top mistakes in a interview

top mistakes in an Interview, which should be avoided.

1. Failing to do any research on the company so they are unable to answer the most basic question, "Tell me what you know about us?"
   
2. Making the first question when it's their turn to ask questions, "What's the job pay?"
   
3. Showing up under-dressed, looking disheveled and chewing gum.
   
4. Arriving clearly hungover, sick, and smelling of booze.
   
5. Taking calls and/or texting during the interview.
   
6. Showing up late.
   
7. Trash-talking a former employer.
   
8. Swearing.
   
9. Telling the employer what they think they are doing wrong in their business model without being asked for their opinion.

"why" in your Profile

"why" in your Profile







Employers know that college students and entry level employees don't always have the highest level of responsibilities. The honest truth is they don't care.

Employers are looking for people who understand how their part fits into the larger picture and can value their contribution to the larger project, even on tasks that may seem mundane or menial.

The fastest and easiest way to show this is to talk about how your part fits into the larger whole. For example, prepared presentations for the manager/director/whoever is a common statement on resumes. Why were you making those presentations? Who was your boss presenting to? Why were those numbers important? Were they trying to generate sales, solve a problem,

Accomplishments in your Profile

Accomplishments in your Profile





Many resumes are duties-driven when they should be accomplishments-driven. Job-seekers should, for example, NEVER use expressions like "Duties included," "Responsibilities included," or "Responsible for." That's job-description language, not accomplishments-oriented resume language that sells. After all, if you were an employer and wanted to run a successful organization, would you be looking for candidates who can perform only their basic job functions, or would you want employees who can make real contributions? In these days in which most resumes are placed into keyword-searchable databases, you won't find employers searching resumes for words like "responsibilities," "duties," or "responsible for."

Instead, focus on accomplishments that set you apart from other job candidates. In each job, what special things did you do to set yourself apart? How did you do the job better than anyone else or than anyone else could have done? What did you do to make it your own? What special things did you do to impress your boss so that you might be promoted? What were the problems or challenges that you or the organization faced? What did you do to overcome the problems? What were the results of your efforts? How did the organization benefit from your performance? How did you leave your employers better off than before you worked for them? How have you helped your employer to:

• make money
• save money
• save time
• make work easier and more efficient
• solve a specific problem
• be more competitive
• build relationships
• expand the business
• attract new customers
• retain existing customers 

Accomplishments are the points that increase reader's interest, stimulate a request for a job interview, and help sell you to an employer -- much more so than everyday job duties. Research suggests that content elements that propel employers to immediately discard resumes include a focus on duties instead of accomplishments, while documented achievements were highly ranked among content elements that employers look for. Be sure also that the accomplishments you list support your career goals.

We also advise against isolating accomplishments in a section by themselves. Everything on your resume should be accomplishments-driven, and isolating accomplishments suggests that the other things you did in your jobs were NOT accomplishments.

Transferable Skills in your Profile

Transferable Skills in your Profile




One of the most important concepts you will ever encounter in the job-hunting process is that of transferable job skills. The deft use of transferable skills should pervade your job search and be a key factor in your resume, cover letter, and interview strategies.

What are transferable skills? Simply put, they are skills you have acquired during any activity in your life -- jobs, classes, projects, parenting, hobbies, sports, virtually anything -- that are transferable and applicable to what you want to do in your next job.

Always portray your skills in your resume as applicable to the job you seek. If you have good experience and you're seeking in a job in the same field you've pursued in the past, portraying your skills as transferable is relatively easy. But if you are changing careers and seeking to do something entirely different from what you've done in the past, or you are a college student or other entry-level jobseeker without much experience, you have a much more difficult task ahead of you.

Keywords in your Profile

Keywords in your Profile 






More than 90 percent of resumes are searched for job-specific keywords. Therefore, if you apply for a job with a company that searches databases for keywords, and your resume doesn't have the keywords the company seeks for the person who fills that job, you are pretty much dead in the water.

The summary/profile sections mentioned above under Focus can be important for front-loading your resume with these all-important keywords. (Lack of front-loaded keywords decreases ability to match resume to potential jobs quickly at critical first- and second-level scanning.) Some career experts recommend a section of industry-specific keywords, labelled with a heading such as Areas of Expertise, Core Competencies, or Key Proficiencies. Other career gurus disdain these keyword sections because they list disembodied words with no context. They would prefer to see the keywords embedded in contextual accomplishments statements. 

We at Resume Blaster make the necessary amendment to your profile for highlighting the right keywords and our intelligent system make a perfect match with the requirement and your profile.  Please check the keyword in the "Your Score" section and do let us know if you would like to add/remove any keywords for your profile. 

If you decide on a keyword section, consider displaying them in a reader-friendly way.

Appearance in your Profile

Appearance in your Profile






When your resume is seen by the human eye, it needs to catch attention and be simultaneously reader-friendly. Research indicates that employers rank easy readability as the most important resume point in terms of first impressions.

Avoid instantly recognizable Microsoft Word resume templates. Employers have seen a million of them, so they don't stand out. They are also somewhat inflexible and contain problematic formatting. "Using a template or any kind of boilerplate to demonstrate your value to a company is the worst thing you can do to yourself when job hunting," says Nick Corcodilos of Ask The Headhunter. 

Ensure that the appearance of your resume holds up when you transmit it electronically. If you are regularly sending your resume as an e-mail attachment, you may want to experiment with sending it to friends' computers to ensure that the formatting appears consistently from computer to computer, however using Resume Blaster you don't need to worry about the formatting as what you see is what you get (WYSIWYG) and we highly recommend the profile owners to visit and provide us with valuable feedback

Display your name boldly and in a large font at the top of your resume to project confidence; a small name makes the job-seeker look timid.

We recommend a resume body font no smaller than 10.5 points and no larger than 12 points. Type at 11 points is often the best choice for resumes. Don't use justified text blocks; they put odd little spaces between words. Instead, make your type flush left. Employ some typographic variety -- judicious use of bold and italics. You can use up to two different fonts on your resume, and make sure they are readable. Avoid underlining because it adds clutter to your resume.

Include pleasing white space on your resume, but don't go overboard. The default margin setting in Microsoft Word is 1.25", but you'll have an easier time fitting everything in if you set your margins at .75" to 1".

For a "print" resume -- used for networking, career fairs, taking to the interview, and mailing to the employer -- include some design elements, such as rule lines, to give your resume graphic interest. We also strongly recommend a bulleted style to make your resume more reader-friendly. Most employers prefer bullets and dislike the density of type seen in a paragraph format.

Be sure your headings and sections are clearly marked and information can be located easily.

Some job-seekers damage the appearance of their resumes by trying to squeeze a lot of information onto one page. Don't be afraid to go to a two-page resume. Two pages is totally acceptable and even expected for those with higher levels of experience.

Focus on your Profile

Focus on your Profile






A sharp focus is an extremely important resume element. Given that employers screen resumes for as few as 6 seconds, a resume should show the employer at a glance what you want to do and what you're good at. Studies have shown that employers wanted resumes to show a clear match between the applicant and a particular job's requirements. A "general" resume that is not focused on a specific job's requirements is seen as not competitive. 

One way to sharpen your focus is through verbiage at the top of your resume that instantly catches the reader's eye and identifies the area(s) in which you can make a contribution.

This verbiage can take one of several -- or a combination -- of forms:

A "headline," usually simply the title of the position you're applying for, which can be adjusted for every job you apply for.

A branding statement, a punchy "ad-like" statement that tells immediately what you can bring to an employer.

The headline and branding statement are often used in combination. 

Example: 
SENIOR EXECUTIVE
Specialize in raising the bar, creating strategy, managing risk, and improving the quality and calibre of operations.

Specific verbiage at the top of your resume is always better than a vague or general wording.

Note that objective statements have long been used -- with varying degrees of success -- to sharpen the focus of resumes, but they are currently out of fashion with employers.

To sharpen your focus, consider a section such as a "Summary of Qualifications," "Profile," or the like. Such a section, in a reader-friendly bulleted format can contribute to powerful resume opener that draws the reader in; it can be part of the top third of resume that showcases your best selling points, catches the prospective employer's attention, and immediately demonstrates your value as a candidate.

A Summary/Profile section can contain:

• Title/functional area/level of your current position and/or position you seek.
• Number of years of experience (which, for age-discrimination reasons, should not exceed 15-20; "15+" is a good guideline for mature workers)
• Industry you're in or seeking to be in.
• Core competencies/areas of expertise/strengths/specialization for that field.
• Highlights of representative accomplishments, especially used to demonstrate skills and competencies you've used throughout your career.
• Top business, leadership, craft-related skills, both "hard skills" and "soft skills" (such as communication, interpersonal, teamwork).
• "Value-added" information: Skills/accomplishments/experience that add to your value because they are not necessarily expected of someone with your background (e.g., operations manager with deep knowledge of IT).
• Any advanced degrees, certifications, or licenses that are integral to the type of job you seek.
• Language and international business skills, if relevant.
• Technical/computer skills, instead of burying them at the bottom of your resume (Exception: IT professionals, who should place IT skills in a separate section).
• Personality /management style: Open a little window into your personality with your Summary/Profile (e.g., mention sense of humor)
• Affiliations if integral to the job, otherwise in a separate section.
• Any extremely prestigious colleges, employers, or clients.
• Quantification whenever possible, using numbers for, e.g., revenue generated, size of accounts, typical budgets, money saved, etc.
• Positive quotes, testimonials from supervisors, clients, taken from memos, letters, performance evaluations.
• Awards you've earned, such as Employee of the Month and President's Club, can also be listed in the Summary/Profile section to give them more up-front attention than if they were listed in their own section.
• Keywords/buzzwords from ads or job postings you're responding to.

Your Profile section should not be anywhere nearly that long. Choose 3-4 of your top selling points and craft them into bullets for your Profile section. 

Article: The key thing to remember is to close your cover letter by asking for the interview, How?

Covering Letter, which asks for an Interview!







A cover letter serves as an introduction to your resume and to yourself as a candidate for employment. It’s the place to show your interest in the position, and make a personal connection between who you are and why you’re a great fit for the opportunity. Showing your interest is important within the cover letter.

However, saying this ONE thing is almost an ultimate guarantee you’ll get the interview.

ASK FOR IT.

You know that old saying, ‘Ask and you shall receive’? It’s true. It may sound like such common sense and obvious advice, but how many times have you sent a cover letter with your resume and not asked for the interview? It’s easy to do!

In the closing paragraph of your cover letter, all you need to do is ask the employer for the interview. There is a statistics that have indicated job seekers who ASK for the interview in their cover letters are twice as likely to GET the interview. Below, are some examples that you can modify and use in your own cover letter.

Ending #1

I’m excited about the <position applied for> with <compnay name> and would love the opportunity to meet in person to further discuss my experience and the value I can offer you as your <position applied for>. Please call me at <phone number> to schedule an interview at your earliest convenience.

Ending #2

I would love a personal interview at your earliest convenience to further discuss my credentials with you. I can be reached at <phone number> and will follow up as well to make sure you’ve received my information.

Ending #3

Thank you for your time reviewing my resume. I welcome the opportunity to discuss in a personal interview my qualifications and fit for the position. Feel free to reach me at <phone number> at your earliest convenience.

Ending #4 - This is a more direct approach

Thank you for your time and consideration. I will follow up in one week to schedule a day and time we can meet to further discuss the position and my experience. You may also reach me at <phone number> to schedule an interview.

You can ask for the interview with any wording you’re comfortable with. The key thing to remember is to close your cover letter by asking for the interview

Different between Bio Data, Resume and CV

Important information, read the below and check the difference.  It matters.

Different between Bio-Data, Resume and CV

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