1) Research:  Before the interview process begins, contact the professional organization that represents your field of career. As soon as they provide you with your salary information, you can now examine your monthly cash requirements. Remember that once your taxes are added to your paycheck, approximately 30% of your gross monthly salary is deducted.

2) Determine your skills: You should understand that different segments of the economy require a variety of skills depending on the industry setting. Once you have established what your skills are and what they are worth to the current employment market, you would know the limitations of your negotiation.

Salary range information is available at American Almanac of Jobs and Salaries, National Association of College and Employers, Career Center, and professionals in your related field.

In stating your salary range, avoid basing your desired salary on your current salary. Always tell the truth when it comes to your past salary. It is acceptable to extend a range to approximately $6,000 to show that you are within the company’s price range but interested in more compensation.

3) Weigh the company’s compensation package: To determine your fair market value for a specific job, you should consider the economic, geographic, and industry factors of the job offer. Weigh the benefits of compensation and promotions, insurance, allowed time off and retirement settlements of the offer to ensure a fair proposed salary.

4) Sell yourself: If you know what you could offer the company requires a larger income, never say it directly.  Once you sell yourself discreetly, the interviewer would understand that the proposed salary is not appropriate for your background.

5) Have a positive attitude: In negotiating, never compete. Negotiation is basically a process which could benefit both parties. Understand your needs and those of the company.

6) The final offer: Be aware when the negotiation is done. Pushing further when a deal has been set could give a negative first impression on your part.

7) Show what you are made of: The interview is only the first step in having an enhanced compensation. Once you are hired, offer your skills to the company and prove your worth by doing quality work. You may even get a promotion for doing so.

Based from a survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management, four out of five employees are willing to negotiate compensation. Understanding these basic tips will allow you to enhance the terms of your new job.

The majority of the top companies search for employees who stand out based on their expertise, ability tbring new ideas to a role and a pleasing personality that would enhance the organization.

Skills are grouped into three kinds – knowledge-based, transferable, and personal traits.

1) Knowledge-based skills are those learned from experiences. These may include educational attainment, additional training, seminars attended, and other practices that you have studied to enhance your expertise.

Knowledge-based skills include computer and communication skills, marketing or managerial knowledge, product development, and many more. These skills vary depending on the field of industry of each job candidate.

2) Transferable or portable skills are those you bring to a specific job. This is the reason why interviewers ask, “What could you offer the company?” Transferable skills are important because companies strive to look for quality employees that would improve the development of the workforce.

Portable skills include problem solving, team leader potential, organized, writing and communication skills, customer service oriented, time and project management, and good with numbers and budget. This kind of skills varies depending on the experience and versatility of each job candidate.

3) Personal traits determine who you are. In a job interview, one of the most common things an employer says is “Tell me something about yourself.” Your response is vital because it would set the tone for the rest of the interview.

Personal traits include good judgment, well organized, analytical, goal oriented, flexible, creative and many more. Try to sell yourself in as modest as possible within a limited time.

* Self-assessment. In order to provide an impressive presentation, examine your resume and list all the skills you have used for each past job experience. Make a comprehensive list of your skills and strengths including personal traits, knowledge-based and transferable skills. This would be the basis for your personal commercial.

* Once you have completed your script, you are now ready to face the interviewer. Remember that employers are interested in your accomplishments. Use words that are concise, direct and clear.

Although many companies require a unique set of skills, you should still highlight your technical skills in the interview. These skills, which top companies usually seek, include leadership, communication, confidence, flexibility, problem solving and energy.

Emphasizing all of your strengths and skills on job interviews would increase your chances of landing the desired job.

Most guides in resume writing present power words – words that attract employer attention when he scans hundreds of resume – but few of them include words you should not use in a resume.

Here is a list of words and word categories which should be avoided when you create your resume.

Abbreviations and acronyms
APTA, CPOFAS, RIFL, MRSRSA and it starts to look like a Scrabble game. Too many abbreviations and acronyms make a resume unreadable. As a rule, avoid using them, and use them only when they are easy to recognize. If these words are very popular in your field use them with care.

Personal pronouns
It may seem strange to avoid personal pronouns (me, I, mine, etc) in your resume – a document that’s only talking about you. Because it’s all about you, using personal pronouns is redundant and pointless. A resume should not contain unnecessary words, because it is not a novel, but a short presentation of your abilities and experience.

Negative words
These words transform your resume in a total failure: “arrest”, “boring”, “fired”, “hate” and “racist”; if there are problems you want clarified with the employer, keep them for the interview.

Don’t overuse some of the words
There are words that are a must in a resume but you don’t have to overuse them. For example: excessive use of: “a”, “and”, “but”, “because”, “very”, “also” and words you can’t define: even if a word sounds good and makes you look intelligent, if you use them the wrong way, you lose any chance to be called to an interview.

If you’re serious about find a job today use Jobs Search Engine to locate jobs in your area.

Don’t doom your resume and cover letter to the trashcan by sending them out with dumb mistakes such as misspelled words.

“If you make errors on your application materials, the assumption is you’ll make mistakes on the job,” says Max Messmer, chairman of Accountemps.

Three-fourths of the executives surveyed by Accountemps declared just one or two typos in a resume kills an application. Four out of ten declare that one typo means the axe. Incomplete sentences or missing words can also kill your chances for getting even a cursory review of your resume, to say nothing of serious consideration.

There’s no excuse for such errors. You can avoid them by taking these steps:

1. Run your documents through the spell-check on your computer. (Keep in mind this is not fool-proof. Your computer is not going to know whether your mean there or their.)

2. Avoid cliches and catch phrases that may be popular for the moment.

3. Read your covering letter and resume aloud. Track word for word with a pencil. This is the time to check your punctuation.

4. Set your materials aside for at least 24 hours. Go back and repeat steps 1, 2 and 3.

5. Have a third party read your materials for context, as well as the type of errors we are considering here. Get their opinion as to whether your presentation makes a logical case for your application.

Of course, it is best that this third party be a professional career coach, but that may not be possible. Any review by another pair of eyes is better than no review at all.

As a final step, take an objective look at your materials. Are you using quality paper for the printed versions? (No colored stock.) Is the typeface a standard one? Are you sending your application to a real live person with a title? Are your contact points correct and readily available?

It’s difficult enough to get your covering letter and resume seriously considered without making dumb killer mistakes.

You can get coaching on how to protect and advance your career in tough time by subscribing to Ramon Greenwood’s free semimonthly newsletter, THE CAREER ACCELERATOR (c). As a bonus you’ll receive the 16-page eBook, HOW TO GET A RAISE (c) click: http://www.commonsenseatwork.com For much more free career coaching, visit YOUR BLOG FOR CAREER ADVICE.
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A high school graduate typically has less options when writing a resume than those people with advanced degrees. In the past, a high school diploma was all that was necessary to get a decent paying job that you could use to support your family. As technology has developed, a higher level of education is required to not only get a job, but in many cases to maintain it as well. This does tend to limit the high school graduate to a certain opportunity level, but there are jobs available here. When writing a resume with only a high school level education, it is important to focus on any and all work experience. This could include any volunteer work, co-ops, work study opportunities or internships previously accomplished.

There are a number of skills that are applicable to any job including customer service, being able to handle money, thinking on your feet, etc. Focus on targeting any marketable skills that you possess in preparation for finding a job. List any jobs that you have held and list all the duties that you were responsible for while there. You may be pleasantly surprised that the list is fairly long and includes items of interest to many companies. Search the job postings online to see what employers are looking for and when you find a match to your particular skill set, go ahead and apply. You can also use this as a guide to knowing what to list for duties on a past job. The work has already been done for you, now go and fill in the blanks. Good luck!

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