Sure, you can share the fun and stupidity that you have committed at last Saturday night’s party.  Sure you can talk about how insensitive the human-resource department and your employer when it comes to employee welfare.  However, all these can be read by someone on the internet.  This someone can be your employer or your human resource department.  All these information is published online (unless you make them personal).  You never now who is going to read these profiles you have online.  You do not want your boss to find out that you are bitching behind him, right?

That is for your current employer.  Your prospective employers and the recruitment agencies will also check on you with these profiles.  They will make assessment of who you are based on your profile.  They want to find out the “other side” of you.  They want to know, are you what you say you are in your resume and interview.

These profiles with the social network sites and blogs can be used as a double-edged sword.  On one hand, if you put great credentials about yourself such as your professional certifications, work experiences and achievements, your prospective employer will be more confident of you.  All these give the employer a positive impression of you.  On the other hand, if you focus on the negative aspects of work (talking about dumb bosses, boredom, bitching about colleagues, etc.), you likely risk getting a negative impression of you.  This goes for profiles that emphasizes on too much partying too!

Furthermore, these profiles are stored on the social network sites and blogs, which mean they may not belong to you even though they say your information belongs to you.  They can “delete” your record by marking it unreadable by the public.  They can make copies of record in some other data storage.  What does it all means?  Your information is still available online somewhere and it is difficult to remove them totally from the internet.

To sum up, your information in social networks and blogs is public and can be viewed by the whole wide world (WWW).  That means, your current employer, and future employer.  You will also have problem removing all these information in future.  So before you write anything funny, make a dumb comment or post a not-so-intelligent partying video, do think twice.  You do not want those things you wrote in becoming something that is used against your career progression!

1. Don’t bore the recruiter with your lengthy job duties – Your resume should not be a boring listing of job duties and responsibilities. Go beyond showing what was required and demonstrate how you made a difference at each company, providing specific examples. When developing your achievements, ask yourself: (1) how did you perform the job better than others?  (2) What were the problems or challenges faced? How did you overcome them? What were the results? How did the company benefit from your performance? (3) Did you receive any awards, special recognition or promotions as a result?
2. Don’t use objective statement if you are not one – Many candidates lose their readers in the beginning. Statements like “A challenging position enabling me to contribute to organizational goals while offering an opportunity for growth and advancement” are overused, too general and waste valuable space. If you’re on a career track, replace the objective with a tagline stating what you do or your expertise.
3. Too Short or Too Long – Do not squeeze your resume into one page.  You will leave out your impressive achievements if you do so.  On the other hand, do not ramble on about irrelevant or redundant experiences. There is no rule about appropriate resume length. However, ask yourself this when writing your resume, “Will this statement help me land an interview?”
4. Using Personal Pronouns and Articles – A resume is a form of business communication, so it should be concise and written in a telegraphic style. There should be no mentions of “I” or “me,” and only minimal use of articles.
5. Listing Irrelevant Information – Include interests, but only those that is relevant to the job. For example, if a candidate is applying for a position as a ski instructor, he should list cross-country skiing as a hobby.
6. Using a Functional Resume When You Have a Good Career History
   It is irksome for hiring managers not to see the career progression and the impact made at each position. Unless you have an emergency situation, such as virtually no work history or excessive job-hopping, avoid the functional format.
7. Write out an initial summary section for a hard sell! — This is one of the job seeker’s greatest tools. Do your homework and you will know the skills and competencies important to the position. The summary should demonstrate the skill level and experiences directly related to the position
8. References Available — Employers know you have professional references. Use this statement to signal the end of a long resume.
9. Typos – One typo can land your resume in the garbage. Proofread and show your resume to several friends to have them proofread it as well. This document is a reflection of you and should be perfect.

1. Understand that the resume and CV needs to be done correctly before you can talk about an interview – Therefore, do not waste time thinking that about your interviewing process or how much to ask for.  Use your energy in perfecting the resume and CV.
2. List down the industries you are interested in – Then do a search on all job portals.  Do not limit yourself to local portals.  You may find something interesting from regional portals as well.
3. List down the companies you are interested in – Then search for the jobs through each individual company career website.  Recruitment firms and job portals may not have all the listed jobs you want.  Therefore, it’s good to look for the jobs directly from the employer (company).
4. Increase your chance of employment by dropping your resume with a few recruitment firms – This recruitment firms will help you get your job.  Why?  They receive commission and bonus for getting a staff to the employer!  Therefore, they will be more desperate to get you a job!
5. Keep track of all the applications made – If you left this step, you will be confused when prospective employers call you and you are unable to tell which company that you applied for.  And unknowingly, you confused with the company’s competitor.  Not good for a first impression!
6. Follow-up with your employers – Call in or email in to confirm if the employer have received the resume.  Do this after two to three days after you submitted your resume.
7. Do not be saddened after a series of applications – Call up the employers if they did not get back to you and learn from them what you are missing to get the job.  It may be some key skills and experience you are lacking.  It may be some information that you are missing in the resume which you can amend easily too.
8. Call your employer to thank him for sparing the time for the interview session – That is when you are given a chance for interview.  Also, thank him for considering you for the position.
9. Call your employer to thank him even if you are not employed – You may not be the suitable one that they are looking for.  It’s ok.  Leave a good impression as it may come in handy in future.  They made consider you for other positions too!  Also learn the mistakes that you are lacking and fine tune your approach and the resume.

1. Understand how HR works – HR will have done an initial screening of the resumes and CV.  They will look for keywords and phrases, and if you do not have them, you will be filtered off.  Those that looked common or uninteresting will be filtered off too. So how do you survive this initial round?  Read on!
2. Understand how online job application system works – Online application is to allow the HR employer to better search through the applicants.  What will they search for?  Keywords, key skills and certifications in your resume.  This is important to understand as you will know what to provide in your resume. 
3. Don’t use Microsoft Word resume template – Everyone is using the resume template.  You won’t be different from them and leave you a higher chance not to be filter off.  Create a template of your own to differentiate from the others!  (And do not use those templates on the internet!)
4. Cover letter should write in employer context – Craft it in what they want, not what can you give.  However, you can write what you can give to satisfy their incumbent’s position.
5. Cover letter should be one page long – Limit the amount of scrolling and not deterring the employer from reading
6. Write resume content with keywords – Remember about how online system works?  Keywords, key skills and certifications are just a few things they will search for.
7. Send a printed copy to your employee – Do this on top of the electronic application.  This shows your sincerity of the job.  This is another differentiator that you can employ.
8. Talk to an “insider” – It is easier to get into a job through recommendation and it had always been the case.  Therefore, get a good network that can lay you the job in the company if possible.
9. Fine tune your resume – Fine tune your resume after each round of the interview.  Through the applications (after being rejected or being approached), you will eventually learn what the industry really want (not what you can provide) and you can fine tune your resume to suit their needs.