I’ve recently attended a few events where I’ve met a number of folks who are “in transition”. Several of them have been looking for work for while and some of them have recently begun their search. It’s a tough market out there so in order to be successful, you need every tool and every advantage you can get. I’ve posted a number of tips on these topics but I felt this would be a good time to organize them in a way to help job seekers through out the process.

Make sure your experience and qualifications are strong:

Last week, I provided a list of tips to help high school students make the most out of their years in school so now I’ve come up with a similar list for people in college. College is an interesting period for most people. Some go overboard with all the freedom they have and end up having a lot of issues. Others view it as a reboot of their lives from high school - they’re in a new place with new people and a clean slate. While others see it simply as the next step in the progression of programs that make up their lives and miss out on some of the opportunities.

In today’s competitive job market, hundreds (sometimes thousands) of people are applying for the same job. To add make things even more challenging, many of the people submitting resumes meet only a fraction of the qualifications (if any) which makes the job of the person scanning the resumes even more challenging. But that doesn’t matter to you, the job seeker. What does matter is how you can stand out from the crowd so that your resume is actually read. Here’s how.

Resumes are not one-size-fits-all:

Unemployment is sky high and the talking heads on TV can barely conceal their pleasure when they share the latest bad economic news. So it’s no wonder people are panicked which means they spend less money which means businesses take in less money. This then means that businesses need to let people go and those folks will certainly spend less money…. The bottom line is that anyone with a job has a chance of losing it.

As if going on the first round of professional interviews in your lifetime weren’t stressful enough, the news media is constantly preaching that they sky is falling. So how do recent (and soon-to-be recent) graduates compete for jobs in this tough environment? Here are some tips to help you stand out in a positive way:

Be Presentable:

It may have been fun to get your tongue pierced, your favorite band’s logo tattooed on your arms and dress for class like you just rolled out of bed (okay, so you did roll right out of bed right before class). But now it’s time to buckle down and get the world to take you seriously.

This past week, I finished up a vacation at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida. I had been there many times before (it was my 9th trip since 1982) and as always, I had a great trip. While I was on vacation, I couldn’t help but be amazed at how big an operation it is (I was treated to some interesting trivia throughout my trip) and at the following that the Disney brand has. It’s fascinating what you can learn by enjoying a box of popcorn and a cold drink while sitting on a bench in a theme park for half an hour.

Meetings, especially when run ineffectively, can be big time wasters. It seems to be more of a problem for folks in the corporate world than for those with small businesses - the latter group by nature tends to be less inclined to participate in business activities that waste time. However, everyone can fall victim to poorly run meetings and benefit from learning how to make the most of your meeting time.

Making meetings more productive and effective is a lot easier than one might think. Here are some ways to get the most of out of your meetings: