Optimal Resume Blog

While learning how to write a cover letter as an undergrad, I realized that everyone has a different Achilles’ Heel in their letter.  Some people have trouble supplementing the letter with a content paragraph.  Some don’t know when or how to close a letter.  Personally, I’m really bad with letter introductions; particularly in figuring out what to include in the intro and what to save for the body.  We understand that everyone has a different writing style and will face different obstacles in the Letter Builder.  That’s why we designed the Letter Builder to offer specialized assistance for each paragraph of the cover letter!

Examples are organized by type of letter and by the paragraph being written.

Wherever your cover letter weaknesses may be, our Letter tool can help in transforming that weak point into a strength!

Filed under: Did You Know?, For Job Seekers, Resources & Tutorials by Katie Lempicke
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Today, we are pleased to announce the newest addition to our award-winning content - Resumes for Dogs.  For years, Optimal Resume has provided state-of-the-art assistance to human job seekers through our online tools.  But we’ve noticed a developing need among our canine customers for more specialized content.

According to Optimal’s founder, “Resumes for dogs is the logical next step for our company.  We’ve noticed strong demand from this market, and have successfully designed content to meet the needs of any job seeking pet.  Our company’s long-term goal is to bring resumes to as many species as possible.”

How can our Resume Builder help your pet?  One customer states “My pet is a certified therapy dog and extremely well qualified, but you wouldn’t know that by looking at him.  By creating a resume for him, he can more easily show what he can bring to the table, including that dead squirrel he found in the yard last week.”

Optimal Resume is thrilled to bring this new content to your Resume Builders over the next few months.  You can even check out this sample resume for a first look at our dog-friendly resume samples.  Since Gabi is just a puppy, she provides a great example of an entry-level candidate.

An example of our new content in action! Click for a larger preview.

We hope you’re as excited as we are about this new content.  It’s almost as exciting as April Fools’ Day, for which this post is celebrating.

Happy April Fools Day.

Filed under: For Job Seekers, Just For Fun by Gabi Lempicke
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There’s been some buzz lately about this article, which discusses a trend in employers requesting login information to candidates’ Facebook profiles.  The controversy is easy to understand - Facebook profiles are commonly used to manage one’s personal life, and while many profiles are publicly available, individual users reserve the right to make that information available to friends only.  But what if a private profile isn’t enough for employers?  What if they want to see the information you only make available to friends?  Not exactly the easiest question to deal with in an interview.

There are many ways to deal with a request for login information, but the challenge is doing so in a way that is polite and professional.  Some sample responses could include:

• “I apologize, but I use Facebook for non-work activities.  Therefore, the information in my profile would not be valuable in evaluating my professional skills”

• “I do not feel comfortable connecting on Facebook, as I use it to interact with friends and family only.  However, I would love the opportunity to share my LinkedIn profile to connect professionally.”

• “I certainly have nothing to hide, but my understanding is that it is against the Facebook privacy policy to share that information. Perhaps I can answer your specific questions about my private life if you are interested and if it is required as a part of the hiring process.”

As last resort, you can always walk away.  You are not legally obligated to share private social media information with any organization.  The only penalty in walking away is not getting the job.  And if the interview makes you feel that uncomfortable, this probably isn’t the right job for you anyway.

In response to the original article, Facebook has stated its position against employers requesting login information.  But the process of finding and taking action against these employers is long, and Facebook’s involvement may not stop employers from asking for login information now.  Only time will tell whether Facebook’s actions can influence this trend.  The best advice is to understand your rights as a social media user, and have an appropriate response planned ahead of time should the issue arise in an interview.

Although this particular question is not featured in our Interview tool, we have an entire category of inappropriate questions similar to this.  This category features questions which are either illegal or just plain awkward to deal with.  If you’re setting up a new interview, select the “Inappropriate Questions” category to get started.  This is one of my personal favorite categories because it prepares me for the worst case scenario in an interview.  After all, if you aren’t prepared for the worst, you won’t be able to perform your best.

Filed under: For Job Seekers by Katie Lempicke
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I’ve seriously been waiting an entire year to tell this story.  Last year around Valentine’s Day, I received an interesting call from a customer.  The customer was having trouble accessing their account and needed their password reset.  Simple enough, I thought, until he began explaining why he needed the password reset.  Apparently this user was in the process of a divorce, which wasn’t going very smoothly.  As retaliation, his ex-wife found a way into his Optimal account, changed his login information, and made some creative “updates” to his resume.

Since it was close to Valentine’s Day, I thought this was a prank call at first.  But then I noticed that his resume was loaded with expletives (since we like to keep things PG, you can use your imagination on this), which I’m pretty sure were not recommended in our sample resumes.  The resume damage was extensive, but nothing the “Show History” button couldn’t fix (for those not in the know, clicking Show History lets you revert to a previous save of the resume)

After the resume was restored to its original luster and I bid the customer farewell, I couldn’t help but realize the importance of keeping your account secure.  This person’s resume could have been on a website for employers to see, and had he not called our support line for help, he would have had no way to log in to fix it.  Resumes are a keystone to your job search, and it’s important to take precautions when storing and sharing them.

It’s important to keep some basic tips in mind to protect your resume in Optimal:

1. Change your password regularly.  This is a good practice when storing information on any website.  It’s hard to guess a password which doesn’t stay the same.
2. When using a public computer, log completely out of your account when done.  This will prevent the next computer user from being able to access your resume.
3. Don’t allow others to “piggyback” on your account.  We love seeing users spread the word about our software, but allowing friends to create their resume within your account isn’t an ideal solution.  Job seekers not sponsored by one of our career centers can create an individual account at https://my.optimalresume.com, where they can receive a 24-hour free trial.  By doing this, your login information remains secure, and your colleague can try out our products.

So in honor of Valentine’s Day, show your resume some love.  By following a few simple precautions, you can ensure it stays in the right hands.  As entertaining as that original phone call was, I’d rather not hear from other users with the same story.

Filed under: For Job Seekers, Just For Fun by Katie Lempicke
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Filed under: Career Centers using Optimal, For Job Seekers by Katie Lempicke
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Anybody familiar with our products knows that Optimal is an extensive system.  That’s why we want to take the time to bring light to useful features in our system you may have missed. Today, we’re discussing our complimentary email marketing tools.

Our newsletter tool makes it easy to send promotional emails to job seekers.

One of the keys to success in Optimal Resume is ensuring that job seekers know how to access it.  And one of the best ways to inform students of your services is by email.  To help with emailing, we offer some handy (and free) services in the Admin System for career centers.  We love these features so much that we use them for our very own customer newsletter!

Located under the Contact tab in the Admin System, you’ll find our free newsletter tool, which allows each career center to send up to 10,000 free emails per day!  So how do you get started with your email marketing?  First, you’ll need to create an email template.  We offer examples of marketing templates to help you brainstorm, but you’re also welcome to create your own templates from scratch.

Once that’s done, the next step is to upload lists of recipients.  Because we allow you to create as many email lists as necessary, you have the potential to create targeted emails for different types of job seekers.  For example, you could create one list of freshmen email addresses, one list of graduating seniors, and a list of alumni.  There are endless possibilities!  Using multiple lists allows you to design relevant messages for each group, which often leads to better results.

When your template and email lists are ready, all that’s left is to schedule the email.  Select your email date, target list, and template, and you’re done.  In a matter of minutes, you can set up an email to introduce students to Optimal and your career center!

Filed under: Did You Know?, Resources & Tutorials by Katie Lempicke
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Similar to what we do each Halloween, we like to have a little holiday fun with resumes.  Because Santa only works a seasonal job, it’s important for him to keep an up-to-date resume and career portfolio.  With an extra job and income in the off-season, Santa can easily afford the best toys for children on his nice list!

Santa has utilized Optimal’s tools to create a resume, cover letter, portfolio, and professional skills assessment.  An Optimal Resume website will help him stand out from the crowd and secure a position for the other 364 days in the year.

If you’re curious to see Santa’s career qualifications, or if you just want to see a great example of an Optimal website in action, check it out here.

Filed under: Just For Fun by Katie Lempicke
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Anybody familiar with our products knows that Optimal is an extensive system.  That’s why we want to take the time to bring light to useful features in our system you may have missed. Today, we’re discussing the coaching features in Interview Prep.

Interview Prep is arguably one of our most popular tools here at Optimal.  And what’s not to love? – It allows you to practice over 900 interview questions with the computer, with the option to record your response to share with peers.

Those 900 questions cover a wide range of interview topics, such as Introductory Questions, Problem Solving, and Accomplishments.  For starters, job seekers can try our basic introductory questions, such as “Briefly describe yourself”.  As they become more comfortable with the basics, our pressure questions can prepare job seekers for any difficult interview situation.  Personally, I love practicing the tough questions, as they prepare me for anything an employer throws at me.

But don’t think that we’re dropping job seekers into Interview Question Ocean without a life preserver.  Interview Prep offers a fantastic coach who will guide users on the best ways to approach a question.  My parents, also the founders of Optimal Resume, contributed both the questions and coaching responses to the program.  Drawing upon their recruiting experience, they brought an employer’s perspective to the coach.  So in addition to learning how to answer a specific interview question, students learn why an employer might ask it in the first place.

The interview coach (located on the right) describes how to approach an interview question.

This combination of questions and coaching offers a self-guided experience for students who are unable to meet in-person with a career counselor.  As a personal anecdote, I was required to complete a mock interview assignment for my senior communications class.  Employers from the area were invited to stage mock interviews with students from the class, and students were graded for their performance.  At least, that’s what would have happened if my assigned employer had not called in sick on interview day with no last-minute replacement.  Two weeks of scheduling back-and-forth followed until I was able to attend another mock interview and complete my assignment.  Even though I really enjoyed my in-person mock interview, a tool such as Interview Prep could have offered more flexibility in this situation.

Our Interview Prep program is just one of the many ways we enable career centers to become 24/7 resources for job seekers!

Filed under: Career Centers using Optimal, Did You Know?, For Job Seekers by Katie Lempicke
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It’s hard enough to be a zombie, but what if you’re undead and unemployed too? Brains aren’t cheap, and even zombies need to make ends meet in this competitive market. As an equal opportunity employer, we recently received a resume from a zombie applicant. He may have had the right skills, but his resume certainly didn’t show it. With our help and revisions, he’ll have no problem standing out from the hordes of applicants.

To give you an idea of what we were working with, here’s his original resume.

As you can see, this resume could be greatly improved. Let’s go through each part of the resume to see what can be fixed.

• Objective – If you do choose to use an objective, make sure it is one coherent sentence. Try saying “To obtain valuable experience in organ procurement” instead.

• Education – This candidate does include most of the information needed for an education section, such as school attended, graduation date, and GPA. However, make sure you use the official name of your degree in this area.  Optimal University doesn’t offer a degree in “Delicious Juicy Brains”.  The candidate probably meant to write “Bachelor of Science in Sweet Tangy Delicious Brains“, a very popular program at Optimal U.

• Experience – Although the candidate has made sure to list experience directly relevant to his career path, he should include more details about his duties and accomplishments in this role. Also, consider how your actions affected the company as a whole. Your research in brain-eating could have paved the way for more impactful research and projects, such as eating more brains.

• Skills – Always focus on the positives in the skills section. “Eating brains” and “walking in groups” are a great start, but you should keep in mind that most zombies possess these skills already. Try to emphasize unique skills to differentiate yourself from the group.

• Activities – This is a great area to demonstrate initiative in the community. It’s mentioned that this candidate is a president of a club, yet they do not list any leadership activities. Employers want to see how you have led groups in the past, even if they were groups of bloodthirsty zombies.

Also as a final note, make sure to minimize white space in the resume.  An extra section or job description could have easily filled up the rest of the page.

So there you have it – our resume advice for the job seeking zombie! Oh, and Happy Halloween!

Filed under: For Job Seekers, Just For Fun by Katie Lempicke
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Recently, I read an article about greeting card companies introducing cards for unemployed loved ones. While greeting cards are a nice gesture, this got me thinking about the best ways to help friends with their job search. Instead of buying a paper greeting card, why not focus that energy into a productive job search? Here are some things you can do to help a friend in need:

1. Review their resume. A simple peer review can go a long way, especially if a resume was written late at night. This happened to me once – I worked late into the night to write my resume, and it wasn’t until a friend saw it the next day that I realized “Buisiness school” was written in the education section. Small details like that can prevent an otherwise strong resume from making it into the next round, and a second pair of eyes can help you correct those mistakes.
2. Offer networking assistance. It’s no secret that many jobs are found through networking. Even if you don’t have any relevant contacts to offer, you could assist in setting up a LinkedIn profile for added opportunities.  Our Website Builder makes it easy to share resumes on networking websites such as LinkedIn.
3. Give the gift of Optimal Resume. This is the Optimal Resume blog, so we have to give a shout-out to our individual services. Why spend $3.99 on an unemployment card when you can buy 24 hours of Optimal Resume access for $4.99? Our program has countless features to aid a job search, including over 100 premium resume samples and access to our state-of-the-art job tools.

So when life gives someone lemons, sending a “Sorry You Have Lemons” card may not be the best solution. Helping your colleagues with their job search is a more meaningful gesture which they’ll be sure to remember.

Filed under: For Job Seekers by Katie Lempicke
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