Thursday, July 11, 2013

Work Opportunities? Good News...Yes, They Exist!

NPR reported recently that work opportunities are becoming more plentiful and that job seekers had cause for optimism. The challenge remains in finding the positions and qualifying as a candidate. What are recommendations from industry leaders?

Know your market- what would you be looking for in an employee in your preferred field? Place yourself in the position of a potential employer by researching the company, the community, and even the management. You may need to brush up on certifications or fine-tune your 'pitch' to meet the needs of the organization for which you want to work. Do your homework and apprise yourself of any company-specific information in advance; do not waste your time or that of the organization by applying for positions that you are not qualified for. 
 
Know your skill set- be confident in your abilities and don't be afraid to list all interests and skills in the process of building your resume. You never know when a potential employer may have the same interests or passions...you may not need an appreciation for opera to be a sheet metal worker or vet tech, but if your appreciation of Les Miserables strikes a chord with HR then it could be the difference between 'hired' and 'still searching'.

Know your limits- be prepared to state your salary requirements, benefit preferences, willingness for relocation, etc. as these can influence the decision of the potential employer. Specific family or personal needs should be stated in advance to avoid conflict in the hiring process. Many companies are 'family friendly' and will be willing to develop (or may already have) a telecommuting program, a shared work week plan, or a combination schedule to meet the needs of both yourself and their organization.

How can you reach quality organizations who are ready to hire? Many are finding that a job and resume database is the best way to reach both the regional and international market. Jobvertise can offer:
  • Instant Networking - Send your resume directly to employers and recruiters
  • Targeted Distribution - Choose your job categories and locations and we'll automatically find the best employer matches
  • Cost-effective - You save hundreds of dollars in postage alone
  • Time-effective - We've done the research and have already made the connections to employers and recruiters
  • Fast Results - Your resume distribution can be processed in a matter of minutes
  • Massive Database - Our 200,000+ member database allows us to target your resume to get the best results
  • Jobvertise Quality - We've been in the business over 10 years and have a proven record of quality and service.
  • Guaranteed - No hassle, unconditional 100% money back guarantee
When you are ready to place your resume with a site that can produce results, contact us and energize your job search

Monday, July 8, 2013

How to Find a Job Quickly and Efficiently

After losing a job, it is sometimes difficult to feel motivated to look for new employment. However, it is vital to begin your search immediately and treat looking for a job like having a full-time job. So allow yourself a day or so to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and get to work searching for employment.

It can seem somewhat daunting to find a job but with these tools, searching through all of those listings really isn't so bad.

Make sure your resume is up to date and current with all of your employment, education and certifications. Asking a friend or family member to read over your resume before submitting is always a good idea  to eliminate spelling and grammatical errors.

After your resume is updated apply to as many jobs as you can. This can feel like repetitive work but it is part of the process of finding employment. You can also send your resume by fax, e-mail or even drop it off in person to places that you would like to work.

Utilizing professional networking such as LinkedIn is a great way to follow up with employers for jobs you find on our site. It is vital to keep your LinkedIn profile as professional and polished as possible to maximize your results.

If full time work is not available in your field, consider taking on one to two part time jobs. Many people end up finding full time employment by starting out in a part time position by meeting new people and professionally networking.

Contact us to learn more about finding a job quickly and efficiently today.

The Jobvertise Team

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Job Alerts are Mobile Optimized

We have noticed a big trend in the way jobseekers use Jobvertise - more and more people are using their mobile or tablet device to search jobs when they want, wherever they are. And to further this we have now optimized the mobile experience so you can receive friendly job alerts in a simple e-mail format which renders nicely on mobile.

Before it was hard to see and click on the job alert titles to get the full job description. To this end we have created more space between job titles and made it so it is easily scrollable to navigate to the jobs you are interested in.

In fact, all the e-mails from Jobvertise are now mobile friendly. So enjoy your better mobile e-mail experience!

The Jobvertise Team

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Do you have a top ten percent resume?


One metric to determine the effectiveness of your resume is how many people read it. Granted, this is not the end all be all of job hunting success, but if people don't even look at your resume you are stuck in the starting gate.

For posting your resume on Jobvertise, the resume title is extremely important. This is the first thing employers look at to compare you with the rest of the list of search results. If they are interested then they will click on your resume title to see your full resume. But if they skip your resume, then you have no chance at all.

At the end of every week we calculate how many times your resume was viewed, and then we e-mail the candidates within the top 10% of resumes viewed for that week. From there you are able to post your accomplishment to LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. It's a neat way to give you feedback on how your resume is doing compared ot your competition.

You can also upgrade your resume to keep you higher up in the search order and get yourself more views. More information can be found at the Resume Upgrade page. For as little as $4.95 you can gain a huge advantage over your competition and get more resume views.

The Jobvertise Team

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Resume Writing Tip #3 - Customize your resume for every company


Ok, so you have made the decision to post a resume and have created one. But should you use the same resume for every application?

You should spend the extra time and customize your resume for each application. Just like you should customize your cover letter.  These customizations are not re-writing your resume, rather just highlighting and ordering what is important for the people at the company to see.

For example, say you know that company A uses Windows Server and not Linux. You  are competent at both, but your Linux skills are not likely to increase your hiring potential. So you want to demonstrate your Windows knowledge towards the top of the resume, and maybe mention Linux at the bottom just so they know you are well rounded. If you focused on Linux at the top of you resume, your resume might wind up at the top of the garbage can!

Applying for a job is similar to persuasion, and follows many of the same rules. For example, when a child wants a computer, they say "Can I have a computer?". When an employee wants a new computer they might frame it more towards the other person. For example, "A new computer would allow me to work twice as fast and get a lot more done", The same thing apply for getting a job, you need to tell the hiring person not "I want the job", rather the benefits to them if you get the job.

And one way to do this is customize your resume to let them know what you can do for them. Generic resumes are not targeted, and won't grab their attention like one that has been customized. It's not hard, just takes a few more minutes and it gives you the advantage.

The Jobvertise Team

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Resume Writing Tip #2 - Formatting your resume

So you have your content, and now it's time to make the presentation. By this I mean formatting your resume in a way that someone who has no background information about you can easily understand you. To accomplish this your resume needs to be broken down in various sections. The type of sections depend on the individual but most people should include "contact information", "education", and "work history" sections. Optional sections could be "skills", "volunteer work", or "military service".

This is where you need to make the determination of the sections you would like to include which will give you the best opportunity to impress the resume reader.

One thing you want to keep thinking about is "keep your resume simple". You don't have to share your life story on your resume, just give the facts and sometimes less content can make more of an impact. For example, if you had a resume with single spacing that filled an entire page it would obviously be too overwhelming. So scale it down, keep plenty of white space, and make it easy to process and understand.

You also should be consistent - never have a section with only one bullet point. It is easy to forget these grammar rules, but bullet points should have two or more. Also check over your resume so words are in a consistent tense. You don't want one bullet point to be "Supervised call center department" and "Evaluating progress reports to keep projects on track". As you can see "Supervised" is in the past tense and "Evaluating" is in the present tense.

Personally I like the verbs to be action oriented and in the past tense. It says what you've done and with authority. Also, ideally it should all fit on one line per bullet point. You don't have much time to get your points across, so you need to make it so your main items are easily understood with a glance.

Once you have your resume formatted you can post your resume free at Jobvertise.com


Saturday, October 13, 2012

Resume Writing Tip #1 -Your grammar can be a deal breaker


One important item you want to double check before posting your resumes is your grammar. First, start with your spelling. Incorrect spelling or poor grammar will really hurt your chances because it makes you seem uneducated and not detail oriented.

Over the years I've seen resumes and cover letters that looked like they were written by  a second grader. They go straight to the trash can. If you don't have a spell checker then copy and paste your resume into an editor such as Microsoft Word just to do a quick check of the spelling and remove duplicate words. Microsoft word can even identify phrases that are not grammatically correct so that is a bonus, too.

But even if you do that, it would also help to have someone else take a look. A friend, relative, or hired resume writer can help because the automated checkers are not good at telling the difference  between words like "their" and "there". And you definitely want to get your "your" and "you're" correct on your cover letter as well.

You could have the best qualifications in the world, but if you botch the opening line it really sets the tone for the resume reader to look for other mistakes. Do you want someone trying to find mistakes on your resume?

The best thing you can do is to avoid the deal breaker, and this means cleaning up your grammar and spelling.

And yes, this resume tip was checked in Word!