Branding Your Resume and Cover Letter in A Compelling and Creative Way » Blog | Great Resumes Fast

Knowing what I do for a living, friends sometimes call me when they see particularly outstanding resumes—good or bad.  This week I got a call from a friend who’s a hiring manager at a technology company.  He received a resume that was so creative that they decided to interview the candidate immediately.

This candidate had packaged her resume in a box about the size of a cookie container.  The front of the box showed her name, an interesting graphic, and her branding statement.  On the back was her cover letter.  The sides of the box included interesting statements about her previous accomplishments.

Inside the box, the job seeker placed her resume and a bag of candy.  She explained in her cover letter that the candy was meant to entertain the employer while they reviewed her resume.  Both her resume and her cover letter had the polish of professionally written documents.

The hiring manager absolutely loved receiving this package.  He told me that he decided to interview the candidate before he had even looked at her resume! Her inventive but professional marketing told him that she not only possessed the creativity her resume claimed but a good eye for design as well.

Creative resume packaging like this doesn’t work everywhere.  It’s important to know your audience and to target your resume appropriately.  That being said, if you’re applying for jobs that require creativity, graphic design, or originality of any sort, feel free to switch it up like this.  Your resume then does more than just talk about your capabilities—it actually demonstrates them!

An important point to remember when creatively packaging a resume is that the content of your resume still needs to look very professional.  The candy box candidate presented a cover letter and resume with personal branding and effective keywords.  Nonetheless, it was her interesting approach that got her the phone call she was hoping for.

For a complimentary resume analysis, submit your resume via e-mail to info@greatresumesfast.com.  You can view professional resume samples online at http://www.greatresumesfast.com.

via greatresumesfast.com

Posted via web from AndyWergedal

Helping Daughter Who Is "Lost" Regarding Career and Major Choices - The Career Doctor Blog

Kathy writes:

I just read your article, Choosing a College Major: How to Chart Your Ideal Path. I plan to have my daughter read the links you suggested. My daughter is making decisions about AP coursework and is a little lost about what she wants to do. The school she attends just gave them some sort of aptitude test. She scored highly in the working with people and the arts areas. This is a fine way to start thinking about what she wants to do, but she is lost when it comes to finding out what type of real-life jobs exist in these areas. What do you recommend she do to get some real job insights?

The Career Doctor responds:

It’s never too early to be thinking about careers, but please remember that what interests a teen at 15 might not at 20. As I have mentioned before, I am all for having high-school students thinking about possible careers, but I am against high schools putting students in career tracks at such an early age.

Here’s my recommendation for her next steps. First, do some more assessment — take a personal inventory of the classes and activities she likes to do and then take another assessment or two (which you can do online or possibly through the school’s guidance department). The goal should be a solid list of interests and skills, as well as some career direction.

Second, begin exploring careers that match up with her interests by using sources such as the Department of Labor’s Career Guide to Industries (online and in print), which can be found linked from Quintessential Careers. These sources will provide all sorts of information, from expected job growth to working conditions to education required.

Third, talk with people working in those areas of interest. She should conduct informational interviews and ask about job-shadowing opportunities. As she begins to look at colleges, she can also talk with professors in the areas that she has the most interest.

via careerdoctor.org

Posted via web from AndyWergedal

Job Search With Your Mobile Phone With Hire-A-Droid [Android]

Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the future, the job market, and what opportunities exist today given all of the economic, social and business changes throughout the world. Old powerhouse industries of “industrialized” countries of the Western World all seem to be gravitating to countries with a lower cost workforce and fewer regulations.

At the same time, the globalization of almost every major industry, combined with the overwhelming adoption and integration of the Internet throughout almost all markets, is creating more and more unique opportunities that never existed even a decade ago. In other words, the world is changing around you, and unless you’re proactive and take the bull by the horns – the opportunities this “new world” presents will pass you by. One of the easiest ways to identify and capture new opportunities is by staying on top of the job market for your skills and professional experience.

Here at MUO, we’ve covered some of the most popular online resources for job hunting. Charnita listed 8 great job search tools, and I wote a review of the 10 best job search websites. The problem with using the Internet for job hunting is that you’re usually blocked (or discouraged) from doing this kind of activity from where you work during the day, and you may not have the time to job search when you’re home. One solution is to take advantage of mobile job search tools so that you can hunt for new job opportunities while you’re riding the subway or the bus, or you’re sitting in the waiting room.

Conduct an Android Job Search

After numerous unpaid furloughs and forced “vacation management,” I started exploring the job market to see how much things have changed over the past decade or so. Not only did I discover new exciting opportunities, but thanks to the explosion of the Internet, but I also discovered an awesome mobile tool on the Android Market for job hunting called Hire A Droid.

This is quite the little powerhouse, because it hunts through multiple job search engines and returns all of the results to you to review and apply for. The search screen is very intuitive and even offers operator buttons like “AND”, “OR” and “NOT” to aid you in stringing together effective search queries.  You can choose from any one of 18 countries to perform your search.

Best of all, this job search app lets you save your previous search queries so that if you search for the same keywords every day (as most people do), this feature will let you conduct the same search with a single click.

The search listings that Hire A Droid turns up is pretty comprehensive, coming from major job search resources like LinkUp, SimplyHired, Indeed and CareerBuilder. When you want to save time by hunting for jobs across a wide range of sources, this is the app that you’ll want. Where other mobile job search apps turn up no results, Hire A Droid will often turn up listings.

Almost every search I tried turned up at least some listings, and a lot depends on the area that you’re searching as well. Within each listing you’ll see the job title, date posted, the company name and the location. If you want some more details, just click once 0n any of the job ads and it’ll drop down with more information.

When you click on any of the extended details, you’ll end up on the application page for that employer. This page may look different for every job listing. You’ll typically always see a detailed review of the position. Additionally you’ll usually have several application options available. For example, in one case I found an ad that lets you email the listing to yourself or to a friend, or you have the opportunity to instantly submit your resume for the job.

In another listing, I was whisked to a page that looked pretty much like the employer website, but contained within the Hire-A-Droid app. Even in this case, there was the option to either apply immediately while online, or email the listing. In most cases you will probably want to just email the listing to yourself so that you can apply once you’re home and back at your computer.

Obviously, Hire A Droid is easily the best choice of any available mobile job search app in the Android market because it covers so many job search engines at once. Many people swear by their favorite job search engine, but if you use Hire-A-Droid where you can search them all, you’ve got all of your bases covered.

Do you know of any other useful mobile job search apps? If you use any, do you apply straight from the phone or wait until you’re home and on your computer? Share your insight and experiences in the comments section below.

via makeuseof.com

Posted via web from AndyWergedal

Career Tip #1 – Come to Your Interview With a Plan – Plans Win Jobs

Peggy McKee gives a webinar call the 30-60-90 day sales plan. However, this presentation can be adapted to almost any job and few steps will impress an interviewer more than the interviewee with a plan. Additionally, a plan allows you to prevent an interview from wandering around aimlessly and resulting in no useful outcome. Come with a plan to your next interview.

Peggy’s 30-60-90 Day Sales Plan is so good that one job seeker wrote that not only did he win a job, but instead of getting the store manager position he was seeking he was given oversight of the entire home products chain and a 6 figure job that greatly exceeded his past positions and the job he had been interviewing to win.

Anyone can do it. If you are interviewing at a restaurant for a waitressing position come up with a plan that describes how you will become more familiar with the menu, the bar, the kitchen to begin with. Next, develop a plan for identifying and studying how the very best waiters and waitresses provide better service. Finally, create a plan to implement what you’ve learned as the most effective waitress the restaurant has ever had.

Or, if you are going to be a summer life guard, describe a plan to get to know the features and requirements of operating the pool. Next, come up with steps to get to know the most regular visitors and what the most common pool user issues are. Finally, create a third step to your plan to become the most efficient and effective guard on staff. You will position yourself as a great hire and may end up the the managing life guard.

Or, are you interviewing for an engineering position? Find out what the company’s major products are. Identify the main customers. Define to your interviewer a plan that begins with learning the processes, procedures, and requirements of the business. Next, outline how you intend to get to know the customer base. Finally, develop a plan to begin to impact the bottom line by improving proposals, services, and solutions from the first two steps of your plan.

If this seems broad and lacks the clarity you need. Don’t give up on this approach take steps to find ways to improve your ability to create a plan for prospective employers. Hey! You may even be able to use this approach to win a raise by laying out the plan with your current boss!

While life is a journey, many of us wander through without ever defining a plan for ourselves. With this approach, we shouldn’t be surprised when we achieve less than we had expected. Get your act together. Go to your next job interview with a plan.

Blake Ratcliff has more than 25 years professional experience. He’s been part of the management team for 9 startups. He’s founded businesses and he’s served in fortune 500 companies. Blake’s been a corporate recruiter. He’s been on the wrong side of business failures and on the right side of big successes. Take advantage of his experience as recommends career building and wealth building choices.

via employmentdigest.net

Posted via web from AndyWergedal

Personal Brand Interview: Social Media Strategist Mary Petto | Brand-Yourself.com Blog

Mary Petto learned to appreciate the art of communication during college. Her liberal arts education enabled her to develop a knack for concentrating on the big picture and small picture simultaneously—a key ingredient to successful marketing.

After college, she worked as an editor, copywriter, and ultimately a marketing VP for Merrill Lynch and DLJ Securities. While successful at coming up with creative ways to communicate with investors about the benefits of mutual funds, Mary longed to reach out to the broader population about products more personal to them. She left financial services behind, paid her dues at an advertising agency as an account executive and began her own business as a small business marketing consultant.  She now focuses her clients’ branding strategies to resonate throughout the world of social media, optimizing campaigns for search engines and drumming up word-of-mouth interest while garnering followings at a rapid rate.

Mary Petto has also created a joint product with Brand-Yourself.com that combines her one-on-one coaching  and virtual assistance with our personal branding tools.

Here is a sampling of what we discussed:

Describe your personal brand.

The Mary Petto brand represents approachable social media assistance. It’s inexpensive, it’s informative, it’s passionate about communication, it’s fun, and it’s for hire!

Describe what you do and what kinds of clients you usually work with?

My work is three-fold: First, I deliver news often to anyone who wants to hear about what’s happening in the social networking world and how it affects your business or your brand—and I do this for free. Second, I use social networks and the arts of marketing communications and brand personality to handle businesses’ social media campaigns. I work with businesses and organizations of all sizes in this capacity. Finally, I offer training in the form of group classes or tele-seminars and in the form of one-on-one training and consulting for individuals. This gets as specific as how to fully leverage opportunities on LinkedIn and how to appropriately post updates on social networks.

Tell me about a ”soup-to-nuts” campaign

A soup-to-nuts campaign plan is the strategy a business uses to fully develop its online brand. It begins with defining a brand personality, setting up profiles and fan pages, creating an active content and posting schedule, determining key words and target markets, and finally reaching out to and engaging with your target market.

Why should a business or company invest in some kind of social media platform, like a Facebook or LinkedIn account?  Do you think that one platform is more valuable than another?

There are many social networking platforms out there, and the ones that a business should focus on is a matter of their business goals and target market. While there may be crossover (and this just adds more value to your social media strategy), each one has something different to offer and has a particular culture to adapt to.

Is there such a thing as posting too much information on these social media platforms?  What is considered relevant information to publicize?  And what kind of information can be detrimental to a business or an entrepreneur?

I actually do not believe that there can be too much information offered, though the timing of the information should be thought through and you should be wary of “information overload.” Social media means that the new norm is “transparency.” So the more open you are, the more trusting your followers will be and, ultimately, the more loyal they’ll be to your brand. That being said, I highly warn everyone to not post about a topic or associate with a group that could be perceived as controversial. This is one point where transparency will not always play out right with your following.

People often say, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know!” Is that true?

Absolutely. Look, of course you need to present yourself as an expert in your field and keep up with your industry, but if no one knows about it, how are you going to get anywhere in this world? This is why social networking really excites me. Keeping your name or your brand top-of-mind with hundreds or thousands of people is a snap when your strategy is handled correctly. The rate at which business is being conducted and referred because of this phenomenon is unprecedented. And it’s so easy; I’m baffled by skeptics and old-school decision makers who don’t get this.

What, in your opinion, do you think will be the next social media platform?  What else could they possibly come up with?

I think locally focused networking is where the platforms are moving. This is fantastic for local business as it affords small companies to really leverage opportunities in giant platforms like Twitter. “Geo-tagging” is a buzzword that will become part of our everyday web 2.0 vocabulary. Check out Foursquare as an example of this trend.

Katharine’s Thoughts…

Social Media is the new black.  Chances are, you know at least ten people who have either a Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter account.  Or perhaps they have all three.  Social media platforms and online marketing are changing the way companies conduct business now.  Marketing tactics that may have worked for a company ten years ago may not necessarily work now.  Social media isn’t just about connecting with your friends and family – it’s about promoting a business, networking with other professionals in your industry, and finding a job through someone you know.   Gurus like Mary Petto can help entrepreneurs and businesses focus their social media angles successfully and increase their target audience.  Remember, it’s not [necessarily] what you know, it’s who you know.  I really wish my professors had told me that in college!

via blog.brand-yourself.com

Posted via web from AndyWergedal

Research the Company to Create Better Job-Search Documents - Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters Tips Blog

It seems cliched or redundant to mention researching the company before forwarding your documents, but it’s amazing on how many job-seekers fail to do just that. It’s pivotal that you take a “quality, not quantity” approach to your job search, declares Teena Rose in her article for Quint Careers, Optimizing Your Cold-Contact Cover Letter.

Focusing your efforts on targeting, researching, and applying to a small and specific, targeted list of employers will generate a higher return from your efforts. By researching potential employers, you’re reflecting to the company that you’re serious about joining its team — so much so, that you’re willing to dedicate your personal time to learning about the company.

via resumesandcoverletters.com

Posted via web from AndyWergedal

Proactively Addressing Bad Credit-Report Issue - The Career Doctor Blog

Debi writes:

With so many companies doing background checks, how do I handle a having bad credit report? I was out of work for a little over a year and my credit is shot. I’m still working on repairing the damage. How can I proactively address the credit issue?
Should I include an explanatory paragraph in my cover letter — or bring it up when I get an interview?

I feel it’s a double-edged issue. If I bring it up, I could be negating their interest from the get go but if I don’t bring it up, it could look like I’m trying to hide it.

Do you think having a bad credit report would be enough of a reason for an employer to not contact a potential employee who has the experience and skills they say they want?

The Career Doctor responds:

First let me stress an important rule of job-seeking. Never, never include anything negative in your cover letter, resume, or job application. By providing negative information in any of these documents, you basically eliminate yourself from consideration. The time to address any negative information is in the job interview — once you have made the initial cut.

I still remember one of my favorite bad cover letters, which stated in the first sentence of the letter, “While I have been fired from my last two jobs…” Who would ever keep reading that letter?

Now, credit reports are a sore subject for me because it’s a trend in hiring that I do not like nor support. So many people have been downsized or simply struggling in low-wage jobs and thus have problems with their credit report that I think this tool of evaluating a candidate’s worthiness makes no sense except for industries like banking or accounting. And no one has ever been able to show me a study that correlates a bad credit report with a bad employee, yet some employers will not hire you without a good credit score.

So, I totally am behind you here. Do not include any mention of it in your cover letter and do not bring it up in the interview — until, and only then, the employer ask for references in preparation for a background check. It is ONLY at this point that I would bring it up. I would ask if they just check with references or if they do a more detailed background check. If they do a more detailed check, then I would go with a short explanation about your credit rating — of why it’s bad and the steps you have taken to fix it.

via careerdoctor.org

Posted via web from AndyWergedal