The Most Important Piece of Paper in Your Job Search

Thursday, September 8th, 2011

The Most Important Piece of Paper in Your Job Search

Whats the most important piece of paper in your job search? If you said its your resume or your cover letter, youd be wrong. Its your job application.

Over 90% of companies run some type of background check on job applicants today. To get the detailed information that is required to run a thorough check, most companies require applicants to fill out a specially-designed application form.

Over 80% of companies say that discrepancies on a job application can take a candidate out of the running, yet half of the background checks run in 2005 found inaccuracies in the information provided by applicants.

As you can see, how you fill out that job application is directly tied to whether or not you get hired.

There are four golden rules to follow when filling out a job application. Some of them are obvious and all of them are important. If you follow these rules, you will start the pre-employment screening process far ahead of your competitors.

Tell the Truth:

As amazing as it sounds, over half of all applicants lie on their applications. Dont be one of them. Nothing will take you out of consideration faster than fabricating information. Because so many companies check backgrounds today, the chances are very good that lies will be discovered and you will not get the job.

Be Neat:

Since companies use the information on your job application to check your background, make sure people can read it. If you can type your application, do it. If not, print clearly. Your mother might be able to read your handwriting, but she is not the one who will be checking your background.

Be Complete:

It is always better to give too much information, rather than too little. You never know what a company will want to verify. Here are some general rules:

1. If there is space on the application, list every diploma and degree you have received. Some companies will only verify your highest degree, while others will want to verify everything.

2. Fill in as many employment boxes as you can. Work study, internships, and volunteer jobs all provided you with experience. List them if you have room.

3. Always provide up-to-date phone numbers and addresses for your previous employers.

Be Prepared:

Most companies will not tell you what information they plan to check. Some will only run a criminal check, while others will verify every piece of information on your job application. You need to be prepared for anything they choose to do.

You also need to be prepared for anything a hiring company might hear about you. Even though previous employers may be liable for saying bad things about you, it happens every day. If there is bad news out there, it is far better for you to tell the hiring company than to have them find it out on their own.

Before you send out that first resume, or respond to that first newspaper ad, take the time to prepare the detailed information that needs to go on your job application.

Remember, while a great-looking resume will get you in the door and solid interviewing skills will help you make the final cut, if you dont pass the background check, you wont get the job.

The problem with Monster Jobs

Tuesday, August 9th, 2011

As everyone knows Monster.com is the leader in job marketing. They provide an avenue for millions to post and read resumes. However there is a problem with these huge job searching companies. That is that when you are looking for a job in a specific area the first 10 or so jobs listed are national job listings. They have no relevance to you and waste your time being there. Why should we be subjected to viewing these? There is no reason.I recently have moved to West Virginia and started a career here. I have found an excellent job and love the area. I tried Monster.com first, because honestly who doesn’t put their resume on Monster when they need to find a job. My resume was on there about 2 months and I had found nothing even close to a “good” job. I decided I would need to look at a more localized job search engine. I decided to pick a few states I wouldn’t mind moving to and decided to check out there State Chamber of Commerce sites. Usually this was a good place to start, however sometimes the sites were not very impressive. I finally looked at the WV Chamber of Commerce page. After a few click throughs I stumbled upon a site developed in WV. It wasn’t flashy but it did provide a ton of information. The site was called VCLink. It had job postings, opportunities, and even a place to upload my resume. My resume was on for a week when I received a call from my current employer trying to schedule an interview with me. One Week! Just for kicks I left my resume on Monster. It have had my job for 6 months, so tack that on the initial 2 months and after 8 months I had received one decent job possibility. That is the problem, Monster is too big to handle specified job searching. Sure they can help someone looking for “some job somewhere,” but not someone who knows what they want and where they want it. So if you know what you want try and find a small localized company to assist you in your job hunt.

Tips For A Stress-Free IT Job Search

Friday, June 10th, 2011

The best source to look for jobs related to Information Technology (most commonly known as IT) is, obviously, the Internet.

Various sites offer listings of job openings for specific fields. The key for a fruitful search is to know how and where to look for the best possible jobs available.

To have access on a certain site’s listing, an individual must first accomplish the following:

1. Register at the chosen site

2. After registration confirmation (via an email from the moderator of the site), the individual may now have access to the list

3. In searching for the preferred or suitable job vacancy, you may be asked to fill out a form (online) that states an individual’s profile.

This is usually used for easier browsing of related work since IT has various fields of specialties. Other sites automatically match an individual’s profile with the available or suited vacancy based on the information given by the person.

4. The applicant has the option to choose from contractual, full-time, part-time, trainee or temporary jobs category.

5. If the individual prefers work that is currently not listed on the site, he or she may have the option of posting his or her resume, from which prospective employers may browse through at some other time.

To avoid frustration while browsing through the numerous listings of IT openings on the Internet, take into consideration the following pointers:

1. Determine the following:

1.1 Organize your career portfolio in soft and hard copies. While most employers will ask for a copy of you resume through the net (email), there are some that still require hard copies for submission at their respective offices.

1.2 Determine preferred location of work. Is the individual willing to be relocated should a good position be offered in another city or state? Does he or she prefer work within commuting distance?

1.3 Salary. Though it would not be wise to make demands on one’s salary especially during the interview process, an individual must have a predetermined range of salary that he or she would be willing to accept, whoever the employer would be or wherever it may be located.

2. Rank the items listed above based on one’s priority.

3. Search the Internet for various sites with listings of IT job openings.

4. Register on a number of sites for a wider access to various lists.

5. Submit resume based on the predetermined priorities.

Tips For A Successful Local Job Search

Wednesday, May 11th, 2011

If you are seriously searching for a local job, but you have no idea where to look, you may be just one of the thousands of unemployed people in the country. However, finding a job is easy when you know where to search.

Where can you find employers? How can you find your desired local job?

Before anything else, you should determine your skills and abilities, update your resume and be ready to face the employment process. There are several options on where to find employment.

1) Job Center: Job centers provide numerous vacancies for different kinds of work. Majority of job centers update their employment board frequently.

Originally, these career centers cater to young jobseekers up to 21 years old. They arrange for appropriate job interviews, which they believe, would match your skills and abilities. Some job centers also process training vacancies and apprenticeships to young people. Today, these centers also cater adults need of employment.

2) Newspapers: Local and national newspapers, non-profit papers and job hunting newspapers provide advertisements on current job vacancies. You could find all the existing newspapers in libraries and check all the recent job postings.

Majority of newspapers today have their content available online. You could browse through them one by one and list all the jobs you prefer.

3) Journals and magazines: Every industry has their own periodicals, magazines or journals. Most employers go to these publications for employing professionals. Some could be bought in magazine stands and others come by subscription. Therefore, if you are hoping to establish your career based on your finished field of study, you could subscribe to a professional magazine and increase your local job prospects.

4) Agencies: Employment agencies handle most of vacant local work. Covering all kinds of work for various industries, these agencies are listed in local directories and Yellow pages.

5) Employer grounds: Many companies have job vacancies on their premises. Since these companies such as food retailers make use of internal notice boards, they do not advertise in newspapers and agencies. You could walk into these companies and ask the front desk for employment vacancies.

6) Internet: The most cost-effective way in finding local jobs is through the internet. Majority of employment agencies, newspapers, top companies, magazines and job centers have their own website. You could save time by searching through them one by one and apply for the job you prefer the most.

Making use of all these options could save you a lot of time searching for your desired local job. You could use all of these methods simultaneously to increase your chances of employment.

Using an Executive Search Firm to Help You with Your

Wednesday, October 13th, 2010

Using an Executive Search Firm to Help You with Your Job Search

The Internet has now given the ability to take the job search beyond boundaries, in that you can now effortlessly look for a restaurant job in Toronto or chef jobs just with a few clicks of the mouse. Simply type your preferred career and location into your favourite search engine and watch the jobs opportunities come in.

It sounds easy doesnt it? Well remember with the ease of using the Internet to search for jobs you must keep in mind that to conduct an effective job search using only the Internet is almost an unrealistic expectation. You still will need to apply, submit your resume and attend the interview. All of which will require research on your part.

Research on a potential employer is still a critical part of any successful job search. Jobseekers should make it their priority to learn as much as possible about potential employers and the industry they represent. The five tips below will help you with your job search:

1. Remain Focused
Stay focused on your research goal and if you stumble across an interesting unrelated website, bookmark it and come back to it later. If not, before you know it you’ve lost track of what you wanted to accomplish, and have spent the last hour watching funny videos.

2. Develop a Research Strategy
Develop a plan before you begin looking for information by deciding in advance how much time you are willing to invest researching a particular topic. Your topic will influence where to look on the Internet, whether its searching newsgroups, blogs or company websites. Knowing roughly where your information might be found will assist you in developing your plan.

3. Keep Records
As you research potential employers you will collect a lot of information. By organizing the information you want to keep and discarding that which has little or no immediate value, you will be better prepared when it comes time to responding to emails from employers that you are interested in.

4. Set Realistic Goals
Goals will ensure you stay on track and should be specific, such as spending 2 hours a day researching employers who are looking for chefs or cooks as opposed to the goal being searching for a job on the Internet today.

5. Visit the Restaurant
Sometimes, if you are lucky, the hiring manager may interview you the moment you drop off your resume or fill out an application. So be prepared and make sure you are properly dressed. In order to get some face time with a manager you will want to make sure you dont show up during a rush. Try to visit the restaurant around 10am during the week to beat the lunch rush and before 3:30pm on weekdays to beat the dinner rush. On weekends many restaurants will have a breakfast or brunch rush so you will have to do some research if you plan on visiting the restaurant on the weekend.

Finding a job online is the easy part. Making sure you are the right fit for what the company is looking for will take more effort on your part. Remember when performing your research to remain focused on the task at hand, develop a research plan that will help you to obtain a goal, keep good records of potential employers so you may refer back to them later and set realistic goals of how much research you can perform. If you become overwhelmed with the amount of information available, there are also plenty of head hunters and executive recruiters that will assist you in matching your skills with a company that is looking to fill a vacancy.

Virtual Assistant Job Opportunities: 7 Ways To Locate Clients And

Monday, September 13th, 2010

Virtual Assistant Job Opportunities: 7 Ways To Locate Clients And Job Opportunities

Virtual Assistant job opportunities are out there, you just have to know how and where to find them. Here are some ideas to get you started:

1. Your Current and Former Employers

The first place to start is your current and former employers. If you are currently working or have worked for someone, let them know about your company and what you are doing. A plus to “advertising” with them is that they already know you, your qualities, your personality, and the quality of work you provide. Draw up a proposal. Let them know how utilizing your services can benefit their company.

2. Job Boards and Search Engines

Careerbuilder.com, Monster.com, and HotJobs.com are examples of job boards. Google.com and Yahoo.com are examples of search engines. You can use both to find clients who are looking for help by using specific keywords.

Keywords are what you type in when you are searching for something on the internet. The more specific your keyword is, the more relevant the results will be. For example, a generic keyword like “work at home” will more than likely return a lot of scams. Most legitimate companies don’t post job leads using those phrases. Here is an example list of keywords you can use when searching for clients.

Example Keywords:

“remote contractor”
“must have home office”
“independent contractor”
“freelance”
“freelance jobs”
“1099 Contractor”
“Virtual Assistant”
“remote office”
“1099 employee”
“must have home computer”
“virtual workeremployee”
“online work”
“telework”

You can also use these keywords with search engines like Google and Yahoo.

Note: Make sure to put the “” marks before and after the phrase. Surrounding your keywords with quotations shows more specific results from the search engines. The search engines will only show the results with that exact phrase. If you don’t use them, it will look for eitheror.

3. Fee-Based Websites

Fee-based websites have already completed the hard work for you. These sites have searched the internet, job boards, etc., and found the legitimate jobs for you. All you have to do is apply. Buyers beware, however; not all fee-based job sites are legitimate. Make sure you do thorough research of the company.

4. Freelance Websites

You can also browse some freelance job sites like Guru and Elance. These sites allow freelancers to bid on projects posted by individuals or companies. If your bid is accepted you will be awarded the project. Most of these projects are short-term, but are a great way to build your clientele and your portfolio.

5. Work At Home Websites

There are also some free work-at-home websites that you can use to find clients. This has its pros and cons. Most of the time the job leads are unresearched, limited, and old. Also you can be sure that they have been applied to many times by others seeking work at home jobs. The upside is that someone has kindly searched for and posted these job leads for you. You will still need to research these job leads for legitimacy.

6. In Your Neighborhood

Wellnot literally in your neighborhood, but you know what I mean. In other words, in the area you live. Why not have some flyers made and pass them out to local vendors? You can also have them posted in local grocery stores. Have some business cards made and leave them with local business owners and managers.

Have your business cards handy to pass out when you meet people. This is a good networking strategy as well. Be prepared to explain what you do when someone asks. I remember when I started my Virtual Assistant Business people would ask me what I do and I found it hard to explain. So be prepared and keep it simple.

7. Networking and Word of Mouth

Networking and word of mouth is an excellent way to get your name and company out there. Get to know fellow Virtual Assistants. Sometimes they will have an overflow of work and will subcontract or outsource the work to another Virtual Assistant (VA).

Joining associations and organizations is another way to network. There are several organizations out there just for VAs. Some VAs have found success in locating clients by joining their local Chamber of Commerce.

So now you know how and where to find the virtual assistant job opportunities and clients. Go get them…..

Virtual Jobs-Work At Home

Saturday, August 14th, 2010

Virtual Jobs. The future is here. With more companies downsizing, the need for a virtual employee or contractor, is increasing daily. Have you ever called a company and the customer service agent was in another country? That’s because big corporations, like major toy stores, may get 100,000 incoming calls or more a day! To staff enough people taking those calls, would require a bigger call center building, agents, electricity, phones, computers, more fuel used for travel to and from the job site.
Therefore, the need is apparent. But where do you find a good job, working at home? Search the internet for “work at home” and over 1.8 billion results are returned. Wow! That’s a lot to sift through. That’s exactly what I did. Day after day, searching for “work at home virtual jobs”. I searched for months, till I found them. I applied, my son applied, and then my girlfriend applied. Took a bit more time than a regular out in the world application. But we were all hired. Great companies that hired work at home agents. We take inbound customer service calls for really big companies. Paid by the minute, we average 8-18 per hour, depending on peak call times.
Working at home is very rewarding from my side of the fence. I make my own schedule. I take off when I need, and I don’t have to ask anybody. I will say, it does take a lot of discipline. So easy to take too much time off, you really have to treat it like any other job. Except for the drive to work. We have to be on time for the schedule we make. But the pro’s far out weigh the con’s.
By now you are asking where do “I” find a job like that?
I will give it away. After all of the research, I found about 33 companies, more as I check them out, that hire work at home agents. The list is totally free for anybody that wants it at http:thegadgitech.com on the work from home tab.
I sincerely hope this information gets out to a lot of people in search of working at home. A lot of the 1.8 billion sites out there, charge for this kind of information. I give it away to help others help themselves.

What is in it for me , the Jobbers? (Job

Sunday, May 16th, 2010

What is in it for me , the Jobbers? (Job Seekers)

http:www.gorecroot.com is an intelligent, global, multiple sector, jobs to resume sourcing and mapping engine. GoRecroots multi dimensional, multi media (images, voice, video and text-data) and mobile enabled.
Powered by custom algorithms and cognitive search sciences, GoRecroot brings the recrooters (recruiters) and the jobbers (job seekers) to actionable results in short spans of time and exponential savings.

GoRecroot has specialized feature sets for:
1. Recruiters, placement consultants, Corporate HR, staffing agencies :Recrooters
2. Job seekers, candidates, job applicants : Jobbers
3. HR branding specialized web products : for corporates, recrooters, agencies
4. Job position and resume referrers : Agents
We bring global recrooters together
You have your best shot here
Photo resumes, Voice resumes, Video resumes
Specialized products for you to target opportunities and choose your career path
Mobile integration
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Powerful multi dimensional job search
Tell a friend contests

When the Job Search is Over, be Sure to Say

Saturday, January 16th, 2010

When the Job Search is Over, be Sure to Say Thanks

Using a job acceptance letter when offered a position shows true professionalism. It is a way of saying thank you to the person who hired you, and giving them assurance that they made the right decision. You have presented yourself to them as a professional with your resume, cover letter, reference sheet, salary history, letters of recommendation, follow up note, and any other personal marketing materials youve used while job hunting. You went out of your way to make sure that the interview went well, and probably did your homework on the company before going in for that first interview. Now using a job acceptance letter will be a capstone on all your work, and perfect the positive professional image youve tried to convey throughout the job search and hiring process.

Of course, if youve never written one before you may have questions as to what it should contain and how it should look. Here are the basics: it should be on the same paper your resume and cover letter were on, preferably a light gray or ivory linen, laid, or parchment paper or one of the new sandstone papers. It should have a letterhead that matches the other personal marketing materials youve used. It should be personally addressed to the decision maker who hired you. The job acceptance letter should also be placed in either a matching business sized envelope, or a large white envelope to avoid folding, and should be personally addressed. If your own handwriting isnt very legible, print the address, or have a friend with great handwriting address it for you.

It should also be short. Show that you respect the hiring managers time by being direct, while still polite. You can say everything you need to say in two or three paragraphs which are quick to read. When writing the job acceptance letter be straightforward and professional. Let the hiring manager know that you are looking forward to being a part of the team at your new company. Let him or her know that you appreciate the opportunity and will do your best. Let the decision maker know that you are aware of any special conditions of the job offer, and will adhere to them. That will avoid any misunderstandings down the road. Also make sure that the job acceptance letter states that you understand the starting date of your employment with this new organization, and assure the hiring manager that you will be there on the specified date, and time, ready to get busy. Sign it using blue ink in your pen so that they know it is not a photo copy, and hand deliver it to the decision makers administrative assistance. In this manner you will show yourself to be a true professional, and someone they will want to work with in the future.

Your Best Job Search Tool May Be Your Computer

Sunday, October 18th, 2009

Have you ever been frustrated at the lack of job possibilities advertised in the classified section of your local newspaper? Large papers may offer more choices, but you will still be limited by the number of openings listed at any one time, not to mention geographical limitations. Even at its best, this approach just won’t cut it anymore. Searching through the classifieds may have been good enough at one time, but today that’s about as progressive as pounding out a resume on a manual typewriter. With an impressive array of Internet resources just a few mouse clicks away, your computer is the ticket to that next great job.

As any human resources officer can tell you, the use of the PC as a job search tool has become the norm in the last few years. This includes creative use of e-mail and the Internet, as well as the taking advantage of the capability of any computer for use in producing resumes, letters and other job-related materials.

The Cyber Job Solution

For many employers and job hunters, the Internet has become the common denominator. It connects people from both ends of the hiring equation with ease. Employers can post job openings with the knowledge that they will be available to large numbers of job applicants. At the same time, job seekers can easily explore possibilities for all kinds of jobs offered by companies, government agencies, non-profits and other employers. They can also submit resumes and applications electronically.

A major advantage of this approach is that it breaks down geographical barriers. Instead of being restricted to job openings listed in your community or the region covered by local media, your search can include any number of cites or states, or the entire country, for that matter. You can also pursue career interests in other countries, if that sounds appealing.

Another plus is that the use of online communication is less intrusive than traditional methods. If you’re already employed, you can spend time during nights and weekends perusing sites maintained by employers or job search companies, posting resumes and more, all without conflicting with your current job. If you don’t have a position, you can work to maintain an electronic presence that far surpasses the scope of other job hunting techniques.

Even if you’re tied to a specific location and are only interested in local employment, you’d find plenty of information available online. Many newspapers now include Web-based versions, as do state and local employment offices. You can also visit Websites of area employers for job-related information. In fact, regardless of location, one of simplest approaches is simply to peruse websites of possible employers to look for postings and related information. In looking such a site, you will probably see a heading “jobs” or “position openings.” Click here. you will see a list of current jobs openings along with the qualifications for each one, the application deadline and other relevant details.

For a first-class example, a look at the home cage for State Farm Insurance (www.statefarm.com). It shows a heading of “About State Farm.” Clicking here will bring choices that include “careers,” and then “careers home page.” This section provides a wealth of information on current job openings, State Farm recruiting events across the United States and Canada, benefits, and more. In addition to searching current openings (which are listed at HotJobs.com), you can go to an “opportunities” page that describes the various jobs for which applicants might be sought, including position descriptions and a geographical breakdown of jobs available around North America as well as those located at the company’s headquarters in Bloomington, Illinois. You can even find info on how to prepare the ideal resume for scanning and submitting to the company’s database.

Not all companies offer such well-developed Websites, but most large organizations provide updated information about job openings. The practice has become so common, in fact, that many small businesses and non-profits also offer some type of job information.

In addition to finding information directly related to jobs, you can conduct Internet-based research about potential employers. Obviously the more you know about a prospective employer the better, from determining the kinds of job openings to boning up on the organization’s background so you can individualize cover letters or resumes. The employer’s Website can often be a great source of such information. If you browse the main page for any but the smallest business or non-profit organization you will find links to items such as news releases, annual reports, earnings reports, executive bios and contact info for company personnel.

You can also obtain corporate profiles from third party business information services such as Hoover’s (www.hoovers.com). And don’t overlook sites that provide salary information such as nextSource’s People Ticker (www.peopleticker. com), those maintained by professional associations and the Bureau of Labor Statistics site at www.bls.gov.

Career Site Solutions

Perhaps the ultimate in Web-based career information is available at a number of comprehensive sites designed specifically to serve job seekers, employers or both. For example, Monster.com (www.monster.com) connects users to hundreds of thousands of job openings. You can create a free account and then take advantages of a number of helpful options. Once you provide information about your particular job interests, e-mail messages about job openings matching your interests will be automatically mailed to you. You can also search online for jobs of interest, and also create resumes for use in applying online for job openings.

In addition to all this, the site offers extras such as the ability to research companies, network with others, and obtain free advice on writing resumes, preparing for interviews, negotiating salaries and more. You can also sign up for fee-based services in these and other areas of career development. Career Journal, offered by the Wall Street Journal at www.careerjournal.com, provides daily updates as well as thousands of archived articles on news, trends and topics related to career advancement. It also features a searchable database of job postings from top companies in areas such as senior and general management, sales, marketing, finance and technology. Basic access is free, but users also have an opportunity to subscribe to WSJ.com, which offers additional resources including an extensive list of “briefing books” providing complete detailed background on a given company’s business and recent news.

The Career Journal site also features a confidential resume” database. Here you may create a brief profile or use online instructions to create a full-fledged resume’, choosing from a number of formats.

Employers Online (www.employersonline.com) serves employers, recruiters and job seekers by posting both jobs and resumes. It focuses on salesmarketing, computerIT, medicalprofessional, engineeringtechnical and managementexecutive positions. Those seeking jobs may submit resumes which are entered into a database for viewing by employers and recruiters across the country. Services include access to jobs posted on the site, tips on writing resumes and handling interview questions, and more you can search the database at no cost. Registration is required to post a resume, but that process is also free.

Other useful sites include HotJobs (www. yahoo. hotjobs.com), CareerBuilder.com (www.careerbuilder.com), America’s Job Bank (www.jobsearch.org) and Career.com (www.career. com). Some sites, such as that offered by Quintessential Careers (www.quintcareers.com), serve as portals to others, in this case offering links to “the top 10 job Websites for job-seekers.” Another is AllJobSearch (www.alljobsearch.com), which acts as a comprehensive, easily used job search engine. All you do is key in a word or phrase (such as administrative assistant or sales manager) and then indicate whether you want to search Websites, newspapers or newsgroups. Next you specify geographic preferences, job type (such as full time, contract, part time or internship), posting dates ranging from one day to thirty days, and job category. Here the choices range from “all categories” to specific areas such as accounting, architecture, biotech and real estate. Once you click on the search key, the engine takes you to a listing of all job openings matching that profile.

The services offered by job sites vary considerably. Some are free, while others are fee-based. Typically the more basic services will cost nothing, but you will have the option to purchase additional services such as job counseling, resume development and career interest profiles.

One strategy is to use services that broadcast your resume to multiple sources. At www.blastmyresume.com, you can instantly e-mail your resume to thousands of recruiters, headhunters and employers. While the jury is still out on just how effective this approach will prove to be, it does offer the advantage of putting your resume into play on a more diverse basis than would be possible by using regular mail. A fee is charged, but it’s much less than comparable postage costs for mailing hard copies.

The Resume Development Solution

Of course, your computer can do much more than simply help you find jobs. It’s also a great tool for preparing resumes, cover letters, portfolios or other documents.

Conventional wisdom makes clear that a resume, won’t get you a job-just the chance to sell yourself through an interview. Fortunately, the resources available through your PC can help here, too. With Microsoft Word or any other word processing software, you can create professional looking resumes and cover letters that once would have required the skills of a highly skilled typist. Once a basic resume has been developed, you can revise it as often as needed, print any number of copies, or transmit it electronically to potential employers. You can also create individualized versions adapted to appeal to specific employers, or emphasize different qualifications for different types of positions in which you might be interested.

An alternative is to obtain software such as WinWay Resume Deluxe, offered by WinWay Corporation (www.winway.com). This package includes a resume writing program, thousands of sample resumes, key phrases that can be added to the resume, a letter-writing program and sample cover letters.

You can also take advantage of the resume-building services offered at broad-based career sites or those specializing in online resume development. An example of the latter is TotalResume.com (www. totalresume.com), a fee-based service that allows you to create a resume by using templates accessed online. In this process, you complete forms by filling in your own unique personal and professional information while taking advantage of useful action words and phrases, spellchecking, previews of your resume, and the chance to view sample resumes.

Once the resume is completed, you can download it as a Word document, email it to potential employers and add a cover letter. You can also maintain it on site, update it as needed, and make it available as a Web page.

So you can see that your computer can be a very powerful tool in aiding you in your job search. Use your computer effectively and you will find your job search efforts rewarded to your satisfaction.