Proper cover letter etiquette

From Vault.com and NYTimes.com

By Vault.com

Anil Dash, the former chief information technology officer for an online music video production studio in Manhattan, lost his job this January when the company fired nearly all its employees. Since then, Dash figures he's applied for more than a dozen jobs, contacting every one of the potential employers - befitting an out-of-work CIO - through e-mail.
But every time he prepares another e-mail, he faces a choice. Should he bother to write an e-mail cover letter, the sort of thing he'd do if he were mailing the resume, or should he merely dash off a few lines to the effect of, "Hi, I'm interested in your job, and I've attached my resume as a Word file. Thanks."

"I do cover letters for jobs I really want," Dash says. "For ones I don't care about, I just spam them."

To read the rest of the article go to http://careerlib.vault.com/cb/content_main.jsp?cb_page=43&ch_id=408&article_id=7577622&cat_id=2351

THE KEY TO A SUCCESSFUL JOB SEARCH

Article from http://www.careerplaybook.com/guide/tour_overview.asp

THE KEY TO A SUCCESSFUL JOB SEARCH is knowing what you want and knowing how to market yourself effectively to get the job you want.

ASSESS YOURSELF -- Essential to job and career satisfaction is matching your own unique talents, skills, interests and personality to those job-related tasks and activities that you find most enjoyable, interesting, and challenging to do. By performing this self-analysis, you'll have the opportunity-perhaps for the first time in your career-to choose the position and organization that is personally satisfying as well as financially rewarding.

RESEARCH -- Identify the companies that have a need you can fill. You will recognize and identify this through research and speaking to people within the organization. There, you will learn some of the challenges they are facing or problems they are having. You can then take this information and think of ways to help them solve these problems. This is the true value you bring to the employer and what separates you from the other job candidates.

To read the rest of the article go to http://www.careerplaybook.com/guide/tour_overview.asp

Career Services: TWITTER Page

Gwynedd-Mercy College Career Services has created a Twitter account (http://twitter.com/CareersGMC) to provide its students and alumni with quick updates on jobs, internships and news it receives. Please follow it to get the information immediately.


http://twitter.com/CareersGMC

Ways to get experience

by Billie Streufert (from www.jobweb.com)

Employers want experience. You don’t have to look far to get it.
Experience is not limited to paid employment. It can include any co-curricular activities or accomplishments that demonstrate your knowledge, skills, and abilities. Your college campus is rich with opportunities to gain experience, including:

Internships
Part-time employment or work study
Study abroad
Service-learning
Undergraduate research
Student activities or program councils
Special interest or professional organizations
Sororities or fraternities
Community service or volunteer work
Athletics or club sports
Choir or band
Student newspaper or radio
Student government associations
Resident assistants or community advisors
Admissions ambassadors
Orientation leaders
Tutors or supplemental instruction leaders
Theater
Honor societies
Homecoming planning committee

To read the rest of the article go to http://www.jobweb.com/studentarticles.aspx?id=2251

Pet Peeves on Resumes

This article is from ResumeDoctor and can be found at http://www.resumedoctor.com/ResourceCenter.htm#petpeevesurvey

Recruiter "Pet Peeve" Survey - Recently, ResumeDoctor.com undertook the immense project of conducting a survey of over 2,500 recruiters / headhunters throughout the US and Canada to find out their "Pet Peeves" with resumes. These recruiters stemmed from varied specialties and industries, (Engineering, Information Technology, Sales and Marketing, Executive, Biotech, Healthcare, Administrative, Finance, etc.).

ResumeDoctor.com sought to find out what the recruiter’s likes and dislikes in a resume and what is going to get a resume read by them. Here are the top twenty Results of the Survey.

1. Spelling Errors, Typos and Poor Grammar
2. Too duty oriented – reads like a job description, failing to explain the job seeker's relevant accomplishments
3. Missing dates or inaccurate dates
4. Missing contact Info, inaccurate, or unprofessional email addresses
5. Poor formatting – boxes, templates, tables, use of header and footers, etc.
6. Resumes organized by job function as opposed to chronological by employer
7. Long resumes – greater than 2 pages
8. Long, dense paragraphs – no bullet-points
9. Unqualified candidates – candidates who apply to positions for which they are not qualified
10. Personal info not relevant to the job
11. Missing employer Info and/or not indicating what industry in which the candidate worked
12. Lying and misleading - especially in terms of education, dates and inflated titles
13. Objectives and meaningless introductions
14. Poor font choice or style
15. Resumes sent as PDF files, Zip files, faxes, or mailed resumes; i.e. not sent as a WORD attachment
16. Irritating Pictures, graphics or URL links
17. No easy-to-follow summary of skills and accomplishments
18. Resumes written with 1st person references, or in the 3rd person
19. Unexplained gaps in employment
20. Burying important info in the resume

Making an easy re-entry into the work force

From Career Journal (Wall Street Journal)

By DIANA MIDDLETON

If you've been unemployed for months and have finally found a job, you're likely thrilled at first. But anxiety often follows that excitement. Starting any new job is hard, and coming back to work after a long layoff can be even harder. You have to re-establish a routine, refresh your skills and rebuild your confidence. Here's how to make a successful re-entry:

To read the article go to http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124510378792116513.html#mod=djemCJ

Keep raising the bar in your career

As a society, we're obsessed with achievement. But what happens once you're considered objectively successful, with a great salary and a job that energizes you? It's easy to rest on your accomplishments and your way of getting work done, perhaps even feeling there's not much left to learn.

But in this economy, you can't afford to sit back -- even though it might be tempting.
"Successful people fall into the trap of thinking they don't need to change anything because their behavior is working for them," says Marshall Goldsmith, author of "What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful." "Every time they get promoted...they get positive reinforcement even when certain skills are lacking."

To read the rest of the article go to http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124433282607591717.html#mod=djemCJ

Fine-Tuning Your Résumé for Maximum Impact

Article is from Career Journal.com

By JANE PORTER

It's one of the first things people think to do after losing a job: quickly get a résumé into as many hands as possible. But career experts say doing so without a strategic plan is a mistake -- wasting time and energy and resulting in few callbacks. "Most people sprinkle their résumé around like confetti hoping they will land in the right spot," says Ford Myers, president of Career Potential LLC, a Philadelphia-based career consulting firm. "It's a bad strategy."

How to get the most out of your résumé:

To read the rest of the article go to http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124389654963374069.html#mod=djemCJ

How to ace a phone interview

Article is from Career Journal:

By SARAH E. NEEDLEMAN

Job seekers, beware the telephone.
For years, the phone interview was a preliminary step that allowed an employer to give a candidate the once-over and schedule an in-person interview. But these days, many recruiters are using the phone interview to pose the kinds of in-depth questions previously reserved for finalists. What's more, job hunters say the bar for getting to the next level has been raised much higher, catching many of them off-guard.


In a recent first interview for a senior marketing job, Robyn Cobb was grilled by a hiring manager for an hour and a half on topics ranging from her work history and marketing philosophy to her knowledge of the company and its industry.

To read the rest of the article go to http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124390348922474789.html#mod=djemCJ