Purchasing Resumes – The Beginning

Are you interested in purchasing resumes?  You have made the decision that purchasing a resume would be much easier than putting one together, especially if you have had some ask you for your resume.  Where do you start?  If you Google the term “resume service” you will be inundated with places to go, but for the purpose of this article, let’s assume that you do just that.  The next step will be to contact some of these companies.

Once you have started contacting them, how do you qualify them?  Usually, the first consideration for most people is price.  You will find a wide variety of pricing on the Internet.  However, if price is not an object to you, the next consideration should be who is going to write your resume.  After that, the final factor should be how the resume will look and will it accomplish what you need for it to.  These are all very important things to consider if you are going to be purchasing resumes.

Purchasing Resumes – The Price

One of the great things about the Internet is that you can find practically anything there, including resume pricing.  You will find pricing as low as $39.95 for a resume and at the other end of the spectrum, they can be as high as $695.  Why the volatility in pricing?  A lot of people want to charge you by you vocation.  What this really means is that you will be penalized based on how high the corporate ladder you are.  If you are an intern, a clerk, a janitorial laborer, etc., the price will not be high (but it might be high to you.)  If you are a “C” level executive, be prepared to pay through the nose most of the time.

This does not seem fair and in reality, it is not.  If you shop thoroughly, you will find that purchasing resumes does not have to be that difficult.  Find a price that seems fair to you, based on a good sample of companies that write resumes as a business.  Do not forget the old axiom: you get what you pay for (forget that it is grammatically incorrect – the fact is that it is true.

Purchasing Resumes – The Writer

Who is going to write your resume?  What is their experience writing resumes?  What is their experience helping people find gainful employment?  Do not hesitate to ask for names of clients for whom they have written resumes to check them out.  Whenever you are offered a job, the potential employer ALWAYS asks for references BEFORE you start.  You are entitled to a reference on your writer to gauge their level of success BEFORE you pay.

Is your writer a “certified” resume writer?  What does that really mean, anyhow?  Some governing body somewhere “certified” a writer based on what?  If certifications were based on how many jobs had been directly procured for clients through the recruiting process, that would be of value.  Your object should be a writer who has actual recruiting experience finding people jobs and therefore writes from a recruiting perspective because they know what recruiters want to see.

Purchasing Resumes – Readability & Accomplishment

Most of all, you want your resume (the finished product) to have a built-in readability in order to accomplish the purpose and that purpose is to get you phone screens at a minimum and hopefully full-fledged interviews. If your document does not accomplish that, then you have wasted time and money purchasing resumes.

Common Job Interview Tips And Questions

Job Interview Tips and Questions – Appearance

When you are looking for job interview tips and questions, there are many things to consider.  The first job interviewing tip is all about your appearance.  The cardinal rule for your interview appearance is to dress up for the occasion.  For men, that means wearing a suit.  A sports coat and a tie automatically place you in second to the candidate who wears a suit.  If you do not have a suit, buy one.  For women, a women’s suit is the preference, although if you want to wear a dress, that is also acceptable as long as the dress is appropriate, not showing too much skin or having a hemline that is too brief.

The adage goes like this: hiring managers and interviews figure that you will look the best that they will ever see you on the day in which you interview.  Therefore, if you look less than your optimum, hiring managers and interviewers take the view that you don’t think the interview is a priority.  These are some important things to consider when it comes to job interview tips and questions.

Job Interview Tips and Questions – Prepare

The absolute best thing that you can do for your upcoming interview is to prepare for it.  Breaking that down, preparation means to learn everything you can about the company, the company’s service or product line, the company’s financial performance, the role in which you would function should you be the successful candidate and also learn as much as you can about the interviewer.  Confidence emanates from preparation.  If you are prepared, then you can be confident in your answers and yourself.  Remember this in your search for job interview tips and questions.

Job Interview Tips and Questions – The Interviewing Techniques and Questions

There are three primary interviewing techniques of which to be aware.  Interviewers use all three, and two out of the three are relatively easy to hand.  The third can be a bear.  The techniques are the open-ended technique, the elaborative technique and the behavioral technique.  When you are looking for job interview tips and questions, you need to first understand these techniques.

The first technique is known as the open ended technique.  This is the technique where the interviewer asks you an open-ended question.  Example: Tell me about yourself.  You want to know where to start and end your answer on this one.

The second technique is the elaborative technique.  This technique relies on an application of resume and consists of the interviewer asking you to elaborate about something you have given them.  Example:  I see that you have worked for IBM.  Can you tell me about a typical day in your job there?

The last technique is known as the behavioral technique and this is the technique that requires additional focus when answering.  The interviewer is trying to ascertain your previous reaction in a given situation so that future performance can be gauged.  Example:  Tell me about a time in your career when you had a conflict with your supervisor.  How did you resolve that conflict?  These techiniques are crucial to learn as part of your search for job interview tips and questions.

Job Interview Tips and Questions – Anticipation

If you can learn to anticipate what questions might come your way and prepare your answers prior to hearing that question, they you will be ahead of the game.  Anticipating what might actually happen in an interviewing scenario is an excellent way to handle your interview.   The value in job interview tips and questions is what you do with them.  I hope this has helped you in looking for job interview tips and questions.

How To Construct A Cover Letter

Are you wondering how to construct a cover letter?  Most people are under the misguided impression that a cover letter has to be lengthy and reiterate facts that are revealed on the resume.  Learning how to construct a cover letter is very simple and anyone can do it.  The golden rule with cover letters is to keep them short, brief, say only what is absolutely necessary and then close.  If a cover letter takes longer than 15-20 seconds, it is not getting read.  This is primarily because recruiters want to get straight to the heart of the matter, which is the resume.  In this article we will examine exactly how to construct a cover letter.

How to construct a cover letter is about a salutation and four simple paragraphs.  The best cover letter is a cover letter that gets read.  These paragraphs comprise an introduction, the purpose for your letter, availability and contact information and a closing.  This cover letter can also double as an introductory email.

How To Construct A Cover Letter – Salutation

When learning how to construct a cover letter, the salutation typically is confusing.  The salutation has always been the source of communication problems because of gender association.  With so many names that could be male or female, how do you open the letter?  Intentions sometimes go awry and we do not want to offend (but sometimes do) with the wrong gender greeting, Mr. when it is a Ms.  Yet you don’ want to seem impersonal with the “to whom it may concern.”  The solution is to use the company name.  Dear Delta Airlines, I am writing to you today, etc.  The exception to this rule is if you know the contacts’ gender, then use their name.

The first part of how to construct a cover letter is the opening paragraph.  The opening paragraph should be one sentence and the sentence should explain you reason for writing.  Dear Delta Airlines, I am attaching my resume in response to your posting for a staff accountant.  The first paragraph is an introductory paragraph and the one sentence did the trick.  That sentence introduced you by saying you are interested in their staff accounting position.  How to construct a cover letter is really this simple.

The next paragraph is the most crucial and should only be two sentences.  The first sentence lets the reader know what you are currently doing unless you are unemployed.  Then it should let the reader know what you have recently done.  As in our Delta letter,” I am currently the lead accountant for United Airlines, where I have been for 8 years.

The second sentence should let the reader know what you want to do.  “I am searching for employment that will offer opportunity for additional responsibility and professional growth, resulting in a mutually beneficial relationship.  This sentence gives the reader a little insight about why you may be looking to change employment as well as letting them know that this is not all about you as well.

How To Construct A Cover Letter – Contact Information

Your contact information is arguably your most important information in how to construct a cover letter because regardless of what has been said previously, if the company cannot get in touch with you, it’s a moot point.  Be sure that there are no errors in your phone number or email address.  Also be sure to let them know when the appropriate time to discuss their position is.  This paragraph should take two sentences, maximum.  An optional sentence is if they ask for salary history or your salary desires.

If you need more help with your resume and cover letter please take a look at my resume service.  Also, please let me know what you thought by leaving a comment about how to construct a cover letter.