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Five Tips for Writing Your QUICKApply Cover Letter

Monster’s new QUICKApply allows seekers to apply to jobs by simply hitting the QUICKApply Now button. Should you choose to use this feature instead of going through the normal apply-online process, you must use the same resume and cover letter for each application. These five tips will help you craft a cover letter suitable for any job you decide to apply to:
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The worst way to start a resume
The worst way to start a resume

As I go through dozens of resumes, I’m amazed by how many people still waste the crucial top two inches of their resumes with drivel like this:

Objective: A fast-paced, challenging programming position or other technical position that will utilize and expand my technical skills and business experience in order to positively contribute to an organization.

You and everybody else, buddy. Why should I give it to you?

That top of the resume is prime visual real estate. It’s the first thing I see when I open your email or Word document. I want to see a summary of who you are, and how you can help me by joining my organization.
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Don’t fear headhunters in exec search

Executive recruiters can serve a useful purpose in the business world. If you have never considered, or if you are currently considering outsourced recruitment for your company, here’s a look at the many benefits you can derive through this process.

A human resources manager recently told me “headhunters” are evil, unreasonably expensive, ineffective, and only a “rubber stamper” of resumes. When I asked if they had a bad experience with “headhunters,” the response was “they sent over very poor resumes, and the only work they did was stamp their name on the resume. Also, when I have been in a job search personally, they never found me a job.”

There are many corporate searches by outside executive recruiters that take place in Nashville on a daily basis. Why do these companies choose to outsource their recruitment efforts? There are many valid reasons. Here are several areas of consideration where “headhunters” may serve a useful purpose in the business world by assisting human resource executives and hiring managers:
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September focuses on merits of hiring older workers

The concept of the “older worker” is no longer the stereotype of an individual who is nearing retirement. Today’s older workers are vibrant, talented individuals whose years of expertise are highly valued and are being looked upon by employers as respected and knowledgeable individuals in the prime of working life.This week, September 18-24, is National Employ The Older Worker Week.
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Andy Yergler whiled away summer days dreaming about flying through the big, blue sky.

“Ever since I was 1, 2, 3 feet tall … little … I was fascinated with airplanes,” he said. “All I ever wanted to be was an airline pilot.”

He was one of the lucky ones who had the skills to make it. But Yergler’s career hit serious turbulence when the airline industry made major cutbacks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks made business executives and pleasure seekers alike cancel their travel plans.

The 35-year-old Fort Wayne man didn’t wait for the ax to fall. He left his pilot’s uniform in the closet and pounded the pavement. Luckily, Yergler had listened to a college professor who advised aviation students to get a marketable degree as a backup.
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The 25 most difficult questions you’ll be asked on a job interview

Being prepared is half the battle.

If you are one of those executive types unhappy at your present post and embarking on a New Year’s resolution to find a new one, here’s a helping hand. The job interview is considered to be the most critical aspect of every expedition that brings you face-to- face with the future boss. One must prepare for it with the same tenacity and quickness as one does for a fencing tournament or a chess match.

This article has been excerpted from “PARTING COMPANY: How to Survive the Loss of a Job and Find Another Successfully” by William J. Morin and James C. Cabrera. Copyright by Drake Beam Morin, inc. Publised by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Morin is chairman and Cabrera is president of New York-based Drake Beam Morin, nation’s major outplacement firm, which has opened offices in Philadelphia.
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Shhh — Recruiter on the Line

Oh, to be among the wanted. That’s what many workers out there say when they hear friends or colleagues moaning that they don’t know what to do when a recruiter — or headhunter — calls them at work to tell them about an exciting new job.

But to be among the wanted: It can be a tricky balance of checking out an opportunity and remaining loyal to an employer. And it’s particularly difficult when one is sitting at that employer’s desk, talking to a recruiter on the telephone. So sneaky. So underhanded.
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Employers appreciate older workers

Today’s employers do appreciate mature workers and hire them. Mark Haverland, director of the Iowa Department of Elder Affairs, said skilled people are scarce. “Older workers fit that need. They have good attendance and extensive knowledge.” Haverland offered an overview of older workers in Iowa issues during a “Connect with Experience” community forum on mature worker Issues Thursday morning at Indian Hills Community College.
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“Bait and Switch”: Unemployment abyss of white-collar America

Barbara Ehrenreich’s 2001 peek into the travails of working-class Americans, “Nickel and Dimed,” left no doubt about the wrenching disparities that the have-nots must endure in this country.

But her engaging undercover investigation into the culture of unemployed professionals, “Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream” (Metropolitan Books, 237 pp., $24), proves that white-collar workers are just as susceptible in a marketplace that drains job-seeking professionals of the sense of promise that their degrees and impressive résumés were supposed to guarantee them.

As with her research for “Nickel and Dimed,” the left-leaning, sharp-witted Ehrenreich took on a new identity and immersed herself in the world of her subjects, in this case mid-career professionals who’ve either been downsized or fear they soon will be laid off.
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How to Hunt for a Headhunter

The tasks of putting together and restocking top-drawer finance teams can present busy CFOs with a daunting question: How much time and effort can I put into picking talent?

The answer most often must be an unhappily expressed version of “not much.” While hiring excellent subordinates is obviously the most basic task of a finance chief, many don’t have the time to spend on the task. Thus, it ends up being delegated to executive-recruitment firms. But the story doesn’t — or shouldn’t — end there, experts suggest. By expending some effort in hiring a headhunter, senior finance executives can save themselves the considerable grief and expense that often arises when hires go awry. Says Wine.com CFO John Belchers: “The cost of making a [hiring] mistake is a lot more than the cost of a recruiter.”
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