Career Management Alliance Blog

Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP). An advertising term, the USP is the one thing that makes you better qualified to do the job than anyone else. The USP should answer the question: “Why should I hire this person?” Want more? See Cover Letters: A Key to Gaining A Competitive Edge in the Job Market.

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Your e-resume must be loaded with keywords. This advice really relates to all resumes in the era of the keyword-searchable database, but it’s especially important for e-resumes. Job-hunting today increasingly revolves around the mysterious world of keywords. Employers’ use and eventual dependence on keywords to find the job candidates they want to interview has come about in recent years because of technology. Inundated by resumes from job-seekers, employers have increasingly relied on digitizing job-seeker resumes, placing those resumes in keyword-searchable databases, and using software to search those databases for specific keywords that relate to job vacancies. Most Fortune 1000 companies, in fact, and many smaller companies now use these technologies. In addition, many employers search the databases of third-party job-posting and resume-posting boards on the Internet. Learn more at The Top 10 Things You Need to Know about E-Resumes and Posting Your Resume Online.

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Anonymous writes: I have just completed my bachelor of business administration with majors in management and finance. I’m interested in positions in human resources (primarily), but there are also positions in finance that interest me. I’ve created different versions of my resume that target the two career fields, each highlighting relevant experience and accomplishments, and I’m tailoring my cover letter to particular positions as well. But now I’ve found two distinct positions that both interest me, and they’re at the same large company with the same contact person. How might I gracefully pursue both jobs? Continue Reading »

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Needless to say, I am not a politician.  I'm only an expert about "the job hunt."   But this does cause me to stay riveted on all that goes on in our nation's capital, because I've never seen a place more obsessed with The Job Hunt, in my whole life. It's breathtaking to watch how, in the interests of their next job hunt, they will do almost anything: they will say one thing when they're trying to get the job, say the opposite thing once they have it.  They will even say No to everything, if they think it will help them with their next job hunt.  Continue Reading »

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Frankly, your eyes would cross if I provided a full list of every type of cover letter. I believe there’s only one cover letter, but over the years, professionals have taken up to calling the cover letter by more specific names to help define the purpose of the letter. For example, in my article entitled Continue Reading »

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A cover letter should always accompany your resume. A cover letter tells the employer exactly what kind of job you want to do and tailors your qualifications to that job. Learn more by reading Cover Letters: A Key to Gaining A Competitive Edge in the Job Market.

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Do not falter,

nor waiver and stub.

Do not give up,

learn from a flub.

Each day is a chance

to start over again. Continue Reading »

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When I was little, one of my favorite book characters was Curious George.  As you may recall, George was a darling little monkey who was like a mini-magnet to mischief. In one of of the books, George goes  on a hike with two other young children and is assigned the task of carrying the bag of marshmallows. He ends up ripping the bag and the marshmallows begin to fall out of the bag one by one. After several hours, the children realize they are lost in the woods.  Scared and hungry, they decide to stop and eat, only to discover their beloved stash of marshmallows has disappeared.  The kids are understandably upset with George.  Continue Reading »

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Today's economy has just about everyone concerned about either finding a job or holding onto their job. Below are tips from Dale Carnegie that may help in this arena: Fundamental Principles for Overcoming Worry 1) Live in "day-tight compartments." 2) How to face trouble: a) Ask yourself: "What is the worst that can possibly happen?" b) Prepare to accept the worst. c) Try to improve on the worst. 3) Remind yourself of the exorbitant price you can pay for worry in terms of your health. Continue Reading »

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There are some key statistics noted in Bank of America’s annual Manufacturing Sector survey. If you are in that sector, it’s a great read to understand what skills will be in demand in the upcoming year. A caveat ... 78% of the respondents were privately-owned companies.

More than 62% of the CFOs surveyed indicated they plan to maintain their current workforce size. Of the remaining respondents, 28% will be hiring and 9% will be downsizing. If you’re a high-value target and seeking an opportunity ... none of these numbers really matter. There are always opportunities when you can take away a company’s pain/problems/challenges and help them grow. Continue Reading »

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