Aesthetic Resume Tips

How your resume looks can be as important as what it contains. You don't want your target employer to be distracted by poor formatting or overwhelmed by text. Keep the following aesthetic tips in mind when creating your resume:

1. Don't strain a recruiter's eyes by using a font size that is smaller than 10 pt.
2. Avoid large fonts. They waste space and may seem comical.
3. Avoid fancy fonts that may be distracting and hard to read.
4. Use the same font throughout your resume.
5. Leave white space. Crowded text is difficult to read.
6. Use bulleted text to increase ease of reading.

View free sample resumes online to get more resume structure tips and techniques.

Job Search Networking

Overall, the most effective way of conducting a job search is networking. The best part about networking is that the more friends you make, the wider your network! Because really, that's all that networking is - meeting people, making friends, and talking about your business (your business is YOU!).

By networking, you'll find people who know about unadvertised jobs. Talk to people you know and find out about their companies - ask them to do internal job searches. They can tell you the right person to send your resume to; and you'll have one of the most sought after types of references: somebody who knows the employer.

This kind of networking is great for everyone. You get a good reference from a trusted source and your friend may get a bonus for bringing in a referral that is hired.

You shouldn't conduct your job search solely by networking, but you definitely shouldn't conduct a job search without it.

Job Search Resources

There are many resources for finding available jobs. Here are a few of the most popular mediums for conducting job searches:

• Job search engines
• Company websites
• Help wanted ads
• Libraries
• State employment offices
• Career fairs
• Employment agencies
• Headhunters
• People you know (networking)

A balanced job search campaign should leverage all of your resources and are bolstered by a solid resume and cover letter. Leave no stone unturned!

Control Your Salary Negotiation

Getting paid what you are worth is a huge challenge when doing a job search and when asking for a raise in your current position.

You may need some suggestions about how to ask for what you are worth. Find information online and learn techniques from salary negotiation tips. Be confident when asking for your desired salary and when negotiating with your boss to get what you deserve. Become knowledgeable about salary negotiation timing, roadblocks, offers and counter-offers with salary negotiation tips!

Resume Delivery

The format and content of your resume can make the difference between securing that dream job or losing it forever – but the method by which you deliver your resume is also something to consider.

Back in the day you had to mail a resume and cover letter to your prospective employer, then it was the fax machine and today email is often the desired resume delivery method. Learn more about how to get your resume to the right person and in the right format. Avoid the pitfalls of spam and poor file formats!

Job Search Sites

Although most popular job search web sites, such as monster.com and careerbuilder.com, have become popular by virtue of their job search engines, they also have an ever-growing litany of job search services.

By providing more services, the providers hope to attract more users to their sites. In essence, monster and careerbuilder want to be viewed as “careerbuilders,” not “careerfinders.”

If you are willing to pay, they will have a professional critique your resume and cover letter and offer solid advice on where and how to improve. If you haven't had success thus far in your job search, you may want to consider one of these services. There is nothing wrong with getting feedback from a new and unbiased source.

Resume Quality

Despite all your wonderful experience and references, one small mistake on your resume could disqualify you from the competition. Of all our resume writing tips, this is one that you should not ignore.

With all the competition for jobs these days, hiring managers look for reasons to thin out the competition, and making a grammatical or spelling mistake would provide them with an easy excuse to toss your resume in the garbage. If you're going to make claims that you're “thorough” and “detail oriented,” then you better make sure that your resume is error free.

Job Search Engine Explanation

A job search engine is a program that searches a job database to deliver results that correspond to user-defined parameters. For instance, if a user selects “New York City” and “Marketing” as parameters, then the search engine will list all the marketing jobs that are being offered in New York City.

Job Search Engines also often allow you to submit your resume and resume cover letter to a prospective employer. Sometimes, the process is so easy that perspective employees don't go the extra mile with a cover letter or tailored resume. This is a mistake. If submitting your resume is easy, it is easy for hundreds of others, so take the time and do it right.

Resume Writing Tips

Describe your job history and skill set in the best possible manner on your resume by harvesting the knowledge of our resume guru at resume.lifetips.com. Use resume writing tips from solid resources and avoid passive and wordy descriptions by learning to write in a clean, concise manner that will truly communicate your vast array of skills.

Don't let your resume fall to the bottom of the stack by weighing it down with poor categorization, the wrong job titles or exaggerated content.

Job Headhunters

If you have put your resume up on Monster or CareerBuilder, you may receive phone calls from firms out there that place candidates at companies for a fee.

Job headhunters, also known as recruiters or job search consultants, are hired by client companies to find qualified candidates for positions within the client company. The client company pays their fees, which are commission based.

In some cases a company will have a staff of recruiters and headhunters looking for qualified candidates. If you find a good head hunter, they can be invaluable to your job search. Don't completely depend on them though. You should never solely depend on one source for prospective jobs.

Company Research for Job Search

Researching a potential employer is not only important in crafting your resume and cover letter and for preparing for your interview - its also important for establishing whether or not the company is a good fit for you.

One of the great job search tips: there are many different resources for finding information about a company. Here are a few of the most reliable resources:

• The company's website (perhaps the most important resource)
• Hoover's Online
• Dun & Bradstreet
• Employees
• Library
• News

The wonderful thing about the internet is that you probably can do all the job search research from the comfort of your home. If not, your local library is a great resource!