It doesn't require much to get involved in the fight against one of our health's biggest enemies: mesothelioma cancer. In fact: it only takes your decision to take action to help mesothelioma cancer victims create and fund a $30 million per year federal program.

The Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation, Inc., or MARF, has just been created to raise funds for research on new therapies for malignant mesothelioma cancer.

Asbestos Mesothelioma is a cancer that affects thousands each year. The fatal disease appears in the form of a malignant tumor that aggressively invades the linings of the lungs, abdomen, heart or testicles. Excessive exposure to asbestos seems to be one of the reasons that create Mesothelioma. Unfortunately research for the cancer is currently under funded, but with your help that is all about to change .

It only takes your decision to take action and to sign petition online to help generate $30 million in federal money for the National Mesothelioma Research and Treatment Program.

The main focus of the program is the early detection and prevention of mesothelioma cancer. To ensure that a cure is discovered and to help those that are already affected by the disease it targets also different areas of therapeutic research and education.

One of the nicest things about the Internet is that you can quickly and always take action
on whatever you want to make an instant change. So why not take advantage on this fact and help to save the lives of thousands just by digitally signing this online petition now?

For additional information visit: fight-mesothelioma.info/fight-mesothelioma.html

One of the most key elements of success in a job search is the resume and the engineering resume can often be one of the more difficult documents to develop. The engineering resume is the engineering job seeker's primary marketing document that sells the product - the skills and experience of the engineer. To be effective, an engineering resume must grab the attention of the reader in 35-45 seconds. A good engineering resume will extend that attention span to over a minute. A successful resume will prompt the reader to contact the job seeker. In effect, the success of the job search revolves around the effectiveness of the first step - the resume.

No one knows your background and experience better than you. Most engineers can get the basics of their projects and experience down on paper in a sensible fashion. What most engineers who write their own resumes have difficulty with is making that sell to the reader. Here are six tips to help you make your engineering resume sell.

1. Select the best organizational format. Most resumes are written in chronological (reverse time order) format, but that does not mean that the chronological choice is best for you. A combination format may be best. The combination format is evenly balanced between skill set description, achievements, and employment history, with the advantage being that projects can be highlighted for greater impact.

2. Assume that your resume will be viewed on a computer screen rather than on a piece of paper. Most resumes are sent, received, and managed via PC. That does not mean that the document has to be drab and ugly, visually. Many engineers who have images or pictures of project work have good success with creating a CD ROM portfolio of these images.

3. Make absolutely sure your document is error free. An error in a resume can often be the killer between two closely matched candidates. Engineers are expected to be detail-oriented so an error in the engineering resume reflects badly on possible future performance.

4. Find a balance between wordiness and lack of detail. Employers need to see details about your work history and engineering experience, but they don't need to know everything. The fact that you were Den Leader in your Cub Scout troop is irrelevant. Keep information germane to the goal of attaining an interview.

5. Think "accomplishments" rather than "job duties". What made you stand out from the crowd? How did you come up with a way to do things better, more efficiently, or for less cost? What won honors for you? Information such as this will be what makes you grab attention and put your engineering resume on the top of the stack.

6. Keep it positive. Reason for leaving a job, setbacks, failed initiatives, etc. do not have a place on an engineering resume. Employers are seeking people who can contribute, have a positive attitude, are enthusiastic, and have successfully performed similar job skills in the past. Concentrate on communicating these issues and avoid any detracting information.

Remember, resumes do not get jobs - people get jobs. Resumes get interviews. Most first time job interviews are conducted via telephone rather than in person as they used to be. Make sure you are prepared for that telephone call when it arrives. And make sure you have an engineering resume that will make the phone ring!

For more, visit: www.rezamaze.com

Some companies ask for a CV when you're applying. Here are some tips on how to make a good CV

A perfect CV layout has 2 objectives:
To illustrate your strengths and maximise your chances of getting through to interview and to put factual information, such as dates, places, names together in a presentable and readable form.

Focal Point
It is claimed that the human eyes are naturally drawn to a focal point one third down from the top of the page. Therefore, put your most useful information in this area. It might be your Profile, Key Skills, Professional Qualifications or details of your most recent employment. You can choose whichever you think is most important and relevant to your application. Always get a second opinion when you have put your CV together. It is difficult to be objective about oneself.

Presentation
It is often thought that a good CV should be fitted on to one side of A4 and a professional CV over two. This can be difficult if you are a mature applicant with a long employment history. If you need to go on to a second page make sure that the CV is spread out over 2 whole pages, not one and a half pages as this looks messy.
As a 'rule of thumb' there should be more white than black on a page to make it easier to read.

Always write a rough draft first. It can be as long as you like as you will edit it later. Always start with your Career History as this will highlight your Key Skills and help you write your Profile.

Once you have compiled your draft copy you must edit it:
1. Take out anything that will not help you get where you want to be
2. Write in the 'third' person as much as possible keeping 'I' to a minimum
3. Never use the past tense e.g. use "supporting senior management" rather than "supported senior management"
4. Use short sharp sentences cutting out any waffle and jargon

Good CV order
Headings

• Name - Print your name in bold type at the centre top of your CV. If there is any doubt as to which is your surname, e.g. James Martin, indicate by using capitals or underlining.
• Address - Top left of CV. Full address including post code.
  Telephone - Top Right of CV. Full dialing code and daytime and evening numbers if possible.
• Date of birth - Put in full such as 13th December 1962. Do not put your age. Bearing in mind that you will be close to the Focal Point now, this might need to go at the end of the CV under 'Personal' along with other details such as marital status and children.
• Marital status -  You do not have to include this at all. If you choose to, make sure you use only "married" or "single". Do not use divorced or co-habiting. Put at the end of the CV under 'Personal'.

'Personal' Profile - This is an introductory statement about who you are and what you have to offer. You should complete this last although it is positioned prominently in the CV, possibly in the Focal Point.

It should be no more than two sentences and include the most important facts about yourself. You can include skills, achievements, responsibility or personal qualities.
e.g. Highly motivated Account Manager with successful direct and telesales experience in hardware and software industries.

• Key Skills - Several Key skills should be highlighted after you have analysed and edited your employment history. Pick out no more than six, and make sure they are relevant.
  Do not include dates. A key skill can come from an earlier job or an outside interest.
  If you are short on direct experience and qualifications you may have skills arising from your personality, i.e. Interpersonal skills, e.g. "the ability to relate and communicate with others". Some examples of descriptive words to use in key skills are: Administering, Implementing, Budgeting, Leading, Reorganising, Forecasting, Advising
• Employment History
  Always start with your most recent employment. Break down your job functions as much as possible. The job description on your contract might provide a starting point or, consider how your employer might advertise your job. You should have more to say about your most recent, and therefore most relevant, employment. Include successes and achievements especially if it saved the company money. Don't have any employment gaps. If these occur explain them briefly.
• Qualifications
  If you are a mature applicant you can leave these out as career history is more important. Put the highest qualification first with year achieved. If you have a degree you can leave out the lower qualifications altogether or include the basic information. Do not include poor grades or failures. Professional qualifications Only include those that are still current. Training Only include training that is relevant to the position for which you are applying.
• Interests
  Only include interests that are unusual or which indicate transferable skills, achievements or responsibilities. Reasons For Applying This finishes the CV off with a concluding statement and puts the application into context. Don't imply you are out to gain advantage to yourself such as "I would like to join the company to gain additional experience". Instead, concentrate on what you have to offer, "my experience at......would be useful to the company because............."

Finally
Your CV should be available soft copy or on good quality plain white A4 paper. Do not use double sides. Only fold once and enclose an SAE

CVWriting.net - How to Write a CV - We show you how to write a CV in minutes. Professional CV writing at a fraction of the price. Full instructions and helpful tips. Telephone support and Web CV options for your complete CV writing solution
 

Five worst ways of hunting for job: The five worst ways to try to find a job, listed in order from worst to least worst (awful grammar!) are:

Using The Internet:

The success rate of using the internet turns out to be around 4%. That is out every 100 job hunters who use the internet as their search method only four will find a job, while 96 job hunters out of a 100 will not find the jobs that are out there, if they use only the internet to search for jobs. 4% is a summary of a range, so if you are seeking a technical or computer related job, an IT job, or a job in engineering, financing, or health-care the rates rise. I would say that this rate would be around 10%. For the other 10,000 job titles that are out there, the rate appears to drop to around 1%. Make sure that you know the odds of any job hunting method. This way you know ahead of time what your odds are, in this case (internet search) really bad. This way of the method does not work for you will not take it so personally.

Mailing Out Resumes To Employers At Random:

This method is claimed to have about a 7% success rate. Out of every 100 job hunters 7 will find a job, 93 job-hunters out of 100 will not find a job if they use only this method to search for them. One study showed that out side of the internet only 1 out of 1470 resumes actually resulted in a job. In other words resumes here had a 99.94% failure rate. Again before you use any job hunting technique, know the odds ahead of time, so if it does not work out you will not take it personally.

Answering Ads In Professional or Trade Journals, Appropriate To Your Field:

This method again only has a success rate of 7% that is out of every 100 job hunters only seven will find a job using this method. 93 job-hunters out of 100 will not find the jobs which are out there if they use only this method. Again it is really important to make sure that you know the odds of finding a job using this method. That way if you know the odds are bad and you don't get the job, you will not take it personally.

Answering Local Newspaper Ads:

This method had a 5-24 % success rate. This is out of every 100 job-hunters who use this method five to twenty four will find a job, and 76-95 job-hunters out of hundred will not find the jobs they are looking for.

Going To Private Employment Agencies or Search Firms For Help:

This method has a 5-28% success rate, which means that out of every 100 job-hunters between 5 and 28 will find a job, which leaves 72-95 job-hunters out of 100 who will not find the job they are looking for just using this method. (This fluctuation can be due to the level of salary being sought after, the higher the salary being sought; the higher the salary being sought, the fewer job-hunters who are able to find a job, using only this method).

For more information, visit: www.careerpath.cc

I had a recent exchange of e-mails with someone who wrote:

"39 dollars for a book that proclaims itself to be a way out of depression and feelings of worthlessness for unemployed people?

Tell me: what does a PsyD know about unemployment and low-self-worth?

This price tag is atrocious.

You are victimizing the unemployed, the societal outsider, and I do not appreciate it."

After my initial response, he wrote back: "I can't say I expected any less than what you've given... a total dismissal of my opinion. Do you see no injustice in the "Catch 22" of expensive "ways out" of financial difficulty?"

The gentleman raises a very interesting question. Is there something inherently exploitative about selling a product or a service to individuals who are in a place of great need and few resources?

There is a common expression in marketing: "Don't try selling boxes to the homeless." Why? Because they obviously have no money, that's why they are homeless. Sales need to be geared to a more lucrative market and demographic distribution charts are developed that pinpoint geographic locations, professions, age levels, and ethnic distributions where household incomes are higher and purchasing is more likely.

Where does that leave the homeless, or anyone else who is in a difficult situation where help is needed but money to pay for it is unavailable or severely limited?

There is the government for starters. At all levels, our public agencies exist to provide the help and services citizens need, that is the purpose of paying taxes. In fact, they do provide those services to a greater or lesser extent, depending upon how well developed is that particular sector.

When the services fall short of what is needed, the private sector steps in. Apart from true charity organizations or companies contracted with some level of government, private services require regular income or will shortly vanish from the scene.

If public colleges don't provide the classes you need, on a schedule convenient to you, you pay to attend a private vocational school that costs thousands of dollars more than a community college but gives you what you need, when you need it.

If the State Consumer Credit office can't help you with your bills and creditors are driving you crazy, you pay a private credit company to work out some sort of financial survival plan.

If the unemployment office has not been able to help you find work, you may pay a private job coaching service to redo your resume, give you interviewing skills practice, and perform research in your field.

Are these agencies exploiting your predicament or meeting your needs?

If they give you what you paid for, they are providing a service. Obtaining solid vocational skills that lead to a good job, working out a manageable repayment schedule that allows you to live without the hounding of collectors, or transforming your self-presentation to allow successful competition for a good position, are all examples of worthwhile pay-for-results exchanges.

It becomes exploitative when a school takes thousands of dollars, provides training of questionable quality, and leaves you unemployed with huge student loans to repay. It is exploitative when a company takes money to reestablish your credit and fails to follow through, leaving you still battling collectors with even more depleted assets. It is exploitative when an employment-assistance agency charges you hundred (or thousands) of dollars and fails to produce the results they promised.

In the end, it comes down to what we need and whether we are willing to pay for a service we see as better than those publicly funded. It also means that we have a responsibility to ourselves to thoroughly research any company, or group, or author, before we hand over our money, to make sure that the services offered will be useful, that the source will deliver what has been promised, and what recourse we have if premature withdrawal is necessary.

P.S. I cut the price of the book in half, anyway.

About the author:

Virginia Bola operated a rehabilitation company for 20 years, developing innovative job search techniques for disabled workers, while serving as a Vocational Expert in Administrative, Civil and Workers' Compensation Courts. Author of an interactive and supportive workbook, The Wolf at the Door: An Unemployment Survival Manual, and a monthly ezine, The Worker's Edge, she can be reached at www.unemploymentblues.com

Your perspective on resumes: what they are and how they function - will doubtless influence how well you can write your own. To create an outstanding resume, begin by questioning and replacing some of the commonly held assumptions about resume writing.

Assumption #1: “A resume is a personal history, and prospective employers will read it primarily to learn about past jobs and accomplishments.”

Replace with: A resume is best thought of as a proposal, rather than a history.

Although a resume does primarily include information about your personal history, its chief aim should be to convey this information in a way that is highly relevant to the job in question. Thus, the key question to address is: How are you uniquely qualified to do well in the position for which you are applying? Writing to answer this question can turn a dry personal history into an attractive employment proposal.

Assumption #2: “My resume probably won’t be that important anyway – it’s connections and luck that will get me a job.”

Replace with: Revising and improving your resume can play a central role in landing your next job.

No reasonable person would deny that connections and luck help. Nevertheless, not everyone has or finds the right connections, and not everyone wants to wait on luck. Take the initiative, instead, to craft a strong job-search strategy, and include revising your resume as a central piece of this process.

Doing so, at a minimum, will accomplish three things:
1) you will gain clarity on your strengths and all that you have to offer in your next job
2) you will have an important vehicle for introducing yourself to potential employers
3) you will have a springboard for a strong interview.

Assumption #3: “The previous version of my resume was good enough, and probably needs very little done to it.”

Replace with: Just about any resume, even one used with success before, can benefit from careful scrutiny and periodic revision.

Your resume should evolve as you do. In addition to acquiring new skills, experiences, and accomplishments, you may have shifted in your professional focus or interests. Perhaps you have gained insights into what employers are really looking for in your line of work.

Above all, your resume should be revised so that it is tailored to the employer who will receive it. Even if you have little to add in the way of content, you can always improve your resume by refocusing it on the specifics of the position you are seeking, and by strengthening its wording and overall appearance.

THE BOTTOM LINE (A Winning Perspective):

Take on the task of writing or revising your resume with the conviction that any resume can be made stronger, that you have an important employment proposal to bring to the eyes of potential employers, and that doing so can be the avenue for landing the job you want. It is with this perspective that you will produce a resume good enough to open doors.

This article is excerpted from the eBook "WRITE RESUMES WITH CONFIDENCE: How to Create Outstanding Resumes and Have the Confidence to Use Them with Success." Learn more about this book and about Ruth Anderson's coaching and consulting services - including the INTRODUCTION TO COACHING and JOB SEARCH TUNE-UP programs - at www.vantagepointcoaching.com

Some interviewers do a good job and make sure they ask you pertinent questions. However, most interviewers are not good at interviewing and therefore will not ask you questions that will let you provide information showing how you're qualified and can do the job. A study by psychology professors Hunter & Schmidt in "Psychology Today" found a typical employment interview is only 7 percent more accurate than flipping a coin. This is because the typical interviewer doesn't know the right questions to ask and makes a decision based on their "gut feeling" about a candidate.

Unless you're dealing with an exceptional interviewer, which you can usually determine rather quickly, you should take it upon yourself to insure you find out what the employer is looking for and convey how you can do the job. There are two important things you need to accomplish in interviews: one is providing the interviewer with factual information supporting the idea that you are a good fit for the job; the other is for the interviewer to connect with that logic on an emotional level. Trial attorneys face a similar challenge when presenting their case to a jury. They need to provide them with both factual information and with an emotional connection to their version of the story.

The most powerful way of creating an emotional connection is through visualization. Just as a jury needs to visualize an attorney's version of a story for them to have an emotional connection with it, an interviewer needs to be able to visualize you in the role they're hiring for, doing the tasks of the job. The interviewer needs to see you doing those things and needs to be able to visualize the outcomes. Helping someone visualize your story can be done by using detailed descriptions of actions and through appropriate use of hand gestures and body language.

To illustrate, instead of saying the person burglarized the house, which is an abstract idea, a trial attorney would describe the actions: John walked up the brick walkway at 8:00 pm on a moonlit evening, shattered the side window and climbed into the house. The first way of explaining what happened just gives an abstract idea which creates either no image in the listener's mind, or just a vague image that they won't remember. The second way provides a vivid image they can easily recall and connect to. The attorney might even use some gestures and body language when talking about walking up the steps or shattering the window, which further reinforces the visual imagery.

"Lead with Need"
One of the most common mantras in the sales world is "Lead with Need." This means before you start blabbing about how great you are, find out what the customer needs first. Recruiters often describe jobs in terms of skills and education required. These are really just symptoms of a person who could be capable of doing the job but don't explain what is actually involved. You need to dig deeper and find out from the recruiter the specific tasks that need to be accomplished. Here are some examples of specific tasks:
- Migrate the office from Windows 2000 to Windows 2003
- Install the SAP enterprise software system in all offices nationwide
- Increase sales of our photocopiers to the pharmaceutical industry by 25% over the next 9 months

These are examples of deliverables - specific tasks that need to be accomplished. Ask follow-up questions to be sure you understand. Take notes when the interviewer is talking if you like. One caveat if you take notes: Just make sure you're coming across as being sincerely interested in the position and not coming across as a salesman or manipulator.

Pitching Your Background & Visualizing Success:
- Once you understand what the job entails and what needs to be done, you should mentally match the tasks with things you've done in the past.
- Start off talking about your strongest competencies, tying one of the tasks to be accomplished with something you've done successfully.
- You could start off talking about the task they need done, then talk about how you did something similar before, then paint a picture of how you would do it for them, including action words to help them visualize you actually doing it.
- Talk about symptoms of the success your efforts will create. Could talk about a more productive workforce with people spending more time talking to clients instead of doing paperwork. This will help create visual images in the mind of the interviewer that will help them remember you and make it easier for them to see you as being successful in the position.

For example, if the employer needs to migrate their systems from Windows 2000 to Windows 2003, you could first talk about how you migrated a similar-sized company a couple years ago from Windows NT to Windows 2000. You could talk about how you planned the project, how many people were involved, and how the end-users' productivity changed at the end (hopefully for the better). Then talk about the steps you would go through to do it for them, being as descriptive and visual as possible.

About the Author: Scott Brown is the author of the JobSearchHandbook.com.

Sticking to fundamental business principles is the basis for successful career planning. To us this means that our customers are able to lock up job high-paying offers in as little as 14 days or less.

Old-fashioned methods that require seemingly unending mailings and postings of resumes just don't get it anymore. It can take weeks or months to achieve mediocre results.

I recently had the good fortune to read an article about career success by Larry Thompson, a Hollywood producer. It struck me as a fabulous piece of career planning advice.

Thompson reports that, in his experience, there are 10 success killers. As I read about them it occurred to me that they apply to job search success, as well. That's because one of the key insights into alternative and non-traditional strategies is that employment success follows the same rules as business success.

Here are the success killers you should avoid:

1. Comparing yourself to someone else.

2. Not facing your fears.

3. Leaving a job undone.

4. Feeling sorry for yourself.

5. Failing to speak assertively.

6. Dressing inappropriately.

7. Saying you hate computers.

8. Not taking advantage of advice from family, friends and mentors.

9. Saying "I can't."

10. Having more regrets than dreams.

No one said finding a job is easy. However, most job hunters suffer from lack of results. It's usually because they've taken the wrong approach. They can't achieve fast and lucrative results by using last century methods.

However, 21st Century strategies are exciting career planning alternatives to the old fashioned ways. Reviewing (and avoiding ) the 10 success killers is a terrific place to start to insure your job search success.

Article writen by: Paul Megan (fastest-job-search.com)

In the past, applying for a job meant looking through the classified ads in the local paper. The advent of the internet has created various job sites online making it easier for someone to apply for work in another state and in even in another country.

It has made the world a smaller place with everything at one's fingertip and just a click away. Most job sites will require a person to open an account, fill in certain information and deposit a resume.

These sites usually ask for pertinent information such as the person's name, age, address, contact number and social security number.

Other information that will be requested are educational background. Some companies prefer someone with a degree in a certain field or a licensed professional to do the job or perhaps a person who possesses a master's degree.

Employment history is also another thing that has to be mentioned. This includes the job description and highlights that you have experienced during your career.

With the information provided, some of these sites offer a service with a fee that will match your qualifications with jobs that are available and enable you to apply for that position. Some even promise to make your resume stand out over other applicants giving that person more priority over others but even that is a not a guarantee that one will get the job.

One also has to mention the salary the person is receiving both in the current and previous jobs as this is matched with the job the individual wants and the salary one desires. These sites offer various jobs to people. It caters to professionals and teenagers who want to work either for full time, part time or on a per project basis.

Applying online is not only done through job sites. A lot of companies have websites that have a section on careers which one can access and check what openings are available. One simply has to go through the process of also giving certain information that is asked for and uploading one's resume.

The first impression employers or headhunters look at is one's resume. Given that many people apply, this usually takes these people a short period of time to review and screen certain applicants before going to the next phase of being scheduled and called for an interview.

There are many jobs available in the market. It just takes a little effort on one's part to sit down in front of a computer and look for the right job.

For further information about this article, visit: www.jobs-in.com

When it came to finding a job in a crowded city of millions, it’s much easier on one’s sanity to sign up with one of the many employment agencies which helps job seekers looking for work.

Many years ago, when I was a young job-searching greenhorn, I ventured to New York City to take a bite out of the big apple of opportunity. I scoured the newspaper and found a large ad for one such well-known employment agency. True to their word, they promptly sent me off on several interviews – none of which I felt particularly comfortable at. Needless to say, I didn’t get any job offers.

While nursing a cold, I decided I needed a change. So, I contacted a much smaller agency and decided to see if my luck would be different.

These people rocked! They were down-to-earth friendly and genuinely concerned about helping me find a job. Before they sent me out on any interviews, they put me through a mock interview session and evaluated my performance (something the larger fancy-pants agency didn’t do). Afterwards, an advisor sat me down and we chatted about the results of my mock interview.

I am forever grateful for the feedback I got that day, because the interview preparation tips they gave me have served me well over countless interviews these many years. I’ve condensed their pointers into five simple rules that anyone can follow for better success at a job interview.

1) Eye Contact – Look directly at your interviewer. Don’t cast your eyes down.

2) Sit up Straight – Don’t slouch in your chair – it makes you look lazy and uninterested. Good posture makes you look like a confident person.

3) Don’t Fidget – Keep your hands in your lap when you’re not making a point in the conversation. Fidgeting looks unprofessional.

4) Speak Up – Don’t mumble your words. Speak directly at your interviewer with a clear, strong voice.

5) Smile and Show Some Personality – It’s ok to be a little nervous, but remember to stay loose and be yourself. Personality counts for a lot.

Of course, there’s a lot more to think about when preparing for an interview. But even if you only remember these five simple interviewing rules, you’ll be able to make a good impression on the one person standing between you and a job – your interviewer.

Taken from: www.get-a-job-interview-quick-tips.com