Progress in Career

Matthew Price

18 Treher Rd.

Syracuse, NY 13191

(607) 555 - 9257



Objective



Challenging and rewarding upper-level position in a growth-oriented organization, which offers diverse job responsibility in mechanical engineering and will fully utilize both my technical and managerial abilities.



Employment History



Sprint Corporation, Syracuse, NY

Project Manager, 1998 - Present

Managed a twelve member team that designed and implemented universal high speed Gigabit ATM switch fabrics for high speed ALX product line. Responsibilities included hardware design and product verification. Also responsible for EMC/EMI/RFI standards, compliance and testing. Responsible for product support for manufacturing and field service operations.



JLC Design, Utica, NY

Mechanical Engineer, 1994 - 1998

Responsible for designing products and concepts under non-disclosure agreements for clients on cross-functional design teams which include Sr. Mechanical, Electrical, and Product Designers. Responsibilities included plastics part design with 3D solid and surface models in Pro/Engineer, concept development, product strategy, and presentation preparation.



Education



Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

B.S., Mechanical Engineering, 1994



References



Available upon request.

Brandon Hayward

7091 Dalton St.

Pittsburgh, PA 15063

(814) 555 - 6209





Objective



Seeking a position as an electronic engineer, specializing in design

within a progressive, forward thinking company.



Keywords



MDS, ADS, HFSS, SPICE, Matlab, Mathmatica, Word, Excel, 123, Frame Maker.

FORTRAN, BASIC, Design, test, E&M, antenna design, PLL, I/Q modulation, YIG,

VCO, phase noise



Employment History



Electrical Engineer, 1998 - Present TechTron Labs, Pittsburgh, PA



Designed and prototyper various analog and digital control circuits and systems.

Projects included power supplies, high voltage pulsers, fiber optic cables, radar

systems, and high speed comparator logic circuits.



Engineer, 1992 - 1998 Bell Automotive, Pittsburgh, PA



Responsible for initial coding development for the switched reluctance motor

design project. Wrote and debugged assembly code that I had written on a

variety of steering column test setups. Responsible for drafting bi-weekly

progress reports.





Education



Masters, Engineering, 1992

Cornell University, Ithaca, NY



B.S. Electrical Engineering, 1990

Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

The post-interview thank-you letter is the last, crucial link in the chain.
If you follow the format below and follow up with EVERYONE you met during the job interview, your chances of getting that job will increase dramatically.

We estimate that only 5% of applicants ever send a thank-you letter.
That means this letter will put you ahead of about 95% of the competition for your next job.
What could be easier? And don't be put off by the brevity of this thank-you letter. You need not write a long volume to thank people for their time.
Most employers will be shocked - and impressed - to receive any letter at all.


Dear NAME HERE:

I want you to know that I am extremely interested in the position of INSERT TITLE we discussed today. Based on the needs for INSERT JOB DESCRIPTION you outlined in our talk, I am sure that my skills in INSERT 2-3 SKILLS can help you in this area.

In any event, I want to thank you for your time and consideration. It was indeed a pleasure to meet you and INSERT ALL OTHER NAMES.

Thank you very much for your time and consideration. Please let me know if you require any additional information to make your decision. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Four mistakes to avoid
To avoid being tossed in the "circular file", there are some things your cover letter should never do.
Here are four of the most common mistakes to avoid:

1. Don’t start off slow. Far too many cover letters take one, two or even three paragraphs to warm up. Start yours with a bang, like this: “I’m applying for the position of Caretaker at the Troy location of White Tower Apartments, as advertised in the Daily Tribune.” Here’s an easy way to find your best opening. First, write a draft copy of your letter. Second, look down the page for a concise statement that gets right to the point. Now, cut out the preceding text. Voila. You now have a powerful beginning for your cover letter.
2. Don’t talk about your career goals. Avoid statements like, “I seek a position where my skills will be utilized and recognized with further advancement.” This selfish attitude will turn off more readers than it will ever impress. Besides, if you’ve done your homework, you’ll only be applying to companies that recognize and promote ability. Don’t waste the reader’s time by making demands before the two of you have ever met.
3. Never, EVER mention salary. Even if the classified ad requests a salary history. Reason? Employers use salary histories to screen out candidates who are too expensive or not experienced/sophisticated enough to have made enough money previously. Including a salary history can only hurt your chances. It can never help. Solution? Include these five magic words near the end of your letter: "My salary requirements are negotiable".
4. Never mention why you left a previous job. Some people feel compelled to explain why they stayed so long (or so briefly) at prior jobs. Don’t. Prepare your answers for any hard questions about your employment history … then save them for the job interview. This is no time for confessions. Don’t include anything in your cover letter that could result in doors being closed.

A word about style. There are still some who say a cover letter should never contain contractions, such as "I’m" or "you’re". Nonsense. Contractions are perfectly acceptable in modern business correspondence. Cover letters are no exception. Having said that, if you feel uncomfortable using contractions, don’t. Just be sure you maintain a consistent style throughout your letter.

Cover letter strategies

In a nutshell, your cover letter should say, "I’m the right person for the job. I have unique skills and experience that will help your company right away. I hope you’re as excited about this as I am".
The accompanying resume should then prove your case.

Put another way, the cover letter is the advertisement for your resume.
An effective cover letter establishes an immediate bond between reader and job applicant. It should demand attention and arouse enough curiosity in the mind of the reader to ensure that your resume is read thoroughly.

Six things you must do in your cover letter
To get your resume read, and to get that job interview, your cover letter must do the following:

1. Focus on the needs of the employer and how you would solve her problems, contribute to her bottom line, etc. Employers have problems. That’s why they’re hiring! Your cover letter should say (although not in so many words): “I’m the answer to your problems.”
2. Display knowledge of the hiring company. With the wealth of company information now available on the Internet and most public libraries, you should be able to drop one or two facts/names into your cover letter that show you’ve done your homework on the company and it’s specific products, needs, challenges, etc. Most job applicants simply ask for a job. If you can offer specific suggestions that will work right away for a company, they will call you.
3. Briefly state your best qualifications AND achievements. Don’t spend a lot of time rehashing your resume. But do include enough tidbits to generate interest in the mind of the reader. Because cover letters and resumes do get separated (I know this from experience!) it’s important to write a cover letter that will make readers want to pick up the phone and call you even if they’ve never seen your resume.
4. Show your enthusiasm about the job you want. Avoid sounding like 90% of applicants, who say (not in so many words): “Give me a job where I can advance and make more money.” Instead, convey this sense: “I’m excited about the possibility of brining my skills and expertise to work for you.” This should be the main theme of your cover letter.
5. State that you will follow up to schedule an interview. This is not considered rude by employers. Far from it. If you politely inform the reader that you’ll be calling within a few days to answer any questions and schedule an in-person interview, you set yourself apart from the crowd with your determination and confidence. Your persistence will pay off, eventually, in an interview for the job you want. And an interview is the goal of every cover letter.
6. Keep your letter short and focused. This is perhaps the biggest challenge of all. Most cover letters, even those done by professional resume writers, ramble on in excruciating detail for one or even two full pages. Show respect for the limited time your reader has and limit yourself to four, five or six paragraphs at most.

Timing can be everything!
If at all possible, try to send your resume so that it does NOT arrive on Monday or Friday.

Reason? Most employers (anyone with a job, in fact!) have their minds elsewhere on these two days. They’re usually swamped with projects and meetings on Monday, and thinking about the weekend all day Friday. As a result, they may not give your resume all the attention it deserves on these two days, despite your best efforts.
So, it may work to your advantage if your resume arrives on the employer’s desk on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday.

Sending your resume

E-mail
While e-mail is the most convenient way to send your resume to employers, the problem is often this - sometimes, when you send your resume to companies by e-mail, they write back saying the document was garbled or not attached to the e-mail correctly.
If employers can't read your resume, how are they going to hire you?

This can make you look all thumbs when it comes to technology. Worse, it can bring your job search to a screeching halt. So, how do you make sure your e-mailed resume is readable?
Here's how.

Most people send their resume either as an attachment or in the body of an e-mail message.
But, for maximum results and minimum headaches, I recommend that you do both.

First, send your resume as an attachment. Almost all e-mail programs (Eudora, AOL e-mail, etc.) let you send attachments, which are documents that ride along with the e-mail.
When the reader gets your e-mail, they can "open" (download and read) whatever document you have attached. Word for Windows is the most popular word processor (to my knowledge), so use this format for your attached resume, if possible. WordPerfect is another good choice.

But attachments aren't foolproof. They may get scrambled during transmission and become impossible to open. Or, the reader may not have the same word processor as you, preventing them from reading your attached resume. Then there's the old Mac/PC problem - if your resume was written in a Macintosh format, it won't be readable by a PC (and vice versa).

So, to make sure everyone can read your resume, you should also copy and paste the text into the body of your e-mail message. In your word processor, simply highlight the entire text of your resume, and copy it into the clipboard (short-term memory). Then, switch over to your e-mail program and paste the text into your message.

That's it! When you e-mail your resume as both an attachment and with the text in the message itself, you can be certain that one way or another, your resume will get read.

Sending your resume

Fax
The main advantage of sending your resume by fax is speed. It will arrive within minutes, as opposed to the days it will take your resume to get there by paper mail. However, a fax is printed on flimsy paper and won’t give your resume a very memorable appearance.

So, how can you combine the speed of faxing your resume with the high-quality appearance of mailing a stationery copy?

Do both! If you can send your resume by fax, send another copy by paper mail. This has several advantages:

* The faxed version will arrive quickly and should suffice if the employer wants your resume right away.
* The stationery version you send by mail will reinforce the positive impression of your faxed resume. By sending the resume twice, it shows you are REALLY interested in this position.
* You’ll increase the potential audience of readers. Chances are, more people will read your resume ? and want to call you ? because your resume will be seen by whoever reads faxes and opens mail, in addition to the person your resume is addressed to. This can only improve your chances!

As with mailing stationery copies, be sure to sign any cover letters that you fax out.

Sending your resume


Since there are several ways to get your resume into the hands of an employer, We’ll cover each in detail. They are:

1. Paper mail
2. Fax
3. E-mail

Paper mail
Also known as snail mail to those of us who depend on e-mail for much of our daily correspondence, traditional paper mail is how you will probably send most of your resumes to employers.

To ensure maximum results, follow these steps:

* Don’t agonize over the envelope. A standard number 10 business envelope will work fine. For added emphasis, you can always FedEx your resume or send it in an oversized or stationery envelope. More important than the type of envelope you use is the spelling on the outside. Make sure EVERY WORD is spelled correctly. A misspelled name or address can kill your chances before the employer ever gets to your resume.
* It’s OK to fold your resume. Follow standard business protocol and fold your resume twice, so that the document is divided into three parts from top to bottom.
* Sign your cover letter. Don’t just run off hundreds of copies at Kinko’s or from your own computer. The personal touch is important. And studies show that the signature is the second or third thing that readers look to in every letter. So, if sending a cover letter, be sure your signature is easy to read (but not too outlandish).

Printing your resume


Use a laser printer.
Never use an inkjet or dot matrix printer. Visit your local printer if necessary.
Only a laser printer will create the kind of quality necessary for your resume.

Use high-quality stationery.
Print your resume on cream or ivory-colored paper, of at least 24 pounds in weight.
Other colors don’t look as professional. (I’ve asked recruiters and hiring managers and they agree).
You can find suitable paper at an office supply store or copy center. Avoid heavy paper, which can crease and damage the print.

Professional Proofreading Checklist
Proofread your resume twice for each section below.

* Spelling.
Use your word processor’s spell checker AND read it yourself. Most misspelled words occur in the headings and in software/business names.
* Facts and figures.
Check all years and numbers in the résumé and cover letter. Do they add up? Are they consistent?
* Spacing.
Make sure the space between each sentence and section is the same.
* Punctuation.
Read the résumé BACKWARDS, looking for missing or incorrect punctuation, such as commas, dashes between dates, apostrophes, etc.
* Clarity and content.
Read the résumé aloud for awkward, missing or extra words.
* Contact information.
Verify your name, address, ZIP code and phone are correct.
* Layout.
Are the upper and lower margins even and pleasing to the eye? Is there white space throughout the document, or is the text too dense? Print the resume and show it to friends for their comments.

Your resume must be error-free.
Just one misspelled word or punctuation error can ruin all your hard work. I’ve spoken with several hiring managers who say they won’t call a candidate whose resume contains typos.

You should proofread your resume four times for four areas:

1. Spelling.
2. Spacing.
3. Punctuation.
4. and Content.

Print the resume before you proofread it.
This makes it much easier to read. You’d be surprised how many errors become visible on a printed page versus a computer screen.

Revising your resume

After you’ve written the first draft of your resume, put it down for a few hours and go do something totally unrelated.
Get your mind off your resume for awhile.
When you return and read it again, you’ll see areas that you want to change or improve.

How long should your resume be?
If you can get everything to fit on one page, great.
In most cases, a one-page resume is more effective that two pages.
But a two-page resume is fine for technical careers or people with more than 10-15 years of experience.

How do you make room for more information?
There are four areas you can make smaller to fit more text onto page:

1. Name and/or address? shrink the font size by two points.
2. Spacing between sections? shrink the font size from 12 to 8 points.
3. Section headings? shrink the font size from 14 to 13 or 12 points.
4. The body copy? shrink the font size from 12 to 11 points.

Mistakes to avoid

Here are four mistakes that hinder most resumes. I see them over and over again in the hundreds of resumes I review each year from prospective clients.

1. Errors in spelling and punctuation.
This is the most common (and deadly) error!!! and your spell-checker is not enough.
You must read through the resume once for accuracy (numbers, dates, city names, etc.), once for missing/extra words, and once more for spelling.

Then, show your resume to several friends and ask them to read it out loud. Listen to where they pause; this could mean you’ve written something confusing or inaccurate.
After you get their feedback, revise the resume so that it’s 100% error-free.

2. No objective or summary.
By not choosing what job you want to do, you start your resume off on the wrong foot.
Why? You force the employer to read it all the way through to figure out what kind of job you’re suited for.
You create more work for your busy reader. This is the last thing you want to do!

3. Focus on responsibilities instead of results.
While it’s important to tell the reader what you did at each job, it’s far more important to spend most of your time talking about what you accomplished and how you made yourself valuable to past employers.
Focus on results and achievements. The more specific, the better.

4. Too many big words.
It’s a shame how often a resume is ruined when the author utilizes a superabundance of polysyllabic terminology, or uses too many big words.

Don’t hide behind your vocabulary. When your resume is not clear and to the point, the reader gets bored, time is wasted and your resume goes in the trash.

Simplify! Write as if you were talking to a class of sixth grade students. That’s the reading level all journalists are trained to appeal to in their writing. If it works for America’s newspapers, it ought to work for you.

Instead of saying "implemented", try "adopted" or "set up", for example. Never "utilize" what you can simply "use". Don’t "interface" with people; "work" with them. And never use "impact" as a verb. (Meteorites hitting the moon are about the only thing that should "impact") Use "affect" instead.

The interview is a two way street.
Remember you are also interviewing the employer to see if you want to work for that company.
You should have a list of questions in mind to ask the interviewer. Here are some suggestions.

* What would you expect of me? What would my main responsibilities be?
* How would my performance be evaluated?
* Is there room for promotion?
* Would there be any travel involved with this position?
* Where do you see this company in two years?
* How would you describe your management style?
* How do you see me fitting into this company?

Quotes

Few (if any) resumes use quotes.
As mentioned previously, this powerful technique is one of the reasons all resumes are guaranteed to produce results. Why?

1.- Quotes do more than just prove your claims. They make employers curious about you. Which makes them more likely to call and find out more. And this is what resume writing is all about!
For ideas on using quotes, see our resume templates.

2.- You may not be able to find written quotes. That’s OK. Try to recall good things that managers/clients have said about you.
As long as they really said it, you can use these indirect quotes in the resume.

Example indirect quote:

* Cited by supervisor for problem-solving skills and ability to train staff.

Experience

When writing about your experience, follow a consistent, easy-to-read format.
We suggest you follow this example:

LAN/WAN Administrator: US Marine Corps, Camp Lejeune, NC (1993-1999).

For each job you’ve had, include your title, company name, city, state and the years you worked there.
Don’t include the months, as this may highlight any gaps in employment.

Below this first line, describe your typical daily duties in one or two sentences. But don’t on duties or responsibilities. You want to emphasize achievements, effective projects and other good things you did on each job.

So, your description for a typical job might look like this:

Account Executive: WWWW Radio 107 (CBS), Southfield, MI (1994-1995).
Handled spot radio sales involving business-to-business, sports and retail accounts.

* Served as marketing/advertising consultant to businesses.
* Grew account billings from $10,000/month to $60,000/month in under one year.
* Worked on radio, Yellow Pages, direct mail and TV campaigns.

Note for recent graduates from college or high school:
if you don’t have much work experience, be sure to make the most of your education and training. For example: in your Profile section, include 5-10 of the classes that are most relevant to the job you seek. You can also include volunteer work in your experience section; work is work, even if you didn’t get paid for it!

Career profile

You can also call this section Professional Profile, Technical Skills (for programmers and other technical types), Highlights or Qualifications.

Here you should include between four and six bulleted paragraphs that cover your best skills, as well as some of the best things you’ve ever done on the job.

Reason? The goal of your resume is to get employers to call you. And the Profile section is a crucial method of achieving this goal.

Example Profile section:

PROFESSIONAL PROFILE

* Strong background in journalism, with firsthand knowledge of press community. Includes seven years of experience writing, editing and delivering on-air news and breaking stories.
* Superior verbal and written communication skills. Twice awarded by AP for reporting skills in 1998. Proven ability to balance needs of competing groups on controversial issues.
* Three years of business management experience as owner of small business. Gained press coverage, overhauled marketing, increased sales and sold for 100% profit (1990-1993).
* Cited for "considerable news judgment", by WXXX-TV GM, who said: "Joe is a well-organized self-starter (who) would make an outstanding employee in public relations".

Another Profile section, this for an entry-level programmer:

TECHNICAL SKILLS

* Operating Systems: Windows 95/98, UNIX on Sun SPARC and MS-DOS.
* Programming Languages: C, C++, HTML and JavaScript.
* Software: Microsoft FrontPage, Image Composer and Word; Lotus 1-2-3 and mSQL.

Once you’ve written the Objective/Summary and Profile sections, you’ve finished the most important job.
Your work is now half done!

Objective / Summary of your resume

Spend as much time on this section as necessary to create a powerful opening for your resume.
Your Objective or Summary should be two or three lines long at most.

Don’t talk about yourself and your career goals. You can do that in the interview.
Avoid such phrases as: "seeking a chance for advancement", or "where my skills will be utilized", or "where I can further my career".

Your goal is to focus on the employer and his or her needs.

An Objective or Summary can be a sticking point for some people.
They want a resume that gives them enough flexibility to apply for any job that might even remotely match their skills and experience.

As we saw earlier, you must focus on the job you want.
You must tell employers what job you can do, not force them to think of a job that might suit you.

What to leave out

Some things don’t belong in your resume. Here’s a list of six things you should not include:

* Title at the top of the page, such as "Resume of Qualifications", "Confidential Resume", etc.
If the reader needs to be told that he’s reading a resume, he’s in no position to hire you.
* Months of employment.
While you must include the years you were at each job, don’t include the months. This is perfectly acceptable and helps cover up any short gaps in employment. Your dates should look like this: (1997-1998).
* Reasons for leaving.
This information is irrelevant and uses valuable space. You can always discuss these facts in a job interview. If you feel compelled to explain why you left a job after a few weeks or months, just leave it out of the resume.
* Age, sex, religion or health.
In the United States and in many other countries, it’s illegal to discriminate against you because of these. Don’t refer to them in your resume.
* References.
Write these on a separate sheet and bring them to the interview. And don't include the phrase: "References available upon request". It's understood that you have them so this line wastes space.
* Salary.
Never discuss this until you have a job offer.

If you’re in doubt about whether or not to include something in your resume, ask yourself: "Will this make an employer more likely to call me?" If the answer is a definite "Yes", include it. If the answer is "No", consider leaving it out.

Gather your information

We will help you find your most marketable skills, then find achievements in your past that prove you have those skills. The data you assemble will help you write your own resume.

Find your marketable skills
Your guaranteed resume will highlight your most marketable skills in such a way that employers are more likely to call you. What are your most marketable skills? Answer these two questions:

1.- What do you do well?
What do you most enjoy doing? Is it the job you’re doing now? Your course work in school? If not, what do you do well? Is it a hobby? Volunteer work? Other? Write your answers on a sheet of paper.

2.- What do you enjoy doing?
What skills do you most enjoy using on the job or in school right now? What skills would you use even if you weren’t paid? Write out your answers. If you enjoy doing something that you’ve already written down in answer to the first question, underline it this time.

Ideally, you’ll have several skills underlined at the end of this exercise. These are things you do well and enjoy doing.

Now, list your 2-3 most marketable skills.
From your list of underlined skills, choose the 2 or 3 you think will be most attractive to the person reading your resume.
These are your most marketable skills. You’ll use them later to write your resume.
This is the most important step in the process of writing your resume.
Why? Because if you know what your most marketable skills are, you can highlight your most relevant experience, which will help you find the job that’s best for you.

Prove your case with achievements
Now, what achievements prove the 2-3 most marketable skills you listed above? Write at least three things you did that you’re proud of and their results.

What have you done to increase productivity, profits, efficiency, sales, etc.? Use facts, figures, years and be as specific as possible. Your achievements can be from paid or volunteer employment, school projects or even hobbies. As long as they’re relevant to the work you want to do, you may include them in your resume.

After the job interview


Follow Through.
This is a crucial and often-overlooked final step in the interviewing process.
Remember: No home run or 350-yard golf shot was ever hit without a proper follow-through.

It's essential that you write a thank-you note to every person you met at the company.
Your most important letter(s) should go to the interviewer(s).
In your letter, be sure to summarize your conversation and re-emphasize the skills you would bring to the position.
Thank them for their time and ask if it's all right to call later in the week to see how their search for a candidate is going.
That candidate may well be you!

During the job interview


Make a Good First Impression.
The outcome of the interview will depend largely on the impression you make during the first five minutes.

To succeed, you must project a professional, competent and enthusiastic image. Your aim is to convince the interviewer that you would be an asset to the company. Keep the following in mind:

Be punctual.
Do whatever it takes to arrive a few minutes early. If necessary, drive to the company the night before and time yourself. Allow extra time for traffic, parking and slow elevators.

Dress right.
Your clothing should be appropriate for the position you're seeking. Attire must fit well within the office and be immaculate. If you don't know what the typical attire at the company is, call and ask! Shoes should be polished; pants/skirts and shirts pressed.

Shake well.
A firm handshake is appropriate and projects confidence. Make eye contact when you shake.

Speak correct body language.
Send the right message by standing straight, moving confidently, and sitting slightly forward in your chair.

Let the employer lead into conversations about benefits.
Your focus on salary, stock options and vacation time can turn off an otherwise-interested interviewer.

Be honest.
Tell the interviewer about your work skills, strengths and experience, including any volunteer work you have done. If you haven't had a particular kind of experience, say so, but also demonstrate your ability to learn new skills by changing the focus back to a time when you did so for a prior employer.

Be enthusiastic.
Show your clear interest in the job you are seeking and in the business. Smile and make frequent eye contact. Listen attentively and take notes.

Find common ground.
Pictures, books, plants, etc., in the office can be conversation starters.
But beware! I once heard of an applicant who, spying a picture on the employer's desk said: "Hey, Tommy Lasorda. Have you met him?" "Her", corrected the hiring manager. "That's my wife".

Have your own agenda and know where the interview should be heading.
This will give you confidence and help you move from one area of questioning to the next.
Remember: Most interviewers are as uncomfortable as you are. They just want the position to be filled as fast as possible.

If you can put the interviewer at ease by helping things move smoothly, you'll improve your chances of being hired. Remember the following:

Listening skills.
Listen carefully and ask questions to probe deeper into what the interviewer is telling you. Most interviewers are delightfully surprised by a question such as, "How could I help you solve the problem you've just described?"

Negative statements about previous jobs or employers. NEVER make them. Instead, be diplomatic. No matter how bad your last job or boss was, there's probably something good you learned from the experience. Emphasize the positive - with a smile.

Before the job interview


Know the company.
Your knowledge of the prospective employer will contribute to the positive image you want to create. Research the company before the interview. Talk to others who work there; ask for information about the firm and for a job description when the interview is set up; use the Internet and your local library's reference books on public and private organizations.

Know the job.
Learn everything you can about the job you're interviewing for and how your previous experience and training qualify you for this position.

Know yourself.
Review your resume before the interview to have it fresh in your mind, because it will be fresh in the mind of the person who interviews you. Better yet, have it in front of you on the table.

Prepare questions of your own.
Employers are as interested in your questions as they are in your answers. And they'll react favorably if you ask intelligent questions about the position, the company and the industry. (Examples: Where does this position fit into the company as a whole? Is there any problem on this job with waste/accuracy/meeting quotas, etc.? What is the largest single problem facing your staff now?).

Get the big picture.
Visualize the entire interview, from start to finish. See yourself as performing with style and confidence. How will the interview end? Will you get a job offer or be called back for a second interview? How much salary do you want? What kind of benefits? The research you do ahead of time will give you an idea of what to expect.
Be ready for any eventuality.

What is a Resume?

A resume is the document you will give to an employer when you look for a job, this document shows your career objectives, professional experiences and achievements, and also your education. With the Resume the employer knows what kind of job you are looking for and if there is some vacancy for you in the company. This reason is why your resume has to sell you in short order and has to be a really good advertisement of yourself.

What a Resume should have?

The most important information in your resume is:

* Name.
* Address.
* Phone number.
* Email.
* Education.
* Relevant work experience.

Be concise, it is not necessary to describe every job you had, only the most important and relevant. Focus on the job you are applying and guide your skills to this post. It is better if your resume fits only in one or two pages.

The best way to avoid having a bad job interview is to prepare ahead of time.
So practice, practice, PRACTICE your answers to the following questions:

* Please tell me about yourself...
* Why should we hire you?
* What are your plans for the next year? Two years? Five years?
* What do expect to get from this job?
* What are your biggest weaknesses?
* What are your biggest strengths?
* Why did you leave your last job?
* What would your former employer say about you if I called them today?
* Why did you get into this line of work?
* What make you want to apply to this company?