Resume Evaluation: Appearance and Presentation

This is one of series of articles being written by Alpha Dog Resumes.com explaining how the online resume writing service evaluates the thousands of resumes that are sent to it each year.

One of the ten criteria that is reviewed is Appearance and Presentation.  The resume is given a score of 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest score.

A score of 3 or lower indicates that your resume needs an appearance change.  Overall appearance and presentation are crucial in a resume that is fortunate enough to actually get reviewed by a real person.  The design must be clean and simple, with visual clues directing the reader to key elements of your skills and background.  Margins, fonts, headings, and a myriad of other design elements should work together to do one thing:  Sell You!

For example, is it useful to have a section entitled “Skills” at the top of resume for a CEO candidate?  Or should that heading be “Qualifications”?  Or should there be such a section but with no heading?  Or should there be no such section at all?  It makes a real difference depending on your target job and industry.

Also, did you know that many employers now use resume management software that will not detect key information included in certain portions of your resume?  If the computer cannot read it, that information might as well be invisible.

How Does Resume Service AlphaDogResumes.com Evaluate a Resume?

One service that we provide here at AlphaDogResumes.com is a Free Resume Assessment for any and all job seekers.  We receive many requests for these reviews from all sorts of people seeking all types of jobs in many industries and experience levels.  After our free review, some hire us to rewrite their resumes and some do not.  However, they all have one thing in common:  we can give an initial, rough evaluation of their resume within 30 seconds.  Of course, our complete 10 point, 7 page Free Resume Assessment is much more detailed than that.

How is possible to give a resume evaluation in 30 seconds?  And why is that important?  It is possible because our resume experts are just like other Human Resources professionals and employment recruiters.  We see so many resumes that we know what to look for; we know what is going to impress an employer, and we see immediately whether the resume in question meets the standards or not.  Why is that important?  Because that 30 seconds or less is how long you have to impress a potential employer or recruiter.  If your audience does not see your qualifications within that very short timeframe, the qualifications might as well not exist.

For that reason, we at AlphaDogResumes.com are going to start a 10-part series of articles dealing with how we evaluate a resume and, thus, how employers and recruiters will evaluate your resume.  The articles will be published in this blog over the next couple of weeks.  Please contact us if you have questions or comments.  And, if you would like a Free Resume Assessment, click here.  We believe this insight will help you decide what you need to do with your resume in order to Dominate Your Job Search_®.

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_®.

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_®.