Archive for December, 2011

Resume Objectives – The Hidden Pitfalls

Why Use Resume Objectives

Before we can discuss the pitfalls you first need to understand the reasons for including your resume objectives and how they relate to your resume and interview selection process.

Including an objectives section at the beginning of your resume provides a brief introduction to the purpose of the resume, highlighting your career objectives and the type of job you are seeking.

It is very common for job-seekers to include a brief objectives section at the beginning of their resume The objectives section can be an important part of a resume, and might be the first thing employers looks at. Therefore you should put considerable thought into constructing focused and clear objectives.

Look At These Resume Objective Examples

A resume objective does exactly what the name suggests; it highlights your objectives and states the type of job you are seeking.

Here are some examples of career objectives:

· To obtain an elementary education teaching position with upward mobility to a principalship.

· To obtain a position in manufacturing operations and development which will utilize acquired knowledge and collective experience.

· Public relations writer for a large metropolitan hospital.

· Auditor position in the public accounting field in the Philadelphia area.

As you can see, the objectives are short and sweet; meaning they are to the point in describing the purpose of creating your resume.

Doorway To The Interview… Resumes

What is a resume… usually it is the first contact you have with potential employers. It is also where you list your skills and create a marketable presentation so that companies understand the benefits of employing you.

Your resume is also the first (and possibly the last!) opportunity you have to persuade your prospective employer to give you an interview.

Clearly… it is in your best interests to ensure your resume is compelling enough to leave the recruiter with no other option but to invite you to an interview.

If you want to learn more about writing resumes that get interviews, visit a site such as Top Career Resumes where you will find numerous articles and tips.

Or, if you prefer… a cost effective alternative is to use a resume writing service to prepare your resume for you.

Pitfalls of Using Resume Objectives

You may have noticed that all previous references to objectives focus on you and therein lies the pitfall!

Employers are not interested in what you want…

If your objectives fail to match those of the employer, you will not even get to first base! So keep your options open until you find out more about their objectives.

Some people decide to omit the objectives section and use that space to highlight other abilities and accomplishments. Whether you choose to use resume objectives or not will depend greatly on your particular situation.

Reasons Against…

A few experts feel that the resume objectives section can be limiting to job seekers. It makes you be very specific as to your goals. This may be constraining if you want to be general and leave your options open.

Employers on average take only 30 seconds to look at a resume. The objectives section is the first thing that catches their eye. If you have a specific objective written, for example to obtain a managerial position, the manager may pass on your resume if he was looking for some other position.

If you are thinking about getting a professionally written resume, now would be a good time.

However, remember that the objectives section can disqualify you for jobs different from your stated objective… if you are not looking for a targeted job you can skip the section without many negative consequences.

It would be advisable to skip the resume objective section rather than be too vague. Unfocused objectives will put off many hiring managers. They may not end up looking at your experience and skills, which would of shown you to be a suitable candidate for the job.

Reasons For…

If you do include your resume objectives, you should construct several different resumes, each specifically tailored to the job you are applying for. You will want to make your resume relevant to each job. The objectives section may be the best way to create job specific resumes.

A draw back of not including the objectives section is that a hiring manager may not be willing to search your resume to figure out your job objectives and goals… and may bypass your resume.

If you have a specific job position in mind and are clear about your objectives, this section can be useful in informing potential employers about your reasons for applying.

In either case, it may pay you to seek professional advice before you make your final decision. The modest cost of doing this pales into insignificance compared with the cost of making a poor career decision.

Stating Your Resume Objectives

This has greatest benefits for career changers and recent college graduates. Your objectives should be concise and to the point, to quickly inform employers about your background and goals.

Entry-level workers can state in their resume objectives that they are recent graduates looking for positions in their particular field. Career changers should state how they can use their previously earned skills to make a transition into their new career.

Be Employer Focused

An alternative to resume objectives might be the ‘Qualifications Summary’ section. This is a section where you can briefly discuss your skills and how you intend to use them.

This can make your resume more employer focused, as the employer wants to find out what you can do for them. This might be more beneficial than having a self-focused resume, simply listing what you want to do.

Many employers prefer to have employees that are focused on their goals and motivated to achieving them. A well presented objective can be just the high-impact tool that can get a hiring manager’s attention from the start.

Finally…

When writing your resume objectives you have to consider your career plans. If you have not already done so, now would be a good time to get assistance with career assessment and planning.

When you have completed your planning and taken some time to match your interests with your chosen career, your resume objectives should complement the results you obtained through your searches.

Do you know how to use resume objective samples when writing your resume? Learn more about resume objectives by visiting my site at http://rogers-resume-help-center.com/resume-objectives.html

Article Source:
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Taking Care of a Fish Tank

It may be hard to believe but a fish tank will require a lot of care and management. If you have had problems in keeping your fish alive even for a few months, you will need to take a closer look at your fish tank. It may sound simple but it’s anything but simple. Taking care of the aquarium will require some effort on your part and you will need to plan in advance in order to get the techniques right. The normal life spans of the archetypal tanks are measured in years and not in months, but the life of the fishes vary from species to species. These fish have the potential to live anywhere between 3 to 7 years, and the goldfish can survive for almost 20 years.

If you are taking the care of your fish tank, the right way, the life span of your fish will increase dramatically and they will be able to live out their whole life span. One of the major requirements you will need to pay attention to are the food supplies. The food supply tends to vary with the change of season and guess what, so does the feed amount. Hence, you should try to serve your fish with less food during winter and more during summer. You may already be aware of the fact that small fishes are under constant threat of an attack from the bigger ones, so it may be a good idea to keep the small fishes separately in a tank all on their own. Usually the fish don’t become old and die, but get eaten by others when they grow weak. As macabre as that may seem, that’s a fact when it comes to fishes, of course, the tank could always do them in first especially if you haven’t taken care of it.

Fish tanks can become breeding grounds for various kinds of diseases, so you will need to sanitize the tank when cleaning it in order to protect your fishes from these diseases. The fish can get various types of illnesses, so you’ll need to do all you can to prevent them from becoming sick in the first place. If you’re a hands on sort of person and would prefer to treat the fish on your own, you would be better off hitting the books in the quest of getting information on fish diseases. You’ll need to learn about the various diseases and the effective methods of treatment for the same. In such cases, prevention is much better than cure, and you should clean the tank regularly to avoid these problems. The fish tank should have good-quality water and the fishes should be provided with a balanced diet. Poor quality water can stress out the fish so you’ll need to take care that the water is of good quality and aerated properly. Generally their immune systems are strong enough to protect them from a few disease-causing organisms, but if you prefer not to leave anything to chance, you’ll need to start cleaning the tank on a regular basis. You should check the tank regularly to ensure that the fishes are in good health, and do not end up falling prey to some disease. You can generally make this out form observing any changes in their physical appearance or in their activities. If you do notice the same, then it’s time to start cleaning the filter, the tank and change at least one third of the water in the aquarium.

Medication can be added to the water in the fish tank but it needs to be done carefully. If the fishes are sick then it is better to opt for treating the fish than just dunking them in medicated water. There are a few fish medications that are not effective and can actually cause more harm to the sick fishes. As the physical condition of fishes start to improve, you can start changing the tank water on a regular basis again. You will need to remember that fishes require constant care and you can do so by cleaning the aquarium first. The water in the tank is the main source of survival for the fishes, and carelessness here would result in loss of their lives.

Remember that certain kind of fish require special modifications to be carried out to the tank in order to ensure that they remain healthy. It could be the ambient water temperature, so you will need to check the water temp every now and then, to ensure that there are no accidents. Other than the temperature, you’ll need to ensure that the water is aerated; you will be able to get all you need at any of top of the line pet supply stores. Maintaining a fish tank can take quite a bit of effort on your part but once you have done it a couple of times, it will seem easy. The hard part lies in actually putting your thoughts to action and getting to clean up that tank.

There are some wonderful resources out there like this site on fish tanks [http://bubblyfishtanks.com]. Alternatively, for more information on setting up a fish tank or fish tank accessories in general have a look at this site full of great information regarding fish tank filters [http://bubblyfishtanks.com/11/fish-tank-filters/].

Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Edward_Ebullio

24 Tips and Strategies on How Everyone Can Blog Right and Get Everybody to Read

By the end of 2004 blogs had established themselves as a key

part of online culture. “Blog readership shoots up 58% in

2004 6 million Americans get news and information fed to

them through RSS aggregators But 62% of online Americans do

not know what a blog is.” – Pew Internet & American Life

Project

Tip #1 – How and Where Should I Start?

You should begin your blog with a free blog hosting service

such as Blogger (http://www.blogger.com), or other similar

free services such as JournalHome.com, LiveJournal.com or

Blog-City.com. The learning curve for using such free

services allow you to spend more on developing your content

rather than worrying about the advanced areas of scripting,

hosting, or programming.

Tip #2 – The Things You Should Decide to Write About

Although not a required prerequisite for you in order to

write a blog, it is highly recommended to try to find a

topic to write about based on your level of interest and

knowledge. The higher your level of interest, the easier it

is for you to get your quality content posted on your blog.

Always try to choose an area which you can enthusiastically

write about on a daily basis.Try to pay attention to a niche

which suites you well. A niche is basically a targeted

product, service, or topic.

Tip #3 – Always stay on topic.

Opinions are generally accepted but the content of the items

in the blog should all relate to a general theme. The

majority of your readers will be interested in the content

that relates to a specific defined theme or loosely defined

area of interest. Define a topic and try not to run too far

away from it. This will ensure that you create a loyal

following of interested readers.

Tip #4 – Information is king, be informative.

If you are attempting to create the impression that you are

knowledgeable about a specific industry or sector, be sure

that you stay current on news. Checking your facts before

you’re giving out an opinion or a product review is always a

good idea, your reputation is at stake. If by any chance

you’re utilizing other people’s articles for you blog

content, ensure that you follow the terms of usage defined

by the author.

Tip #5 – Old news is not news, but old information can be

recycled and made new.

While blogging everyday can be

strenuous and time consuming, it is important that the

information presented is current and accurate. Information,

articles or any other archived resources can be recycled /

modified to add more substance to your content. As long as

they’re relevant and informative, there’s no reason why it’s

not a good approach.

Tip #6 – Be disciplined and stick to a fixed posting

schedule.

Realizing that blogging requires time and effort,

don’t create unrealistic expectations and be unable to

deliver. If you have worked hard to develop an audience and

a community you don’t want to lose them due to lack of

communication. If time is not on your side, take advantage

of tonnes of automatically updating contents which are

available for your blog. Looking at the constantly updating

nature of RSS feeds, other RSS feeds from similar topic can

be inserted within your blogging post.

Tip #7 – Posting Frequency.

If your blog content is updated frequently, search engines

will tend to spider the pages at regular intervals. Updating

your blog daily not only keeps your blog more interesting to

readers, but it also gives your blog fresh content on a day

to day making it more appealing to search engines. To keep

your blog traffic and retain your visitors interest it is a

must to update your blog daily with multiple entries. You

should try to update your blog everyday with at least 2 – 3

or more daily entries, depending on your daily schedule.

Tip #8 – Quantity matters.

In order to attract the attention of search engines, you

will need to produce a relevant amount of content and

information. A headline or simple sentence is not going to

generate the interest of readers or help with search engine

ranking. Be sure to archive old blog posts to develop a

large portal of similarly-themed content.

Tip #9 – Clarity & simplicity / Short & Concise.

Keep your posts and blog entries clear and easy to

understand. Simplicity always produce better results at the

end of the day.

Aside from the lengthy article a week for syndication and

publication your blog entries should be short & concise (if

you can help it). Should you insist on partaking on the

lengthy road, try to maintain a clean paragraphing style,

proper spacing, use different size, color and bold for your

titles as well as the subtitles. Use bullet points, go

straight to the point and never run out of topic. Insert

images to spice up things if you’re an avid fan of long

posts.

Tip #10 – Utilize the “blockquote” and “code” tags.

Being one of the few most underutilized blogging formatting

tags, these 2 items can help you on emphasizing certain

points, in the most efficient and striking way. Formatting

is simple and straightforward. Just get your message into a blockquote tag, and your message will apear

distinctively different from the rest of your text, thus

gets more attention which it deserves. Take note that the

formatting for these 2 tags differ from blog to blog

depending on how the owner defines the tag in the CSS

(Cascading Style Sheets).Click the below link if you want to read more about CSS.

http://www.w3schools.com/css/default.asp

Tip #11 – Keyword-rich.

If the goal of your blog is to increase your visibility,

include related keywords in the title of the blog. Use the

title as a headline to attract interest. Each item post

should have a title that will attract attention but still be

relevant to the post. The title should be no longer than

10-12 words. Experiment with the titles if you must,

possibly try to avoid general and ordinary titles. Try to

include extraordinary and innovative titles to grab the

readers’ attention.

Tip #12 – Spell checking and proof-reading.

It only takes a few extra moments and can save you from

having to make embarrassing explanations. The hazards of

Internet is that if you’re too late to correct your mistake,

most likely it’s already been crawled by the search engines

and read by many. It is extremely essential to think / proof

read carefully twice or even thrice, about what you post

before doing so. Take note of your language and grammar.

Tip #13 – RSS Feeds

RSS to a blog is like fuel to cars. Mostly every single free

blogs or bloggin software out there will have an automatic

RSS feed generating feature. Although it’s most unlikely

that you’ll find one without a RSS feature, simply leave it

and find a new one, if you happen to come across one without

it.

Tip #14 – The essence of the Internet – Traffic.

It’s no

secret. You must have traffic to realize the definition of a

blog.. There are numerous ways to build traffic. Paid and

free advertising, viral marketing, search engine marketing,

RSS/XML feeds, word-of-mouth, submitting to numerous blog

and RSS directories, etc. RSSBlogsubmit (

http://www.rssblogsubmit.com) provides a submission service

for your Blog & RSS feeds. You should always use your blog

URL address in the signature of your email, forum

discussions, message boards, or any other communication

media. Never forget to share your blog to your friends,

colleagues, and any other invidious that you know of.

Tip #15 – Track Your Blog

Tracking your blog does not have to be overly sophisticated

usually a simple free page counter like StatCounter.com,

ActiveMeter.com, Extremetracking.com or Sitemeter.com will

do the trick. Install (copy/paste) the code into the html of

your blog template and start tracking your visitors. Its

better to use a service which gives you advanced traffic

analysis, such as keyword tracking information, referral

information, and search engine information. Visitors,

returning visitors, and unique visitors should be standard

for any page counter service you choose.

Tip #16 – Make use of your Blog’s statistical and tracking information.

Believe it or not, your visitors’ information

from your tracking scripts will provide you priceless

information on how you can attract more readers. Keep note

on the keyword terms used from search engines which bring

you traffic. You can identify relevant closely related

topics which you can venture into and add more variety into

your blog, yet staying very much in topic. Simply put, more

topic coverage and more variety = more traffic. You may

analyze your tracking information further on how you can

strategize your blog’s content. You can also apply some

keyword optimization strategies here.

Tip #17 – The essence of your Blog is your Audience, listen

to them.

Always interact with your readers who post comments

on your blog. Reply with a brief thank you note or just

simply attend to their questions if they have any. It’s a

proven fact when there’s a direct human interaction and

knowing the fact that there’s a “real human” at the other

end of the blog makes most of them coming back. If your

audience provide suggestions, comments or feedbacks, take

them constructively and inform them if you have any desires

of implementing such ideas on your next update. And of

course, don’t forget to thank them for their ideas. If it’s

a great idea, why not throw in a free gift? Mention their

website in your blog?

Tip #18 – Create and increase the “Why Must I Return” Value to Your Blog.

Everyone knows the fact that Blogs get a huge level of

returning visitors because of its constantly updated

content. Why don’t you add more interesting items to that

return value by having fixed periodical posts / offers, e.g.

Monday Top 10 Tips, Picture of the Week, Free Bonus of the

Month, Free Daily Wallpapers, etc. to give them the absolute

excuse to return to your blog. As long as you can

efficiently and appropriately increase that Return Value

constantly, it is mostly guaranteed that you’ll be getting

tonnes of repeated visitors, period.

An advance notice, prelaunch announcement or anything

similar to that also can act as a short term return value

strategy. Encourage readers to comment on your such notices

/ posts. Experiment and play around with this idea.

Tip #19 – Multiple blogs.

It never hurts to use multiple blogging accounts to attract

more people. You can even have multiple blogs within

Blogger.com itself, but you may also want to try different

free blogging services such as JournalHome.com,

LiveJournal.com, Blog-City.com, etc. Should you have the

urge to have multiple similar duplicates of your blog just

to gain more traffic, it is wise to avoid it as search

engines / feed directories might translate that as excessive

redundant information which simply brings you trouble, and

you’re tend to get penalized, banned or even accused of

spamming.

Tip #20 – Digital Art, Creative Graphics.

Another proven fact – Monotonous and continous display of text will make your

readers run away! Try to include non- advertising graphics,

pictures, photos, and art in your blog entries, but try to

keep them at a limit. Too many graphics also mean slower

loading time and messy text and graphical combination. You

don’t want your blog to look messy. Most of the time,

graphics can bring your blog to life. Pictures can make

boring texts interesting no matter how long it is. Graphical

elements are by far the fastest message delivering element

available on the net today. It may deliver various messages

by a split second of a look.

Tip #21 – Maintain a Personal Blog.

A blog is most successful when it is kept personal. Try to

include personal experiences which relates to the topic of

your blog entry. Stay away from the business style of

writing. Write with a more personal style and use first-

person narratives. Share product reviews and personal

endeavors, instead of trying to make it sounds like you’re

selling.

Tip #22 – Credibility & Popularity.

As thing progresses, things need to change in order to cope

with the flow and nature of development. If your number of

readers are reasonably huge, and still using a free blogging

service to get your messages out, you may want to consider

getting your own domain name and hosting plan to have a more

personalized Blog.

Domain names and hosting plans are pretty much

straightforward. Research is all what it takes to get the

best of all the available options. For the most highly

recommended comprehensive listing of Free Blogging software

out there, drop by at http://www.opensourcecms.com. This is

by far the best place to drop by if you want to get your

research done about which blogging software to choose.

Reviews, ratings, public votes, demos, etc are provided. And

the best thing is, all of them are Open Source, which means

they are totally free. Try going through the server

requirements for each software before purchasing your

web hosting.

Tip 23# – Customize the look of your Blog

If you happen to be using one of the Free blogging services

out there, you might notice that most of us are using the

same template again and again for our blogs. It is well

understood that not everybody has the technical knowledge to

change the layout as how they want it to be, but if you have

the knowledge, by all means try to customize it and make it

look DIFFERENT. You can grab that extra attention, if you’re

different in certain ways. Create that image for yourself.

Tip #24 – Blog and Make Money

Once your blog has gained some real momentum and your blog

traffic is increasing then it is time to start thinking

if you want to turn your traffic into profit. Some of the

recommended income generating sources are as follow :-

Google Adsense, Amazon Associate program (www.amazon.com),

Blogads.com, Crispads.com, Tagword.com, Affiliate Programs

and any advertising related text links can be your place to

start off.

Final #Tip – Conclusion.

Following these blogging tips should make your blogging

experience much more rewarding. Blogging is generally done

out of interest and enthusiasm and sometimes for income

generating purposes. The flexibility of blogging will never

cease to expand. Through time, dedication, and persistence

you will be rewarded with all the royalties of blogging.

About the Author

John Teh is an internet blogger enthusiast, exposed to the fun and the extreme possibilities of blogging on the net. Get to know more about the author at his homepage.
http://www.rssblogsubmit.com

Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Teh

The Difference Between A Handicap and Scratch Bowling Tournament

The game of bowling does not change much when rules and scoring are concerned. The only difference between the games is whether or not a handicap is used to score. This is what makes a handicap and scratch bowling tournament different from the other.

In a handicap tournament, you have an advantage when playing against a competitor who is a higher average than you. This is not true of a scratch bowling tournament. You also have to play a few games to get that average total to be able to use the formula for the handicap. This is also not applied in a scratch bowling tournament. What makes the scratch bowling tournament harder than other tournaments? The answer is simply that your average is unchanged by the handicap score and your game score is your average. For example, if you roll a 180 on your game, your scratch bowling tournament score is also 180. Nothing changes the scratch bowling tournament score.

Many players love the scratch bowling tournament that is held near their area. It is definitely not hard to find one. You can be of any age to join a scratch bowling tournament. There are scratch bowling tournaments for junior players, senior age players, and everything in-between. Age is not a factor in the great sport of bowling. Fun should be had by all no matter if they are in a scratch bowling tournament or not.

Scratch bowling tournament games would seem to be more fairly matched than those games offering the player a handicap. The scratch bowling tournament games also seem to be more competitive and worth more effort especially if your average tends to be lower than the other players. This means you will work harder to bring up your average for those Scratch bowling tournament games. You seem to become a more spirited player when participating in a scratch bowling tournament.

It is possible to play Scratch bowling tournament games not only in individual divisions but also in team, doubles, and triples. The difference is the scores are really what you bowl. This makes the game easier for the members to score. The scratch bowling tournament game seems to be a lot more fun than that of the handicap game. Less to concentrate on and more raw bowling skill happening.

If you are interested in joining a scratch bowling tournament league in your area, it is best to talk to someone who works for your local bowling alley. They can tell you who to get in touch with concerning membership in a scratch bowling tournament league team. Remember, handicap bowling is fine for some but when it comes right down to a good old fashioned game of bowling; nothing beats the scratch bowling tournament. Not only does it bring out the best in those participating, it also brings out their competitive nature. You will not be disappointed in the scratch bowling tournament at any point of the game.

Jordan Matthews is an internet entrepreneur with a 239 average, who enjoys bowling at local ABT tournaments every weekend. Visit Jordan’s Bowling Website for more information about bowling in tournaments and improving your scores.

Article Source:
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