The Importance of a Summary Section

You might be surprised to hear that many recruiters, business owners, and hiring managers do take the time to read an applicant’s summary section. Still others choose not to go on and read the rest of the document if a summary section is not included or poorly written. Yet despite this, many job seekers choose to eschew a summary section, or put it in as a sub-par afterthought. This is a bad decision. The summary section is often the first thing a hiring manager will read about you, and if it’s written poorly, it could be the last. Most people agree that the summary section should be a 4-7...

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Creating a Killer LinkedIn Headline

Is your LinkedIn headline less than it could be? The LinkedIn headline is a surprisingly important part of the networking site. It’s one of the key pieces of information used in the search algorithm, and it is the first information someone will get upon doing a search. Yet many people leave the LinkedIn headline as-is with the basic LinkedIn formatting: your current position AT your current company. This is a perfectly fine starting point, but to have a really good LinkedIn headline, you must change it up. Your headline is a snapshot of who you are and what skills you have to offer. It...

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To Put or Not To Put: Resume Writing

When I wrote my first professional resume, my instinct was to include everything I’d ever done on it. This not only resulted in a poorly written resume, but it never landed me any interviews because my accomplishments weren’t relevant to the position, or didn’t include the right keywords. I thought a successful resume included everything, rather than being targeted The Hamlet reference in this article’s title (and photo) encompasses the question I learned to ask myself whenever I wrote a resume. To put or not to put, that is the question! Creating a targeted resume necessitates you...

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Chronological Versus Functional Resumes

Resume writing. Whether you love it or you hate, it’s something you’ll probably have to deal with at some point in your life. Many people write resumes with the understanding that it’s the resume that gets them the job. This is a misconception; resumes don’t get you the job, but they can ensure you don’t get the job if you submit a bad one. A resume’s purpose is, instead, to entice hiring managers to interview you. The interview is, ultimately, what will get you the job. Having said that, a well-written and formatted resume is paramount in a successful job search. Before you begin writing...

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The Value of a Summer Job

It’s the summer of 2009, and I’m looking to land a job. I paint the town with my resume, and even check back with each business a week later. To my distress, however, no jobs become available for a teenager with no prior work experience except doing chores for my parents. Luckily for me, one of my parents’ friends hears that I like clouds (this is a true fact; I think that clouds are quite beautiful). Did I want to work for a meteorology lab? They were looking for new data processors. It was going to be boring work—running programs, and then fixing the programs when they inevitably crashed....

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Summer Jobs: Resource Round-Up

Summer jobs are an all-important rite of passage for many young adults. Though the prospect of flipping burgers or bagging groceries might not seem glamorous, there is a high correlation between teen employment and better job prospects later on in life. So, if you’re looking to find some seasonal employment this summer, here are four resources to jump-start your job search: Local job fairs. Many cities and states offer regular, local job fairs for job seekers. You can do an internet search for “Your location” and “job fairs” to see what may be happening in your area soon. Job fairs will...

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