Optimal Resume Blog

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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It’s Customer Service Week - a time to celebrate customer service employees, and the hard work they do each day. Optimal Resume’s customer feedback is some of the highest in the industry, and if you’ve worked with our customer service team, it’s easy to see why.

Jeff, Shonna, and I (Katie) make up the customer service team here at Optimal Resume. Everything from basic tech support to new client training to advanced website questions are handled by these three people. Even with such a large list of duties, we still find ways to offer quick and thorough responses to our customers. In most cases, a question or support request can be handled in less than one business day. The rare cases that last longer than one day could be due to a few common reasons:

• One of the customer service reps collapsed while competing for the land speed record in answering phones
• Natural disaster/ power outage/ zombie apocalypse
• Dog ate our support request (We have a dog-friendly office, so this is a valid concern for us)

So make sure you give customer service workers everywhere a high-five of appreciation this week. And if you run into an Optimal rep in the near future, they would love to hear your feedback!

Filed under: Career Centers using Optimal, For Job Seekers by Katie Lempicke
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Some of you attended the fantastic webinar with our guest speaker Jerry Houser of Willamette University. I just got an update from him, and he’s plowing ahead with the strategies he outlined in his talk. Good news for all of us — they are working! He saw a record number of incoming freshmen register for services. At last count, approximately 40% of them signed up BEFORE they even arrived for their first class. Even if you weren’t able to hear him speak, I want to share some of his strategy and how Optimal can help you replicate it.

Entering freshman and their parents are in high gear. They want to cross their T’s and dot their I’s as they register for classes, hoping to get off to the right start. Sure, a few months from now and you’ll see pajamas worn to class, but for now you can take advantage of their eagerness to get it just right. Here’s how:

• Gather email addresses for freshmen. You can get them from the registrar at most schools. Consider writing to their parents as well.
• Send them a message like the one below. You can also include a link to a 3-minute video if you like, explaining what your office does, and what resumes are all about. You can use a tool like Jing, which is so easy you’ll have a video in a flash.
• Ask them to sign up for the service. Give a deadline and clear instructions with a link to your Optimal site. Consider offering a small prize drawing for those who sign up on time.
• Invite them to complete a rough draft of their resume, and if you’re feeling extra ambitious (or caffeinated) ask them to use the Review Center to submit the draft to you. It’s a great way to get the dialogue going early.

Good luck! I know we’d all like to see record-breaking engagement from students. Using Optimal means you don’t have to add hours to the day to serve greater numbers of students. You can invite them to use the award-winning tools you put in place for them, and streamline the process of helping students in-person. If the support team can help in achieving your engagement goals, don’t hesitate to let us know.

Sample Letter to Freshmen:

Dear Students,

You’re starting a brand new adventure, and a few years from now you’ll get your first job in your chosen field… IF you plan creatively and take action early. This is the perfect time to start thinking about what your dream career looks like, what you want to achieve, and getting help with your roadmap. The Career Services Office is here to help.

We are writing with your first step. Visit https://yourdomain.optimalresume.com, and create a new account on the award-winning online software we provide for you at no cost. Building your account will give you access to create your first resume, start a portfolio where you can collect examples of your work, build your own website, and MUCH more. (Counselors - Delete underlined text if you do not use the Portfolio Builder at your location. If you do – just remove underline.)

Once you’ve registered, you’ll be able to share your resume with counselors on our team, and we’ll be better able to help you make strides towards your dream job.

Feel free to contact us at (information here) or visit us in person at (campus location). Let the adventure begin!

Dedicated to your success,

(Career Center Staff Information)

Filed under: Career Centers using Optimal, Client Success Stories and Testimonials, Resources & Tutorials by shonnamcnasby
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Optimal Resume is currently on the search for career centers using Facebook!  If your career center has a Facebook page, you may have already received a notification saying that Optimal Resume likes your page.  But our list of career centers is extensive, and connecting with their Facebook pages will be an ongoing process.  So why not give us a hand and “like” Optimal Resume’s Facebook page if you haven’t already?

Our Facebook page keeps students and career counselors up-to-date on Optimal news.  In addition, check out our LinkedIn and Twitter pages for more Optimal Resume updates.  All of our social media links are listed below for your viewing pleasure.  Feel free to share these links with your colleagues and job seekers!

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/optimalresumecom

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2003379

Twitter: http://twitter.com/OptimalResume

Filed under: Career Centers using Optimal, For Job Seekers, Resources & Tutorials 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 free webinars.

Each semester, our career centers host workshops and tutorials to teach job seekers how to make the most of Optimal Resume.  Live demonstrations are often the best way to introduce job seekers to our software, and career centers who host such sessions tend to have stronger usage overall.  But sometimes, career centers may not have the time or resources to put together a workshop for job seekers.  That’s where Optimal Resume comes in.

In addition to our pre-recorded video library, we offer free training sessions to interested job seekers.  Seriously.  If a job seeker attends any of our free sessions, we will teach them everything they need to know about using our products.  If your career center doesn’t have the time to host an Optimal workshop, your job seekers can still benefit from live trainings from an Optimal Resume expert.  And even if you don’t have scheduling troubles, live webinars are still a great resource to offer to job seekers!

Our job seeker webinars are located under the “Optimal Webinars” button on your homepage.  Below is an example of what it looks like.

Filed under: Career Centers using Optimal, Did You Know?, For Job Seekers, Resources & Tutorials by Katie Lempicke
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