Your resume is often one of the first documents that alerts a hiring manager of your interest in and aptitude for an open position. As such, this is a document that needs to be spot on and very well crafted. Unfortunately, like anything else, your resume can start to go stale after awhile, so periodically going over it is crucial to staying at the top of your game.

Review Your Goals

How have your goals changed since the last time you reviewed your resume? If they haven’t, why are you even considering revising the entire document? If your goals haven’t changed, you must be totally satisfied where you are right now. Many job seekers boil down their goals to a single sentence that talks specifically about what they want to do and where they want to work.

Review Your Experience
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The reasons we provide when we want some change in our lives can be real or perceived (if not imaginary).  It is no different when we think of leaving our existing careers.  Somewhere in the middle of that desire for change lies the truth of  job dissatisfaction.  Because a career change can have a potentially drastic effect on a person’s life, it is important to determine whether such a move is warranted or not.  

The most obvious manifestation that a career or job change has to be seriously considered is when you don’t like your job.  It makes no sense spending another minute in a job that you don’t like, much less abhor, right?  But what if there are considerable economic conditions to consider like providing the essential needs of your family?  Then the decision-making becomes more complicated as compared to when a person has to decide only for himself/herself.

In this case, not liking the job per se should go a little down the line in the list of considerations.  Occupying the top slots for reasons to absolutely consider a career change are job-related illnesses, an abusive work environment, discrimination, inability to perform family responsibilities, and a better offer from another company.  These reasons are not mere excuses to leave a job since they do not only present a matter of simple inconvenience but real threats or incentives to an employee and his/her family’s well-being.

Other reasons that should send us to the thinking chair for career change include many other considerations such as not agreeing with company ethics and policies, the absence of career growth opportunities, lack of challenges left to conquer, questions in the company’s long-term stability, and change in family circumstances that requires finding a new job.  Employees who do decide to leave their current jobs to find another, must realize that they cannot escape being asked about their previous jobs by companies where they decide to apply afterwards.  For prospective employers, there would be acceptable and unacceptable reasons and you better be sure you have the right one.

The position of “Car Czar” will be available soon and the list of applicants is filling up fast. Do you think you have what it takes to do the job? Here’s a list of some of the questions on the application form:

Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Ferrari Club of America?

Have you ever keyed a Prius? Include photo of yourself standing next to it smiling.

Fill in the blank: “See the USA in your ___.”

Name the model of car driven in “Starsky and Hutch,” “The Dukes of Hazard” and “Knight Rider.”

Describe the last time you changed the oil in you car. Bonus points if it was within the last 20 years.

Without the help of Google Maps, locate Detroit on a globe.

Name three things you can do in the back seat of an American car that you can’t do in a foreign car. Bonus points for photos.

What is the most number of miles you’re driven with the needled on E? Provide towing and repair bills to substantiate.

Can you sit through a presentation by the CEO of General Motors without saying, “Heh-heh, he said Hummer”?

Give as many reasons as you can why Ralph Nader should be sent to Gitmo. Use back of form if necessary.

List three things you will throw in at no extra charge to get this job.

Sing “Hot Rod Lincoln” without making any mistakes. Bonus points for realistic car sound effects.

Name as many pro sports teams as you can whose mascots are also American car models.

Tell three jokes with the word “Isuzu” in the punch line.

Explain in your best car dealer voice why “I must be CRAZY to apply for this job!”

Studying law used to lead individuals into lucrative business positions. Right now, however, it seems to be leading many into a dead end position of debt. While applications for law schools continue to rise, and more students than ever end up with huge debts, lawyer salaries are falling and fewer job vacancies are available. The Best Colleges reveals the truth behind the claims of law schools and enables students to make financially sound decisions.

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Unless you’ve been living under a rock (or spending too much time on the yacht) you know that cutting edge CEOs are blogging. And if Mark Cuban can do it, so can you. Here are a few tips for successful blogging.

• Learn the lingo
  A blog is a singular entity. Each entry you write is called a post. Nothing destroys net cred like mentioning how many blogs you’ve written on your blog this week.
• Strike the right balance
  It’s important to maintain your superiority while also coming across as one of ‘them’ – all those masses who buy the crap your company sells. Espouse the American Dream at every opportunity.
• Stick to business
  While you may have gotten the idea that all blogs feature snapshopts of babies and tales of woe at the supermarket, remember that no one’s sympathetic when your Rolls is in the shop or the jet was grounded for weather.
• Know that you’re not cool
  No matter how many times you heard your kid, or grandkid, or the Joe Bros say it, you can’t pull it off. K Beeyatch? Stay away from teen speak. Just saying.
• Never talk money
  Your own that is – no matter how stoked you are for tat $10 million bonus, do NOT share your enthusiasm with your readers. Complaining about your tax bracket, ivy league tuition payments, and upkeep on the Hamptons home is also a bad idea.

Most important, give of yourself when you blog. Take the time to sit down and write something of value. It’s not like you’re busy doing anything else.

L’Oreal is one of the top cosmetics companies in the world. The French company owns a wide range of brands — Shue Uemura, Maybelline, Lancome, Kiehl’s and Garnier. L’Oreal is a big player in the cosmetics industry so it goes without saying anything it does will be closely scrutinized. And, let’s face it, in a business as shallow as beauty, you’d think it will be easy to avoid certain pitfalls. Unfortunately, the guys at L’Oreal are too engrossed on what they consider as “beauty” that they don’t even realize these pitfalls even if it’s already staring them in the face.

Just recently, L’Oreal was found guilty of racial discrimination by the French Supreme Court. The conviction stems from the company’s policy that Garnier sales staff should be “bleu, blanc, rouge” — the colors of the French flag but also the company’s code for white French people. What were they thinking? That people won’t likely buy lipstick from a person who’s not white? It’s just stupid beyond words. How can they even think their bottomline can be affected by the ethnicity of the sale staff. I want to buy hairgel, I won’t care if the salesperson’s from Mars, okay, I probably would, but only in so much as I’d want to strike up a conversation with a person from another planet.

In this day and age, it’s quite shocking that a company as progressive as L’Oreal would still propagate discrimination. It just reeks of bad taste offensiveness. I mean, the French has been described as rude and aloof but, I don’t believe they’re racist. L’Oreal is giving the French people a bad reputation.

Come on, L’Oreal guys! I think you know that beauty is not just skin deep. Merde!

Often times, colleagues are too busy doing their jobs to recognize just how important you are. They fail to get your input on the latest big project or leave you out of a luncheon with your company’s biggest client.

Not only is this frustrating, it’s an attack on your ego and should be taken personally.

Here are ten quick ways to exert your power within your office and gain the respect you deserve from colleagues: Continue reading »

CareerCast.com, a new job site, evaluated 200 professions to determine the best and worst jobs in America based on five criteria: environment, income, employment outlook, physical demands and stress. Career.com did not answer calls to find out why it didn’t also evaluate more important criteria such as the size of front steps for smokers, hours before late-arrivals are towed from handicapped parking spots, responsiveness of elevator buttons to frantic pushing by people late for meetings and distance to the nearest Starbucks.

According to the study, the ratings add up to mathematician being the best job in America, followed by actuary (a mathematician with a B average), statistician (mathematician in Vegas), biologist (mathematician who took biology to meet girls) and software engineer (rich mathematician). At the other end of the job scale, the worst job in America is lumberjack (apparently flannel shirts do not provide good protection from falling redwoods), followed by dairy farmer (milking cramps), taxi driver (middle finger cramps), seaman (too much seasickness) and EMT (too much see sickness).

Of course, the average American has no chance of getting a job as a mathematician, either because he doesn’t like math or he’s a she. And the average American would never work as a lumberjack, especially after seeing any of the 30-odd sequels to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. What the average American is qualified for is a mediocre job. So, straight from the middle of the Best and Worst Jobs in America listing, here are the 10 Most Mediocre Jobs In America:

Typist: You know you’re mediocre when you know what a “carriage return” is.

Pharmacist: The only drug pushers who can’t accept payment in sex.

Piano tuner: No matter how hard you try, you can’t fix bad playing.

Bookbinder: People who think “Kindle” is a four-letter word.

Teacher’s Aide: Cafeteria worker without the hairnet allowance.

Forklift operator: A Top 10 job until they outlawed impaling.

Correction officer: It’s nothing like those “Women in Chains” movies.

Meter reader: The high point of your day is beating the dog to the gate.

Chauffeur: Cab driver without the joy of swearing.

Dishwasher: No chance to spit in someone’s food.