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Summer 2010
Welcome to the Summer 2010 issue of SWOOSH, Liaison's
quarterly newsletter created to help us stay in touch
with our favorite creative and marketing talent,
to provide helpful links and and our own isnsight
to the career-minded person. We hope you find it
helpful and we welcome your
feedback. - The Liaison SWOOSH! News Team
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| The best online advice for today's job seeker |
The economy is in bad shape. There are more people looking for work than there are jobs, and it can be frustrating.
But now, as ever, job-seekers can do a few simple things to put themselves at the front of the pack. In this issue
of SWOOSH, your friends at Liaison Resources have compiled some of the best articles and blogs relevant to today's job
search landscape. Its not about how many applications you submit, it's about how your prepare, how you network and
how you approach your prospective employer.
Prepare yourself for job hunting success
Before you can get what you want in your next career move, you'll want to prepare your materials. Here's some tips on getting all your ducks in a row.
Monster.com contains extensive job-seeking advice. Here are some of their more solid articles on resume writing, including how to create a concise
resume and how to avoid common resume mistakes.
Squalkbox has a more humorous take on making sure your resume won't stand out for the wrong reasons:
6
words that make your resume suck and
10
deadly sins of resume writing are both a good read. They also have a great overview of the question of chronological
versus functional resume.
And if you're a graphic designer or any kind of creative professional, you definitely need to have online samples as well as a resume. It may be good to have a pdf you can send off if requested and physical samples can be a nice touch, but in 2010, there's no reason not to have a creative portfolio web page. SWOOSH did an article last year about job
hunting in a web 2.0 environment, including resume advice and extensive links on portfolio hosting sites.
Networking
Some of the best opportunities may not be posted online. And some of the most helpful information about your target employer may not be on their website. Here are some tips about using your existing network and expanding your professional network.
In addition to any appropriate professional organizations (ADFed, etc), Meetup is likely to have events in your field. These don't tend to be job search events, but you can keep your skills fresh by talking to others in your field, and you'll strengthen relationships that could bring you your next job.
SWOOSH has an article from a while back that makes a case for the similarities between career
networking and dating.
The social networking site Linkedin has been growing as a great career networking resource. But as it expands, it gets harder to cut through the noise. Here's an excellent article about how to use
Linkedin for maximum benefit.
In general, you'll also find some good networking tips on Monster, especially if you're shy, here. They also have a good overview of some of the common networking
mistakes and how to avoid them.
Here's an excellent article from Candidate Advantage including some solid networking
basics and some excellent insight on how to manage
your resume through your job search and networking process.
Approaching your employer
We've said before in SWOOSH how important it is to really pay attention to what an employer is looking for and approaching them with their needs in mind (articles here, here, and here). But job descriptions themselves can be hard to decipher. Here's some good insight about really reading
descriptions. And most importantly, here's a great article on how to get to know
your potential employer. Candidates who know their audience will always pull ahead.
We hope you find the links above helpful. If there's anything you like, please pass it on. Thanks for reading SWOOSH. Happy hunting!
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