Grammar Lessons All Job Seekers Should Know

When applying for a job, there are few faster ways to get your résumé and cover letter thrown out of contention than by making a glaring grammatical error.
These days, human resources departments and hiring managers are flooded with résumés. They have to be narrowed down somehow, and grammatical errors are an easy way to eliminate applicants.

"In an era of spell check, easily edited documents and instantly shared 'can you give this a look' emails, typos and grammatical errors on résumés and/or cover letters are pretty much unforgivable," says Sean Smith, president of Third Street, an Indianapolis-based marketing company. "The message sent by typing 'too' when it should be 'to' can literally be the difference between getting the nod or getting a no."

Here is a proofreading checklist for your résumé and cover letter.

1. Know your homophones
Homophones are words that sound the same but have different meanings, like too, to and two. Using the correct version on your résumé is crucial.

Read More

5 Things You Might Not Know About Millennial Job Seekers

A new survey from CareerBuilder and Inavero sheds light on the perceptions and habits of Millennials. Results from the 2012 Candidate Behavior Study indicate that Millennials -- also known as Generation Y -- are always up for the next new challenge and wouldn't say no to a change of scenery.

Here are five lessons from the survey of 1,291 workers nationwide:

1. Millennials are almost always game for the next opportunity. According to the survey, 81 percent of Millennials are either actively searching for new jobs or are open to new opportunities, regardless of their current employment status.
What this means for employers: Millennials' "always on" job-search mentality highlights the need for employers to engage them on a continual basis, provide reasons why their company is a great place to work and define their employment brand. That way, job seekers who are casually browsing opportunities will keep those companies at the top of their mind.

Read More

Bridging The Gap Between Job Seekers And Recruiters

Companies today are struggling to find employees with the right skills, despite the number of job seekers. While many experts blame a lack of skills on the worker side, recent research indicates that the difference between how employers and job seekers think and behave is contributing to the problem. In other words, there is a fundamental gap between how recruiters search for new employees and how job seekers search for jobs. This gap is causing missed opportunities for both sides.

Here are five areas where the disconnect between recruiters and job seekers is most apparent:

1. Job-search sources: Job seekers use an average of five sources in their job search, including job boards, the company career website, social media, search engines and peer networks. Recruiters tend to be creatures of habit; they usually use one or two tried-and-true sources. However, by not using every possible outlet to connect with job seekers, they may miss out on quality employees.

Read More