As recruiters, we listen every day to candidates telling us what they don’t like about their jobs.  Some of them literally hate their jobs and have to drag themselves to work every day.  Here are two of their stories:

We’ve found over 12 years of recruiting that most candidates do not evaluate job changes and job offers systematically.  Instead, they use a gut instinct styled approach and can often over-focus on compensation and benefits. We recommend the following general approach which can be tailored to the individual candidate and job. 

Originally, the main purpose of cover letters was to highlight the most important skills, experience and achievements on your resume, which was typically an omnibus, all-purpose document.   Today, you have to customize the resume to the job, which undercuts the importance of the cover letter (see blog entry Golden Resume Rules, June 15, 2010).  In fact, it’s not clear how important the cover letter is to employers, and some candidates no longer do them.  What to do?

Being one of the leading recruitment firms we like to develop resources for our clients to help them achieve the best possible results. For those of you that currently have a current resume, here are some tips we've developed to help improve it.  If you don’t have one, it’s a good idea to prepare one, using these tips.   It’ll be there when you need it and updating it regularly is a good trigger to assess your career and keep it on track.

Most likely if you have ever looked for a job you know that the market for good jobs is highly competitive. And that’s when the economy is good! On the other hand, company managers often are frustrated by the serious shortage of qualified candidates for the jobs they need to fill.

These views seem in conflict until you know the truth about the job market.

Ask the typical person how they look for a job, and the response usually starts with "I send my resume in response to ads." "Maybe I send my resume to a recruiter or two, and ask around with friends and close contacts." The results of such an approach vary widely.  Why?