You’ve heard the old Catch-22 phrase, “You need experience to get a job, you need a job to get experience.”

But if you were to pit education vs. experience, which counts more on a résumé? Which is the one more likely to get you an interview? Continued

There’s the old catch-22 phrase “You need a job to get experience; you need experience to get a job.” Is it true you have to go thru years of college and certifications and internships just to get some work?

No.

In fact you can get decent work in computers armed with nothing but a high school diploma and the willingness to work.

If you think you’re good with computers and want a job now, follow the instructions below and you’ll be working fast.

Please Login or Register to read the rest of this article. Gold/Silver Membership required.

As you get rolling with your Internet business, you will find that it takes up more and more of your time. Eventually, you’re going to be thinking about getting somebody else to do some of the grunt work that isn’t the best use of your time.

I can tell you from experience that it can be very hard to make the transition to outside labor. The following things are in play:

1. The feeling that nobody can do it as well as I can.
2. The time it takes to train somebody else to do the things you can do very quickly.
3. The fact that this other person probably doesn’t really care too much about your business and is only doing this for you as a J-O-B.

It can be frustrating, but the one thing you absolutely HAVE to have to EVER outsource anything is documentation.

It would be a wise move as you build up any business (as well as an online one) to take the extra time to document your procedures as you go. Write the documentation such that it is easily followed by somebody else. You want that person to be able to go through the documentation and be able to start doing things just as YOU would do them.

By creating this documentation, it will keep you from having to train every new person who comes down the pike.

You can use text documentation. You can also use video. Using a program like Camtasia to simply record your screen and make a movie out of it can allow you to quickly show people how to do things. And those videos are reusable later on for other people (as long as the procedure doesn’t change, of course).

If you are just getting started, start taking the time to write down your procedures as you develop them. If you are already in business, then start systematizing things into easily followed steps and then document it. You want to make your post occupiable by somebody else.

That is the key. Do this now and you’ll be much happier down the road. Take this advice from a person who didn’t know this when he got started.

I got to admit this is pretty darned funny.

1. Potential employee wants to apply for an entry level network administrator position.

2. Potential employee is given a really, really basic Linux questionnaire for this type of position.

3. Potential employee doesn’t bother answering questions and instead posts it to the Ubuntu Linux forums.

4. Ubuntu Linux forum’ers instantly peg this guy as an idiot because he didn’t provide his answers in the first place and was looking for a free ride.

5. THE EMPLOYER finds the thread later, announces said potential employee won’t get the job and then says (in essence) "Hey if anyone else wants the job, e-mail me!"

This is a de facto example of what we call an epic fail (for the guy that started the thread obviously).

If you could make your living online, would you? If you could actually use your computer to produce an income, would you? How real do you think making money on the Internet is?

PCMech is all about technology. We used to be all about tinkering with the insides of your computer. There are still many who enjoy doing that, but the emphasis has moved on. The emphasis today is on what you DO with your computer. Your computer is simply a tool to be used.

In this light, PCMech is going to begin to put more emphasis on using the power of the Internet to actually make money.

Continued

The first thing that you want to remember when you are at a job interview is that first impressions count. Dress appropriately for the job. No matter what, though, never wear jeans to a job interview – it doesn’t matter how casual the job is that you are applying for, jeans are inappropriate in any situation.

Please Login or Register to read the rest of this article. Gold/Silver Membership required.

Your reference sheet is important to have as well – like we stated earlier. While this will not be mailed along with your resume and cover letter, you will still need to have it on hand during an interview so that you can produce it when your potential employer asks for it.

Please Login or Register to read the rest of this article. Gold/Silver Membership required.

As we’ve said, the cover letter can be just as important as the resume, so you will want it to look as professional and intriguing as it can. We found a few sample letters online that you may want to use to refer to when crafting your own cover letters.

Please Login or Register to read the rest of this article. Gold/Silver Membership required.

You are trying to get a job and you are all ready with your resume, reference sheet, and cover letter. Before you get all excited and put your info in the mail, you will want to go through a few check points.

First and foremost, run a spell check on your computer. But don’t stop there. Read your documents over and over to make sure there are no typographical or grammatical errors. It might also help to have someone else read over them as well to be sure that it looks the way it should.

The more people who see your resume, the more likely that misspelled words and awkward phrases will be seen (and corrected).

Here is a checklist to keep in mind for your cover letter:

Please Login or Register to read the rest of this article. Gold/Silver Membership required.

The purpose of a cover letter is to introduce you and your resume as well as give some additional information about yourself to potential employers. You may also want to point out some parts of your resume you want the employer to pay special attention to.

Please Login or Register to read the rest of this article. Gold/Silver Membership required.

You will want to have several different people on hand who will vouch for you as far as your character, your work habits, your work ethics, and your general value and worth as an employee and person.

Please Login or Register to read the rest of this article. Gold/Silver Membership required.

You can choose a few different ways to word this section. If you like, it can be titled “Activities and Honors” or “Awards and Organizations”. It really is up to you. You have to tailor your resume to your specific needs as well as towards what type of job you are applying for.

Please Login or Register to read the rest of this article. Gold/Silver Membership required.

While not all resumes contain a skills section, this may be helpful when you want to emphasize the skills you have acquired from your various jobs or activities, rather than the duties, or the job title.

Please Login or Register to read the rest of this article. Gold/Silver Membership required.

This section can be set up much like the job experience section – it all really depends on what format you are choosing for your resume. This section is an important one for most students, and it is a required element of the resume. In this section, you should include:

Please Login or Register to read the rest of this article. Gold/Silver Membership required.

This is the most complex section of your resume, and it is required, although you have a great deal of freedom in the way your present your experiences. To get started on this section, make a list of your job titles and the names, dates and locations of places where you worked.

Please Login or Register to read the rest of this article. Gold/Silver Membership required.

There are two schools of thought regarding an objective statement. Some people say you shouldn’t include this on a resume because that is what your cover letter is for. Other people say that stating what you want to accomplish in your career is probably the most important part of the resume.

Please Login or Register to read the rest of this article. Gold/Silver Membership required.

The heading of your resume provides basic contact information about you. That means your name, address, any telephone numbers you are available at and your e-mail address. You can arrange this information in a variety of ways. The simple way is like this:

Please Login or Register to read the rest of this article. Gold/Silver Membership required.

In preparing your resume, the more you know about the position you are targeting, the better. If you know the company’s missions and goals, if you understand the needs of the position, if you recognize the company’s “concerns,” and if you know who comprises the company’s competition, you will be prepared. AND you (and your unique skills and experience) can meet the needs of all the above (you have accurately assessed your own value to those who have employed you in the past), you will have the material necessary to create an effective marketing piece.

Please Login or Register to read the rest of this article. Gold/Silver Membership required.

The resume is a selling tool that outlines your skills and experiences so an employer can see, at a glance, how you can contribute to the employer’s workplace. Your resume has to sell you in short order.

While you may have all the requirements for a particular position, your resume is a failure if the employer does not instantly come to the conclusion that you “have what it takes.” The first hurdle your resume has to pass–whether it ends up in the “consider file” or the “reject file”–may take less than thirty seconds.

Please Login or Register to read the rest of this article. Gold/Silver Membership required.

Everyone in the business world knows that having a good, strong resume can mean the difference between getting a job and not getting a job. You will need to have a resume that is crafted professionally and that will reflect you, your job abilities, and your experience.

Having a good looking resume is so important when you are searching for a job that it should be your number one priority. There are all sorts of ways you can go about crafting a resume that works, but there is no magic formula for a resume that will work all the time.

The choice really is up to you how you put together a resume, but there are certain nuances that you will need to be included in your resume that every employer looks for.

It is not difficult to put together a resume that works, but it is important that you not overlook what makes your resume most effective. This one or two page document speaks about you, your abilities, your experience, your education, and your accomplishments.

It is the first thing that a potential employer will see before he or she meets you, so you want it to really be compelling and make them want to pick up the phone and call you for an interview!

There are all sorts of schools of thought regarding how a resume should look, what information it should contain, and how to put it together. However, most business people agree that when they look at a resume of a potential employee, they want to the resume to be concise, to the point, and easy to read.

Whichever school of thought you, as a job seeker, subscribe to, you will still want your resume to be what a potential employer wants to see. That is why you will want as much information about resumes as possible so you can have something that you can be proud to send out as an introduction to you and what you can do for a company.

What we will do inside the pages of this book is show you a few different ways to craft a resume. We will cover the important parts of this document and show you ways to make your resume a work of art! We will also give you some tips and tricks to get your resume noticed over another applicant.

While we’re at it, we’ll also give you some advice about the job interview and what you can do to land that job. Finding the job of your dreams isn’t always as simple as just filling out a job application and then waiting for a call. It takes some aggression on your part and the right tools. We think we can help!

If you’re in a pinch and need a job right now doing something in the Information Technologies industry, here’s a few quick tips to get you on your feet.

Job that is always available: Help Desk / End User Support

Help Desk, a.k.a. “Technical Support Representative” positions are a dime a dozen with a very high turnover rate. Why? Because people hate the job. However it usually pays well. This is one of those positions where they will pay you to stay. Continued