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The Most Important Piece of Paper in Your Job Search

What’s the most important piece of paper in your job search? If you said it’s your resume or your cover letter, you’d be wrong. It’s 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. Don’t 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 don’t pass the background check, you won’t get the job.

Virtual Jobs-Work At Home

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 Does Your Resume Cost?

So you were thinking you might write your own resume?

That’s okay, if the following applies to you:

* You are an excellent writer.
* You are adept in grammar and spelling rules.
* You have a solid understanding of the telegraphic writing style (which eliminates the use of personal pronouns, such as "I" and "me" and articles such as "the" and "a").
* You are an expert MS Word user.
* You keep up to date on industry trends.
* You are knowledgeable of resume layout and design.
* You know what information is relevant on a resume.
* You know what information is NOT relevant on a resume.
* You can devote several days to the resume writing process (research, preparation, writing, and editing).

Many people find they do not have the time or resources to write a professional resume that will get them results. You might also realize along the way (like many do) that hiring a professional resume writer will actually SAVE you money!

How you ask?

Imagine you have recently become unemployed and your previous salary was $34,000 annually and you are looking to remain at the same salary. Every week of unemployment equates to losing $653.85 in potential wages.

The average out-of-work American is unemployed for 18 weeks. So using the assumed $34,000 annual salary, you could lose $11,769.30 in potential wages.

On the other hand, people that have utilized my professional resume writing services have reported getting hired on average within 5 weeks.

That’s a savings of over $8,500!!

Here’s an analogy for you.

I can change the tires or the oil on my car. However, I would need to devote a lot of time and effort into learning how to replace my transmission. A mechanic on the other hand could have it done in a day or two because they have the tools, knowledge, and resources necessary to get it done properly.

Since I am not a mechanic, not only will it take me well over a week, but I may not even do it correctly (and consequently cost myself even more time and money).

So the next time you think it's too expensive to have a resume professionally written, you need to ask yourself, "What does your resume cost.”

The Only Way To Resign

Once you've accepted the offer with your new employer and set the start date, obviously the next step is to let your current employer know you'll be leaving. Write a brief letter of resignation (the operative word there is "brief").

If you feel a need out of loyalty or guilt to write anything more than a few short sentences, curb it. The only information your letter needs to contain are the following two (possibly three) items:

-- that you are leaving your current company
-- what your last date of employment will be, and
-- if you feel comfortable adding a sentence or two about how you enjoyed working for your current company, and you appreciate the opportunity to have been a part of the organization, tack that on

It should NOT include:

-- why you are leaving
-- where you are going
-- what you will be doing in your new position
-- how much you will be making when you get there
-- how bad you feel about leaving (or conversely, how glad you are to be going!)

Make an appointment with your boss and hand deliver the letter. Tell him verbally the same words that your letter says, because the face-to-face is courteous and professional, while the letter is a formality for record of your employment. And be prepared for one of three things to happen.

Either your boss will professionally acknowledge your resignation, say how sorry he is to have you go, and shake your hand, or he will become very silent - just before he asks you what it would take to keep you. Or quite possibly, he'll do the former, and you'll be asked to another meeting later so that he can find out what it will take to keep you.

If your company is truly professional, you'll resign, shake hands, and that will be that. But it doesn't always go down that way, which takes us into the second way to resign, which actually is in danger of not being a resignation at all. It only starts out that way.

The first thing you need to know is that a counter offer is NOT - IS NOT - a sincere and genuine statement of their desire to keep you around for as long as you might decide to stay should you change your mind and accept their counter offer.

What you've just done by resigning is put the company at a disadvantage. You are creating an opening within the company, and you've left your company at a loss. By resigning, you've basically said, "I'm not interested in this company any more." You've caused your loyalty to be questioned. You are in control, and they are not.

If your boss invites you in for a concerned chat, you're better off sounding like a broken record - repeating your "thank you" and "my last day is..." than you are involving yourself in what appears to be a caring conversation about your ensuing future.

It doesn't matter what you want or what you ask for, because they'll give it to you - in one form or another - or possibly offer you something tasty before you even speak up. After they've lulled and flattered you into submission, and as you walk out the door smiling, they're calling the newspaper or a recruiter and ordering up a confidential replacement.

In 25 years of recruiting - my firm, and working with other firms - I have never, ever, ever seen an accepted counter offer work in favor of the individual.

Don't, for a minute, think I am being overly dramatic. A counter offer is a complete and 100% appeal to your ego and an attempt to push your guilt button. It's unprofessional of your company to attempt it, and it's unprofessional (and ill conceived) of you to take it.

It might be a month, or six months, but eventually, your next departure from the company will be on their terms.

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The Most Important Piece of Paper in Your Job Search

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The Most Important Piece of Paper in Your Job Search

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