Offer of the Week - Ends 10/15/2008

Offer of the Week:

In an attempt to drum up more interest in my career assistance services, I have made a huge decision! For this week and this week only, I will do a resume revamp and a cover letter for FREE! Yes, you read that correctly: I will do your resume revamp and your cover letter free of charge. The purpose of this offer is to try and enlighten my clients on the importance of having quality tools to use for the job search. So, please, take advantage!

Kudos!

An Apology to my Followers

Ladies and gentlemen... I must apologize. I have been extremely behind in updating this blog and blame it entirely on not having enough hours in the day. I have not had many inquiries on my resume assistance services, therefore, I have not had any real reason to update my entries; however, for those of you who are avid readers, and are disapointed by my lack of attention the last few weeks I am so sorry!

I promise things will be getting back on track very, very soon. It's that time of year where everything falls in my lap at once. Please understand!

Thank you so much for checking in... I will be talking to you soon!

Kudos!

What's in Your Closet? (Proper Interview Attire)

Job Seekers Beware! One of the most common gaffes committed during the job application process can be one of the most detrimental...

What blunder could this possibly be? A fashion blunder. Now, I'm not talking about wearing brown shoes with a black belt, or wearing white after labor day (which, by the way, is no longer a fashion faux pas). What I am referring to is not being physically and visually prepared for a job interview. This blog is dedicated to pointing out the mistakes that job seekers should make every effort to avoid in the realms of hygiene, attire, and accessorizing. Believe me when I say: this mistakes can truly make or break an interview!

First, let's address hygiene. Please use common sense! When you are going for an interview, be sure your teeth are brushed, you've showered, and that you wear deodorant. Now that I've covered the three basic bases that every mother generally covers before you hit puberty, I'll hit on the less obvious faux pas many job seekers may make:

• Make sure to remove any dirt from under your nails. Believe it or not, some employers are very attentive to small details like this. If you don't pay attention to your own personal cleanliness, what sort of image will you project in the workplace?
• Do not use an overwhelming perfume or cologne. You may smell good to yourself, but the scent may steer prospective employers away. Some individuals have severe allergies to perfumes and colognes. If your interviewer cannot stop sneezing throughout your interview because he or she is allergic to what you've poured on to cover the smell of smoke or whatever else, chances are, you won't be landing this position.
• Try not to smoke prior to an interview. The smell on your clothes and your breath can really irritate your interviewer, and may lead to a lasting impression you simply do not want to leave. If you absolutely must smoke prior to an interview, use a lightly scented perfume (at bear minimum) and a breath mint to try and mask the smell that could be hanging around.
• Try to avoid running your hands through your hair or fidgeting with it excessively. The natural oils in your hands may make your hair look greasy and may lead your interviewer to think you have poor cleansing habits. Although it is a completely unfair assessment, unfortunately, it does happen.
• Ladies, use caution in the make-up department. You do not want to go bear-faced to an interview as you may give the impression that you simply do not care enough to make a good impression; however, on the other hand, you do not want to go to your interview looking like a lady of the night either! Be tasteful with your choices, and use caution. If you are uncomfortable, it will show.

Now let's move on to attire and accessories. I know that the majority of job seekers don't have a lot of money to spare, so this next suggestion may take some of you by surprise; however I promise there is a method to my "madness." A good rule of thumb to abide by: purchase one nice suit. Yes, a "nice" suit may run you anywhere between $200 - $300, but the possibilities are endless when you buy the right suit for your interviews. For instance, I purchased a black designer suit for attending job interviews. I put the purchase on my credit card, as the funds were not readily available, and it certainly paid off. I was able to wear a different under shirt with the suit for each interview, switch the shoes I chose to wear with the suit depending on my interview location, and accessorize tastefully for each appointment.

A standard black suit presents many options when it comes to dressing it up. If you cannot afford a designer suit for the purpose of interviewing, you may want to try a store like Target, Walmart, or Steinmart. These stores often have nice looking suits for half the cost. Although the suit may not last as long as a more expensive suit, it will still serve the same purpose for those coveted interviews you've worked so hard to get! If you cannot afford a suit at all, there are a few options you may consider for interview attire:

• Where a flattering pair of plain black pants or a pencil skirt (for ladies, of course). Make sure they are in good condition (no holes, snags, or frays), and be sure they are pressed when wearing them to an interview. You may also opt for another neutral like chocolate brown or slate gray.)
• Pair your pants with a bright or bold colored top. For men, do not wear a polo style shirt to an interview. Always opt for a button-up dress shirt, with a collar. Invest in a neutral tie that may be matched with a number of different shirts and may still be worn with your chosen pants. (For those of you who are matching-impaired: slate gray goes well with pinks, reds, purples, and blues. Black may go with just about any color, but try to avoid brown and black on top if you're wearing black on the bottom. Brown pants are excellent with whites, greens, tans, and other subtle colors.)
• When choosing footwear, consider three things: length of pants (or skirt for ladies), the location of your interview, and color of your attire. If you are wearing long pants (ladies) wearing a nice pair of high heels will elongate your legs and give you a more confident stature. Try to avoid open toed shoes at all cost, unless (ladies) you have a conservative peep toe shoe you can wear. (Note: If you do not have well maintained toe nails, do not wear open toed shoes!!) If you're wearing black pants or a black shirt, wear black shoes or a color shoe that will pop your outfit. Try to avoid wearing any bold colors with brown pants or skirts - this often presents a distraction.

Khaki pants, cargo pants, shorts, or "skorts" are not appropriate interview attire! Never, ever go to an interview wearing these items and expect to land the position. (The only exception here is for men; khaki colored dress slacks are okay.) Ladies, do not opt for a tee shirt or polo style shirt... EVER This makes your interviewer think that you simply do not care enough about your appearance to put yourself together. It's the sad truth, but first impressions are everything. You may not get the opportunity to prove yourself a second time, so don't chance it by being careless with your wardrobe.

The last and final subject we're going to touch on is accessories. This is a pretty simple fix:

• Ladies: limit rings to a wedding band, engagement ring (or set), or a single ring on each hand. Do not wear a bold or bulky necklace or earrings. Settle for a simple pair of hoop earrings, studs, or other subtle piece of jewelery for your ears and neck. Bulky pieces are extremely distracting and may take away from your interviewers attentiveness to what is important: your credentials!
• Men: Black shoes, black belt. Brown shoes, brown belt. No jewelery, unless it is discreet, and absolutely do not wear sandals!!

As I previously stated... it's sad, but it's true: employers will always see your appearance before hearing what you have to say when it comes to an interview. Choose your attire carefully and bear in mind: the impression you make now is the impression you need to abide by if you do land the job. Dress for success (as cliche as it sounds), and you will be successful.

Kudos!

Website of the Day

Today's Website of the Day is another great article from the folks at Yahoo! This page is located in the Hot Jobs portion of Yahoo's site, and is greatly informative. Take a look for yourself! (This is directly related to our previous Website of the Day regarding six-figure incomes.)

The Quickest Route to a Six-Figure Job

Kudos!

Offer of the Week - Ends 9/24/2008

Offer of the Week:

This week's offer is a doozy! You won't get these types of chances very often, so listen up:

Typically, the resume creation process is a complicated task. One of the services we provide is a revamp service for existing resumes. Well, this week, you can get a whole new resume, from scratch, for the price of the the resume revamp service. This is a savings of $15.00!! For direct price quotes, please send an email to MD Documenting Services.

Please check out our complete list of services and feel free to ask questions. We welcome them!

Kudos!

Website of The Day

Today's Website of the Day is a Yahoo! Education Page. This article outlines careers that have potential six-figure incomes. Excellent article... a must read!

Six-Figure Jobs for Ordinary People

Kudos!

I Need a Job! (Starting Down the Path)

Let's be honest:

Most of us have a general idea of what our "dream job" is. Personally, mine is writing articles for a celebrity gossip magazine or a hard hitting political e-zine, but who am I kidding? I don't have the credentials or abilities to move to NYC and get a job at one of those hoity-toity companies. I will stick with reading my chick lit and living vicariously through the characters. (Side Note: If you share my dream job, you must read Little Pink Slips.)

Okay.. now that I've successfully thrown myself off course, let me attempt to get back to my point. The reality is most of us will never get our "dream job." Unless you have the means to get the Ivy League education and have an "in" at the company that people would kill to work for, you'll never walk into the position you dream of. Aren't I a kill-joy? Well, now I will throw a bit of hope in the mix: you can get a job that closely resembles your dream job, or a variation of your dream job; however, you must be willing to work at it. By work, I mean dedicate yourself completely to getting what you want. With the job market the way it is now a days, my recommendation (and remember, I base these opinions solely on experience) is to start small and work your way up the totem pole. If you expect too much, too soon, you made end up with more headache that euphoria.

At this point you may be thinking "Well, what the Hell do I do to get my foot in the door?" Don't get your britches in a bunch - I'm getting there. First, I must give a disclaimer: I cannot and will not guarantee the methods I am presenting to you in this blog will work for 100% of the readers who take heed. These are simply opinions and recommendations based on my life experiences to help you get ahead in your career. Now that we have that out of the way, we'll get down to the nitty-gritty:

I have developed a five-step method that will (more often than not) get you ahead when applying for jobs. I will briefly outline them below:

1. Be realistic when beginning your job search. Most job-seekers have specific ideas of what they are looking for when cruising the "Help Wanted" sections of their local newspapers. Well, I got news for ya: it's not going to happen in the classifieds! The better bet for searching for the criteria you want is to use a job search engine online. Some popular sites to use (that I have had much success with personally) are: Career Builder, Monster, and Hot Jobs. You are able to truly narrow down the criteria you want with these websites as opposed to using the old fashioned "circling the ad" method. Hello! Can we say "outdated?" I will never tell a job-seeker to revise their expectations, unless those expectations will lead to heartbreak. Only you know what you want out of a career... so don't let anyone stand in your way!


2. Many companies have applicants fill out online applications for available positions. The applicant will then attach his or her resume to the application at the end of the process. A great rule of thumb to use: copy and paste your existing (NICE) resume into a NotePad or Text Document feature. Eliminate special characters and spacing, and clean up the layout. Save this document for use on these types of applications. Take it from me: using your well formatted resume in these types of applications is useless. The formatting will be destroyed and the prospective employer may not even be able to decipher its content. Once again, this is from experience. You will get more responses to your applications if you put in the effort of thinking issues like this through ahead of time.


3. Make sure you have different resumes for different types of positions. There is nothing prospective employers hate more than receiving a resume with an objective stating: "Applicant is in search of a full-time sales position in a well established financial institution," when the position the applicant applied for is a janitorial position. (Yes, this is an extreme example, but it makes my point.) Even if you update your resume each and every time you send it out, you may miss a detail or two that can throw off the employers. Don't risk it. Save different copies for different job types so you don't have to fear sending the incorrect information and embarrassing yourself.


4. Keep a detailed record of what positions you have applied for. Although you may not do it intentionally, you may come across job postings on different search engines and apply for the position twice. Employers are relatively understanding of this occurrence, but if you happen to send your resume to the same place twenty times, you may have ensured a big fat NO from that employer. Keeping a log/record of each job you apply for helps to eliminate that possibility, but also saves you precious time. There are a lot of options out there - don't waste your time on duplicates.


5. When contacted for an interview, always, and I mean ALWAYS take notes. Whether you write down the contact phone number and name of the individual who contacted you, or you write down every single word the person said, you always want to have notes on the companies who show interest. There are a few reasons for this: primarily, if you have an emergency, a problem finding your interview location, or something comes up, you will feel ridiculous if you do not have a name and phone number to call and let your potential employer know you are having difficulties. It's rude not to show up somewhere - even if you simply had no way of reaching the interviewer. Waste of time for them, thus, no job for you. Second, if you have a history of the company you are applying to, and you can get information on the position you have applied for specifically, it gives you the upper hand in an interview. Yes, it's okay not to have the knowledge of an encyclopedia; however, it's better to have "cliff's notes" in your brain while having a conversation with your interviewer.

Do you think you can handle these five simple steps? I promise it will make your job hunting experience more enjoyable. Well, at least more enjoyable than getting an enema. Hey, no one said this would be easy...

As always, if you have any questions or require any assistance, please feel free to contact me. And please, check out my available services: I'm here to help!

Kudos!