What does it take to get a job?

In this economy, over more robust ones, it has become increasingly more important to have a good handle on your job hunting skills. There are two main skills that you will need to ensure that you are honing - writing your resume and your interviewing skills.

WRITING YOUR RESUME

The resume you present is the first impression that a potential employer sees, so it is very important. Always try to keep the resume below two pages, and include all the pertinent information you want employers to view. Organizing the resume can depend on style and personal choice, and there are several style templates listed in most Microsoft Word software that comes with your computer. Run a search by clicking CTRL+F and typing in "templates" or you can type in "resume". Let the computer run the search and choos the file that is a resume template. This will at least get you started on the format.

Second, you want to be able to know what is on your resume. So don't embellish. But surely list in your bullets any experience that you think is important. Important information includes your duties at your various positions, the levels of responsibility that you held, number of people working under you, amount of equipment (in dollar amount) you may have been responsible for, and many other things depending on your job and industry. Knowing your resume will be important on the interview, so be sure that you don't have too many errors or embellishments so you can speak intelligently about your experience.

Third, try to think of your potential employers and what they would like to see if they were going to hire someone for the position advertised. In other words, looking at the job description, would you hire yourself based on your resume?

Last, you should write a cover letter that describes why an employer should pick YOU for the position over others.

INTERVIEWING PREP

There is one key thing you should remember when you are walking in to an interview. You got the call because they are INTERESTED in your resume! So you did a great job on your resume and you should be confident that you would not have been called unless they saw something that they WANT from your experiences.

You should additionally prepare to answer the following questions at a minimum:

1. Can you give us a brief description of yourself and your experience. (Your answer should follow you resume.)

2. What is your greatest Strength?

3. What is your greatest Weakness? (This should be a strength in disguise - ex. "If I have suggestions to better the company, I never remain silent.")

4. Why should we hire YOU over other candidates? (Usually, you should have a reason that discusses how you are the best fit to the position because of your experience. AND it would be even better if you had suggestions on how you could help fix problems you have heard about the company or things you have seen in the news because it will show that you have taken the time to research their business and that you have something to contribute from your first day.)

If you walk into your interview well dressed (and appropriate to your town, the business, and the weather) and groomed - showered, nails trimmed, shoes shined, and clothing ironed - then you will feel better about yourself and more confident. Your CONFIDENCE is the real key.

Good Luck!