1. Get general information about your potential employer. You can use the internet to research the business operations of the organization that you want to work with by looking at their recent articles posted on the press or their annual reports. You can also find information about the businesses that they compete with and with this information; you will cause your interviewer to have a feeling of admiration and respect for you.

2. Find information about the businesses that offer stiff competition to the organization you want to work with so that you will display this information in your job interview. You can get information about competitors by researching the companies that sell similar goods or services to the company you want to work with. Having this information will be impressive especially if your interviewer is a manager.

3. Find adequate information about the job you want to get. You can do this by getting detailed information about the specifications of the job from other employees working for the organization. For example, you can ask an employee working for the human resources department about the vacancy and its relationship with other jobs in the organization. You can also get such information from people who work in the field that you want to pursue and find out about what interviewers want job seekers to have when interviewing for such positions.

4. Find information about the values and ideas that the employees of the organization you want to work for regard highly. For example, they may regard values such as entrepreneurship and consensus highly and this can influence the organization to hire different types of people. It will be good for you to talk to other people and find out about these values before your interview date.

5. Get information about the employees who work for the organization you want to apply for a job at and find out the kind of people who do well in the organization. You can do this by using your network of friends to find information about the people who work for the company and you can get information that will help you pass your interview.

6. Find information about the current challenges facing the organization you want to work for from employees. You can have your friends refer you to people who work at the firm and then get this information. It will help you ask and answer interview question efficiently and impress your interviewer.

7. Get some information about your interviewer by searching for the person’s name on websites such as Facebook or Linked In. You can also ask other people if they know about the person. Most interviewers will be impressed if you know something about them.

Having this information with you as you participate in the interview will enable you to portray a good image to your interviewer and increase your chances of getting the job significantly.

Phone interviews are usually the first interview done when someone decides, after looking at your resume, that you could qualify for the open job. That person decides you are “worthy” of a face-to-face interview from what you have on your resume along with your experience, and job skills. The purpose of the phone interview is to confirm that what you say matches the resume. That confirmation then moves you on to a face-to-face interview.

Showing you have the relevant job skills

Your entire goal for the phone interview is to show you have the job skills to do the work. If you show you have the job skills, you can get a face-to-face interview.

This is the time to bold, highlight, and underscore that you possess the skill sets the employer is looking for.

Tie your job skills to business results

Most people can talk about their job skills. Very few take the necessary next step and tie the job skill to a business result they have achieved. That negotiation job skill they have? Great, but then show how that negotiation skill helped resolve a business conflict and helped the business reach a goal. Superior experience in finance? Explain how that experience improved the relevant aspects of your previous department and those around you.

Without this tie between job skills and business results, you won’t make as great an impact on the person doing the interview. Connect your job skills plus business results and you have a competitive advantage over almost all others.

Have interview stories that show using job skills to get results

People remember stories. They may or may not remember facts. After the interviewer has done a full afternoon phone interviews and begins to make recommendations for who to move forward to the next interview phase, who will they remember the best? Most likely the one that told the story of job skills producing business results. They will associate the story with you. So make the interview about job skills and the ways you used them to create results through stories or similar creative methods.

Print out your resume

Phone interviews typically go along with the chronology of the resume. What’s on page one gets asked about first, then the next page. If you’ve done several versions of resumes to more accurately show your work for a given position, having the resume you submitted for that job in front of you will not only help you understand the context of the question asked, but also help you see what is coming next. This improves your answers compared to your competition.

Form a plan.

Having a plan is always important to success, but it is especially critical now because you have less time to go off on tangents. You need to clearly define what you want to accomplish during your job search and exactly how that will be executed.

Be selective.

Because your time is more limited, you need to pick and choose the activities that will give you the biggest bang for your buck. Maybe that will entail belonging to a professional organization and attending the monthly/quarterly meetings, joining an industry group on LinkedIn, taking a class to learn about a new development in your field, or taking on a volunteer opportunity that closely aligns with what you do for your profession. Remember, it’s quality, not quantity.

Keep a schedule.

Utilize one of the many free calendar / to-do lists that allow you to identify what parts of each day, or week, you can allot to seeking out new career opportunities. It’s best to get in the habit of using these type of software programs in your everyday life. Many of them such as Evernote sync up with smart phones so you’ll always be able to view, add, and edit your schedule.

Always be networking.

Literally every time that you are out and about, you should be networking — at the gym, at your kids’ activities, in the grocery store. That doesn’t mean you will be doing some sort of narcissistic broadcast of what your needs are. But you never know who you may strike up a conversation with and if a connection will take root in one of those chance meetings. Every relationship starts with a seed, and you need to cultivate that seed until it grows into a plant. A little corny metaphor but it helps to think of networking as a process you need to work at.

Remember discretion.

This point really underscores all that you do. You have a job, so you want to make sure that your activities don’t put that in jeopardy. Be very careful who you divulge things too, you never know the extent of other peoples network. That guy at the gym could be the husband to your HR rep. Likely? Probably not, but it’s always best to stay on the safe side so you don’t find yourself completely unemployed. Basically before disclosing too much, make sure you know enough about them to ensure that you aren’t shooting yourself in the foot at your current job.

Failing to address properly

One of the biggest mistakes while making a motivational letter is that candidates do not address the hiring authorities properly. They start the letter by writing “Dear Sir” which doesn’t cut it for them. A candidate should try to find out the name of the authority that is going to receive the CV and hire the individual. Candidate can do this by contacting the company and ask them the name of the hiring authority.

Trying to be humorous

Most of the candidates try to show that they are over smart by showing wittiness in cover letter. Trying to be a little humorous as they think that the hiring manager or authority will like it, this is not so. This act is discouraged by the hiring authorities and they think the candidate does not take the job seriously. A motivational letter should be a serious one like a business letter.

Rephrasing the resume

Most of the people have a misconception about the motivational letters, they write the same details which they have already mentioned in the CV. This gives a feeling that they have rephrased the resume again and the hiring authorities consider it a foolish act. A cover letter should elaborate on your resume while explaining the skill set you’ll be brining to the table related to the new company.

Making it too short or too long

Candidates make a motivational letter too short or too long which goes against them. Too short cover letters are considered to be just fulfilling the formality whereas the motivational letters which are too long give an impression as if they are a preface of a novel, hiring managers do not even read it properly. The length and the content of the cover letter both should be appropriate.

Using same cover letter of every job

The job seekers who apply for a lot of jobs daily attach the same cover letter. Most of the generic cover letters do not speak about the job and they do not touch the corners of the organization. That gives the hiring authority an impression that you are not interested in this job and that is only a generic cover letter.

You didn’t sound enthusiastic

You don’t need to be a cheerleader, you must be energetic and lively. Act like you are very interested.  Try getting warmed up before hand. People want to work with people that bring energy to the organization not those that suck the life out of the room.

You weren’t prepared

You weren’t quite sure what the role was or you didn’t know what level the position was. Be sure you gather whatever information you might need to breeze through the interview.  If you are working with a recruiter, they can usually give you the gist of what the client wants and expects. Otherwise you will need to gather information other ways. Reading the job description is always a good start and you can peruse the job descriptions for other jobs with similar titles for additional information

You didn’t know anything about the company

There is no excuse for not looking at the hiring company’s web page, or googling them at a bare minimum.  Knowing not only what the company does, but learning something about their history and culture can always be helpful.

You talked about what you wanted

Most employers don’t really care about what you want or what they can do for you, they want to know what you can do for them.  Plain and simple, your prospective next company wants to know what you bring to the table – Tell them clearly why you are a good value, i.e. you are worth more than they are going to pay you.

You couldn’t discuss your accomplishments

You had better be ready to answer questions about your resume and your background.  Far to often candidates can’t elaborate on their own resume. Remember: the resume is just an outline of yourself, you need to be able to fill in the blanks during an interview.  Read your resume over and over until you know it upside down and backwards.  Be prepared to provide additional details for everything on your resume and in your cover letter.

You didn’t ask any questions

Asking questions about the company, the role, etc. is expected; asking about salary or benefits is not.  Prepare 3-5 questions beforehand.  Be engaged in the process.  It will help you stand out from the crowd.

1. Dental Hygienist

A dental hygienist doesn’t require any special degree, just good experience in a dental office. They usually work side-by-side with a dentist.

• Average Annual Income : $67,340
• Top 10% : $93,000 (Experienced)

2. Commercial Pilot

To be a commercial pilot, you just need proper training from a certified school (and quite a bit of training hours). You can earn a handsome earning from this position.

• Average Annual Income : $66,000
• Top 10% : $120,500 (Experienced)

3. Detective and Criminal Investigator

This job or profession also doesn’t require any special qualifications or degrees. You have to be very sharp minded and clever thinker, nothing else.

• Average Annual Income : $62,000
• Top 10% : $99,900 (Experienced)

4. Real Estate Broker

This trade profession based only on PR and active information about your around. You can earn a good amount by just guiding a person to his destination property.

• Average Annual Income : $55,700
• Top 10% : $166,000 (Experienced)

5. Funeral Director

You don’t need to have any special degree for the eligibility of this post.  He is the person who involved in the business of funeral rites. Their common tasks often include embalming and burial or cremation of the dead, and also the arrangements of the actual funeral ceremony.

• Average Annual Income : $54,300
• Top 10% : $94,000 (Experienced)

Job seekers, there is no doubt you are facing a very challenging time. Whether you have 20 years of experience or only a year, the pressure is on. But realize it is not impossible to find opportunities, despite our current economic standing.

Job seekers, you have to go the extra mile to show employers you are the right fit. A few years ago, employers could handle the risk of hiring the wrong fit, but today it is very different. The cost to let an employee go and hire another is very high. Employers want to pick the right fit the first time around.

Here are some tips to help you stand out:

1. What is your brand and value proposition?

What will you bring to the employer? What makes you better than the rest? This needs to be communicated in your resume, cover letter, interview and even as you network. Have your elevator speech down. If you met the CEO of your dream company and had 30 seconds to talk about yourself, what would you say?

2. Utilized the free career-related workshops offered in your city.

Services that can cost hundreds of dollars are available at no cost (or very small fees) from organizations looking to help out job seekers in transition. Do your research! You might be able to get assistance with resume development, interview preparation, networking effectively, and much more for free. If you are in Portland or Washington, stay tuned to my site for information regarding events coming up in the area.

3. Research every organization before you submit your resume.

You need to know about these companies well before an interview. It shows your professionalism and more importantly your interest in the company. Employers want employees who will love their company not just the job. This will help you stand out by showing you are genuinely interested in the organization and you will be ready to hit the ground running day one.

Do not just check out the company’s website. Read articles on the company and create Google news alerts for companies you wish to work for. Your goal is to impress the employer with your knowledge of their company.

4. Joining LinkedIn is a requirement.

Job seekers are having amazing luck on LinkedIn. Recruiters, headhunters, hiring managers and others with hiring decision power are recruiting via this site. Make sure you are taking advantage of every aspect of LinkedIn. Many resumes and business cards will have a link to a LinkedIn profile. This is a requirement. Create your profile today.

You can also use LinkedIn to find out more about a company and their employees. I know some job seekers use the site to become more familiar with the person they will be interviewing with. You can also use it as a powerful networking tool and meet people who have similar interests as your own.

5. Your documents need to be flawless.

Resumes, cover letters, thank you letters, websites, social networking sites, portfolios and any other tool you are using to market yourself must be perfect. I know this seems like an apparent one, but typos and grammar issues are pet peeves of employers today. If you can, get the advice of someone in the industry you are looking to go into. Again, all marketing tools need to be 100% error free and be relevant to the industry you are applying for.

1. Make yourself findable first. Google yourself right now. Did your LinkedIn profile come up? ResumeBucket? If not build one nad make it public. If you have a preferred method of contact be sure to include it. Set up a separate e-mail account to easily manage your social networking profiles.

2. Make yourself even more findable. Post your resume on ResumeBucket.com, omit your home address and perhaps telephone number if it makes you feel more comfortable. Set up all the profiles we’ve outline in our previous blog “How to build your personal brand online”

3. Make sure when you build those profiles you use every keyword that applies to you. If you like to call yourself a researcher but your title is Strategic Recruiting Manager… and if you are anticipating a job hunt and tweaking a profile you should make sure every word related to recruiting and research both are enmeshed in my online profile.

4. Use job boards! Lucky for you you’re already on one. Head to the ResumeBucket.com sign up page and begin fleshing out your profile using the concepts in this blog.

5. Find someone who works at your targeted company who can pass your resume along, outside of the applicant tracking system. You want to be looked at by the hiring manager. You don’t want to be dumped in the black hole of resumes, so give yourself a fighting chance and work your network.

6. If you’re not interested in an opportunity sent your way but want to start building some relationships with recruiters let the recruiter know that “this one isn’t a fit” but what you’d really like is X, Y, and Z. They’ll keep that information because it’s valuable to them. Also, pass the opening on to your network. Referrals are gold in recruiting, and your recruiter will remember your helpfulness.

Have you ever feel like the poor interviewee in this video? However qualified you are and whatever value your experience could bring to the right role, it sometimes seems as if you just hit a wall with certain recruiters and employers if you are above a certain age.

It doesn’t have to be like this. Whatever age you are, it pays to get smart about your job search. ResumeBucket.com has thousands of job postings for people of all ages across hundreds of industries. Get clear on what you want and what your priorities are, many people don’t realize that these things change as you get older. Spend the time thinking these things out then create a plan of attack.

If you need help and advice in shaping your career as an older worker, we here at ResumeBucketBlog.com write at least three job search related articles per week. You can manually search our archives for useful topics or just browse through the categories listed on the right hand side. If you have a specific question about an article feel free to post in the comments section or send an e-mail to aaron@resumebucket.com

Some of my good friendss and colleagues are outstanding recruiters. If you are currently looking for a job, there are a few things you need to know about what recruiters can and cannot do for you.

1. One of the most common misconceptions is that recruiters help people find jobs. While it is true that recruiters do place people in some very excellent positions, recruiters are primarily responsible to the clients they represent.
2. It is the job of a recruiter to find a candidate to fill a position.  As such, recruiters seldom market candidates to companies, and when they do, they only select the most ideal candidate based on what they know about the role and the hiring employer.
3. Roughly about 5% of the revenue a recruiter makes is from placing a candidate into a company.  95% of the revenue is from finding a good candidate to fill a specific open role.  Recruiters either work on contingency or are on contract by the employer.
4. If you are in career transition, have changed positions frequently, or if you have worked in multiple industries, it is less likely that a recruiter will be able help you. The recruiter may want to help you, again the recruiter is bound by the restrictions given to them by the company they are filling for. It’s best to talk over all possible options with a recruiter if you may fall into this category.
5. Networking with recruiters who are in your niche market is a very good idea. There are many industry specific recruiting firms, especially in major metropolises. For instance NeoHire.com, a partner with us at ResumeBucket.com recruits on contract specifically for the tech/web industry in the state of California. If you establish a positive relationship with a talented recruiter, they will remember you the next time a suitable opening does come across their desk.

Recruiters can be an important part of a search strategy, which should also include networking with people in and outside of your network, participating in related industry groups or social networks on the Internet.