Prodigal Magazine

Killer Resume pt.2

Sunday, February 28, 2010

OK, folks, last time we got you halfway through your resume, so we need to finish up this week and then move on to the other aspects of the job hunt.

Last blog, we talked about writing a quality cover letter, so we’re going to focus on resumes this week. It’s important to remember that you don’t have to be the most qualified candidate to get called for an interview. You simply have to make the strongest case for yourself, and nobody should be able to do that better than you! Just like your cover letter should make the employer eager to read your resume, your resume should make him eager to meet with you face-to-face. You accomplish this by selling yourself better than the other applicants. Think of it like this: people don’t spend $100 on Nike tennis shoes because they’re the best shoes in the world. They might or might not be; I really don’t know. People buy them because the advertisers sell them! So your resume is your advertisement. You’re the marketer and the product! That said, you should tailor your resume to suit the needs of your target market (the employer). In other words, you should have a standard resume that can be adjusted slightly depending on the position you’re seeking and the personality of the hiring person.

Job Hunting Essentials: Cover Letter Guide

Monday, July 20, 2009

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Job Hunting Essentials: Cover Letter Guide

With the unemployment rate reaching 10%, it’s a pretty safe bet that someone reading this blog is either out of work or going to be soon. It’s unfortunate, but true. The number of resumes I’ve received in the last two months probably outnumbers the amount I’ve gotten in the last two years! If you’re one of those individuals who is currently on the job hunt, you have some stiff competition. There are going to be more—and better— qualified applicants seeking the same occupation you are, so it’s more important than ever before to position yourself to be the best candidate available. In addition, since it’s a buyer’s market, employers are in a position to be as picky as they’ve ever been. So what can you do to increase your odds of winning the job lottery? For starters, your cover letter must be impeccable. If you don’t get called for an interview, you have zero chance of getting the job!

What is your focus?

Monday, April 6, 2009

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The old adage is "your energy goes where your focus is." Like a laser beam, focused energy can be very powerful. Powerfully focused energy can be constructive or destructive. Energy that is disrupted or dissipated is just energy with potential. It can be stored for later use, sometimes moved or transferred from one place to another but, unused it accomplishes nothing and when any power source is disrupted it is, for a time at least , unused! Agreed? Okay, so what's the point? It is critically important to be aware of the direction and employment of our energy. It is our "personal power" as author and motivator extraordinaire Anthony Hopkins would term it. If we permit our energy to be disrupted we run the risk of at best, not achieving our goals and at worst - the proverbial burnout! So, what is your focus? Where is your energy? Is it being used or disrupted? Is it focused and powerful or is it weak or being transferred, stored, or in the worst case scenario, depleted? For many of us, regardless of our circumstances, the stresses of daily living (or surviving as may be the case for an ever increasing number of us today) drain our physical, mental and emotional batteries with each new event, depleting or exhausting our energy resources. Even with advances in technology and medicine many people today, at every age level, are losing their precious "personal power" one distraction at a time. None of us intends to have more day left at the end of our oomph but, it happens, and usually without us even knowing how!

Compromise for a career?

Friday, February 6, 2009

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I had always dreamed of a career where I travelled. I wanted to be the guy who jumped on a plane to go from this city to the next, joining the upper echelon of the corporate world and living that life of what I deemed “meaningful”. For years, I had been on the bottom of the pole of influence within our industry and once given the opportunity to rise to the level I had dreamed of, I took it. Little did I know that I was not designed to be a part of that world. Upon meeting the other people who were doing the same job in different areas of the company, I began to figure out quickly that I had stepped into a whole new atmosphere. What I thought would be so exciting, I found it to be nauseating. It was fake, nothing more and nothing less. There were airplanes and expense reports, corporate meetings and a corporate office, which I had believed made you “significant”. However, there was deception at the root of it all. A cloud of shallowness hung over the initial meetings and I began to see that I could not fully execute their plan and stick to principles that I had learned from the Bible.

The Ant: Getting things done

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

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Pro 6:6 Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. (ESV) With the renowned British weather now giving us more hot sunny days than cold or wet days, a whole manner of insects and bugs thrive in the new season. All of a sudden they stir from their slumber and begin to make life all the more interesting, often at the most inconvenient times and in the most annoying of ways! One of these creatures is the ant. Think about ants - have you ever watched how they do things? Before you knock over an anthill or get the boiling water ready, let's look at five things we can learn from ants about getting things done.