in the follow-up email that I sent.

When I received an offer from the agency, the owners mentioned that they were very impressed by the LinkedIn profile. Of course, another factor was my successful track record using Twitter and blogging.

While Twitter and LinkedIn may not be how everyone finds out about jobs or what a potential employer will look at, it still helps to be on them.

I often have friends in the marketing field who come to me for leads or advice when they are looking for a job. Whether or not I have a lead for them, based on the above experience and a chance situation I had on Twitter last November in which I helped a total stranger (at the time) get a job, I tell them one of the first steps they should take in their search is to become active on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Takeaway lessons

• Be active on major social media networks like Twitter and LinkedIn
• Update your social media profiles before your job search
• Follow the recommendations for each social media website
• If the social media profile helped get the interview, mention it again when following up

Conclusion

Since so much about finding a job can be left to chance, being on these sites and using them properly provided me more opportunities for finding out about the right job and making the right connections.

About the Author

Lisa Damast is a marketing manager by day and technology blogger by night. She is the founder of Israel Innovation 2.0 and a regular contributor to Green Prophet. Follow her on Twitter at @lisadamast.

This article is part of the 3rd Annual JobMob Guest Blogging Contest. If you want Lisa Damast to win, share this article with your friends.

If you liked this article, you’ll also enjoy Success Story: How I Used LinkedIn and Facebook to Find a Job During the Recession.

Free BlackBerry Twitter Apps Roundup

from WebWorkerDaily by Meryl Evans

If you own a BlackBerry and use Twitter as much as I do, you're more than likely frustrated with the experience of using the Twitter web site via your phone's browser. With more Twitter applications available for the device, do any succeed in turning the BlackBerry into a great Twittering tool?

I compiled a list of the current free BlackBerry Twitter apps and tested them out to find the strengths and weaknesses of each. All of the apps have the basic features (timelines, replies and direct messages), with some standing out more than others due to speed, ease of use, or additional functionality.

All of these apps underwent an obstacle course on my BlackBerry Curve 8310 to test their strength, agility and durability in order to find the better-performing apps.

Blackbird: Easy to use text-based interface that works with older BlackBerrys

What Blackbird lacks in looks and features, it makes up for in speed and usability: BlackBird performs fastest out of all the apps tested here. It only includes the basic features: timelines, replies and direct messages.

Pros: Fast. Easy to use.

Cons: Fewer features. Unclear error messages.

TinyTwitter: Works with any device that can run Java apps

TinyTwitter has a smooth timeline that scrolls fast, even with avatars. It can pull latest trends, do searches, copy/ paste tweets for easy retweeting in one move, as well as handling the basic Twitter functions. However, even with shortcuts, some of the actions take two clicks when one would do, a problem with many BlackBerry Twitter apps.

Pros: Efficient timeline. Runs on any Java-compatible device. Shortcuts. More than the basic features.

Cons: Too many steps to get where you want to go.

Twibble: Tweet photos from your BlackBerry camera

My first impression of Twibble was soured by the troublesome login screen. The app kept capitalizing the first letter of my username and password, causing the login to fail. Once past that, though, the rest of the experience wass Tribble-free. You can save time with shortcuts and by entering and saving often-used words as text templates to use in search or tweets. Screen shots are available from the Twibble site.

Pros: Runs on any Java-compatible device. Text templates. Share photos.

Cons: Not user-friendly. Location tool doesn't work well. Sluggish.

TwitterBerry: Attractive interface with average features

4 

TwitterBerry looks easy on the eyes, but sacrifices load time for looks. Features include the basics that you find in most Twitter mobile applications, without any extras. If you go to Pictures, you can select a picture to send to TwitterBerry, but this option may not appear if you have other Twitter apps loaded on your BlackBerry. With few extras, you'd think the application would run faster than it does.

Pros: Sharp look-and-feel. Easy to use.

Cons: Slow. Lacks search and unique features.

Ubertwitter: Wealth of features

If you have multiple IDs, you'll have to go through the wizard to change the login credentials, something that should take fewer steps (Tip: after you change the ID, hit the BlackBerry button to the left of the scroll wheel to save changes and exit rather than finishing the wizard). Despite this, most features take fewer steps to access compared to other apps and you can use shortcuts. You can take a picture from within UberTwitter. A map of your location appears with the photo. You can find people near you and view them on a roadmap, satellite map or hybrid map.

Pros: Take pictures within update. Control location options. Feature rich.

Cons: Time-consuming to change IDs and options. Sometimes dawdles.

Viigo: Add a new channel for every Twitter ID and search word

You can use Viigo to get news, local information and other customizable content. The Twitter app lives in the Social Networks tab, where you can create a channel for each of your Twitter IDs and frequently-used search terms. For example, if you participate in a weekly chat, you can create a search for the chat hashtag. Its performance is notably slower than its competition. Viigo has neat features, but the sluggishness tested my patience.

Pros: Set up multiple Twitter IDs and search words. All-in-one app.

Cons: Slow. More steps to reach Twitter channel.

The Verdict

UberTwitter offers the most features, while BlackBird has the best performance. But none of the free tools tested here really stand out; I'd still rather use a Twitter client on my PC or laptop.