Blog Archive

Would you like to improve your chances of winning a good job? Would you like to be five times more likely to be successful? Well, you can if you approach the...

This is another article by my Canadian colleague, Kelly Mitchell. There is always the temptation to embellish the truth at the interview but resist it. If the interview panel get a...

‘It’s not what you know; it’s who you know.’ We’ve all heard it a thousand times but it’s still something that many job seekers are reluctant to get into. Why do we need to do it? The reason is that employers want to make...

Some people feel that they have lost control after a setback in their lives. Perhaps they believe that they have little chance of getting a good job because of poor school performance or through injury or illness. Whatever the reason, they feel that life has dealt them a raw...

Your résumé is a brochure. It is a marketing document and the first requirement for a successful marketing document is that you understand your ‘customer’, in this case your prospective employer. What are the employer’s needs? How are you the best person to meet those needs? To answer these...

There are times when a hybrid résumé is the best way to grab an employer’s interest and win an interview, and there are times when it isn’t. A résumé is a marketing document, a brochure to demonstrate how the applicant will meet the needs...

How you pitch yourself when you first meet someone...

You may not think so but this is about the best question you can be asked at an interview. It is an excellent invitation to tell the interviewers exactly why you are the right person for the job! Let’s look at the question in...

It’s true; you are more likely to get a job if you smile! Why? Well, imagine that you’re an employer and you have two applicants for a certain job. They both have similar qualifications and experience but one has a happy face, and the...

Preparing good answers to interview questions and then remembering those answers when sitting in the interview is something that all job seekers face. In his blog, well-known Canadian employment coach, Kelly Mitchell, explains to do it. And his way is virtually the same as...

In my last article, I said that LinkedIn was an 'insanely useful tool for job seekers'. I was quoting Forbes. This time, I would like to flag another useful site, www.interexchange.org/career-training-usa/guide-using-linkedin-your-job-search . It is very relevant to using LinkedIn to help you get started with face-to-face networking. ...

“LinkedIn is an insanely useful tool for every working person, not to mention every job-seeker and student.” This is how Liz Ryan begins an article she wrote for Forbes a couple of years ago – and it’s true. If you want to be successful in your job search and...

A new (US) study shows what hiring managers really want, and it clearly demonstrates why so many job seekers fail to get interviews. In an article published in LinkedIn Pulse this week, Catriona Herron Watt of CV Saviour Résumés quoted the study explaining what...

There is a simple, three-step process to answering interview questions. These steps are: Identify the real question; what do the interviewers really want to know Answer the real question in the way that best shows how you match...

At least 50% of the impression you make in your job interview will be the result of your appearance and body language. It’s not so much the great answers which you have prepared to possible interview questions that get you across the line; it’s how you look and how...

A question I get asked quite frequently. And the answer is … it depends. An effective résumé can be any length as long as it holds the employer’s interest, as long as the employer wants to read it to the end. ...

Can you imagine an employer having to read through a pile of perhaps 40 or 50 résumés? Do you think that they would look forward to it? Is reading a job application an enjoyable task? Well, it should be. And, as job applicants, it’s...

If young people don’t get a suitable job reasonably soon after finishing their education, it may have serious effects on their future careers, health and even life expectancy. To quote Ronald McQuaid, Professor of Work and Employment at Scotland’s University of Stirling, “Being unemployed...

In my last post ( http://www.jobwinnersguides.com/the_blog/four_strategies_to_help_young_people_avoid_the_serious_danger_of_early_unemploymen t), I recommended encouraging job seekers to ‘think of themselves as self-employed, the CEO of Myself & Co, and to look for a job in the same way that a small business markets itself to customers’. Some who read the article may be...

Job search is a lonely occupation. The loss of status caused by loss of employment is further exacerbated by repeatedly being rejected by employers. Yet a positive, up-beat attitude is essential for job search success. Therefore, to be successful, job seekers need to implement...

Having the right attitude seems to be the single most important factor determining the success or otherwise of job seekers. Richard Branson has been quoted as saying: “At Virgin, we hire for attitude. If they’ve got the right attitude, we can give them the...

It may seem crazy but it’s true. The more applications you send off, the less likely you are to get a job. This is because if you are applying for too many positions, you don’t have the time to tailor each application to the...

A job seeker’s main objective at an interview is to build a trusting relationship with the interviewers, to demonstrate motivation to be part of the team. Yesterday, I was sitting next to a man with a long beard. He was pleasant, was reasonably well...

I have just been reading a blog post entitled “The Great Résumé Checklist” and found it very disappointing in that, in my opinion, it totally misses the essential elements necessary for an effective application. At the end of chapter 4 in my book ...

If at the moment you haven’t got a job, the best way to find one is to consider yourself to be self-employed, the CEO of Yourself & Co. For a start, using this approach, you are not unemployed; you are self-employed and that can...

In spite of some recent negative discussion, I am convinced that the Career Objective is one of the most important sections of a résumé. An effective résumé has to grab the employer’s interest in the first few lines by very briefly describing why the...

“Should I put a photo on my résumé?” It’s a question that I’m sometimes asked and my answer is always an emphatic “No” unless one has been specifically asked for such as for positions overseas. The reason for saying “No” is simply that you...