Do You Really Need a Resume in Today's Job Market?

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AppId is over the quota

Though I have no plans to leave my current job and search for another one, every once in a while I call up my resume on Word and update any pertinent information. I find that a resume is one of those things that should remain ready to go...just in the event somebody asks to see it. I view it not only as a good exercise in charging my memory but as an opportunity for nostalgia - I'll find skills listed there that are likely not relevant now. Would a prospective employer be impressed that I know how to use Adobe PageMaker, which was discontinued in 2004? Probably not.

Some aver now, though, that the resume is obsolete, that in certain professions a detailed bio accompanied by a portfolio suffices. While one can argue that companies looking for designers, photographers, and graphic artists would be more interested in the quality of candidates' work rather than lines on a paper explaining their work history, some in Human Resources may still wish to learn how you evolved through employment.

According to a recent article on the website of The Wall Street Journal, sales of resume-style paper have dipped over the last year. Surely the practice of sending resumes via e-mail, or online job applications on company websites and job site, have diminished the need to print your vitae. Does this mean, however, that you need not bother updating your information at all? Interviews with HR personnel in the same article tend to disagree.

When you apply for a job or e-mail a Human Resources manager to express your interest, you may attach your credentials or at the very least paste them into the e-mail. If you are contacted for an interview, you should consider bringing in spare copies of your resume, in print. Here's why:

1) It's a great safety net. If for some reason the person interviewing you doesn't have your resume in front of him/her, you can produce one if necessary so you can go over the finer points of your work.

2) E-Mails do get lost. If your interviewer has accidentally erased your e-mail, you can readily offer a spare for consideration.

3) You should make copies available to multiple people. In some cases, you will talk to more than one person during your interview. Extra copies make it possible for several people to see your resume and help them decide if you're the one for the job.

Above all else, having a resume handy conveys the message that you are prepared, responsible, and ready to work. So don't dismiss the resume just yet.

Kathryn Lively is a freelance writer specializing in articles on accounting jobs and jobs in finance.

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High Anxiety Blues! How to Make Your Cover Letter and Resume Stand Out and Banish Those Blues

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AppId is over the quota

OK...so we know being unemployed and looking for that right teaching job can be stressful at the very least. As one of my students once told me, he had the "anxiety blues" from constantly sending out resumes and hearing nothing! It had gotten so bad that he had already applied to be a car salesman at a local dealership.....a car salesman!! Really? Five years of college, praxis exams, student teaching...the lot! And now we're just trying to be a car salesman? I wish I could say this was an odd story and an exception. Unfortunately, it is not. In fact you might be going through a similar set of emotions. So many young prospective teachers are faced with the daunting task of just getting onto the interview list in a good school district. With over 200,000 new teacher graduates each year, and a growing number of career changing alternate route candidates, the process of getting quality interviews has become extraordinarily competitive. But read on!

Good news is at hand. There is a reason your applications might not be getting a solid response. In fact, there are probably a number of reasons! Understand, depending on just which position for which you are applying, there can be upwards of one or two hundred applications. In one local school district, the superintendent told me he had over 1000 applications for a third grade elementary school position! Wow! That kind of competition means your cover letter and resume better be something special if they are going to stand out from all the others. Usually only 10 - 15 applications survive that initial screening, so what does it take to make yours the one chosen for that coveted interview spot? That is the real focus of this article.

Let's begin by understanding that there is a reason one application is selected over another. The simple reason is not hard to understand. The chosen applications seemed a better match to what the school had identified as its priority criteria. On paper, which candidate looked like they held the best promise to be a highly competitive candidate for the listed position? The closer the match between a candidates application documents and the district's priorities, the higher the probability he or she has for an interview. It is just that simple. Now let's look at just how you can make your application one that meets those expectations.

There is an art to making the connection between you and your target school. The first and most important step is to try and identify just what it is the district sees as important and seeks in the teacher they hire. You can find much of this information on the school website, school report card, or other available print information from the school. From these resources, you can see just what initiatives are underway, any staff development that has taken place, and what the school trumpets as their accomplishments. As you build your resume, select skill sets and background information that is a close match to the direction and priorities of the school where you are applying. The stronger that match, the higher the probability is that you will be selected for an interview. You need to clearly show how you meet their needs.

But we are not quite done. When there are dozens, even hundreds, of cover letters and resumes to review, candidates are often eliminated within 30 seconds of the initial reading. The number one reason someone's application is discarded that quickly is that the cover letter did not clearly identify how the candidate was a match to the position's identified requirements. To avoid this fatal flaw, be certain to carefully read the teacher advertisement and identify every requirement it lists. For example, if the posted vacancy indicates that applicants should have a full understanding of state standards, then you need to identify on your cover letter that you have that knowledge. Whatever the school lists as their requirements, your cover letter needs to identify that you meet each one. By insuring that the reader sees where you meet those listed requirements, you dramatically increase the probability he or she will also look more carefully at your resume. When the reader now sees how your resume sparkles with match after match to other district priorities, you have maximized your chance for an interview. It is just that simple!

So, with this knowledge in hand, get rid of those anxiety blues! Make your cover letter and resume shine by using these ideas. For even more information on how to make your cover letter and resume a blockbuster, read Chapters 2 and 3 in my book, "Teacher Interviews: How to Get Them &How to Get Hired!". Dozens of high power suggestions, sample documents, and great ideas are there for the taking. Get yourself to the TOP of that interview list and go interview like a champion!!

My name is Robert W. Pollock. I am an educator, with over 34 years experience, a speaker, consultant, and author of 'Teacher Interviews. How to Get Them & How to Get Hired!. I have spoken to 1,000's of prospective teachers on how to interview and get the job. I have consulted with schools around the country. Currently I am a professor of Education at Tusculum College, Knoxville, TN, where I also serve as the president of their alumni board.

Order my book "Teacher Interviews: How to Get Them & How to Get Hired!" at: Amazon.com
For more information or questions, email me at: Advantapress1@aol.com

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3 Detrimental Resume Mistakes

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AppId is over the quota

Looking at resumes for a living, I have seen some very detrimental trends when it comes to resume writing. While many would guess these are complex and hard to change, the mistakes are rather quite simple.
Below, I've listed three very common resume mistakes to avoid as a job seeker.

1. Copying and Pasting Job Descriptions - many resume writers get attached to a single phrase or very similar variation of and decide to spread it through the entire document, thus making the resume seem more robust and well-thought out.

However, this carries the opposite effect and what appears comprehensive to the resume writer, seems lazy and thoughtless of the count of the resume reader. Any HR manager who is interviewing for an important position is going to immediately look for these shortcuts because it is a tell-tale sign of that potential employee cutting corners in the future.

Remedy - alter your wording more using more adjectives, varied descriptions, and if need be, keep your resume shorter. Redundancy prevents dozens of job seekers who apply into our recruiting firm from getting to the our clients daily.

2. Overly Vague - when writing a resume, brainstorm all the important questions that a hiring manager may have about your position using a "Who" "What" "Where" "When" and "Why" model.

If you don't feel that you are an exact fit for a position, don't dumb down your resume using phrases such as "managed others," instead of "lead team of 4 sales representatives (2inside) covering the Southeast region."

Being vague does not get you into an interview, rather it prevents you from getting there in the first place.

Remedy - if you don't have all the qualifications for a job and want to avoid an awkward interview, be upfront about the mismatches on your resume compared to that of the hiring company's job description and briefly describe how you can fill these gaps better than those who may be half way there.

3. Too Much Formatting, Not Enough Content - Resume writing is not a graphic arts contest. Alison Ringo expounds on this point by saying, "your resume should showcase your strengths, not how many bullet point styles you know about."

While everybody should strive to have a well-formatted resume, many job seekers come home from the resume writer with three pages of pretty formatting, but empty content. As a matter of fact, the best job seekers tend to have resumes that are sometimes on the more subtle side rather than overly eye-catching.

Remedy - While there is no reason to strip your resume of its good looks, keep in the mind that too much fluff can go against any job seeker in the same manner that a poorly worded resume can.

Stop focusing so much on what the paper looks like. Rather, focus on the story it tells.

If You're Making an Above Mistake

Don't fret, simply change your resume. Once these changes are implemented, any job seeker in any industry should see a world of difference.

Ken Sundheim runs KAS Placement, an executive staffing firm that Ken started in 2005.

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Ken's articles have appeared in, among many others Forbes, NYTimes, USA Today and more.

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