If you’re unemployed and over 40, it can feel like a “double whammy” of trouble for you in the job search, but it doesn’t have to be a negative.

First of all, unemployment is a temporary status that you are going to change. Don’t be ashamed of that. Many people (especially right now) face some period of unemployment in their careers, and it’s not a big deal. It only takes one phone call, one interview, or one job offer to make the difference.

If you’re changing careers, don’t be afraid of that, either. Internships, job shadowing, learning new skill sets, and the like can feel strange to someone who’s been in the workforce for a while already, but they shouldn’t.

40 is the new 30. You have a lot of years left in the workforce, and you should absolutely be doing something you enjoy, and something that you are compensated for commensurate with what you do for the organization.

I know there is some talk out there about age discrimination, and the idea that companies may be more interested in the “young whippersnappers” than you. Here’s what I want you to know: You didn’t just get here. You are bringing 20 more years of experience to the table than those candidates, and that experience should lead to positive outcomes for the employer. That means that you can do things and think about things differently, and that you can bring more to this job than the hot young whippersnapper, and I want you to have that confidence and develop a way to communicate that to the hiring manager-because you deserve it.

Great Resumes Fast partners with clients everyday who are unemployed, facing age discrimination, and with clients who have worked in an entire industry their entire lives and are now trying to make a change. If this sounds like you call us today at 1.800.991.5187 to find out how our certified resume writers can work with you to immediately impact your job search.

Making headway in a job search nowadays requires a unique effort that we did not see or need to consider 20 years ago. In particular, the Internet has grown to be not just a useful way to conduct a job search, but the primary way. Many employers have made adjustments in their human resources departments to ensure that every bit of their employee search is handled electronically, which means, it’s up to you to keep up with them.

One way to do this is to add a mobile device to your job search. By using a mobile device to connect to the Internet, check your email and more, you could stay on top of the various stages of your search and application process to ensure you don’t miss a beat. Here are just a few benefits…

Receive Emails, Network Online and Download Apps
We all know that our mobile devices are more advanced than ever. Not only can we take pictures on our phones, we can create videos, listen to music and search items online. Even more, if we like we can get involved with various aspects of our job search. So why not take full advantage of it?

One major benefit taking advantage of your mobile device during a job search is that you can mostly likely send and receive emails. This helps you to not only keep track of what emails you receive from prospective employers, but also help you to respond in a timely fashion – something you usually can’t do when you’re away from your computer.

Another benefit is that you could visit sites like Facebook and Twitter from your phone, both of which work well in helping you successfully network to your friends, family and business contacts. Also, depending on the phone you have, you could possibly download applications specifically geared toward job seeking so that you could conduct searches from your phone.

Prepare Your Documents and Emails for Employer Mobile Devices
When in the midst of a job search; it’s important to remember that hiring managers are probably using mobile devices throughout their days, even if you aren’t. They most likely have been given a device by their company and are required to use it when at work, in the airport or even at home.

It’s good to be mindful of this when creating the documents you submit to companies (i.e. resume, cover letter). If you are sending these items via email, for instance, it’s good to include a text version with the.doc version so that it can be viewed with any program and on any phone. Also, when sending your emails, it’s good to make sure they are short and sweet since many managers will be reading them over a phone that has a small screen – one that they won’t want to stare at or scroll on for long.

There is no excuse for missing out on a job opportunity because you missed an email – or a phone call. Nowadays, mobile devices can do it all. So take the time to set up your phones so that they can become your mobile offices. Then make the most of how modern technology can enhance your job search.

With all the layoffs that have taken place over the last couple of years, it’s no wonder that many of those who are still employed often feel stretched to the maximum of their productivity.  It can be very demanding looking for another job when your current one is continually stressing you out.  After all, when you get home from a long and frustrating day, the last thing you want to do is give any more thought to the world of work.  Unfortunately, most new jobs don’t just fall into your lap—you have to go out and get them.  Approaching your job search as strategically and as systematically as you would approach your next business deal can help keep the process manageable.

Initiation

If you were going to start a huge new project at work, would your first step be to just sit down and start the project?  Of course not!  A lot of planning and preparation go into any major project, and your job search should be no different.  Therefore, the first step is NOT to sit down and start sending out dozens of generalized resumes to any job that sounds OK.  Your first task should be to determine exactly what you’re looking for in your next position.  Just like you can’t write a project plan until you know what the project is, you simply cannot write an effective resume or cover letter without some idea of where you’d like your career to go.  You may find this part of the process to be the most time-consuming, as it requires some soul searching, however, it’s an essential step in the process that must not be skipped.

Planning

Once you’ve determined your professional goals, you’re ready to spend some time assembling your marketing tools—a cover letter, resume, and any other pertinent documents that support your message.  This is essentially the same process as setting up a project at work; you need both plans and human resources for an effective job search.  A professional resume writer can be an invaluable tool for a job seeker who’s incredibly busy with his or her current vocation.  Any resume writer will need you to gather and submit information about your past positions and achievements, but then let go of the reins; allowing the professional to agonize over each individual line on your resume will remove that weight from your own shoulders.

Execution

Only when you’ve established a goal and pulled together the tools needed to accomplish it should you actually start looking for and applying to jobs.  Setting up e-mail alerts through sites like simplyhired.com or indeed.com can save you hours of scouring through online employment ads.  If you tackle your search in a strategic and systematic manner, you should soon reach a place where you can go to your inbox, look through positions that may be a good fit for you, and then simply customize your polished resume for each application.  Consider each quality job application you send off as a deliverable in the project of finding yourself another job.  Whenever you successfully land your next position, you’ll be able to close out this project and move on to the next one!

For more job search and resume advice visit our blog. If you’ve decided you may need professional help with your resume e-mail us or visit our website to learn more about how having a professionally-written resume can immediately impact your job search.

Today’s guest article discusses 3 job search mistakes by former recruiter David Alan Carter.

Everyone makes mistakes. That’s just part of being human. But if you’re in between jobs, you can ill afford too many of them. One little mistake here or there, and your job search can be set back weeks if not months. So, what are some of the typical mistakes that are made in a job search? Here are my top three…

Fuzzy Goals

If you’re stumbling out of the house in the morning with the objective of “getting a job,” good luck with that. In the aftermath of the worst recession in 50 years, this is an economy that will chew up and spit out those job seekers without a clear career objective and a plan to achieve it. Why? Largely, it’s the sheer number of applicants for available positions; they’re simply overwhelming recruiters and hiring officials. Weeding out those applicants who “just want a job” is the first order of priority for those overtaxed employers.

Take some time to identify the position you want, and the company or companies that are capable of offering that opportunity. It’s a new world order out there, and those who know what they want and focus their job search like a laser are more likely to get what they want.

A General Resume

Forget the illusion that a general resume allows you to apply to a variety of job opportunities. In reality, a general resume simply helps you get rejected from a number of job opportunities. As mention above in “fuzzy goals,” recruiters and hiring officials are overwhelmed by the sheer number of resumes coming in daily. When they’ve got an opening, it’s a title with a real specific set of duties and responsibilities. If your resume doesn’t demonstrate job goals and qualifications in keeping with that title, you’re out.

Employers today don’t have the time or inclination to wonder if your stated objective, “A challenging position with a progressive corporation…” really means, “Senior Buyer with a national apparel retailer that could benefit from an impressive, 10-year history of contribution to comparable store sales and gross margin improvement.” If the employer needs to fill a position for a buyer and is left staring the above two objective statements, guess which resume gets the call and which one gets the boot?

Target your resume to a specific job opening or a narrow range of potential openings. While that might mean tweaking the document seemingly every time you turn around, it beats the alternative: a single “general” resume generating zero phone calls.

Wasting Your Days On Internet Job Boards

Yes, there are jobs listed on job boards. And there’s the siren call. The problem is, some of those jobs are out of date, and many others are increasingly ‘generic’ jobs (that don’t necessarily exist) posted by employment agencies or recruiters trolling for candidates to represent. While the latter isn’t necessarily a bad thing (assuming you don’t mind being deceived), the end result is one more person standing between you and a hiring official. Finally, even when the listings are legitimate and timely, there are thousands of candidates responding to every job listing. It’s a crap shoot at best, with success rates of landing jobs running at about 2-4%. Compare that to a success rate of over 60% for ‘word-of-mouth’ referrals.

Post your resume to a couple of job boards if you must, or schedule a very limited time every few days to peruse the latest listings. If you see an interesting job pop up on a job board, use the listing information as a springboard to pursue the opening directly through the company’s website, or via your growing contacts in the industry.

Personal, one-on-one contact with decision makers, movers and shakers is time better spent that will improve your odds the most in landing your next job. Limit your time on the internet in general, and on job boards in particular, or run the risk of being consumed day and night with nothing to show for your job search but bloodshot eyes.

When you’re out of work, you suddenly find many friends and family who are willing to share their ideas with you about how to get a job.  In their attempts to be helpful, people who care about you will often pass on every single tip or nugget they hear about a job opportunity—leaving it up to you to sift through the information in order to find something you can actually use.

In many areas of the U.S., the issue is not a lack of available jobs, but a lack of time for you as the job seeker to complete a thorough application for each position that interests you.  Therefore, you have to be strategic in how you use your time during your job search.  Job fairs, in particular, can be a waste of time if you don’t do your homework before you decide to attend.

There are two important questions to ask any time you see a job fair being held in your area:

1)     Do any of the companies at this job fair pay people to do what I do?

If your role at your company is something like IT or accounting that’s transferable to a lot of different settings, then chances are high that you‘ll find a company at the job fair that could use your services.  However, the more specialized your skill set, the more cautious you need to be about where you spend your time looking.

2)     Are the companies at the job fair actually hiring?

You may not be able to figure this out on your own with 100% certainty.  However, looking at the employment opportunities on the companies’ Web sites can give you an idea of whether they actually have open positions.  This is an election year, and many local politicians are hosting job fairs in order to show their constituents that they care about the economy.  However, just because a company shows up doesn’t mean they’re hiring—or, they may just hand you a card with their Web site address and tell you to apply there. This is actually quite common at job fairs now – a large number of employers will just direct you to their website. I suggest to save time and avoid this pitfall you view the ad to see what companies will be at the job fair then go online and apply on their website for the applicable opportunities.

If your research shows you that a job fair will include companies that are currently hiring people to do what you do, then the plus side to attending the fair is that it offers a fantastic opportunity for face-to-face contact with a potential employer.  Once you decide to attend a fair, do it the right way: professionally dressed, resume and business cards in hand, with a name tag and a friendly smile.  Get there at least an hour early so you can be one of the first people in the door—before all the job seekers’ faces start running together!

Make sure your resume is job fair ready to enhance your chances of landing an interview.  Learn more about professional and executive resume writing and make an immediate impact on your job search today.

Guest post by: CareerAlley

Author Website: http://Careeralley.com

While unemployment is still very high, it does seem like the job market has opened up somewhat. I’ve been getting regular calls from my recruiter friends looking for candidates for jobs. Seems like they are having a difficult time finding candidates, almost counter-intuitive. High unemployment but we can’t find people to fill jobs? I think that there are several reasons for this. Those of us who either still have a job or finally found one are not as likely to leave a “safe Haven” in this market, so that does limit some of the available pool. Part of the issue is job mismatch in that jobs for those that are looking for work do not match the skill sets of the individuals looking. But the last piece of the equation I believe is due to some individuals not being proactive in getting their information out there in the job search market. Like any successful product or service, you need to market yourself in a way that ensures people know you are looking. Now I’m not suggesting you should do an infomercial on yourself, but I do think you need to conduct a job search marketing campaign. While hundreds of recruiters is obviously too many to work with, less than 10 is way too low. Leverage today’s post to get your name out to some recruiters.

• Agra Placements – Specializing in Farm and Ranch jobs, Chemical Sales jobs and Agriculture jobs, Agra Placements’ website has three main links at the top for Careers (which allows you to search for positions that are currently posted), Applicants (which allows you to register) and Locations (where they have offices). At the bottom of the page are additional links for specific jobs (such as Farm Jobs, Sales Jobs, etc.). Additional contact information is available at the bottom of the page.

• Anderson Executive Search, Inc – Based in Atlanta, Georgia (but don’t let their location fool you, they recruit in a broad range of locations), Anderson recruits in a very broad range of industries and functional areas: Manufacturing, IT, Sales and Marketing, Environmental, Engineering, Aerospace and Defense, Human Resources, Operations, Audit and the list continues. Their main page has links on the left for Recruited Candidates (where you can submit a resume and look at job postings), Careers (which is their search engine), Industry Related articles and more. Anderson had 96 job opportunities posted when I checked the site.

• Boston Search Group – BSG is an international recruiting firm. Their main page has links at the top for Practices (industries/functional areas of expertise), Candidates and Blog. Their blog provides interesting information that may be helpful in your search. Clicking on the Candidates tab leads to a page that provides an overview of BSG with links on the left hand side of the screen for Current Opportunities, Submit Resume and Contact Us. Submit Resume allows you to provide a broad range of information which will help them in finding a match for you.

• The Marshall Group – Marshall is a professional search firm with a broad range of specialties. Their website has links on the left hand side of the page for Candidate Services, Submit a Resume, Career Tools, Contact Us and more. The career tools link provides some additional resources (such as salary survey) to help you in your search. The best way to contact them is to either call or email your resume.

• ZNC International Inc. – ZNC is an international recruiter that specializes in Technology. Their main page has a brief overview with a listing of the types of jobs they they place. No listing of open jobs on their site, but clicking their Contact Us link provides email, phone numbers and their address.

Good luck in your search.

Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.

Many people think of LinkedIn as a tool to network with individuals.  While LinkedIn is certainly useful for this purpose, it can also provide invaluable information about which companies you should target during your job search.

Did you know that LinkedIn now allows you to follow all the activity related to a particular company?  You do this by searching for the company on the site and clicking “Follow Company”.  This step adds the company’s activity to your news stream on LinkedIn in the same way that adding a connection adds their individual activity.  This is an absolutely invaluable tool for seeing the “comings and goings” at a company you’re targeting.  In addition to giving you a sense of whether the company is hiring at all, it allows you to see the backgrounds of the candidates who are landing jobs there.  Although it may be frustrating—or even painful—to see who’s beating you out for particular positions, having that information is also priceless for knowing how to position yourself as a stronger candidate going forward.  One more bonus: you can tell when someone was hired for a position even if the company doesn’t directly contact or notify you.

The Follow Company feature on LinkedIn also allows you to see how many other people are following that company.  If thousands of people are keeping an eye on things, chances are good that you have a lot of competition for open positions there.  Additionally, LinkedIn includes very useful information such as the average tenure of employees at the company, the male/female ratio of the staff, and the median age of employees.  Larger companies sometimes even indicate which specific universities a high percentage of their staff attended.

The new Follow Company feature on LinkedIn is a fabulous tool for job seekers trying to appropriately direct their career search.  Check it out!

Jessica Holbrook Hernandez is an expert resume writer, career and personal branding strategist, author, speaker and President/CEO of Great Resumes Fast. She creates high-impact, best-in-class, resumes and cover letters that transform job searches into interviews and ultimately job offers. For more information about professional resume writing or to read more career and job search related articles visit http://www.greatresumesfast.com or call 1.800.991.5187.

We knew that one day technology would make some significant changes in our lives. But for some reason, it seems that we had visions of flying cars and robot maids. While we haven’t quite reached that stage, we’ve seems some adjustments that were unimaginable in the job search realm only a few years ago. Google, in particular, has been at the forefront of many of those changes.

If you’re ready to make waves in your executive job search then it’s a good idea to include Google in your process at some stage. Let’s look at three ways that Google could enhance your executive job search and get you that much closer to snagging the job you want.

Google Searches Make Researching Easier
One of the most obvious ways to make the most of your executive job search is to conduct Google searches. When it’s time to apply with a company, you don’t want to just work from the perspective of a job posting or tip from a recruiter. It’s good to conduct an investigation of sorts to learn more about the company.

There are a few ways that you could do this. Of course, you could Google the company to see if they have a website and also take a look at other links that pop up about the company. But where Google really comes in handy is via news and blogs. If the company has been in the news, you want to know so that you can begin mapping out just how beneficial your services could be if they’ve had some sort of trouble over the years.

Google Alerts Improve Resumes, Interviewing and More
Another great benefit of using Google in the midst of your executive job search is the Google Alerts feature, which offers updates on what’s going on in the news as determined by the keywords you set up as your alert criteria. For instance, if you want to keep track of updates with a few companies that you’re applying with but you don’t have time to manually search for information every day, you could set up alerts in Google that would keep you updated.

In setting up your alerts, you get to choose as many keywords as you like and also determine whether you want news, videos, blogs, discussions or everything. In addition, you decide the frequency by which you will receive your alerts (as it happens, once a day, once a week) and how many per email will show up in your inbox.

A Google Profile Adds to Your Online Brand
Another great way to make use of Google is to get a Google Profile. The profile allows you to set up a resume of sorts that is guaranteed to be one of the top listings in the search engine under your name. This is a great feature to take advantage of because it helps to build your online brand by giving recruiters a source of information while helping to guide them to sites you’d like them to visit to help them know more about you.

Google offers great resources for enhancing your executive job search. So if you have not yet taken advantage of them, now’s the time to get started.

Jessica Holbrook Hernandez is an expert resume writer, career and personal branding strategist, author, speaker and President/CEO of Great Resumes Fast. She creates high-impact, best-in-class, resumes and cover letters that transform job searches into interviews and ultimately job offers. For more information about professional resume writing or to read more career and job search related articles visit http://www.greatresumesfast.com or call 1.800.991.5187.

Your personal brand is nothing more (or less) than the image you project to others. It’s the whole (although abbreviated) picture of who you are and what you do–professionally. Online, it’s the sum of the parts. A large (maybe the whole) purpose of creating and maintaining an online brand is so that people who don’t know you (employers or potential clients/business partners) can find you, evaluate whether they want to meet you/work with you/recommend you. And that’s why it’s a big deal.

Be the candidate who stands out from the crowd.

Your online brand is your first impression for people, job leads, or opportunities that you might miss if it’s not everything it could be. And, it’s definitely a piece of the puzzle for those who have met you in person and are looking to find out more. If you don’t think a hiring manager is going to look around online for more information about you before they make the offer, you are seriously misguided.

So, what can you do to make sure your online brand identity is a strong recommendation for why someone should hire you?

1. Use every opportunity to establish a presence. Although LinkedIn is my favorite online networking site, you should also incorporate Twitter, Facebook, Visual CV, and others. (One article says that you should “cybersquat as much social real estate as possible” to both strengthen your online brand and to combat social identity theft.) Make absolutely certain that every site provides a professional profile with dynamic words that describe who you are and what you do.

2. Make sure your photos are professional and consistent. Attach a head-and-shoulders professional photo to each of your online pages. Having the same photo on all sites will help those who don’t know you recognize you. And please remove the too-personal photos of you with your friends at the party, or you at your political function, or anything else that could cause controversy. If you’re trying to land a job in medical or health care sales, you want potential employers to concentrate on your job skills without anything else getting in the way.

3. Participate. Join groups and discussions, and try to share something of value to help others. Always keep your brand in mind as you contribute your thoughts and ideas. (It’s not hiding the “real you,” it’s simply keeping a public face that’s separate from your private one. Or, to put it another way…there’s a lot you wouldn’t say in front of your grandmother that you wouldn’t hesitate to say in front of your friends. Think of cyberspace as your grandmother. ) You decide how you want people to see you, and develop a consistent theme. It presents a unified, clear, positive image to the rest of the world that will pay off for you in your career.

Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.

Author Byline: Peggy McKee
Author Website: http://www.career-confidential.com