Today, I'm going to share with you the awful truth about resumes and cover letters.

Here it is: Most of them stink.

That's not just my opinion, although I've read nearly 15,000 resumes and cover letters over the years and found glaring ...

Remember the childhood game, "Follow the Leader?" Well, it's not just for kids. It's for adult job-seekers too! Think of the hiring manager as your leader. Follow him or her right into the position you want to fill. How? By keeping communication ...

The Cover Letter Checklist

When you have completed the first draft of your cover letter, compare it to the list below. Some of the items on the checklist refer to content and other items refer to format. As you review this ...

When hiring, do you rely on resumes alone or do you also require job candidates to fill out a comprehensive ¡®Application for Employment¡¯ form? Relying on resumes alone is definitely a big mistake. Here¡¯s why:

1. Studies show that up to 60% o ...

This is to catch attention of all the professionals around, regarding their attempts to career advances. I felt the need for writing such an article because:

Yesterday, I sent a mail seeking resumes of all of interested guys for a technical ...

Are you ready to compose your cover letter? Did you get the name and address of the hiring manager conducting the interviews? What? You just got the company address and you were planning to send it to To Whom It May Concern in the human res ...

Figure out what you want to do.

You can't write an effective r¨¦sum¨¦ if you have no job target. What I mean by this is you need to tailor your r¨¦sum¨¦ to the specific job you want to apply to. Gone are the days of sending out 400 copies ...

1. Start with an attractive layout. Use bold and italics to highlight key points.

I do not recommend downloadable templates because they are very generic and dull. Get creative but not crazy. You can use a little touch of color if yo ...

Using a general r¨¦sum¨¦.

DON'T DO IT! You cannot successfully use the same r¨¦sum¨¦ to apply to several different jobs.

Your r¨¦sum¨¦ should be custom written for each job you are targeting. When you send out something generic, it sh ...

Is an International Resume still a Resume? This is a very common question among those looking for work overseas for the first time. When you contact companies about applying for a job with them you will not often be asked for a resume, you will be ...

You¡¯re a scientist, you¡¯re very well educated, you¡¯re intelligent, and so writing your own r¨¦sum¨¦ should be easy, correct? I mean, how hard could it be? Especially if you have written your own thesis or dissertation in the past, you may feel that ...

A career transition is no longer about getting your hands on a list of contacts, networking with headhunters, or going online to look for work. It¡¯s better than that.

Want to neutralize most of your rivalry? Hot-swap the traditional ...

The resume objective statement is typically something that trips people up.

Confronted by the silent challenge of the blank page, most folks Google for "sample resume objectives". They hope that'll help.

Probably not.

I say that ...

Since college I've been told that a resume ought to have an "objective statement" at the top. Maybe you've been told the same.

I'm here to tell you somebody's been lying to you!

Well, not necessarily, but maybe. Every resume has an obj ...

There are lots of free resume examples (or free resume samples) on the web.

Try searching for "free resume example" at Google and take a look at the almost 5 million pages that come back (the less restrictive "resume example" gives you 7 mil ...