When it comes to writing a great resume, there are no hard and fast rules or specific formats that you should adhere to; however, your resume should be targeted to each specific job that you are applying to. In addition, it must be concise, clear, command attention and stand out from the pack.

Include a Title for the Job You Want

Use a professional title for the position that you want. An improper job title will only serve to position you at a level far below the responsibility or salary level you are seeking to achieve. Including a job title can greatly increase the number of interview calls that you get for higher positions and improve your chances of clinching a higher salary – and when you start at a higher salary, your career growth is also accelerated.

Include an Executive Summary (what you can do for them) -Not an Objective (Me-focused)

An executive summary should be clear and well defined, consisting of a short paragraph or four to five bulleted points. It should focus on how your skills can benefit the employer, not on what the employer can do for you. Using action words will help to convey you as an intelligent and active individual capable of making contributions to accomplish company goals. Highlight your strengths and achievements clearly and quickly. Recruiters and hiring managers want to see information that is to the point, and hardly have time to dig for buried nuggets of information hidden in your resume.

Include Relevant Information

Let’s state the obvious – your resume is targeted at landing interviews. In effect, you are advertising your capabilities and experience. Therefore, you need to provide precise, accurate and relevant information. Your resume should be able to convey relevant information, but at the same time, the resume should also convey a message that if the hiring manager buys this product (YOU) it will lead to positive and direct benefits in specific areas where their needs exist (the job).

Brag – With PROOF!

When it comes to your resume, you can forget modesty. Brag if you have irrefutable proof that establishes you as an outstanding performer (notice I didn’t say exaggerate or lie). Give your resume an accomplishment-driven profile. Accomplishments are results you produce by resolving problems, or when you overcome a real or perceived obstacle. Mention any project that you spearheaded that served to heighten employee morale, revenues or company savings. Formulate ‘Problem-Action-Result’ (PAR) statements to convey your ability for producing similar or better results in your future employment.

Highlight Achievements – NOT Responsibilities

Although important, listing responsibilities should not form the focus of your resume. Responsibilities are passive – achievements project you as an active, dynamic individual. When you are seeking a higher position, your achievements rather than your responsibilities acquire crucial importance – so don’t clump the two together. Write a paragraph giving an overview of your responsibilities and then highlight your achievements with bullets. When you want to sell something, you must make it stand out.

Having a well-written resume is crucial when it comes to getting interview calls. Following the 5 tips above will ensure that you maximize your chances.

What other successful tips have help you in your job search? Feel free to comment here.  If you are currently searching for a new career, contact us at: 386-253-3333 to schedule your appointment.

Steady Improvement in Employment
The labor market experienced solid improvement in this year’s first quarter. After creating approximately 1 million jobs in 2010, the economy was just shy of adding half a million jobs in the first three months of 2011. We expect employment’s recovery to continue, though it will take time to recover the 8 million jobs lost in the recent recession.

The economy typically improves ahead of the jobs market, making hiring trends somewhat of a lagging indicator. Nevertheless, the direction of the labor market is a positive one and consistent with the broad-based improvement in economic fundamentals. We believe further improvement in employment conditions will persist, driven by increasing business optimism and strong corporate earnings, which offers further support to the economy and the financial markets.

A Strong Start to 2011
Despite being only three months into 2011, the first quarter contained what seemed like a year’s worth of headlines. Though market volatility has risen in response to global disruptions, the S&P 500 rose 5.4%,* the largest first-quarter gain since 1998. For perspective, we experienced similar economic conditions in 1998, and global disruptions caused a sharp stock market pullback by midyear. Yet, importantly, investors who maintained perspective and a longer-term focus likely benefited as stocks ultimately recorded a strong gain by year-end.

Strength in the Economy
Economic indicators in this year’s first quarter point to continued improvement of the economy’s health. Encouraging trends include:

Avoid Overreactions
A balanced approach is important for achieving your long-term goals, yet it’s one of the easiest things to abandon amid the uncertainty of today’s economic environment. An important part of a sound investment strategy is the ability to resist letting emotions or short-term distractions disrupt your longer-term goals. Despite recent world events or daily twists and turns in the stock market, the fundamentals of the economy and U.S. companies remain strong.

*Source: Bloomberg; consensus estimates for 2011expected earnings growth

Past performance does not guarantee future results.

“People do not usually leave organizations. They leave their leaders,” workplace management expert Jim Welch notes in his book, Grow Now: 8 Essential Steps to Flex Your Leadership Muscle.  One of the most effective – and oftentimes most overlooked – ways employers can prevent people from leaving their organizations is to really step up their employment branding efforts. 

 “The benefit of employer branding is that it creates a powerful emotional connection between the leadership of the company and the front-line employee,” Welch says.

When it comes to needing a strong employment brand, small businesses are hardly the exception to the rule.   If anything, it’s even more essential for small businesses to be concerned about the way their current employees perceive them.  “Companies still are very thinly staffed, so losing people can really leave gaps,” says John Challenger of executive outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas in this ABCNews story, “It’s important for employers to get out in front of the issue.”

7 Reasons to Invest in Your Small Business Employment Brand
Of course, while talent retention is a strong incentive to investing in your employment brand, it’s just one of the many reasons to do so.  Below are at least seven benefits to building a strong employment brand.

1. Improved Quality of Candidates
2. More Passive Candidates
3. Fewer Costs associated with turnover
4. Fewer Costs associated with Recruitment
5. Happy (AKA: Productive) Employees
6. Brand Advocates
7. A Better Bottom line

To read more, visit the Original Post at the CareerBuilder Hiring Site blog

Daytona Employment (www.daytonaemployment.com) has served Volusia, Flagler, Seminole, St. John’s and Brevard counties the past 90 years as a complete hiring solution for all major industries. Our services for Staffing, Recruiting, Payroll Administration and Employee Screening represent an excellent value-added solution for companies by focusing their valuable time and resources on accomplishing their true business objectives. Thanks to Daytona Employment’s large database of highly qualified candidates, we can handle “any job – any where – any time”.

Original Post: http://www.shrm.org/Publications/HRNews/Pages/EVerifyErrorsPersist.aspx 
While the federal government has made strides in improving E-Verify, several significant challenges remain to ensure the accuracy of the electronic employment verification system, according to a report released by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on Jan. 18, 2011.

Following recommendations made by the GAO in 2008, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) took several steps to improve E-Verify by expanding the number of databases searched during the verification checks of newly hired workers and by instituting several quality control procedures. The GAO analyzed these changes and improvements in its latest report and found that the accuracy of E-Verify had reduced the number of “false negatives” and confirmed the work eligibility of 97.4 percent of employees checked through E-Verify in fiscal 2009—compared to a 92 percent accuracy rate in fiscal 2006.

However, the GAO found that some persistent E-Verify errors can create problems for thousands of workers who are eligible to work in the United States yet are identified falsely by the system as ineligible.

The report stated that the system had problems with workers whose names are recorded “differently on various authorizing documents.” Whenever names are listed differently on databases and documents (such as misspellings and including or excluding initials), E-Verify will issue tentative nonconfirmations (TNCs) automatically. While many TNCs can be cleared up in a matter of days, according to GAO researchers, some errors persist and force employers to not hire or to discharge workers who are eligible to work in the United States.

“Because TNCs are more likely to affect foreign-born employees, they can lead to the appearance of work discrimination,” the report stated. “USCIS has not disseminated information to employees advising them of the importance of consistently recording their names on documentation provided to employers.”

Additionally, the report concluded that E-Verify remains vulnerable to identity theft and employer fraud. Critics of E-Verify have stated repeatedly that the federal government should replace E-Verify eventually with a system that offers better privacy protections and is less vulnerable to employer tampering.

“U.S. employers need a foolproof employment verification system to avoid the problems of fraud and identity theft that currently undermine the effectiveness of E-Verify,” said Michael Aitken, director of government affairs for the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), in a statement released by the HR Initiative for a Legal Workforce.

The Initiative supports legislation that would create a new, more accurate federal electronic verification system.

“We are eager to continue our work with Congress to see that a state-of-the-art employment verification system is included as a central component of immigration reform legislation,” Aitken said.

Although USCIS has attempted to improve the accuracy and minimize the privacy risks of personal information of workers who are processed through E-Verify, these workers have limited access for reviewing the information and making sure it is correct and not being misused.

According to the GAO, workers must use a Privacy Act request to gain access to the system and attempt to correct any erroneous data. During fiscal year 2009, Privacy Act requests to federal agencies took an average of 104 days to process.

Officials with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security have acknowledged that the process for employees to monitor and correct their personal records could be improved. The GAO report stated that streamlined procedures are needed to allow workers to “effectively correct any inaccurate personal information” and to help reduce the number of TNCs and improve identity theft protections. GAO researchers did not make recommendations as to what procedures might work best; the report stated that developing the new procedures and regulations would be the responsibility of enforcement agencies.

According to Richard Stana, director of homeland security and justice for the GAO, effective enforcement of violations of identity theft and employer fraud laws is needed to ensure that E-Verify works properly and provides U.S. employers with the tool they need to verify the work eligibility of their new hires.

“Improvements have definitely been made to E-Verify, but there’s plenty of work that needs to be done,” Stana said. “The USCIS and other federal agencies that enforce federal immigration laws need to have the proper resources in funding, manpower and equipment to ensure the system operates effectively. Otherwise it will remain vulnerable to fraud and misuse.”

Bill Leonard is a senior writer for SHRM.

For more information on how to make sure your company is E-Verify Compliant, contact Daytona Employment at 386-253-3333 or visit our website. For more information on further protecting your business with Pre-Employment Screening services such as Background Checks, Motor Vehicle Records, etc, contact MacData Advantage at 386-254-4888 or visit their website.

It is OK to disclose your current salary to answer this question, but do NOT disclose a specific dollar amount that you desire for a new position. To avoid pricing yourself too high to too low try providing a response such as:

• “Yes, Money is one reason I’m here today, but more importantly, I am here about the opportunity. IF you have an interest in me, I’d like to entertain your strongest offer.”
• or try, “I’m currently making $__________; I would be in the market for a fair and reasonable increase on my salary.”

Registering with several Employment Agencies,  such as Daytona Employment or any of the Workforce Florida agencies, is an excellent way to practice and hone your interviewing skills. Often, you can also get very helpful information regarding local wage/salary averages and what to shoot for given your skill set, experience and expertise.

Contact Daytona Employment today to become registered, at no cost to you the employee, and we’ll get right to work getting you right to work! Dont forget to visit our Job Board to see current open opportunities we are actively hiring for!

386-253-3333 : 609 S Ridgewood Ave, Daytona Beach, FL 32114

MacData Advantage is a dedicated Background Screening company aware of the importance of doing a thorough job and helping consumer and business cleints protect themselves from becoming victims. MD offers background checks pertaining to worker’s compensation claims, moving violation records, professional license verification, skip tracing, and the fast-growing scams across the country. We are committed to offering fast, affordable, and reliable screening services to meet your needs. 

We are looking for name ideas that help to convey a mixture of the above ideals in as few words as possible. This winning name will become the new brand for this growing company. If you have additional graphic design aspirations, we’d welcome those as well (any name/graphic submittals shall be available to purchase for <$25.00 total) but don’t knock yourselves out…we really like our magnifying glass!

Contest begins Jan 12th and will last for 30 days with the Winners being announced Valentine’s Day