Notable changes include:

1. You may now link your Facebook and/or Twitter account to your ResumeBucket account in order to log in faster.
2. In the same vein, you may share your resume with all of your Facebook friends via the “Share” button on your user homepage. Your friends and colleagues are a great first step when networking for a new job, and you’ll now have the convenience of sharing your resume(and your interest in new work) with your network with the click of a button.
3. We really like our Resume Builder a lot, and we wanted to share it with everyone, so we’ve made it available to the public instead of just members only(although signing up is free, so why wouldn’t you?)
4. We gave our resume writing services a much-needed facelift, and expanded our staff in that department as well. We’ve seen great success so far with our Resume Writing Services, and still haven’t received a single complaint from a customer. In addition to being the cheapest on the market right now, we think that’s pretty good, so we gave it some TLC.

Hope you are all enjoying our service! We’ve seen huge growth this year, with over two thousand employers coming on board and almost 60,000 new members per month.

Good luck, happy hunting, and as always, let me know if you need any help!

Ted Hekman

ResumeBucket Co-Founder

There are many reasons why it is important to have your resume written by one of our Professional Resume Writers.  In the current economic climate, there is a surplus of candidates vying for each position that is advertised, which is why it is SO important to have your resume reviewed and revised by a professional.  Our resume writers have been making people look good on paper for a number of years already.  With their experience, they KNOW what a recruiter wants to see and will tailor your resume to make you look that much better.  Here are some valuable points to consider:

Here are our Top 5 Reasons to Use a Resume Writer

1. Your resume’s first ½ page needs to make a strong impression.

Recruiters and HR Professionals spend an average of 30-45 seconds reviewing each resume.  You have to make sure your resume makes a significant impression in this short amount of time.

2. Your resume has to be error-free.

Did you miss a typo?  Don’t depend on the spell checker.  Common mistakes often occur (example manger instead of manager).  It is better to have a professional review your resume.

3. Does your resume look good on screen?

The majority of resumes are now read on screen; resume writers know how to make your resume POP!

4. Core Qualifications

Entering core qualification on your resume is critical.  However, words need to be carefully chosen to match your key job skills appropriately.

5. What should you include in your Employment History?

Our resume writers will analyze your work history, responsibilities, and achievements.  They will know what and how to include the critical information employers are looking for.

Get in touch with one of our EXPERIENCED RESUME WRITERS by clicking here.  Our services start at just $85 / resume, which is guaranteed to be the lowest price anywhere.  Not only that, you can add a cover letter for only $40!  Don’t settle for any other company to write your resume- trust the source, trust ResumeBucket.

1. Introspection
2. Always be learning
3. Put distance between yourself and the chaos
4. Get a veteran to mentor you
5. Engage with others. Always be networking
6. Create goals. Long term and short term
7. Integrity is everything
8. Stay positive
9. Reward yourself
   
10. Have a Plan B

I purposely left out details of each point. Those are for you to fill in yourself. Write these down and formulate your own plan to Boost Your Career Potential.

Just because you feel reluctant that you have received a job offer in this economy does not mean you should take the back seat when it comes to filling out your prospective salary. People who have been offered jobs  are asking for salaries that are well below their expectations only because they feel relieved that they have been hired in this rough economy. This can be a burden because when the economy strengthens, you will continue to be under-paid while others with the same job are being paid more just because they were hired later.

When accepting a job, you do not want to tell your employer the salary you are expecting. Typically, the first person to speak loses. For instance, you can run into the dilemma where you give a number that is below the employer’s expectations and the employer will accept your number with open arms. If the employer gives a number first that is too low, you have the ability to negotiate for a higher number. Do not be scared to negotiate, your employer selected you to take the job because he or she felt that you were the most qualified person for the job, and they want you!  Just a reminder; try and leave that salary line on the job application blank.

Before accepting a job offer, do some salary research on your prospective job to gain information on how much you think you should be paid. It will do no help if you accept a job offer with no knowledge on how much you should be paid.

Working at Neohire I am connected to some of the top VC funded start-ups. Not only do we work with top companies on immediate hiring needs, but we are in constant communication with various industry leaders on the future goals of their companies. I know what they need now and what they will need in the future so I am always looking for the best of the best when it comes to talent.

Being on top of industry trends and needs makes the difference between proactive recruiting and reactive recruiting. An important part of recruiting is not just knowing what your clients need now, but the organizational goals for the future and how they plan on getting there. Who will they need and when. Who will succeed on their team.  It’s important to know what your company wants to achieve and who they will need to help them get there.

Good tip for candidates- hiring does not slow at the end of the year. Most of the companies we work with want to finalize hiring decisions now to get great employees on board and ramped up for the beginning of the new year. Recruiters are constantly looking for top talent. Make sure your resume and profile are updated on the tools we use such as ResumeBucket and Linked-In. Talk with recruiters about the companies they work with and ask them to get you visibility to companies you are interested in. They could have an immediate role to fill or may need someone like you in the future. Keep making those connections and getting visibility to the right people.

…And if you ever are looking for a tech job in the greater Los Angeles area contact me, Gemma via Linkined or Gemma@Neohire.com

ResumeBucketBlog.com celebrated it’s first birthday on Novemeber 27th, 2009! Not only are we still quite alive and kicking but it’s amazing to think how far we’ve come… And we are just getting warmed up! We want to thank every single one of our readers and subscribers for the positive e-mails, especially the ones about getting that call-back after applying the no-B.S. tips our blog has been providing for free over this past year. Those of you new to our site should definitely check out our archived blog posts for quality tips and information about the job hunt.

As some of you know ResumeBucket.com works closely with one of the top recruiting companies in California, so close in fact that I can bank a paper ball off the CEOs head and into the trashcan! This puts us on the cutting edge enabling us to monitor industry trends in real-time, like what do hiring managers and recruiters really look at on your resume? Or, Resume Writing Tips and How to Interview – just to name a few. These are all questions with constantly changing answers. For instance cover letters are dying fast (to the joy of HR departments everywhere). Unless you are explicitly asked to write one, save your time and some trees (You’ll make Al Gore proud). Use the time you would have been spending on the cover letter to build out an excellent Linkedin.com profile (which we will explaining soon!). It’s 2009! Social Media is your friend, but be sure to use it correctly, another upcoming “How To” blog to look forward too.

Stay tuned. Bookmark us. To celebrate our one year we will be rolling out some major changes to the format and content to make ResumeBucketBlog.com, evolving us to an even more efficient resource!  We’ll be leaking out these changes over the course of this week so stay tuned, and as always, we want to hear from you! What would you like to see here? What type of brick walls have you ran into during your job search? Remember – ResumeBucket.com is all about us helping you for free! It may not be the most profitable business model but we haven’t had a complaint yet!

Heartfelt Thanks from the ResumeBucket team to You,

Upcoming blogs this week:

“Following Up After an Interview”
“Following Up After Submitting a Resume”
“How to Write a Resume version 2.0 – The most detailed crash course online”
“2009 Job Industry Wrap Up: What Have We Learned?”

#1 Introduction
You can show your level of interest as well as self-confidence using handshakes, and you could provide a decent initial opinion too, however there’s instances in which starting a handshake may make you seem overconfident. Extend your arm and point your hand downwards, your palm should be able to touch the palm of your interviewer. When you shake hands, make sure you make eye contact, but not longer than 3 seconds.

#2 Posture
Don’t slouch, no matter if you’re sitting or you’re standing still, as slouching will give the idea of laziness or a lack of confidence. Don’t position on the edge of the chair, this will indicate that you’re too tense – just relax into your chair, and place your hands upon your lap. Crossing the legs isn’t really suggested, but it’s okay, as long as the focus of your body is towards the interviewer.

#3 Expressive
Eye contact is important within a job interview because that shows that you’re honest, sincere, and even confident since a lack of eye contact might indicate that you’re lying or you feel uneasy. When responding, make use of your hands, showing your palm while describing a thing indicates that you are being relaxed, trustworthy, and even assured, plus the interviewer will believe that you know what you are talking about.

#4 Listen
You may display your interest and that you are listening attentively to your interviewer using head motions, nodding is a display that you comprehended or even agreed to what he or she has stated. While there are ideas that you will most likely dislike, nodding is still better rather than arguing and the latter might be the grounds for why you don’t get the job.

#5 Do-not
Avoid placing your hands into your pockets because this can underline your nerves, or can give the interviewer the impression that you might be hiding something from him, or you’re disinterested in getting the position. You can utilize hand movements while speaking, though do not use them frequently since too many movements can distract your interviewer from hearing your answers.

Body language does not always display what you intend to convey or really feel. But, it is an advantage that you understand the gestures that you must utilize or stay away from during a job interview to give a decent impression for that phrase that you long to hear: “Good News, you have got the position!”

Numbers show that the majority of people change careers five to ten times during their lives. Once the initial excitement wears off most employees tend to burn themselves out and go through what’s called a “Midcareer Crisis.”

“Midlife crisis” may be many things — depression, a reassessment,
dissatisfaction, or unease — but a key contributor can be career
issues.”

Other factors such as location, layoffs, and personal issues influence may also impact this decision. While sometimes it is necessary to ‘reinvent’ yourself.. tread carefully because it’s easy to harm relationships, burn  bridges, kill-off networking opportunities, and emp you down the line with a resume which has no specific industry focus and short employment histories.

If you fall into this category you need to focus on presenting yourself to hiring managers as an asset that can fill the role just as well as your competition, most of whom have had experience in tyour potential field for years. The key is being able to associate your past employment history, skills, and qualifications into your new venture.

Four Tips To Transitioning

1. Identify your accomplishments, skills, and expertise that your new venture will expect you to have. Knowing these traits will be your best resource in transferring into a new industry.

2. Extensively research the ins and outs of any new opportunity. Running into an interview blind will fail nine out of ten times. If you don’t have someone in the space to pull information, the Internet is your next and best resource.
3. Combine the the first and second steps above to identify the vital skills and competence you’ll bring to this next opportunity. Establish yourself as confident and valuable resource.

4. Formulate your resume around this information and be ready to elaborate on it during the interview. You will be grilled on it. This is your chance to prove your worth, and where all the above steps come into play.

1. Minimalism is key

Just because Microsoft Word lets you use Clip Art and Symbols doesn’t mean you should. The NUMBER ONE thing that should be in your mind during the creation process is “Is this easy to read?” Employers want to be able find what they are looking for in seconds. Keep it clear, keep it concise, keep it simple.

2. Keywords are your friend

When employers and recruiters are using job search engines to browse resumes they use specific keywords to locate potential candidates. If you list yourself as a software engineer on your resume, but an employer is using the search term ’software developer’ you may get overlooked. A viable solution for these types of jobs (graphic designer/graphic artist) is to pick the most common term and insert the other relevant terms at the very bottom in small text.

3. No one cares about your objectives

You objective is to get a job. Plain and simple. Writing out a paragraph about your future goals and previous life story is almost always looked over. To often a resume gets tossed out because their objectives are a turn off or intimidating; for instance “I want to manage people” or “Eventually I wish to run my own company”. Employers are looking for experience not wishes and dreams, or people who want to use them as a stepping stone. Keep them to yourself.

4. Lead with your most recent job

This is the most important part of your resume and 95% of what the reader cares about. Since you aren’t leading with objective or education (we’ll get to that next) put down your current employment or most recent. The first question you’ll be asked is “Why do you want to leave?” or “Why did you leave?” Save the employer time and answer these questions but be careful, if you are currently employed it may not be the best idea to put your resume online with this information explaining why you no longer want to work for them.

5. Education and Time lines are not for everyone

The only time you should lead with education is if you are still in school or just graduated. The exception here is if you have a Master or PhD from a top tier school. Putting down a junior college or state college you attended fifteen years ago will never help you.
Employment time lines often harm more than help. If you were employed for six months or even two years you will be passed over or at the very least grilled by the interviewer as to why. However this really is determined on a case-to-case basis but more often than not it’s a good idea to leave exclude information.

Your diploma, unfortunatly, isn’t a ‘get a job free’ card. All to often graduates have no clue what to include on your resume and cover letter. Unless you have a few extra-curricular activities under your belt, the only things you can list are common part time jobs which most likely involved absolutely nothing relevant to the position you want.

Often the question that comes up is if you are applying for a full time career position, how do you create a resume for a full time career if your only previous experience in the workforce was at a clothing store or fast food joint? It shows you have experience but is it the experience they are looking for? Follow the quick three step guide in this first installment of Student Week at ResumeBucket.

1. Make the layout professional

• Don’t go overboard with fancy fonts, graphics, or a confusing structure. While you may think this makes you look good, it’s painful to read for the employer.
• Keep it simple and easy to read. You can find resume layout examples in our database of sample resumes.

2. Content is key

• Employers and Recruiters don’t care about any part type job you had in high school or college. Unless you moved up to a management/supervisor position, omit this information.
• Instead include any type of extra-curricular activities you may have been involved in on campus, this includes sports, clubs, student body government. Anything to show you were more than just a body who showed up to class then left.
• Write a 2-3 short and concise introduction about yourself and your goals, be careful and don’t make it to wordy. Tailor this to suit the job you are applying for.
• Finish it with any references you have. Many people lie here and get caught. Employers DO check. Make sure to use reputable people and not friends or family remembers.

3. Clean up

• Keep it to a one page. Employers who are looking at a fresh resume don’t expect you to have that much experience in the work force. Padding your resume with trivial information is a turn off to hiring manager reading your resume.
• Most likely your name will be Googled by employers. Make your Facebook or any other social sites that may come up private. You don’t want them seeing your pictures from Friday and Saturday nights. Instead build out a Linkedin.com profile, sign up and post your resume on ResumeBucket.com. Google yourself and see what comes up and work from there.

Post up your comments! We love to help out our users with any questions they have, and if you really want an outstanding resume check out our top tier resume writer.

The only one stop website for literally hundreds of free resume samples and free cover letter samples. With the less-than-ideal economic times our world is pushing through, your resume and cover letter are the first tools of the trade for landing yourself that new career path, first job, or getting back into your industry. The first step…

You need to have an industry specific cover letter AND resume.

Now more than ever both your cover letter and resume need to compliment each other and be written flawlessly or you risk getting lost in that dreaded pile of other applicants.

Take advantage of our free, MASSIVE database of resume and cover letter samples.
We cover all our bases when it comes to sample documents for any type of career.

Preview the screen shots below to see what we offer to our users looking for a free cover letter and resume in the Nursing industry:

With an complimentary resume to follow up the cover letter:


Not bad, but if you were looking for something a little different, but still related to the Medical field, just glance at the plethora of free samples ResumeBucket offers just for that niche. Resumes. Cover Letters.

• Free Administrative Assistant Resumes!
• Free Banking Resumes!
• Free Clerical Resumes!
• Free Teacher Resumes!

That’s just a SMALL taste of what we have to offer. ResumeBucket.com houses so many free sample resumes and free sample cover letters, it would take hours to list them all! GO CHECK ‘EM OUT FOR YOURSELF!

Find one of that fits your needs, edit it, use it as a guide to create your own, or print it out as is. We have some of the most highly acclaimed resume and cover letter writers in the industry handing them to you for free. You are only a few clicks away from creating your own FREE professional sample resume and professional sample cover letter!

SIGN UP FOR YOUR VERY OWN RESUMEBUCKET ACCOUNT
It takes just seconds!

]]> http://www.resumebucketblog.com/resumebucket/free-samples/feed/ 0 http://www.resumebucketblog.com/resumebucket/free-samples/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ResumebucketBlog/~3/426tDsHuZn8/ http://www.resumebucketblog.com/resumebucket/how-to-get-discovered-on-resumebucketcom/#comments Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:43:32 +0000 josh http://www.resumebucketblog.com/?p=392 Here at ResumeBucket.com we want to help you do all you can to receive more views of your resume.

Below, you will find step by step instructions and a few creative ways to have more people view your resume.

1. Head to Linkedin.com and edit your profile. Add your Unique ResumeBucket.com Link to your profile.

* Log in to your account and on the left hand side, click on “Edit Your Profile”.

Under Websites, Click Edit.

Select “Other” and label it “My Resume” then activate the link by placing your custom ResumeBucket link (http://www.resumebucket.com/YOURCUSTOMURL) i.e. http://www.resumebucket.com/JoshStomel

Then SAVE CHANGES at the bottom and you are done.

2. Edit your Twitter Profile to have your ResumeBucket.com link displayed, prominently.

* Log in to your Twitter account at http://www.twitter.com

* Click Settings;

* Then change the “More Info URL” to your Unique ResumeBucket.com Link, i.e.  (http://www.resumebucket.com/JoshStomel)

3. Take your ResumeBucket.com badges and place them on your Blog or anything that accepts HTML

* Log in to your ResumeBucket.com account, or click here to go straight to the Promote Page;

Link: http://www.resumebucket.com/members/promote

* You can put this HTML code on your Blog, Myspace Profile or ANYWHERE ELSE that accepts HTML.

4. Add your ResumeBucket.com link to your email signature.

* You can use the above section to access our images & logos; http://www.resumebucket.com/members/promote or by clicking here;

* Right Click on the Images, and save the image.

* In your email client, add the Image in to your signature, then right click the image and make it a LINK, then add your unique Link to the image.

5. Share your ResumeBucket link EVERYWHERE, by DOING THIS!

* Go to your ResumeBucket page i.e. ResumeBucket.com/JoshStomel

* In top right of the resume, you will see the following bar.

* Hover your mouse over the SHARE Button.

* You should see all your favorite social-sharing sites listed;

Twitter, Linkedin, Digg, Myspace, and Facebook.

By Doing all of the above, you will increase the amount of eyeballs on your resume. Doing so will help you build a personal brand and a pipeline of career opportunities. Whether you are looking for a job or not, it’s always good to maintain a good personal brand and identity.

If you have any ideas, suggestions, tips please contacts us at info@resumebucket.com

]]> http://www.resumebucketblog.com/resumebucket/how-to-get-discovered-on-resumebucketcom/feed/ 0 http://www.resumebucketblog.com/resumebucket/how-to-get-discovered-on-resumebucketcom/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ResumebucketBlog/~3/8tyJbdpcoW8/ http://www.resumebucketblog.com/miscellaneous/survive-the-recession-toolbar/#comments Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:40:11 +0000 aaron http://www.resumebucketblog.com/?p=383 ResumeBucket just rolled out our recession proof toolbar. This toolbar has everything to help you cut your finances, find jobs, and save money!

Here is a complete list that comes with our toolbar.

• Job Search function Powered by Resumebucket

• Free Stuff search that scours websites like freecycle.com

• Cost cutting resources such as: cheap gas, coupons, bill shrink, organizing and combining finances, current bank rates, and your credit report.

• Scrolling CNN news feed with up-to-date news about the economy

• Stock ticker

• Free Stuff from websites

• Deals of the Day

The best part about this toolbar is that is all completely FREE. Our goal here at Resumebucket to help out as many people as we can with no cost to our consumers. This toolbar can only help you on your way to surviving the recession.

If you want more information or want to download it now click here!

Sometimes cover letters can be a bit tricky to write, so we decided to write a short tutorial on how to go about it. Don’t be intimidated by writing the cover letter; it’s where you can show off your talents and writing skills. So here it is, 8 simple steps for a great cover letter:

• Address the letter to the person who could hire you by name and title. If you can’t find their name use a functional title like “manager” or “selection committee” and remember to never use “To whom it may concern.” You are writing a simple letter to another person to let them personally know that you have interest in their company.

• Show that you know a little about their company. Do some research and be up to date on their current interests, priorities or problems. You don’t want to waste your time and the recruiters time by not doing any research about the company you are apply for.

• Express your enthusiasm to work for that company. If you have a good idea for a current problem a company might be having, offer to come in and discuss it. That’s one way to get your foot in the door, offer to help them with a current situation they might be having. Be creative, use your imagination to get as much face-time as possible with any company you want to work for; it really does help.

• Keep your tone warm and friendly while being professional. Avoid generic and cliché phrases. Recruiters can go through hundreds of resumes a day and it only takes a couple keywords to have your resume in the trash before it’s cracked open.

• Set yourself apart from the crowd. Put someone really unique about yourself in the cover letter. This gives the recruiter some incentive to look into your resume and will remember you. This may seem obvious, but make sure your unique skill is relevant to the job you are applying to.
• Take the initiative about what will happen next. A lot of times people will say that they will follow up with an e-mail of phone call about setting up an interview. Here is a great way to follow up on a resume.

• Keep it to one page. All cover letters should be less than one page. Short and sweet is the way to go; don’t waste anyone’s time.

• Proofread multiple times. This is overlooked more than you could imagine.

When you write your cover letter let your creative process flow. The person reading it will have an idea of who you are instead of taking a template and inputting a few words sporadically throughout the letter. It might be easier to write your cover letter after you have tweaked your resume so that the whole packet flows together. If you need help with writing your cover letter or resume, feel free to contact us.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused but the problem has been fixed and all users should be able to upload their resumes.

Please contact support@resumebucket.com for any issues or questions you may have.

Thanks,

ResumeBucket Team

Getting an online degree is more available than ever, but people still don’t take that option because they might have heard some myths about receiving an online degree. Where did this stigma come from? I am going to tackle the elephant in the room and debunk all the bad rumors about online degrees.

1. Online degrees are not real or accredited: There are some scams out there that pretend that their schools are accredited to when choosing you school of choice make sure your school is a real organization. All the schools at http://www.resumebucket.com/collegesearch are fully accredited and have over 100 degrees to choose from.

2. Online degrees have a poor reputation. Getting an online degree is exactly the same clout and respect from getting it from a traditional school. Even popular 4 year universities are offering some sort of online bachelor degree program for certain students who are more suited towards this format Online degree programs are geared towards students that do not have the time to take a four-year education and employers understand that. With an online education, you will gain as much respect as with any other college degree.

3. Tuition is too expensive. This couldn’t be more wrong. Budget cuts are making tuition go up on average 10% every semester! Online degrees have less overhead so rising cost of electricity and other resources doesn’t affect your pocketbook. Many online schools offer financial aid and tuition assistance to qualifying students. You also save money and time just by not having to drive to class everyday.

4. Online degrees are easy and don’t have lots of room to mess around. Online expect their students to be ambitious and self-driven, capable of independent study and discipline. Companies look at people with that type of personality too! If stop doing assignments and fall behind in your classes, you will fail, just like if you were in a traditional campus environment. The classrooms are made to be personalized and it very easy to contact your teacher if you need help or just have a question. Some degrees are going to be harder than others but it all depends on what you are doing.

5. All online degrees are the same. There are hundreds of different degrees you can get. You can also get your MBA if you’re done with your undergraduate classes. Some lasses are transferable as well so it’s a good idea to talk to a representative at your school of choice to find out what your can do with old classes you might have taken.

So there it is, the top five myths about online degrees debunked. Sure, it may not be for everyone but for people who are busy and don’t have time to commute to school everyday it is a great option. I say, if your thinking about it, try it! Expand your horizons; get the MBA you thinking about getting before you had that full time job. Get that undergraduate degree and move up in your company, or better yet, get them to pay for it!

1. Know what other people are getting paid in your market

2. During or after the interview, do try to get a sense of whether you are the preferred candidate. If you are, you have more negotiation power

3. Wait for them to put out the salary number first.

4. If the company mentions a number, then do the following: Repeat it back to them, then stare at them while counting to 30 in your head. 90% of the time they will then give you a higher number.

5. You can try and negotiate other things like more paid time off if the salary is right already.

6. The best time to negotiate is after the interview but before you’ve been hired. If the hiring manager wants you, talk to HR about raising your payroll. They will try to do their job and not let you get away.

]]> http://www.resumebucketblog.com/miscellaneous/6-salary-negotiation-steps/feed/ 0 http://www.resumebucketblog.com/miscellaneous/6-salary-negotiation-steps/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ResumebucketBlog/~3/7yhoW2UrJVU/ http://www.resumebucketblog.com/resumebucket/resume-bucket-user-manual/#comments Mon, 10 Aug 2009 22:41:19 +0000 aaron http://www.resumebucketblog.com/?p=289

Resume Bucket 101, the complete guide to effectively use our services to post your resume online,  browse jobs, network, and most importantly promote yourself. This guide will walk you through the entire Resume Bucket experience. All of our features are free and simple to use. We don’t clutter every page with sponsored ads and job postings like the major job search engines do. The site was created from the ground up with you in mind. The objective: Use us as the medium to meet your goals through premium promotional features that other job search engines don’t offer. ResumeBucket.com is unmatched by any other employment service or job posting website, so take advantage of us; it’s why we exist.

The Complete ResumeBucket.com Guide

Getting Started
Signing up for most services is a hassle, you know drill. We despise the typical process too which is why we’ve made signing up for ResumeBucket to having your resume posted only take a matter of minutes. Join our community by filling in only three lines on the homepage, we’ve ran many internal tests and focus groups to make sure the maximum sign up time is twenty seconds or less. Just kidding, we didn’t have to test it. It really is that simple, try it for yourself.

Time to get started on building out your profile; by creating a unique URL then uploading your resume. The unique URL feature is a fantastic way to promote yourself and consistantly used as a tool for employers and recruiters to locate you. Your resume will show up in this format: resumebucket.com/yournamehere directing to your customizable resume page and profile, now you are able to showcase your resume and give each viewer the option to directly message you or forward your resume to potential employers.

The final step is to upload your resume document onto the the unique page you just created. We offer a variety of ways to do this, seen in the screen shot below.

If you already have a resume ready to go, locate it on your computer using the “browse” button and you’re set. Don’t have a resume yet? Not a problem. Use our exclusive Resume Builder to create your own. The image below gives a glimpse of how the process works you may omit any information you wish.

Next you are guided through the steps to fully customize your resume. Begin by choosing a resume template and following the steps to fill in information that will be formatted into the template. When you finish the process click this bright orange button – now your resume will show on your page. 

The second option for those that do not currently have a resume on file is to access our massive database of sample resumes where you can search through hundreds of templates targeted at specific careers and edit it as if it was your own. Those looking for sample cover letters we have over thirty occupations to choose from and modify.

Managing Your Resume(s)
After you’ve successfully uploaded your resume, the first step to promoting yourself online and having employers contact you. Your unique URL is listed at the very top of the page and below is your personal status updater. You may change your status to anything you wish, but we offer four suggestions so that those browsing through can easily see if you are “In need of a job” or “Happily employed”.
Above your resume you should see a variety of text editing tools that allow you to update or modify your resume in seconds. When you are finished be sure to click the “Publish My Resume” button to save the changes.
Unfortunately sometimes when a resume gets uploaded the format can get tweaked (this only applies to those who didn’t use our Resume Builder or templates). Which is also why we provide this tool. If you notice that anything has changed in your original resume you may need to use the text tool bar to edit it. If you have any trouble contact our support team and they will fix it for you.

For those that have more than one resume we’ve designed into our interface a tool so each user account is able post up to twenty different resumes. You are can choose which one you want to be your primary resume and that will be the one displayed on your unique URL. Primary resumes can be changed out with alternative resumes at any time with just one click.
In the near future we will be adding a feature that allows you to create unique URLs for each resume you’ve uploaded under primary login.

Managing Your Account
Located on the left hand side of the screen is your administration panel. Listed are a variety of different options but we suggest you go into “Account Settings” to begin and start customizing each option to your liking. For those that don’t want their resume publicly viewable we offer a Password Protection feature, meaning an individual needs to know the set password to view your resume (this is different from your login password). The Notification Settings, which we highly recommend you keep checked so that you are instantly updated on any InMail sent to you, without having to log in to check.
Changing your password is also done on this tab.

The next link on the list is “Personal Information“. Here you are able to input your contact information ranging from cell phone numbers to social networking groups and chat clients. Update your current employment status, configure your desired salary, and set your employment preferences to the industry you work in, previous/current titles, you can browse the other options and tweak them accordingly to help employers seek you out more effectively.

With your account comes a personal Inbox for people to connect with you. The “Message Center” can be configured to send notifications to your e-mail. We are very serious about spam here so expect to see real job offers and networking opportunities in that folder, never spam claiming you inherited millions from a prince in Nigeria.

“Resume Manager” is where you can upload and store your multiple resumes. Switching between resumes just requires a a click on the appropriate alternative resume and it becomes the primary and displayed on your URL. The options let you preview the resume, edit, or delete any of the resumes. Having your resumes stored here makes it easy and instantly accessible from any computer by downloading them in either .pdf or .doc format. Note that only your Primary Resume Type will be public.

Exclusive Features
Resume Bucket offers a variety of amazing features that no other job search engine has, all for free. One of the features we are proud to provide is the exclusive “Metrics” system. This system allows you to see exactly who and when people have viewed your resume. The metrics come in graphic and textual form as shown below. Along with options to change the dates of data and where the viewer found your resume. For instance if they saw it on Twitter it would let you know that person was refered to your page through the link you posted on Twitter.

Above is the visual graph which can be modified by a multiple ways to give you the type of data you want. Hovering your mouse over any part of the graph shows the statistics for that specific section. All stats are shown in real time.

This is the textual part of your personal metric page. Not only does it show you who viewed you page but where they found your resume link, views,state, and time. Very useful information if you spend a bit of time researching the metrics, which will be explained below.

Now you understand the main features how to use ResumeBucket.com and how we differentiate ourselves from the other resume posting and job searching websites. Great. However our goal is that your resume and name get farther than just our website. We created “Promote Yourself!” so that you are able to embed a variety of personal badges to promote yourself practically anywhere on the internet. We’ve found that placing these in e-mail signatures, personal blogs, and social networking websites are the most effective way of getting them clicked. Here is just a small sample of the badge types and sizes (we have them in all different shapes sizes and colors schemes).

Tip: Research your metrics to see where most of the clicks are coming from and invest more time promoting yourself in that area. Maximize your viewers! The more exposure the better, right?

Outside the Bucket

It’s 2009, so it’s safe to make the assumption that most of our users are involved in or are aware of the overwhelming amount of social networking websites. While we maintain a presence on most of the major networks, start yourself off by following our twitter stream. It’s updated daily with job market news, featured jobs and resumes, and offbeat industry content (we love those). Plus you can see the co-founder in a mullet. http://twitter.com/resumebucket

Those interested in more senior jobs in the LA and Orange County area should check out our other successful start-up www.NeoHire.com, which specializes with placing top tier candidates for many internet and .com businesses. You can view their updated list of current career openings and what makes them different and more effective in than all other recruiting agencies.

We love comments! Post feedback, questions, and features you would like to see in the future. Or contact us directly at support@resumebucket.com. Click here to go back to the home page and get started.

THIS MANUAL IS A WORK IN PROGRESS
Above is enough to get you started on ResumeBucket
COMING SOON:
COLLEGE SEARCH AND OUTREACH
TIPS ON HOW TO PROMOTE YOURSELF
MORE IN “OUTSIDE THE BUCKET”

Was this guide helpful to you? Let us know! We are always looking for feedback to improve ResumeBucket for our users.

Why do we offer all of services and exclusive features for free?

Every other website in our industry makes you pay a fee to even have a shot at finding a job or getting your resume noticed, that is if you can manage to navigate through all the advertisements and sponsored job links. The ResumeBucket think tank saw a need to provide users with advanced services at no cost. With the Internet establishing itself as the primary medium of communication, this type of service was nessessary to facilitate the movement for beginner and advanced users alike. We are much more than just a resume listing website, the list below is a snapshot of some of the services we currently offer.

• Personlized URL (www.resumebucket.com/yourname) with your resume on it
• Variety of options to customize your entire account including privacy settings
• Easy to use Resume Builder
• Massive database of sample resume and cover letters sorted by industry
• Manage multiple resumes under one account
• Promotional tools that make your resume easily viewable from anywhere
• Career advice articles including resume hints, interview tips, how-to on self promotion
• Tools that show you who has been looking at your profile
• Networking, getting employers or recruiters to find you

To learn more about all these services we recommend you view our ResumeBucket Manual, a complete how-to guide beginning to signing up to utilizing the advanced features and everything in between.

We know how annoying it is to sign up for a website and then just get spammed with e-mails daily that will never get touched (if they even make it to your inbox). Instead, we take advantage of social media platforms such as twitter to update our users with industry information, career tips, website updates, and content that sometimes may be just a bit off-beat, we aren’t just another corporate, robotic, impersonal service. We are real people designing tools and services with only you in mind. This also goes for the way we brand and promote ourselves.

For example we would never do something like this to our users, on any medium. This happens to be from Twitter.com.

oops!

Instead we choose to not use mass spamming techniques to get the brand name out, we want our user base to grow organically through brand awareness and word of mouth. These are the type of e-mails our support team receives on a daily basis;

“Hey support team,

This is an example of fantastic service. I could get in and I reposted my resume and also changed my password”

“Wow I’m floored at the your response time. I needed that document deleted ASAP and it was gone by the time I refreshed.I was expecting it to be a few days at least…

Thanks“

Hey ResumeBucket,

I just wanted to thank you for creating this website. I can’t believe everything is free, within two days of uploading my resume i had job offers coming into my mailbox :) Awesome!!

We can’t stress enough how important you are to us. Never hesitate to ask a question or request assistance, just e-mail support@resumebucket.com and watch how fast someone from our team gets back to you!

If you have any feature requests or general questions post them in our comment section. We love hearing from you!

Working at Resumebucket.com we often come by resumes and job descriptions that make us laugh, the reasons vary but more often than not it’s because of the tedious and pretentious buzz words that people often use as filler or to make themselves look intelligent (hint: it doesn’t). Yesterday one of our founders came across this gem that had us all staring in disbelief trying to force a laugh.

Click HERE to view the train wreck of a job description. Be warned, you are about to get slammed with a wall of text made up of buzz words with no real content. Why would we expose you to such a monstrosity? Well my hope is that those of you out there filling your resumes with buzz words will change formats and start focusing on real content.

Coordinate planned and researched system enhancements/modification activities with administrative and technical personnel to ensure a continuing supportive environment for existing and planned application systems and a coordinated and transparent conversion.

Uhhh.. what?

So why would we bring this to everyone’s attention? Our hope is that #1, you’ll laugh, but more importantly #2, you’ll take what you’ve just seen into consideration and learn from the mistake. Flooding your resume with useless buzz words not only makes the hiring manager throw the resume out, but you are doing yourself an injustice by using to many words to convey nothing. Keep your resumes (and job descriptions!) short, concise and to the point. You’re not only helping yourself, you are doing those of us that have to read them a favor.

For more pointers regarding buzzwords check out these articles at the TechRepublic and Directory M.

The most popular job search websites are so saturated with sponsorships, sneaky advertisements, monthly fees, and on top of all you are submitting your resume into a massive sea with hundreds of thousands of other resumes—reducing your chances of being seen to slim and none.  At ResumeBucket we get rid of the clutter so that it is easy to navigate and recruiters can access your resume in a flash.

So why waste your valuable time, effort, and money when you can promote yourself the same way but in an easier, cost free, and effective way. ResumeBucket lets you get your personalized resume online in less than a minute of signing up as apposed to other websites. You have the option to create a personalized profile with a unique URL with a recognizable name (example: http://resumebucket.com/johnsmith).

One feature that sets ResumeBucket above the competition is our metrics tool. You have the ability to see who is looking at your resume, how many times it’s been viewed, and when it was viewed. Seeing the results in real time is great to check for the effectiveness of getting your resume out to potential jobs. You can easily get your resume out with the premade badges that you can paste into your e-mail, personal webpage, or social media network.

Have more than one resume? Cover letter? ResumeBucket allows you to upload multiple variations of each so you can submit each one accordingly, depending on the recruiters’ interests.  You also have the ability to make resumes private or public and active or inactive if one is still being updated. If you don’t have a cover letter you can browse through our sample cover letters that have been organized based on different career categories.

Having trouble creating the professional resume and cover letter you deserve? ResumeBucket offers professional writing services that will custom tailor you a personal qualifications into a resume that will impress any potential employer.

Not only are you able to do all these things with your resume, you can proactively search and apply for jobs with minimal effort. With the search function you are able to search for thousands of jobs that are relevant to what you want to do.

ResumeBucket has all the services you need to jumpstart your career. Sign up and watch your newfound opportunities unfold. Have a success story? Tell us about it because we love hearing them. With all these options, ResumeBucket.com is your one stop job search website.

For example say you live in Santa Monica and you’re looking to find a college or vocational study in the Web Design industry. Finding an opportunity is as easy as clicking the “college” tab, choosing “Technology/IT”, and typing in the Santa Monica zip code. A few milliseconds later you will land on this page. Check out all the different options available to you!

Sounds easy right? Well it doesn’t get much easier.  ResumeBucket.com has a wide variety of college options to choose from- ranging from Art and Design to Biology to IT and even Massage and Wellness. Any type of path you are looking for can be found by our easy to use college search function.

Most websites will charge a fee to be able to access a similar search function but of course, like everything on Resumebucket, the feature is completely free to our users (similar to our college search and job search features). The only thing we ask in return is that you take a few seconds to give us some feedback by clicking the red tab located on the left side on the search page or go directly to our forum and post what you would like changed on our website. Our new feedback option will help us get more in tuned to our users so that we can make ResumeBucket even better!

If a few days after dropping off your resume you haven’t heard back from anyone, it’s time to make that phone call. It maybe intimidating for some, so its always easier if you have a script written out like this one:

This is ______ calling. A few days ago I applied for the ______ position in your company’s ______ department/division. I’m calling to make sure you received my resume and to reiterate my interest in the position.

Anymore than two phone calls is too much. The trick is to sound interested and qualified, not desperate. The CareerDoctor.org puts it in good terms:

“The cliché that fits in job-seeking — unless abused — is that the squeaky wheel gets the grease; in other words, the job-seeker who follows-up — who shows interest in the job and the company — will get more attention than other applicants.”

Some employers don’t like the phone calls mostly because of the inconvenience and time management so they’ll prefer email instead. It is important to be brief and straight to the point. No one is going to read a longwinded email about how much you really want the job and then proceed to ask multiple questions concerning the job. Remember, recruiting and selection process can take months so be patient.

If you have sent out multiple resumes, it is a good idea to keep a record for everything. Make a spreadsheet that has a list of all the places you have sent out your resume too with columns for interviews, follow-ups, and contact information. If you don’t you may lose important information concerning your next job.

The very last thing to remember is “Don’t Give Up!” Be persistent and confident in your job search. It may get low at times but remember that your dream job may just be a phone call away.

Internships are important for many things, the first being experience. Hands-on experience with a job that is relative to your future career is a definite step in the right direction. Even if the internship isn’t exactly what you want to do, it will be able to open doors and will also have some type of job skill that you are able to put on your resume. Employers love to see that you have work experience even though sometimes they don’t ask for it.

“Online business networking profiles are still just a piece of the puzzle, though. A successful blend of the old and the new networking techniques will counteract the deficiencies inherent in both approaches. A human touch in the new digital landscape goes a long way towards maintaining awareness and crafting image, while drawing in more localized business”

Another reason internships are important is that they help you network. Often times, hiring managers ask employees to refer qualified workers for interviews. The key is to network with all the opportunities your internship has to offer. Networking takes time and won’t happen over night but social networking websites can make it easier.

“I often see new salespeople attend one or two networking events and say ‘networking doesn’t work.’ Of course it doesn’t work after one or two handshakes – you need to give something to the group first before you can expect anything back. Networking is a marathon, not a sprint.”

Don’t kick yourself when you’re down! Internships are down as well. Employers know that it is hard to get experience so don’t be so gloomy in your interview. You don’t need to be young but you need to bring something to the table and be willing to learn. So go ahead and get your hands dirty and remember that every internship could open doors you never thought existed.

-Spencer

The Internet is the best tool you have as a job seeker to create an amazing network of contacts. Social networking has taken off expoentially these past few years with websites emerging for specific niche demographics which include business networking. You will want to do a bit more in-depth research but a quick google search can give you list of business oriented social networks; it’s a good bet to start off with Linkedin and Twitter.

While social networks have gotten many people jobs, there is still a much more you can do for yourself. Consider carving yourself a personal space on the Internet. For example an excellent resource would be to create a website than expands on your resume. While your resume is a short and concise summary of your qualifications, a website can give those potential employers a lot more information should they choose to seek it out.

Remember anything you do online with under your name can potentially be googled so be sure to keep everything professional. This includes your Facebook and Myspace pages because employers often seek those out to get a feel for an individuals personality. This is a direct reflection of yourself to a potential employer so keep that in mind the entire time you are crafting your personal brand. You don’t want this happening during an interview! Websites should be easy to read and navigate so leave out busy artwork and confusing fonts. Before anything gets published you’ll want to proof read and correct all typos, consider having a friend go over it also to catch some mistakes you may forget. Remember, even one tiny typo could leave a nasty impression with an employer.

This is our nations first major recession in which job seekers have these types of tools at their disposal to assist them in their hunt. Be creative and consider ways to promote yourself that may be unconventional but effectively set you apart from the others in the market for your dream career.

First you should check out these ten rules that no longer apply when creating a resume, and edit your own accordingly. You then need to make sure your resume looks like an attractive document; for instance if it was sitting on your desk would you glance over it or would you pick it up? If you have trouble laying out your resume in an attractive fashion consider hiring a professional to draft it.

Every resume should have all your contact information at the top making it easy for an employer to get in contact with you through e-mail or a phone call. A common mistake that people make is putting a phone number, such as a home number, that is not exclusively your own. An employer does not want to leave a message with your significant other, or hear little children running around in the background. The same concept applies to your e-mail address. Create a professional one with your first and last name included.

Get to the point on your resume and don’t bore the reader with mundane facts about your personal life. Following this structure outline is a great start to creating a flawless resume. When formatting the final draft of your resume make sure you pay attention to detail; typos such as incorrect punctuation and misspelled words give a nasty first impression to the reader.

“A great resume doesn’t just tell a prospective employer what you have done but makes the same assertion that all good ads do: If you buy this product, you will get these specific, direct benefits. It convinces the employer that you have what it takes to be successful in this new position.”

A resume is your gateway into the any company, you need it to be an immaculate representation of yourself. The process of creating a flawless resume can seem overwhelming but with a little extra effort you can make your resume stand above the rest.

We hope this post this post finds you well on your way to a job you love, if you have any questions or comments feel free to post them and we will gladly respond.

Each cover letter should be tailored to go with a specific company. Do not make the mistake of creating a generic cover letter and attaching it to your resume, doing so shows lack of interest and plain laziness. You need to be willing to invest time and energy to formulate a directly targeted cover letter showing the hiring manager you are a legitimate prospect and not a desperate job seeker spamming out their resume to anyone who will take it.

The four main things that you should keep in mind when creating a cover letter are:

1. Research
2. Professionalism
3. Why me?
4. Format

Doing background research shows the employer that you have a genuine interest in their company! An easy start would be to research their website and do a quick google search. While doing that it’s a good idea to retain any excess information such as company history which could be useful during an interview, should you get one.

Keep the cover letter professional! Don’t use any crazy fonts or clipart. Keep it direct and to the point. Making it an eyesore to the reader will leave a nasty impression if they choose to read the entire thing. Format ties in here also. Research sample cover letters to give you an idea of how professional format looks.

After doing research go back and make an outline for yourself as to why you would be the ideal canidate for the avalible possition. This is a chance for you to expand on certain sections of your resume, but don’t get to wordy and try to expand on all of them–just the ones that are more so directly related to the specific job.

A cover letter gives your resume a boost, shows interest to the employer, and gives you a personality in your absense. Make sure all your effort that you put into your resume doesn’t go to waste by letting the cover letter fall by the wayside. For some examples of cover letters specific to your industry, be sure to check out our free sample cover letters on ResumeBucket.  Do everything in your power to get that job!

“Employees of startups tend to have more varied duties, which can mean a chance to develop a host of valuable new skills. One day you may be designing a product, the next day closing a sales deal. It’s up to you to seize the many challenges and opportunities that come your way in such a fluid environment.”

The good thing about working for a startup is that they can offer you more as far as creativity and having input on where the business is headed.  It is also more likely that upper management will see the quality of work you do and that will open more opportunities to get promoted. They also sometimes pay better than other larger corporations. The biggest perceived risk is that smaller businesses have a higher rate of failure, so make sure you’re in the right industry in these tough times.  Also, startups normally don’t have the job security like giant corporations do.

“No matter what the industry is, business startups usually have one advantage in common – a more informal and relaxed atmosphere. Very often business startups don’t have thick guides of formal rules one must strictly follow and this leaves room for improvisation and creativity, which is highly valued by many employees.”

Working for a startup is a lifestyle. Some people love the relaxed atmosphere while other would like to work in a huge corporation and climb the ranks. Having your startup grow into a corporation is a double-edged sword. On one hand, you helped turn a startup into something big and now you’re making that salary you always wanted. On the other hand, that small business atmosphere is gone and will never return.  What a lot of people do is move on to other startups because that’s how they work. In the end, it’s your discretion on whether working for a startup is right for you.

The best thing you can do for yourself before heading to an interview is to prepare yourself by going over common questions and organizing predetermined answers. These are questions that the majority of employers will probably ask at some point during the interview. Prepare yourself before hand and you can enter the interview with less anxiety and more confidence. Consider the following list and determine the most effective way to answer in a concise and powerful persona that will leave a fantastic impression when your interview concludes.

Ten Common Interview Questions:

1. Why do you want to work for us?

2. Give us an example of a situation where you faced conflict or difficult communication problems.

3. Where do you see yourself in 3 / 5/ 10 years time?

4. What would your current manager say are your strengths/weaknesses

5. Do you prefer working in a team or on your own?

6. What is the first thing you would change, if you were to start work here?

7. What was the most frustrating experience in your current (or last) job? The most satisfying?.

8. What do you know about this organization?

9. What did you think of your previous supervisor?

10. Why are you looking to leave your current company?

When formulating your replies to the above questions make sure to keep it all positive. Don’t bad mouth your previous employer, or comment on how unhappy you may have been there–remember this is a potential current employer and you don’t want them to conjure up any connotations about how you’ll act if they employ you.

Your sucess relies on how you prepare and approch the task. Take those extra steps and you’ll nail your next interview!

“Although today’s job market may be bleak, there are some bright spots if you know where to look. While   recessions hit some sectors hard, others go on like clockwork — or even experience growth.”

Be creative on how you approach looking for a new career. Apparently twitter is the new way to find jobs now. Stay ahead of the curve and get on networking websites because not all jobs are posted in the public sector. Your friend might not know of a job but your friend’s friend might know of an opening.

“Finding a job still requires networking skills – whether you are glad-handling potential bosses at a job fair in the city or following employees of the companies you want to work for on Twitter. It’s not about creating an “online brand” of yourself, but about using social networks to showcase or develop what you are already are doing in your life.”

Have you tried everything and still haven’t found that job? Rome wasn’t built in a day and your career won’t be either. It takes time and effort so work on it everyday and you will find a job. In the mean time, stay positive and focus on why the recession is good for you.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to email us at Info@resumebucket.com

In addition, we are looking for consumers who have successfully recieved a job from our site, and also testimonials from employers and recruiters who are using our system.

Don’t forget you can view Sample Resumes, Search Resumes, and find a job

Thanks,

ResumeBucket Team

We will keep all of our users posted on progress, but to help minimize the number of alert-emails you receive, all further updates on the situation can be viewed on our Blog Page at www.resumebucketblog.com.

We appreciate your patience with this matter and should be back up online, as soon as possible. Feel free to contact us with your thoughts and questions. Happy Friday & have a great weekend.

Yours,

Ted Hekman (ted at resumebucket.com)
& The ResumeBucket Team

Recently many have been turning to major social media outlets to get their name in the open in order to meet potential connections in their respective industry. For example jakeonjobs outlines two major websites, Linked In and Twitter:

“Linked In – A professional site for reaching out. This IS a site for connecting clients and colleagues with one another. This IS NOT a site for posting pictures from the weekend.”

“Twitter – A Site for Piquing Interest. This IS a site for letting others know what you are doing, reading, creating, working on, or thinking about at any given moment. That’s it.”

Twitter is the simplest to use out of all the social media websites because the interface is very user friendly, and there is little effort required to set it up as compared to other social sites that require a plethora of personal information and time to begin. A useful starting guide for Twitter can be found at administrativehearts which says:

“Twitter can also be an awesome networking tool. Once you join, be sure and fill out your profile and bio, and then start looking for people to follow. I recommend twellow.com for finding people to follow. Follow people in your locality, in your industry, who have similar hobbies and beliefs, whatever you enjoy. And then start interacting. Reply to what others say, share what you’re reading on the web, get to know people. And here and there, maybe once a day, mention that you’re looking for work. Link your resume. You’d be surprised how far things can get retweeted.”

For those that are looking to start a Linkedin profile or already have one, a list of useful groups to join can be found at spinstrategy.

The Career Group Library goes a bit more in depth with Twitter by showcasing some great people to ‘follow’ on the website for those interested in job openings, career news articles, and events:

“JobOnline – the latest graduate vacancies. The Careers Group – updated with careers news articles, new resources, upcoming events. The Guardian London Graduate Fair – new exhibitors and general build-up to the big day.”

Of course you can always follow ResumeBucket for the latest and greatest in ways to promote yourself online and get the job you’ve always dreamed of! ☺

Join Our Facebook Group

Join our Linkedin Group

Follow us on Twitter

Make sure to periodically check your account / or your junk email to make sure you have not missed any emails.

The subject line usually looks like this; ResumeBucket.com New Message From XXXXXX

The Email it will come from is: noreply@resumebucket.com

Thanks Everyone! Keep spreading the buzz.

Check out the site: www.jobprofiles.org

And the mention of ResumeBucket: 100 Tips, Tools, and Secrets to Develop a Successful Personal Brand

As word starts to spread across the country about our site and how useful it can be to job seekers and hiring managers, we have begun to generate interest in television(namely spots on the news) that are giving us some great visibility and allowing you all to see what we(well, Waleed I, anyway) look like!

The rest of the team spent the day down in sunny California working away on new functionality and making sure these damn spammers are gone for good. Maybe someday I’ll take them with me to this kind of thing, but for now they prefer to stay out of the limelight and I can’t blame ‘em.
Check out this great TV spot on Good Day Sacramento! More coming soon I’m sure as the word continues to spread

Email Info@resumebucket.com ASAP if it continues.

Thanks

ResumeBucket Team

We will have this issue resolved within then next 24 hours. Messaging may be turned off until the time being. Please standby over the next 24 hours while we fix this problem.

If anyone has any questions or problems, please contact as us Info@resumebucket.com

Here are some samples spam emails;

Dear NAME

I crave your indulgence knowing, that this my letter will be a surprise to you I am Mr. Paul Subramaniam, an attorney at law. A deceased client of mine, by name Mr. Richard Ziperovich, who here in after shell be referred to as my client, he died as the result of a heart-related condition on the 13th of March, 2005. His heart condition was due to the dead of all the members of his family in the Indian ocean Earth Quake on Idonesia (Tsunami) Aired December 26, 2004 – as reported on:

Paul Subramaniam, (Esq).

Last night we added a simple feature that will allows you to share your resume to many many social networks and blog outlets.

Now, if you look @ your resume page, in this case (resumebucket.com/joshstomel) you will notice at the top right a little feature looking like this:

Now, when you click it, you will see this;

This feature will allow you to post your resume in to your Facebook profile, myspace and more….

If you are looking to gain more eyeballs, use this feature and place it on your blog, your Facebook account, your Myspace account and more.

This will help you gain traction on potentially getting a job, or even sharing your background with others! Get to work!

Just wanted to take this chance and thank all of you amazing folks that helped ResumeBucket.com to grow in 2008 to where we have arrived.  From your moral/emotional support to just creating an account and uploading your resumes, all your efforts are greatly appreciated by the ResumeBucket team.  We truly hope that 2009 brings happiness and success for you and your loved ones and if ResumeBucket.com can somehow be a part of that, then all the better!

Keep a close eye on ResumeBucket.com and this blog, we are going to have even more advanced functionality for you to make it even easier and more effective when you store, share and access your resumes online.  Plus you can enjoy the job search tools as well as the career resources like sample resumes and cover letter assistance.  If 2008 was big, 2009 is going to be huge! All thanks to you…

Keep the suggestions and feedback coming, we love to hear what you think of the site and how we can continue to provide you with the ultimate online resume destination site. Again, thanks for a great 2008, and we’re wishing everyone a Happy & Prosperous 2009!

-Team RB

We have so many things planned to make our site the ultimate resource for our users, and we’re trying to figure out how to proceed.  We’re working on developing a lot of partnerships that will help employers find you, so expect lots of exciting news after the new year.

In the mean time, we want to thank all of our users for signing up and giving the site a whirl.  Please, ALWAYS, feel free to let us know if you have any great ideas, feedback, questions or concerns.  We always want to make sure that our efforts are focused on making it easier for our users to find their next job.

Happy Holidays,

-Everyone at ResumeBucket

Over the last 72 hours we have had some issues with our converter. We are working diligently on fixing this issue and making sure this does not happen in the future.

Meanwhile, a quick solution would be to copy and paste your resume in to the editor.

If you are unhappy with the way your resume looks after uploading(it happens, no converter is perfect, believe us), we suggest you follow the following steps:
1. Open your resume on your computer in whatever program you made it with(i.e. Microsoft Office, Adobe Acrobat, OpenOffice, etc.)
2. Select all text and copy it to your clipboard(by holding down Ctrl+A, then Ctrl+C)
3. Open your Rich Text Editor(i.e. WordPad on Microsoft Windows)
4. Paste your resume into that editor(Ctrl+V)

Also, don’t forget to contact us if you have any questions or comments about the site. We also have some great resume samples if you care to have a guide when building your next resume online.

Thanks again for your patience :-)

Team RB

We are still in Beta, so please report bugs, issues, comments or suggestions to us;

Info@resumebucket.com

Make sure to take advantage of the resumesearch, jobsearch and more!

I got excited recently when a friend told me that he was going to post his resume to ResumeBucket.  Not because I think that ResumeBucket is a good vehicle for his career or anything like that, but because it’s been a long running joke that his resume would look hilarious.

It’s not quite up-to-date (the last job is in 2005), but it’s comprehensive and he actually held all of these jobs for the time periods shown.  He changed his name for obvious reasons.  I present you with the resume of Todd Blankenship, Jr.

Some stats:

• Todd had a total of 26 jobs in the 146 month span outlined in his resume
• On average, he started a new job once every 5.5 months
• He bounced around more than 10 different “industries” during the 12+ years covered
• With two separate employers, he quit his job and then later became re-employed…in the span of two years.
• He was never unemployed for more than 7 months

On top of that, he was brutally honest with most of his job descriptions.  It’s a pretty fun, quick read.

Hopefully this was a nice break from working on your resume!

Note: His resume was so long that we couldn’t zoom out far enough to get a full screenshot:

"Your resume here"

Times are obviously tough when folks with masters degrees are posting their resume in the middle window of the cab that they’re driving.  It’s both funny and sad; I don’t know Mr. Williamson, and I have no idea whether he’d be a good employee for a position in his desired career.  But I do know that he’s willing to do what it takes to make ends meet, and he’s definitely bold for posting his resume in his cab.

It just goes to show you, though: be creative when you’re promoting yourself, and you never know what will happen.  You might end up in an AP news feed =)

According to Wikipedia, multivariate testing is “a technique for testing hypotheses on complex multi-variable systems, especially used in testing market perceptions.”

If you don’t think that hoards of HR employees or office admins sorting through resume after resume is a “complex, multi-variable” system, think again.  You’re appealing to humans, the same way a product web site is trying to appeal to visitors.  You’ll never know what works best unless you try some different approaches.

Mixing Up Your Cover Letter

Whether it’s a separate attachment, the body of an email, or a cover page on your resume, the first thing a prospective employer will see is your cover letter.  So how do you make it count?

There are several variables, including:

• Your industry
• The type of company that you’re applying to (corporation, start-up, small business)
• Your experience level
• The public perception of the company
• What has worked for you in the past?

Don’t discount the last item — build off of your successes.  If you’ve had a lot of luck in the past getting interviews with formal cover letters, but not so much luck with friendly or personable ones, then figure out why the formal route has worked.  Is it because of your industry or the type of companies that you’ve applied to?  What perception did you have of the companies that interviewed you?  Did they seem relaxed or corporate?  Were they large corporations or small operations?

Start with what has worked.  And then make some variations.  Write ten different versions of your cover letter, and mix in different tactics:  slightly witty, confident, short and sweet, complimentary, excited, bold. Get some feedback from the people you respect to narrow your options down to 2 or 3, and continue to tweak.

Once you feel comfortable with your choices, move on to your resume.

How To Vary Your Resume

This can be a tough task for some people, especially those that do not have a lot of job searching experience.  What information should you include on your resume?  How much detail should you provide about your responsibilities at each position you’ve had?  Should you include references on your resume?  How many pages long should your resume be?

Start small.  Make an outline, and keep it simple at the beginning.  Stick to the primary sections of a resume:

Career goals, qualifications, experience, education, references.

Don’t waste any time tweaking your resume up front.  Wait until you complete these five steps before you spend any serious amount of time editing.  Don’t worry about typos, wording, styles, or anything else until you have some resumes to work with.

1. Create a solid, simple, visually attractive resume and save it as your first option, and then continue to build it out. 

2. Add each job title that you’ve held for each company that you worked for.  Save that as your second option. 

3. Add your responsiblities, in detail, to each job title.  Save that as your third option. 

4. Add every project of considerable size to your responsibilities, and save that as your fourth option.

5. Add your extra-curricular activities from college and/or high school, and save it as your fifth option.

At this point, you can go over each option and start tweaking.  Once you’re happy with your resumes, pass them along to your peers for review, and make the changes you see fit.

But I Don’t Work A Traditional Job

Actors send headshots with their resumes, designers send portfolios.  Mix these up.  Get a second set of headshots, or re-order your portfolio in a few different ways.  I don’t know what you’d send to NASA if you were applying for a job as a lead scientist, but I assure you it’s something more than a two page fact sheet about yourself.  No matter what you’re attaching to your resume, make sure there is some variation.

The Fun Part Begins: The Testing

Any statistical test requires a sample size.  This may mean applying for jobs in cities that you’ll never move to, or for jobs that you’d never take.  Your goal is to find out what works best for you.

Find at least 75 jobs related to your career, and email your cover letter and resume to each of them.  Keep track of them in a spreadsheet.  Select three cover letters and the version of your resume that you feel is the best fit for each.  Note which cover letter and resume you sent to each prospective employer in a column in your spreadsheet.  Send an even number of each pair.

Wait for feedback.  Any time you get a response, mark that row in your spreadsheet as a success.  If you get an interview, take it, even if you know you’re not taking the job.  This is practice!

At the end of your interviews, ask your point of contact what they liked or didn’t like about your cover letter or resume.  Get real feedback from people whose job it is to hire someone like you.  Make adjustments and start the process over.

What About Jobs That I’m Actually Interested In?

Apply for those, too!  After your first round of testing, you should have at least a general idea of what is working and what isn’t.  If option 1 netted 6 responses and the other two options netted less, go with option 1 for the jobs that interest you.  If each option resulted in a similar number of responses, spend the time to determine which of the options you think is best for each company that you apply to.

Most importantly, continue to get feedback.  Continue testing, even if you land a job.  Who knows if you’ll like it or if it will pan out? 

There’s no harm in sending your resume to prospective employers, even if you’re gainfully employed.  Knowing what works and what doesn’t for your industry will only help you when the time comes to find your next job.

The current economy is definately putting pressure on many people and companies.

ResumeBucket.com shortly will be launching a new idertion of our next generation site.

This new launch will give YOU the consumers the ability not only to put your resumes online, but also the ability to search jobs, and A LOT more.

See below screen shot for our new homepage.

Get Ready

New Website coming soon

This is our official first post for the new ResumeBucket.com design and funtionality. Resumebucket.com idea came about a few years ago when I was driving home to Santa Monica.  Being a recruiter, I asked myself, “what is a tool that will help solve some common problems that I hear daily?”

• “I don’t have my resume on this computer.”
• “I’m traveling, I will get it to you when I get home.”
• “I haven’t updated my resume in years, I need to spend time polishing it.”
• “I am not sure what version of my resume to send you.”

So, we decided to build a slick tool that would answer these questions, plus to A LOT MORE!!!!

ResumeBucket allows you to upload your resume within 10 seconds on a customizable URL, and you can use our full web based editor to modify and style your resume. You can store and save multiple versions of your resume and easily share it with others. You have access to all the metrics/analytics of who is looking at your resume, as well.  We also optimize the site to promote you, so your resume can show up on the first page of Google quickly — sometimes within 24 hours!

Also, from our website you will have the ability to search jobs and we will deliver you jobs that are relevant to your resume.

ResumeBucket.com is here at the perfect time to help you get through the current economic situation we are in. By putting your resume on resumebucket.com we will be building traffic to your background and employers, and like minded inviduals will be able to find you!

Finally the last feature that NO ONE else provides is the ability for anyone to search our resume database. Let’s say you’re an engineer, or a product manager, or a Venture Capital firm, and you want to find a resume of someone with a relevant background for a position, or someone to help you with an idea, you can use ResumeBucket to find the right person for your company or to help you collorborate on a new startup.

We are here to serve you.  Enjoy ResumeBucket, use it, own it, and make it your next destination site.