Financial Aspects of a Job Search

If you are like many millions of Americans looking for work right now, the financial aspects of a job search impact your daily life.  Your bills keep coming even if the paycheck does not.  Here are several suggestions for making the best of the situation:

1.    Prepare a budget that honestly lists your monthly expenses and any residual income like unemployment benefits, severance pay, interest, dividends, etc.  This means that you must start keeping track of all your expenditures, even down to your Starbucks coffee.  For help here, consider budget management software such as Quicken - click here for more information.  For help in California with unemployment benefits, click here.

2.    Reduce your expenses in each and every category.  Start with the major expenses first.  For example, if possible, reduce your mortgage or rent payment through refinancing or renegotiation.  A mortgage broker or loan officer (such as Stephanie Gossett at Bank of America - click here for more information) can help you evaluate your options.  If you work hard it, you are likely to be able to cut your monthly outlays by at least 25%.

3.    Consider your actual job search expenses such as resume preparation fees, job search travel, etc.  Many of those expenses are tax deductible - learn more here.

4.    If you get into a real financial bind, consider government aid sources.  For example, San Francisco Bay Area residents can get help by just dialing 211 on their telephones - click here for more details.  For Federal government assistance, click here.

Prepare now so that you can Dominate Your Job Search_®.

I Have a Job…Why Do I Need an Up-to-date Resume?

Okay, so maybe you’re earning decent money right now at a stable company; and from your current perspective, you think that you have little use for a resume at the moment.   In reality, now is the exact time that you should be updating your resume for several reasons.

Many people are unprepared for a job search when they lose their jobs unexpectedly…and just as importantly, many people are not ready with a great resume when a new job opportunity is presented to them while they are in their current jobs.  If you were fired today or if someone offered you a great chance at a new job, would you be ready with a current resume?

Updating your resume now is easier than when you are under intense time pressures.  You now have the opportunity to gather the necessary data at a reasonable pace.  Take a look at our AlphaDogResumes.com Background Analyzer, and you will see how much detail needs to be gathered to create an effective resume in today’s tough job market.  Also, the resume of today is vastly different than the resume of even three years ago.  Today, resumes must meet certain difficult parameters in order to pass muster with both Human Resources computers and staff.  Send your resume to us for a FREE Assessment, and we can tell you what needs to be done to your resume to make it fabulous….and ready for whatever happens.

Take the time now to prepare for the future…it is a good insurance policy that will make a job transition much easier.

This is another way to Dominate Your Job Search_®.

Keep Working on Your Job Search During the Holidays

It is important that you keep up your job search, or at least your preparations for your job search, during the holidays.  Otherwise, you might miss out of job openings available right now, and you might not be ready for the usual increase in hiring activity that starts in January of most years.

If you apply for full-time jobs now, you will be among fewer candidates applying for openings, since many others assume that companies are not hiring for full-time workers at this time of year.  Beat everyone else to these new openings.  The computers that review resumes these days do not take off for the holidays.

Also, it takes at least a couple of weeks to really prepare for a job search.  You need to prepare a resume package, including the perfect resume form (which you should modify for each job opening), cover letter, thank you letter and follow-up letter.  You cannot simply modify a resume sample or resume template.  Engage an expert to help you if you want the best resume possible.  It takes time to really think about what your background includes that will help establish your “brand” in this difficult economy.  Even after you have the perfect resume package, it will take hours of work to get your new resume posted on the major job search boards.  Consider hiring an expert who can distribute your resume to many search boards rapidly.

Also remember to get your references in line early.  You need to identify them, contact them to confirm that they will be good references for you and prepare a dossier of your references including all the pertinent information that potential employers will want to see if they get interested in your resume.  You will not have time to prepare your references if you wait until you get an interview callback.

Now is the time to prepare to Dominate Your Job Search_®.

Networking Suggestion

Networking is crucial in today’s job environment. Everyone knows that; but it is easier said than done. Randy Redding, an outstanding residential realtor in Marin County, California (randyredding.com), points out that you can network in many different ways, and one source that he uses is BNI, the world’s largest business referral group (BNI.com). BNI helps small businesses network by providing referrals to members of the organization, but it can also help with job seekers. Attend a BNI meeting in your community, and you will meet people who can provide you with invaluable job search advice. And if you end up starting your own business instead of taking a job with someone else, BNI can help you there too.

Think outside of the box when networking in order to Dominate Your Job Search_®.

How “Hidden Disqualifiers” in a Resume Can Kill Your Job Chances

How old are you?

Have you ever been unemployed?

How often have you changed jobs?

What’s this about owning your own business?

Your answers to these questions may be perfectly reasonable. Your answers may actually suggest that you are a perfect employee, person, friend, family man or woman and community member.

Your answers may also unfairly prevent you from ever getting a job interview. Without interviews, you will get no job.

Perhaps you are over 40 and have great experience, you took time off from work to travel the world to learn about art, you changed jobs 3 times in 5 years because you kept getting better and higher paying job offers and you started a successful business on your own straight out of college.

Or, in the eyes of the HR person, you are too old to respond to rapid change, you must not be very good at what you do since you could not find a job for a couple of years, you are indecisive or worse because you cannot stay in one position and you do not take supervision well since you want to run your own business.

Which way will you be viewed?

When looking for a new job, your resume must eliminate any chances that you will be perceived poorly. It must do it in a completely honest way that will not cause you problems later in the job process. You cannot predict how people react to these types “hidden disqualifiers.” Prejudice, preconceptions and generalizations abound in this world.

Ensure that your resume eliminates these unfair issues. AlphaDogResumes.com can help you Dominate Your Job Search®.

Why the Difference Between an Accomplishment and a Responsibility Matters in a Resume

A dictionary defines a “responsibility” as an accountability: the state, fact, or position of being accountable to somebody or for something. On the other hand, an “accomplishment” is the achieving of something, the completion or fulfillment of something, and a skill or talent that has been developed.

What difference does it make? A resume that merely states responsibilities will get you nowhere, while a resume full of accomplishments will get you interviews. Interviews = job.

So, how do you go about identifying these accomplishments?

One easy guideline is “How did you make or save money for this employer?” Put a dollar sign on it.

Another frequently utilized methodology for helping you enumerate your accomplishments is called “CAR”: Challenge, Action, and Result. In other words, what challenges did you face in the job in question, what actions did you take to meet those challenges, and what results did you achieve? Take your job responsibilities, and list them down the left hand side of a sheet of paper. These were your challenges. Then, in the middle of the page, list what actions you took to meet those challenges. Finally, list on the right hand side of the page the results of your actions (these are your accomplishments!).

Here is an example for an investment banker:

Challenge

Win fee producing business from municipal transit agencies worldwide

Action

Submitted responses to requests for proposals for over 20 transactions in FY 2008

Result

Won 75% of bids submitted in response to requests for proposals and produced in excess of $20 million of fee income

Notice how the Result is specific and quantified? That is a big plus. Use it wherever possible.

Subject your current resume to the following test:

Underline every phrase or sentence in your resume in which you describe one of your job responsibilities in your current and prior jobs. Next, put a check next to each accomplishment you achieved in your jobs. If the number of check marks does not exceed the number of underlines, you need a rewrite of your resume.

Do not be humble here! This is the time to state your accomplishments proudly. Take a look at the AlphaDogResumes.com Background Analyzer that is part of our resume Packages. It will make it much easier to identify your valuable accomplishments.

It is time to Dominate Your Job Search_®.

Why a Resume Must Be Optimized for Key Words and Phrases

Did you know that your resume may never be reviewed by a human?

Imagine the frustration of finally finding that perfect job opportunity online after months of searching or from calling in favors from your job search network only to be cut from the job candidate pool by a computer even before a human being reviews your resume. It happens all the time as a result of resume management software.

With so many people chasing so few jobs in today’s economy, hiring managers have turned to computer software to review the hundreds, and in some cases thousands, of resumes submitted for each job opening. There are too few hiring managers to review so many resumes. Some experts say that over 80% of resumes submitted to major employers are reviewed by a computer.

The computer software scans the resumes for evidence that job candidates are qualified for the job opening. Only resumes that meet the requirements of the software are passed on to a human for serious consideration.

How does the computer select the resumes that have a real chance at gaining an interview? The software looks for key words and phrases that match what the employer has indicated are important to the job opening. These words and phrases may be industry-specific, may indicate certain job skills and accomplishments, and may include words from the job title and description. No key words and phrases in the resume equal no interview.

Where the words and phrases are located in the resume also matters. They need to appear both at the beginning and in the body of the resume. Density of key words matters also. It is not sufficient to have the words and phrases appear only one time in the resume. For particularly important concepts that are central to the job responsibilities, you will want to have the resume checked electronically for sufficient word and phrase density to prove that you really are qualified for the job.

Be sure to prepare your resume with optimally located key words and phrases in mind. Better yet, leave it to the experts, and hire someone to write your resume based upon their experience and computerized research and review into what exact words and phrases matter for that “perfect” job for which you have been looking so long.

Key words and phrases are crucial if you are going to Dominate Your Job Search_®