The media is full of doom and gloom, with reports of thousands applying for janitorial jobs. Employers are slashing positions left and right, consumers aren’t buying, corporate giants are dropping like flies and foreign nations are teetering on the verge of bankruptcy. There are bail-outs galore but few initiatives having a dramatic impact that will help job seekers. So what does a job seeker need to get ahead, given today’s competitive atmosphere and depressed job market?

First, do you have the education? If you dropped out of high school and suddenly feel like your options as a job seeker are severely limited, you can join the 17 million students who went back to get their General Education Diploma (GED). The test itself measures high school level intelligence in social studies, math, science, reading and writing. You can view sample questions and read more about getting your GED to help job opportunities at www.acenet.edu. Once you have your GED, you may want to consider pursuing vocational school education and internship opportunities, where you will enjoy hands-on activities and practical application.

Next, you need to ask yourself if you have experience. What matters most to an employer examining a job seeker’s record is that the individual knows what it’s like to work on a team, as well as individually. They want you to have a track record of interacting with clients, accomplishing tasks and working under pressure. It seems like a catch-22, doesn’t it? “How do I get experience if I have no experience,” you may ask? Internship opportunities are an ideal place to start. Many are unpaid and offer only college credit, but if you’re looking in the accounting, consulting, insurance, consumer goods, hospitality, engineering or science fields, then you’ll likely find a paid internship to help you acquire the skills you need. Typically, when you finish your interning, the company will ask you to stay and all your problems will be solved! For a list of the best internships, check out Business Week’s list of “Top 50 Internships.”

If you haven’t heard back from your latest job seeker resume/cover letter blitz, do not despair. Instead, take this time to ramp up your portfolio, refine the wording of your resume and tailor your cover letters. Sometimes there are obvious mistakes you’re missing. It helps to have a second opinion on your work. Ask yourself the following questions. Am I writing my resume with active verbs and specific, quantitative results? Am I using keywords that might be searchable by a computer database for my industry? Did I include all titles, dates and phone numbers? Is my resume a single page? The best way to help job providers know you better is with a detailed, polite cover letter that lets them know who you are and why you’re a good fit for their company. If you’re struggling, most communities have centers where you can get help developing your portfolio to make yourself more marketable.

Thomas Bronson has been working and generating a lot of leads from the internet over the last few years and one of his recommended course that teaches it is traffic secrets 2.0. Go to his website to check out his traffic secrets 2.0 review today or alternatively, you can also get his free course on the step by step of starting an online business.

Tags: college search, internship in, internship opportunities, internship programs, summer internship

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 2nd, 2010 at 7:12 pm and is filed under Education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.