Top 10 Job Search Tips

If you haven't had to look for a job in the last couple of years, you may be amazed at how the job market has changed — the development of the internet has made it more competitive than ever before. Before, if you were able to walk into an interview well dressed with a good-looking resume, you were almost guaranteed to land the job. Now, employers are inundated with so many emails and resumes that they can't possibly look at them all. Even if you apply the old-fashioned way, by sending a nice professional resume by mail, you won't necessarily have an advantage over competitors.

This can be extremely frustrating when looking through employment opportunities on the internet, knowing that hundreds of unqualified competitors are doing the same thing and that the potential employer has to look through all of those emails before getting to yours. An individual reviewing applications might be having a busy morning and only have time to read three lines of each…and bingo, you are disqualified, assuming that the company email server didn't send your email and your resume into a spam folder. So, what are you supposed to do in your job search to gain an advantage over others? You can use the Top 10 Job Search Tips to pull past the competition:

1. Be prepared. This means having a good cover letter and resume that specifically covers attributes and experience that relate to the position.

2. Be more than prepared, which means continually updating your resume, even if you have a job. If you are looking for a raise or career change, you must be proactive and in-tune with the current job market. Employers are now faced with a harder task than before with the development of the internet, by having to wade through spam and hundreds of emails in order to view your cover letter and resume. Sometimes, this means keeping a current resume on hand at all times.

3. Don't wait until you are fired or laid off; look for opportunities in your field from time to time. You never know when your current employer may decide to downsize to save expenses.

4. Know when to ask for help. Now resumes can be tailored technologically to grab a potential employer's attention. By using Keywords, SEOs, (search engine optimizations), and key phrases, some employers are deleting resumes that don't contain specific words or phrases. There are professional resume-building services that address this new hurdle that was unknown until recently.

5. By creating your own cover letter and resume templates to suit the job, you can tailor each submission to the qualities of the candidates for which the organization is searching. Additionally, if you are willing to relocate, rather than retyping your cover letter for submission to each new company, you might just want to mention why you want to move there (''The reason I want to relocate back to the Midwest is..., the reason I want to stay in Florida is…''), and the rest of the letter is the same for each organization, so that you will only need to change a few words to customize it.

6. By using job search engines, you can find many of the jobs and employment opportunities at any given time. It is much easier for the employer to post jobs that they have available today, and remove them if they are filled tomorrow. In the ''old days'', organizations would field hundreds of calls only to repeat, ''No, that position has been filled.'' It is much more efficient to use the job search sites such as EmploymentCrossing to both announce and search openings. Hardly anybody uses newspaper want ads anymore because of the expense and delays involved.

7. Job search engines can send you an email when a new position is listed that fits your criteria, giving you a jump on the stragglers that just check the site every few days. If you have your resume posted on their site, the potential employer will automatically get your profile or resume, saving time and energy.

8. Time savers are crucial to helping make your job search more efficient, especially in today's competitive market.

9. Have a reference list ready to produce if requested, as employers still like to be able to ask around about you.

10. Networking is still a good method of finding employment opportunities. If you are or were reputable in a specific field, using your occupational networks can be a smart way to go.

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Top 10 Job Search Tips