Category: Job Search Tips and Tricks

Smart Interview Answers: “Why You Left Your Last Job?”

For job seekers, the interview is an indication of how well you carry yourself.

Preparation is essential, to anticipate some of what will be asked in the interview by an employer or hiring manager.

Interview tips from HRNewsDaily.comOne fastest ways to wreck an otherwise smooth-running interview is being unnecessarily hung up on a simple question.

This is not to recommend a candidate should appear so rehearsed that answers sound canned, hollow and lack sincerity. It is just that there always should be a reasonably clear response to the most frequently asked interviewer questions.

The single interview question that seems to mix people up is, “Why did you leave (or are looking to leave) your previous employer?”

Seven tips to help you avoid tripping over yourself, so you can give the interviewer a complete, reasonable answer: Continue reading →

Job Search Failure? How to Handle Rejection

Job Search LoserThe way to handle failure today is critical to future job search success. If you want to achieve, you need to gain confidence and pride—take on challenging goals, develop positive patterns and methods for success.

Handle rejection badly, and you will wind up choosing either extremely easy tasks or unreasonably complicated ones guaranteed to fail. Neither one is good for your job search since one provides little professional challenges, and the other will feed into a false sense of failure.

The first thing is to invest time and effort to make significant accomplishments outside of your job search.

Ten steps to manage rejection in a job search will help put your life, and career, in perspective. Use them and prepare for real success: Continue reading →

4 WORST Job Search Tips You Will Ever Hear!

Job Search FailWhen on a job search, you will find a barrage of information designed to get you on track to finding the right job.

One thing to remember—not all advice is good! Many words of so-called wisdom might not even apply to you.

What’s more is there are some job search tips you will get that are just downright horrible.

Four of the worst pieces of job search advice that you will ever hear:

Bad job search tip #1: Go ahead, send out as many job applications as you can!

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Human Resources Secrets

Sexy Resumes are Perfect to Catch Eye of Human Resources!

An effective resume should be more than a dull, boring list of previous job titles and education. If you want to show human resources that you are right for the job, you need a resume that is sexy!

How to make your resume SEXY!Creating a resume that strikes a chord with human resources professionals, hiring managers and recruiters means crafting something that will stand out.

Now is not the time to be boring or run-of-the-mill; your resume needs to be more than just an ordinary, mundane list of jobs and training.

Your resume needs to be SEXY!

Human resources pros can be extremely busy! One in every four human resources departments get at least 50 resumes for every job opening; ten percent of all HR will receive more than 100 resumes to sift through for each job post.

What exactly do they look for in all of those resumes?

  • 77 percent look for relevant experience
  • 48 percent are looking for specific accomplishments
  • 41 percent say they want resumes that are customized to the specific position

Keywords should also be present. HR often looks for specific keywords, things such as:

  • “Problem solving”
  • “Leadership”
  • “Oral or written communication,”
  • “Team building,”
  • “Performance and productivity improvement”

These keywords are the buzzwords to attract the attention of busy HR managers.Human Resources: Free live ovation demo

Do you need any other reason why a resume needs to be sexy to make an impact?

How can you “sex up” your resume? It is easier than you think.

  1. Summarize skills, qualifications, and credentials in a well-worded, tightly concise form. Babbling about yourself constantly is not sexy.
  2. Use short to-the-point bullet points with action items. These have a great deal more influence than full, rambling sentences. Boring is not sexy.
  3. A sense of confidence. The job seeker needs to consider accomplishments than job titles, telling employers how they have made a difference in their current or previous positions. Whatever you do, avoid sounding self-absorbed, so find a balance between bragging and self-assuredness. Nothing is less sexy than someone full of themselves.

Never include links to personal websites, social media or networking sites that could put you in an unprofessional light. That is not desirable, and is an instant turn off for employers.

Give your resume to a friend, colleague or family member, to have another pair of eyes give it a once over; make sure you haven’t missed any typos or poorly worded descriptions. Poor grammar or bad spelling are not sexy!

For more information on how to give your resume a little “sex appeal,” as well as a few common resume mistakes to avoid, check out this infographic from TopCounselingSchools.org.

Infographic after the jump…

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Job Search After a Layoff: 7 Ways to Start

Losing a job is stressful; an unexpected layoff can be devastating. Seven tips for making the most of your post-layoff job search.

job hunting (Photo credit: Robert S. Donovan)

In today’s economy, layoffs have become a fact of life. There is no such thing as an indispensable employee. Improved unemployment numbers aside, the possibility of losing your job and beginning a new job search is always present.

If you have a plan, it can make living with an unexpected job loss a whole less stressful. Few people genuinely prepare for unemployment, and they end up working double time to pick up the pieces of their lives.

After a layoff, the first thing to do is take control of the situation. It is the only real way to get back on track for your career.

A layoff shouldn’t keep you down. Seven ways to jumpstart your job search after a layoff:

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