Guest article from Matthew Warzel   There are reasons why recruiters or hiring managers do not call back some job seekers: blacklists! In today’s tough job market, desperate job seekers are pursuing what little jobs are available. Hiring managers have plenty of applicants to choose from, so they are justifiably selective and quick to record any negatives they discover.   If you are blacklisted, recruiters do not submit you to jobs today, even years from now. Even if you are not on an actual “list”, recruiters do remember if you left a bad impression. They also pass the word along to fellow recruiters, and they remember bad candidates even if they change companies.   Do’s and Don’ts  Recruiters never want to hire any of the 3 L’s: liars, losers and loners. Prove that you are none of those by following these tips:

•DO NOT lie about or exaggerate your experience. Outright lying about experience or skills that you do not have guarantees you a spot on the blacklist.

•DO NOT pit fellow recruiters against each other. Contrary to what you might think, it does not increase your chances of getting a job. You can work with more than one recruiter, but not ones at the same company, unless they are at different office locations (e.g., MJW Careers Wilmington and MJW Careers Raleigh).

•DO NOT mass distribute your resume. Applying to too many jobs with the same recruiter or company makes you look unfocused and creates unnecessary work for them. Make every job application a meaningful one.

•DO remain courteous and professional, even if your recruiter is not. They are dealing with tons of applicants, so do not take unreturned phone calls or missed interviews personally. Do not attack your recruiter for this behavior; it only leaves a bad impression of you.

•DO always be interview-ready. Every conversation with a recruiter is an interview, even a casual chat at a networking event. Always be discussing your qualifications. What you may consider harmless joking, might rub your recruiter the wrong way.

•DO clean up your online presence. Recruiters check LinkedIn, Facebook, Google, etc. Even if it is old, if it is inappropriate, get rid of it.

•DO communicate what job you are looking for. Having a good relationship with recruiters does not mean you have to accept every job they present. If you are not interested, say so; it saves everyone time.

•DO build relationships with recruiters. Always keep your job options open, whether you are employed or not. This means keeping in touch recruiters at all times.   More Turnoffs

•Forgetting or missing scheduled interviews

•Making a faux pas during an interview

•Handling rejection badly

•Rejecting an opportunity after extensive efforts by a recruiter to arrange it for you

•Taking a counteroffer from another company

•Demonstrating poor business skills

•Publicly criticizing other people or companies

•Failing a background check (in which you cannot re-apply for a certain time period)   Removing Your Name from a “Do Not Hire” List  Negative notations beside your name can seriously derail your job search. Unfortunately, it is also very hard to discover or remove a bad mark. With so many candidates today, recruiters and hiring managers are even less forgiving. Getting back on their good side requires some extra effort.   Finding Out

•Speak to key internal contacts and colleagues  •Ask a reference-checking service to find out if a previous boss made unfair remarks about you   Correcting the Situation

•Demonstrate your true reliability and professionalism

•Offer detailed information about candidates for a different job opening and conduct extra reference checks as a courtesy

•Treat them to lunch or coffee  •Request honest feedback about becoming a stronger candidate next time

•Review a background check used to reject you and remove inaccurate records

•Consider switching industries or locations   Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.

So what if you make a hiring mistake? Here’s how to beat analysis paralysis.
By April Joyner | Nov 1, 2011

Any job seeker knows from experience how much first impressions matter. In fact, they probably matter too much. A single interview, after all, rarely uncovers enough information to determine whether someone would be a good employee. To compensate for this shortcoming, many entrepreneurs follow the adage to hire slowly, fire fast. But hiring too slowly can be just as counterproductive as making a snap judgment, especially when entrepreneurs tack additional steps onto the interview process without clear objectives in mind.

Gary Jaffe, CEO of The Booksource, a St. Louis-based distributor of schoolbooks with 135 employees, made that mistake last fall when he began looking for a new sales director. The search ended up taking five months—two months longer than the contract period for the recruiter he enlisted. Each candidate was required to go through two personality assessments and about four hours’ worth of interviews, meeting with each of the company’s three managers. After sitting in on each interview, Jaffe privately questioned the candidates he found promising. His impressions of candidates would often start out positive but deteriorate as the interviews dragged on. “In the first two hours, I would have absolutely hired this person,” says Jaffe. “By lunch, he was questionable.”

There are many reasons entrepreneurs prolong the hiring process. For starters, adding employees at a small company is tricky. “Once you insert a new person into the mix, you change the team’s dynamics completely,” says Lanny Goodman, CEO of Management Technologies, an Albuquerque-based firm that trains entrepreneurs in management techniques. Previous hiring mistakes can also cause entrepreneurs to drag their feet: Because they second-guess their opinions, entrepreneurs add extra rounds of interviews and assessments.

That was the case for Jaffe. After firing two of the company’s executives, he had begun to doubt his ability to make good hiring decisions. “It’s so frustrating when you get it wrong,” says Jaffe. “It takes so much effort to fit this person, and you say, ‘Why is this not working?’ ” He was determined to get it right this time.

One of the most promising applicants for the sales director position was referred by a trusted source. Jaffe’s father, Sandy, who founded The Booksource and had been its CEO, had met the candidate in a business mentoring group. But despite the family recommendation, personality tests, and rounds of interviews, Jaffe was still unsure. So he invited the candidate out to dinner. After an evening of polite small talk and Southwestern cuisine, Jaffe finally made an offer.

But even after all that, Jaffe is again trying to fill the position. Less than three weeks after the sales director joined the company, Jaffe fired him.

No matter how many times you interview candidates, there’s no way to accurately predict how well they will perform. Entrepreneurs who drag out the hiring process put off the ultimate test of a candidate: time on the job. Plus, as the months pass and pressure mounts to fill critical positions, entrepreneurs sometimes find themselves making the same hasty decisions they sought to avoid in the first place.
Treatment:

Set clear objectives for each stage of the interview process. Make sure follow-up interviews aren’t rehashing the same discussions from previous meetings.

Limit the number of people evaluating candidates. It’s wise to seek a second opinion, but involving more than two or three other managers can make it difficult to get a clear assessment.

Trust your instincts. As the hiring process drags on, you are more likely to ignore red flags.

It’s difficult to be optimistic about the bleak job market when , unemployment is stuck at around 9.1 percent but a survey just released by employment services firm ManpowerGroup offers hope for job seekers in many places around the country.

The survey reveals that the metropolitan area with the most optimistic forecast of all for hiring this fall is San Antonio, Texas, and there’s also the good news that employers in 45 states expect the bleak employment picture to perk up. In fact, hiring managers in dozens of metropolitan areas anticipate considerable increases in hiring, while others present a darker forecast.

ManpowerGroup surveyed more than 18,000 employers in 100 metropolitan areas to find out who’s hiring, who’s firing and who plans to maintain their current staff levels in the fourth quarter of 2011, October through December. Of the surveyed employers, 16 percent anticipate an increase in staffing levels in their hiring plans, while 11 percent expect a decrease in payrolls. The difference between those numbers provides what ManpowerGroup calls a net employment outlook of 5 percent–or 7 percent when seasonally adjusted, which is still up from 6 percent for the same period last year, but down slightly from last quarter. Seventy percent of employers expect no change in their staffing, and the final 3 percent of employers are uncertain.

Forbes.com slideshow: The best and worst cities for jobs right now While the outlook is positive overall, the one-point drop from the third quarter is the first decrease in nine quarters. “The numbers are not going in the right direction this quarter, and they are not as robust as we would have liked them to be,” says Melanie Holmes, a vice president at ManpowerGroup. “Employers are hesitant about hiring in this economic climate. They are remaining guarded, and that is reflected in these results.”

Still, “We do see some bright spots in hiring, especially in San Antonio, which has the most promising hiring outlook for the fourth quarter,” says Jonas Prising, president of the Americas at ManpowerGroup. “Employers in other markets in Texas, including El Paso and Austin, are also anticipating strong hiring increases.”

The San Antonio metro area enjoys a 17 percent net employment outlook, the percentage of employers that expect to add employees (25 percent) minus the percentage that expect to reduce their workforce (8 percent). Another 64 percent said they anticipate no change, and 3 percent didn’t know.
Forbes.com: 20 businesses you can start now “San Antonio has continued to see new jobs created, and new jobs brought to the region,” says Richard Perez, president and chief executive of the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce. “I would say that San Antonio is well positioned to come out ahead in the future as well because our cost of living remains low, making it a good environment for companies to increase their investment in jobs here, plus we have a very talented labor pool because we graduate more than 30,000 from our colleges and universities each year.”
The industry with the largest economic impact and largest number of employees in San Antonio is health care and biosciences, with more than 142,000 employees, Perez says. “This surprises a lot of people who think we are only a tourism town. One of every five workers is in the health care sector, and it has an estimated $24 billion economic impact here. We also have large manufacturing and financial services sectors. And yes, we have a significant tourism industry in San Antonio, with approximately 106,000 employees.”

The largest employers in the San Antonio area include the Department of Defense, whose workplaces include Fort Sam Houston, Lackland Air Force Base and Randolph Air Force Base. Combined they employ over 70,000 individuals. The largest corporate employer is San Antonio-based financial services firm United Services Automobile Association, with 14,800 employees. H-E-B Grocery Company follows close behind with 14,600 workers. AT&T, Toyota, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Valero Energy, Harland Clarke and Citibank are some of the area’s other major corporate employers.
Forbes.com: Best business quotes from the silver screen“San Antonio’s list of large employers is long and diverse,” Perez says. “We do not rely heavily on one area and that is by design. San Antonio has many industries that together keep us a resilient economy. We are fortunate to have many strong industries, and many strong companies with large employee bases.”

Employers in the Cape Coral-Fort Myers and Baltimore-Towson metro areas also anticipate a significant upswing in hiring for the next quarter.
Nearly a quarter of Cape Coral-Fort Myers employers reported positive forecasts, while 6 percent drew a bleaker picture. Sixty-nine percent said they won’t be changing their employment levels, and the remaining 3 percent are unsure of their hiring plans. With a net employment outlook of 16 percent, the southwest Florida metro area is the second best place for finding a job this fall.
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Baltimore-Towson employers are expressing similar sentiments. Twenty percent of that metro area’s hiring managers anticipate a bright fourth quarter. Meanwhile, 7 percent expect to decrease their payrolls, 71 percent anticipate no change and 2 percent are uncertain. This yields a net employment outlook of 13 percent and positions the Maryland metropolis as the third best place for finding a job this fall. Greensboro-High Point, N.C., St. Louis and Tulsa enjoy the same rank.

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Unfortunately not all cities are as confident about hiring. The net employment outlook in Spokane and Las Vegas is a far weaker -4 percent–and those metropolitan areas aren’t even the worst. The Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, Fla., metro area yields a net employment outlook of -5 percent for the quarter.

The worst area of all for finding a job this fall is Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, Conn.
Only 12 percent of surveyed Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk metro area employers plan to hire between October and December, while 19 percent expect to reduce their staff levels. Sixty-nine percent expect to maintain their current workforce. This yields a net employment outlook of -7 percent for the Connecticut metropolis.

“Although this quarter we are seeing relatively stable hiring compared with last quarter and even the year before, we are way below the double-digit employment outlook numbers we saw prior to the end of 2008,” Prising says. “With daily fluctuations in the market and mixed news reports about housing and consumer sentiment, employers are just plain uncertain about the future. Until they see a sustainable demand for their products and services, employers will not commit to hiring in big numbers.”

“Unemployment discrimination” and the jobless
By: Elaine Quijano (CBS News)

Of the 14 million Americans currently unemployed, 6 million have been jobless for more than 6 months.

CBS News correspondent Elaine Quijano reports that many job seekers say being unemployed is being held against them.

Delores Barnes always goes job hunting armed with her dossier of documents, including her birth certificate.

Two years ago, she was laid off from her supervisor job with New York’s Children’s Services. Ever since, Barnes has been looking for work to support her and her nine-year-old daughter, Savianna “I can’t give up. I’m on a mission. I have a daughter, and she’s like, I have to be strong for her. I have to show her that you just don’t give up,” Barnes says.

Yet no amount of persistence can overcome the simple fact that some employers don’t want to hire the unemployed. In job posting after job posting, companies require that applicants “must be currently employed.”

“They have that perception that they are the dead weight, therefore they want the strong people who are currently employed,” says Robert Krzak, president of Gecko Hospitality.

Krzak says some companies won’t even consider unemployed job candidates.
“If there is a candidate out there who has been out there in the job market for six months or even a year or more than a year, a lot of companies are very suspect of that, because why aren’t they working?” Krzak says.

“It’s discriminatory and the fact that just because you don’t have a job you can’t compete for a job,” says Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn. DeLauro is sponsoring a bill aimed at stopping the practice.

“These are competent people. They have lost their job through no fault of their own,

Why shouldn’t they have an opportunity?” DeLauro says.
Barnes says the practice doesn’t make sense, hiring people who have jobs when so many don’t.

Barnes is now training to be a computer technician, and says she’ll keep pounding the pavement, even though with some companies she can’t even get her foot in the door.

If you’re a professional searching for your next opportunity in today’s aggressive job market, you’ve probably found that the task of marketing yourself on your resume is unlike any other.

How do you sum up a long, storied career in just a few paragraphs? What is the best way to differentiate yourself on paper–and to get employers to see your value?

Standing out among the pack requires an intense emphasis on your natural leadership abilities, the impact you have on your employer’s business, the feedback you get from colleagues, and the hard skills that you bring to the table.

This information comprises what is known as a “personal brand,” and it has become the cornerstone of a successful professional resume in the employment arena.

Here are 5 insider tips that can help bring out your personal brand–and get your resume to open more doors for you:

1 – Hone Your Message.

Many resumes contain too much detail, which is quite understandable given the long tenure that some candidates possess.

However, it’s asking a lot of hiring authorities to wade through more than 2 or 3 pages of information.

My recommendation? Sharpen the intensity of your branding message by zeroing in on your top 3-5 main qualifiers, including success stories and keywords that back these up.

In addition, focus on one career goal and skill set at a time. This may mean that you will create one resume targeting a role in Operations, and another that describes your skills for a Sales position.

2 – Don’t Bury the Lead.

As we used to say in journalism, get your critical information all up front and ready for the reader to absorb.

Just started a high-level MBA program? Get it on the front page. Held roles of increasing scope that lead to your destination as Sales Manager? Make it obvious.

Don’t bury this type of key information on page 2 of your resume. The top half of the first page is prime “resume real estate,” and your main qualifications deserve center stage here.

In addition, many job hunters benefit from a branding statement, which is a short sentence that serves as a marketing tagline. You can develop this sentence by jotting down some ideas on what you bring to the table, and how you achieve it.

A great branding tagline will tap into the heart of what you offer, such as these examples culled from the front-page position on professional resumes:

“Operations Leader Who Leverages Business Competencies to Create Profitable Ventures with Exceptional ROI”

“Account Executive Delivering Revenue Growth Through Strategic Relationship Building”

3 – Tell Your Whole Story.
Mba FinanceMba FinancingMba ProgramMba Programs
Most job hunters are able to spout figures and facts about their achievements, but it’s the story behind these accomplishments that will add weight to the resume.

Consider looking at your results in light of the C-A-R (Challenge-Action-Result) strategy, which asks you to describe the situation you faced at work (Challenge), what you did when faced with it (Action), and of course, the outcome (Result) that occurred.

The C-A-R formula is popular for a reason–these anecdotes can also form the basis for success stories that you can also use as a basis for your next interview.

4 – Carefully Format Your Presentation.

When creating a resume, it’s important to differentiate yourself from both your direct competition, plus distinguish yourself from lower-level applicants–and this means that it is best to make your document DIFFERENT from all the others.

Searching the Internet for professional resume samples will show you that there are many choices for font, format, and graphics that give flair to a resume presentation.

Above all, refrain from using the classic Microsoft Word template for your resume. Doing so will make your qualifications blend in rather than stand out, and lay the foundation for poor results.

5 – Use Those Glowing References.

Got testimonials? If so, you’re in good shape, as these form a key part of a successful personal brand.

Better yet, including this information on your resume will allow you to back up the stories you’ve told about your achievements.

Many professionals are able to use a quote or letter of reference as a striking addition to their resume, especially when it reflects what they’ve already noted about their skills and competencies.

If you don’t have access to this information, be sure to seek out colleagues, supervisors, customers, and even suppliers as a source of positive feedback. Then, take a shorter version of the most powerful testimonial to use as an endorsement.
Mba FinanceMba FinancingAccept credit card
As an example, a COO targeting a lateral move might be able to include a quote such as “Ted’s resourcefulness and ingenuity are without equal. I have witnessed his ability to grow a startup into a maturing business and develop a multimillion-dollar venture in a difficult economic environment,” from a corporate officer onto the resume–thereby verifying performance from a key reference source.

In summary, there ARE effective ways to develop a masterpiece resume. It’s important to ensure that hiring authorities can quickly cut to the heart of your qualifications–and consider you for prime opportunities that closely match your talents.

“Who does she think she is?”

I’m sure that ran across your mind as you read my headline.

“We pay good money to agency recruiters! THEY should be asking the question…How to provide a great service to US!”
Believe me, we think about that all the time. Most of us are consumed by that question! We have attended dozens of motivational seminars, logged multiple webinars, and read countless books on how to provide a great value to our clients.

In spite of our earnest endeavors, however, frustration can develop in the Recruiter/Client relationship. Maybe you consider us over-enthusiastic. Or not enough. Maybe you hear from us every day. Then we disappear. Maybe it seems we aren’t acting with urgency. Maybe we ask “Why?” a little more than you’d like. You don’t want to completely sever the relationship with us, because the next candidate we provide could be your next hire! But we are doing things you consider perplexing.

I believe I can help you with that. I recently surveyed Third Party Contingency Recruiters with multiple agencies, in several markets, and across various disciplines…and I captured their thoughts on relationships with clients. It’s a glimpse into the world of the Agency Recruiter. It is my hope that reading a sampling of their answers below could only strengthen the bond between you and those you choose to work with.

It’s no secret that we Recruiters are handling multiple positions with multiple companies in a given time period. And it’s also no secret that some of our clients get the red carpet treatment, while others don’t. So I asked my Survey Group…”What motivates you to give certain clients 110%?” Surprisingly enough, the answer was *not* “the client who pays the best fee.” Instead…

-A client who views, and treats me as a partner, not a vendor or commodity.
-A client who works with me exclusively or as part of a very limited number of recruiting firms.
-A client who takes the time to get to know my background and qualifications.
-A client who listens to me when I say to them: “Just trust me. Even though this resume is not your ideal profile, I believe you need to interview this person.”
-A client who gives me repeat business…of course when I’ve earned it.
-A client with a consistent message…rather than changing their position regularly.
-A client who continues to communicate as they move our candidates through the interview stages, and provides honest feedback.

So I followed up with this question: How does a client fall into disfavor with you?

-When the client sends out mass emails to a dozen different recruiting firms with their needs list. It signals that I’m just a vendor to these companies, and not a partner in talent acquisition.
-When they only want to communicate via email, and never by phone. This doesn’t permit me to ask relevant questions about their projects and get a ready answer.
-When they take a pass on my candidates and will not explain why. I need this information so that I may redirect my search or narrow my focus.
-When they give me “urgent” job orders. Then they take several weeks to schedule interviews with my candidates. I worked extra hours to respond to this “urgent” need. What changed?
-When they give us a job order, interview our candidates, and decide to fill the position internally. We are willing to accept that our candidates may not have been as good as their internal. However, we also suspect we are being used to “comparison shop.” That’s not fair.
-When the client changes the criteria of the job order so many times, it feels like a moving target.

So then I became even bolder, and asked my Survey Group: “What one thing do you want a client to know…but are a little scared to tell them?”

-Don’t ask us for a discount without a reason. If you want a certain amount, or percentage off my going rate, be willing to agree to an exclusive. Or volume orders.
-We are inclined to give priority to clients who use us frequently and take our work seriously.
-If you ask for a dramatically reduced fee arrangement, and if I agree to it, you will not get the best talent in the market from me. The best candidates will be directed to clients who honor the work I do with a fair rate.
-There’s no reason not to return my messages. I am working for free out here, until I find the right candidate for you. The least you can do is return my calls.

I turned the tables on my Survey Group, by asking them to take some responsibility for client relationships that have gone awry. So I posed this question: “What one thing did you do to a client that you regret?

-Didn’t return their calls/messages quickly enough. They found another recruiter who did.
-Didn’t cover the search adequately, and the client found their candidate on their own.
-Didn’t respond with urgency. I thought I had the exclusive and all the time in the world.
-Didn’t replace candidates who had been eliminated from the search with more candidates. I thought I had my superstars the first time.
-Didn’t check in on my client after submitting four candidates. Just thought he/she could take it from there.
-Tried to read the client’s mind. I should have just called or emailed and asked the question.
-Wasn’t sensitive to the hiring authority’s schedule and demands. I kept calling him in the middle of the day when he was busiest and couldn’t concentrate. I should have asked which time of the day worked best, or set up a standing appointment.

People get fired every day. It’s not often when a Recruiter fires their Client, but it does happen! So I asked my Survey Group, “Have you ever fired a client, and why?”

-I caught my client in a mistruth more than once. I couldn’t trust them after that.
-The client was passing on my candidates. I found out a year later that they were called directly and hired outright.
-The client was looking for ways to avoid paying my invoice. Gave me a lot of excuses.
-The client waited a whole year to pay the invoice. We had to call collections.
-The client didn’t disclose to me that they had already known about my candidate. But they watched me go through the process, scheduling interviews, checking references, negotiating the package, without this disclosure. And in the end, I was told I would not be paid for the placement.
-Never making the hire. The client gave us multiple positions to fill. Lots of talking and talking. But no traction. No results.

I acknowledge that I have shone a light on very real and very raw observations and experiences of a sample group of Third Party Contingency Recruiters. And after reading this, you might be tempted to wave the white flag, retreat to the corporate office, and just do this recruiting thing yourself.

That was not the intention. You just got a rare glimpse into the world of the Agency Recruiter. Now you know how we tick, and how your behavior can affect our results. Therefore, I encourage you to continue to use our services, and remind yourself why you originally engaged us in your recruiting efforts. Your reasons will likely match the answers to my Survey Group’s final question: “What value do we provide our clients?”

-We give our clients their jobs back! When they are not screening, scheduling, checking references, networking, and asking for referrals, they are attending to the rest of their responsibilities. Let us do the footwork!
-During the recession, Human Resource Departments were decimated. But Recruiting real talent cannot stop. View us an extension of your HR Division!
-We provide industry (or market) specialization, and a network to go with it! What may take the client months to place…we might be able to accomplish within weeks.
-Empty positions cost a company money and customer loyalty! Rather than settling for someone that you could find in a short time…use a Recruiter to produce a larger selection of qualified and interested candidates.
-If the client is uncomfortable calling desirable employees from their competitors, reach out to me! I’ll do the calling!
-If the client is at the end of his/her rope…and if they’ve looked everywhere for the perfect candidate…
I might be the solution! I might be aware of the person for which you have been combing the earth!

Listen. Is that your phone not ringing? And after sending out 100 resumes, each of them four pages long, powder puffed, enveloped in coral green and sealed with a wax stamp? Maybe it’s time to take stock of that all-important document, and make sure it’s not stumbling around out there with its figurative foot in its mouth. Here’s 10 kisses of death, classic mistakes made in writing a job resume that have been known to keep phones from ringing.

1) Missing Contact Information

You’d be surprised how many people leave off their phone number on a job resume, or ignore the opportunity to include an email address in the heading. And on that latter point, make sure your email address is stable, long term, and professional sounding. Skip the one you use with your friends, PartyGirl@loadsofun.com, and opt instead for something that won’t raise eyebrows.

2) Too Long

If your job resume is over two pages, you’d better be a world-class CEO with instant name recognition. Then again, if you meet that description, you can get by with a single page, can’t you? Regardless of your real or imagined worth to a company, limit your job resume to two pages max, one page ideally. With regards to all the valuable ‘stuff’ you’re leaving off the job resume, be happy you’ll have something to talk about during the interview.

3) Over The Top Design

Ignore your impulse to write a white-text job resume on black paper, or include a scratch-and-sniff perfume spot on the page. Limit your font selection to one or two. Use the traditional and popular New Times Roman if you prefer lettering with a serif, or consider Arial, Helvetica or Verdana if you want a clean, more modern san serif font. Go easy on the bold and the underlining. And limit your paper selection to white or beige with a weight of 22 or 24 lb. Black type.

4) Misspellings; Poor Grammar

Nothing signals inattention to detail like a misspelled word on a resume. The job resume, the one document on which you intend to present yourself to your ideal company, and you’ve misspelled achievemints. Well, you won’t be adding to your list of achievemints with that company.

5) A Photo on a Job Resume

Never, never, never include a photo on your job resume–unless you’re applying for a job in Germany, or as a fashion model. U.S. companies outside of the modeling industry will trash your resume immediately to avoid any future accusations that they might have discriminated in a hiring decision.

6) Personal Information Not Relevant To The Job

You may be the Friday Night Dart Champion at Willie’s Bar, but leave it off the job resume. Likewise don’t mention your marital status, number of children if any, social security number, height and weight, hobbies, and sports–unless you’re an avid golfer applying to Titleist.

7) Missing Dates, Missing Employment Information

The hiring official doesn’t like to be left guessing how you acquired your superhuman talents, or where you acquired them, or when. If he is left guessing, you’ll be left guessing why you never get a response.

Hard To Read

Long, dense paragraphs are tough slogging. Make use of bulleted points. Don’t crowd your information. Weed out extraneous details and know what employers are looking for–which leads to the next point.

Weasel words are adjectives or action verbs that sound impressive as you’re typing them (extraordinary communication skills, vitally participated in conference XYZ, demonstrated ability to extricate donut from bag with minimal disturbance to icing) but to the trained eye (i.e., the eye of the hiring official) they are indicative of a desperate fellow scrapping the bottom of the barrel for anything positive to say about his time spent at Acme Wingnuts.

BONUS

11) Functional Resume

Many hiring officials have come to associate the functional format with a candidate seeking to hide some aspect of his work history. And for good reason–many are trying to do just that; hiding gaps in their work history, hiding too many jobs in too short of time.

While it can still be an effective resume, know that choosing a functional format will send up a red flag in the eyes of many employers, something your resume will have to overcome from the get go.

Sit in front of laptop. Lie on couch. Eat pickles for lunch. Back to laptop.

Feel sorry for self. Feel sick of self. Tear hair out in frustration. And … back to couch.

If this is your 9-to-5 routine, you’re probably like 14 million other Americans: unemployed. And in addition to the frustration of looking for work, you might find yourself feeling a little lonely.

Sure, you chat with friends online all day. And you may have a family or significant other who comes home in the evening. But good old fashioned, face-to-face contact with another human being before dinner? Kind of rare these days.

In running my unemployment blog, I’ve received plenty of emails from readers. And although many of them were lighthearted in nature, a number of them were quite the opposite. One of the saddest read: “You’re the first person I’ve spoken to in days.”

Unemployment can make a recluse out of even the most social of butterflies. After all, you want to spend as much time as possible looking for work. And where do you look for work? Online. And where do you go online? At home.

But spending too much time alone can be detrimental, not just to your emotional well-being, but to your job search too! Staying connected with the rest of the world is not a luxury. It’s a necessity!

Work from a coffee shop.
Find a coffee shop with WiFi in your neighborhood (even better if it’s free WiFi!). Grab your laptop and go. You may not be striking up conversations with fellow coffee shop patrons, but it’s nice to be in the presence of other human beings. It’s also nice to have a change of scenery; one that doesn’t include Oprah on mute and swag from your previous employer.

Team up with other jobseekers.
Chances are, you know others who are unemployed. Instead of each working alone in your respective homes, why not team up? Agree to meet at someone’s house, and look for jobs together. After all, misery loves company. Not only will you have others to talk to who are in the same situation, you might just find that your jobless friends make good leads. You never know who might know of a job that isn’t quite right for them, but fits you perfectly.

Go to networking events.
Whatever your industry, there are probably relevant networking or trade association events taking place locally. Not only will you keep abreast of changes in your field, you’ll get to rub elbows with living, breathing, hiring members of the work force. We all know that spending hours and hours online every day is not the most efficient way to get hired. The majority of job seekers find work through a contact. You need to get out there and network!

Get a (night) life!
Spending eight dollars on an Apple Martini may be the furthest thing from your mind right now. And rightly so. But maintaining and growing your social network (and we don’t mean Facebook) can be a valuable part of your job search. And you don’t have to spend exorbitant amounts of money (or borrow cash from friends) to go out. Especially right now, there are plenty of extended happy hours and recession specials.

Volunteer
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: You can’t spend all day, every day, looking for work. Volunteering a couple of days a week will give you something else to do, a fresh perspective and a chance to spend time with others who share your passion for a cause. And depending on the type of volunteer work you choose, it may even help keep your career on track (and your resumé strong). I know a laid-off writer who started volunteering in the communications department of a non-profit agency. She says it’s keeping her busy, helping her develop her writing skills, and preventing her from sticking her head in an oven. Not bad for a dozen or so hours a week, which would have otherwise been spent obsessively surfing the web.

August 9, 2011 | By Ron Ruggless

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U.S. commercial restaurants closed at a faster rate than new openings, creating a two-year pattern of decline, according to the latest restaurant census released Tuesday by The NPD Group.

The Port Washington, N.Y.-based research firm found U.S. restaurant unit counts declined by 2 percent, or 9,450 restaurants, between April 1, 2010, and March 31, 2011, compared with the same time frame a year earlier.
Independent restaurants comprised most of the decline, with 8,650 closures, NPD said. Chain restaurant unit counts remained relatively stable.
“The decline in independent units is the steepest we’ve seen since NPD began conducting the ‘Spring ReCount’ census in 2001,” said Greg Starzynski, NPD’s director of product development-foodservice. The census is conducted each spring and fall.
“A volatile economy, frugal consumers and a lack of financial backing have made it a difficult business environment for independent restaurants,” Starzynski added.

In the most recent ReCount census, NPD found the total number of restaurants fell to 574,050 from 583,500 in the previous-year period.

However, the NPD CREST study, which tracks consumer usage of commercial and non-commercial foodservice outlets, found that for the year ended May 2011, visits to U.S. restaurants held stable compared with the previous year, when visits were down 3 percent.
The CREST study also found consumer spending at restaurants improved by 2 percent for the year ended May 2011, compared with the same period a year ago, when dollars were down by 1 percent.
According to NPD’s ReCount census, the number of quick-service restaurants declined by 1 percent, or 3,495 units. Full-service restaurant units, which include casual-dining, mid-scale and fine-dining restaurants, fell by 2 percent, or 5,965 units, from the Spring 2010 ReCount census.
By comparison, the total number of domestic restaurants fell about 1 percent, or by 5,551 outlets, to 579,102 locations in NPD’s Fall 2010 ReCount.
And in the Spring 2010 ReCount, the number of restaurants fell by 5,204 units, a 1-percent decline from the total number of eateries recorded a year prior, NPD said.

While unit counts were down through March of this year, NPD said restaurant traffic trends were improving.

By Dee Adams

If you’ve ever dreamed about starting your own business, you are not alone. There were almost 9 million self-employed workers in 2010, according to statistics compiled by Challenger, Gray, & Christmas. Each year, a percentage of the workforce trades in their 9-5 jobs for the entrepreneurial life, but some workers start a sideline business to supplement their salaries.

Business startup cuts across all socio-economic groups; from managers, executives, and professionals to blue collar workers. Success stories include:
•A Harvard graduate with a degree in mathematics and economics who left management consulting to pursue her passion for desserts. She started a bakery and Café, and began writing cookbooks.
•A Ph.D. in political science from University of Chicago who opened a motorcycle repair shop. He wrote a book about the value of working with one’s hands.
• A web designer and consultant fired from her job because of her personal blogging. She built a lucrative home-based empire with her mommy blog.
•A firefighter who invented better fire safety equipment for the consumer and industrial marketplace, and created a multimillion-dollar venture.

But, for many other would-be entrepreneurs finding the right startup is challenging.

Many issues may cloud the process, and certain questions asked and answered in the pre-planning stage can pinpoint conflicts and problems, and their solutions.

Here are several important questions:

Do you know how many aptitudes you possess?
Aptitudes are inborn natural talents and should not be confused with acquired skills. Each person has an average of six innate skills, some unused and some hidden.

While a percentage of the population may be able to determine their own aptitudes by self-assessment, most people are not aware of their full potential, according to writer Margaret Broadley. Over a 40 year period, Broadley documented the work of the Johnson O’Connor Research Foundation, a nonprofit organization specializing in the scientific research of human abilities.

What are your least favorite skills?
Create a checklist of work tasks that you dislike and have trouble executing.

What feels more comfortable, introverted or extroverted personality traits?
Make a checklist of your actual patterns of behavior in work and social interactions, not what you believe your traits are.

Note: Some people adapt their personalities in order to fit into social or working situations and may have an opposite personality from the traits that they often exhibit.

What is your motivation for choosing self-employment?
Using a single sentence, describe why you want to be your own boss.

What is your history with money?
Your money history includes your family’s relationship with financial issues, the messages you learned as a child, and your pattern of behavior and attitude toward money as an adult, which may be reflected in your current credit history.

Summarize your answer in two or three short sentences.

Socio-economic factors, like the state of the economy, the ability to borrow money, or to easily relocate have an impact on the number of people who pursue entrepreneurship each year, but many aspiring entrepreneurs ignore national economic trends in pursuit of their dreams. Those who succeed keep their risks low, and instinctively review their personal development homework beforehand.

What other issues are standing in your way?