When I train career advisors and job seekers on the strategic approach to the online job search, I make sure to mention that a résumé is an obituary. Résumés do a great job telling people what you did. Where you worked. What things you’ve done in your past that made a difference. And résumés have a place in the job search as well. They are requirements in many HR departments’ intake process. They help hiring managers to rem...

You’ve probably figured out by now that seeking work through job boards can give you mixed results. I’ve heard some experts claim that for every job opening on a job board, an average of 300 people are submitting résumés to that same job. To make matters even more frustrating, the longer you wait to reply, the less chance you have of getting considered. In a conversation I had with a local business owner, he said...

I’m often asked, “Well, if I need nouns, how do I know what nouns to use?” Here is a simple list of some great places to begin growing your Keyword list. Use Your Brain I’m not being cheeky by saying that. I think we often overlook our own common sense because the online tools are so convenient. Sit down with a blank paper and come up with as many industry specific nouns as you can. Don’t judge what happens, now is the time...

Speaking at the Engineering Symposium in Portland a few years ago, I had two conversations back to back that were exactly the same. Now, I wasn’t surprised, when speaking to a group of 100 engineers, that ALL of them were much smarter than I am. I also wasn’t surprised to see many baby-boomers in the audience. So the conversations I had after my presentation were expected. Each person who came up to me afterward expressed s...

A gentleman came up to me after a talk I gave at Portland Community College last month. He told me that hefd Googled himself and wasnft happy with what he found. I get this question all the time, so I wasnft prepared for what he told me next. After he saw his search results, he called Google and asked to speak with Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman and former CEO. When his call wasnft connected (no surprise there) he...

This is not the first time I have talked about Facebook and your job search. The topic is one of those that refuses to go away for job seekers, however much they might want it to! However, this tip actually is not one of mine; it comes from a blog post by Joshus Waldman of Career Rocketeer, titled “How to Protect Your Private Life on Facebook During Your Job Search.” If you are not using Facebook at this point, the tip migh...

The year 2012 seems to be the year of innovation around the job search. They say great inventions come when people find a better way to solve a problem. Others say laziness is the mother of all invention. But I say that great innovations happen when millions of Americans are out of work and finding a job sucks. So in honor of America’s comeback, here are four of my favorite innovations so far this year. Meeteor.com The aver...

Facebook’s privacy issues have come and gone in past months. With their recent release of the “groups” feature, we now have more control over who can see what. But is that enough? Or better yet, is technology the answer to a fundamentally human problem? For me, the issue is the use of Facebook in the job search. Probably the most controversial question I get is, “Can I use Facebook in my job search?” Certainly, when you thi...

Imagine you are a busy hiring manager. Your recruiter staff doesn’t seem to give you any good candidates. So you go off on your own to do some research. Because you have no budget, you’ll probably end up on a social media site such as LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter. You’ll stumble around for a little while until you find a profile that catches your eye. At this point, you’ll probably decide to reach out, test the waters, and...

1) Google Has Replaced the Resume Recruiters are now using Google and LinkedIn searches to find talent, instead of paying for job-board or talent databases, like they used to do. In fact, many companies are even mandating that every new application go through a Google screening process. So that means the first page of your Google results matter much more than they ever did before. 2) A Summary is Enough Today, the resume is...