Career Resources

Activate Your Customized Resume…FAST!

It is not good practice to send generic resumes, ever. You need a customized resume. That means adding keywords to your resume. Here’s how to do it…FAST.

Activate Your Resume Online Course is OPEN FOR ENROLLMENT

Are you ready for the next opportunity, promotion, or career advancement? Is your resume ready too? I created the Activate Your Resume Online Course to help.

3 Ways to Stay Motivated During Your Job Search

Searching for a new job is never fun. Here are 3 easy ways to stay motivated during your job search.

Can I Use A Generic Résumé?

Never use a generic resume. Craft your resume to highlight your value to a specific company for a specific job. Get past the computers. Get more interviews.

Finally, a List of Keywords for Your Resume!

You hear about resume keywords all the time. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a simple list of keywords you can just check off? Well, here it is!

FREE Resume Rebranding Session! Activate A Beautiful Resume

Join us Thursday, Feb 1st for a free resume rebranding session. Create a beautiful, branded, and stylish resume that will get past the online scanners.

3 Ways to Find Time to do a Job Search

Make your career dreams a reality. Time-saving ideas to reach your career goals. Here are 3 ways to find time to do a job search.

Madelyn’s Top 5 Resume Writing Tools

Getting stuck trying to craft your perfect resume? These 5 resume writing tools can help. Get the tools and join my Facebook group for more tips.

FREE WEBINAR: Activate Your Career in 2018

Madelyn Mackie is a career activator. Get clarity, get unstuck, and activate your career in 2018. Learn how to create a vision for your dream career.

Your 2017 Career Checklist!

Do some planning for your professional growth for next year. Here is a quick guide and 2017 career checklist to position yourself for success in 2018.

5 Tips for a Holiday Job Search

Don’t put off job seeking at the holidays! Companies hire year round. Here are tips for your holiday job search effort and get the Job Search Strategy Guide

Cover Letters, Thank You Letters, E-Notes – Oh My!

One of my mentors is Master Resume Writer and Career Coach, Wendy Enelow. She has recorded this great 20-minute interview on writing job search letters - cover letters, e-notes, job posting letters, recruiter letters, networking letters, job proposal letters,...

The Top 5 Mistakes Jobseekers Make In Their Job Search

Are you making these mistakes in your job search? Chances are, you’re making at least one or two — if not more! Go through this checklist and mark which mistakes you’re currently making — and then follow the suggestions to learn how to stop making that mistake! ...

How To Compare Job Offers

There are several ways to compare job offers. You can compare your current position (if you have one) to a job offer, or you can compare two different job offers against each other, or you can compare your current position against multiple job offers (lucky you!). The...

How to Find the Perfect Job

How do you find the ideal job? What makes a perfect job for you? A great salary? Fabulous benefits? A flexible schedule? An innovative culture? The first step to deciding which job to take is clarifying what you want in your next position. This will help you assess...

Top 10 Cover Letter Tips and Tricks

Cover Letter Tips and Tricks Tip 1: Beyond the obvious — including the hiring manager’s contact information. You also want to make sure that you tailor the content of the cover letter specifically for the company being targeted. Hiring managers can tell when you’ve...

Four Things You Must Include In Your Cover Letter

Regardless of the format, the first thing in your cover letter should be an attention-getting opening paragraph! There are a couple of ways to get the reader’s attention. 1. Let the reader know how you found out about the job opening. Were you referred by a current...

Do You Need to Write a Cover Letter?

When you see a survey that says 55 percent of hiring managers don’t pay attention to cover letters, it may be tempting to think that you don’t need one. But consider that means that 4 out of 10 hiring managers do want to read one — and you don’t know whether the...

Developing Your Professional Development Plan (PDP) – Part 3 – Goal Setting

© Marek / Adobe Stock Goal Setting When goal setting, look at where you are now, and also what you need to be successful in your area of focus. When possible, make sure your goal meets the “SMART” criteria — Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound....

Developing Your Professional Development Plan (PDP) – Part 2

© Isaiah Love / Adobe Stock Where I Am Now Drawing on your assessment that you completed last month, identify specific items to work on within the six areas of focus. This can either be a short-term task (such as increasing your LinkedIn connections) or a long-term...

Developing Your Professional Development Plan (PDP)

Your Professional Development Plan (PDP) is your roadmap for your career (and your life), helping you identify the steps to take to help you reach your dream job as well as live the life that you want. On the career side of things, your plan provides structure for...

5 Things to Do BEFORE Leaving Your Job

You have had it! Enough is enough! You are out the door! You refuse to spend another day, hour, or second in your current job. Well, before you storm out, here are 10 things you want to do before you go. Print out all our corporate contacts. You have spent a lot of...

Is Someone or Something Forcing You Out of a Job?

External factors — that you have no control over — can also impact your decision to make a job or career change. These can include: The company you work for was bought (or they bought another company). Both of these can impact your job as company management assesses...

Do You Need a New Job or a New Career?

New Job Or New Career? Do you want to change the company you work for, or change your career path entirely? Take a look back at the assessment you just completed. Ask yourself if making a change to a new company would fix the issue or issues you identified. Or are...

Is it Time for You to Change Careers

There’s a saying in the careers industry that you’ll know it’s time to make a job or career change when you start asking yourself if it’s time to make a change. While there is truth to that, there’s more to making your decision. This guide will help you identify some...

The Easiest Way to Evaluate Your LinkedIn Presence

STEP THREE: Evaluate Your LinkedIn Presence LinkedIn is likely your most visible employment-related social media profile, and you should spend some time making sure that it represents you well. Answer these questions: Have you set up your personalized URL for your...

The Best Ways to Use Social Media in Your Job Search

Your online social media profile can positively or negatively impact your job search. This audit will help you evaluate whether your online accounts are helping or hurting your chances of employment. More than half of employers say they have rejected an applicant...

The Best Way to Beat the Online Job Search Systems

Best Practices for Working With Applicant Tracking Systems When applying for a specific position, include that job title on the résumé. Use the descriptors “phone:” and “email:” in front of the phone number and email address so the applicant tracking system (ATS) can...

Everything You Wanted to Know About Online Job Search Systems

Frequently Asked Questions: Understanding Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) Question: How do I know if a company uses applicant tracking system software? More than one-fourth of all companies use some kind of an applicant tracking system to manage applications and...

Do NOT Make this Mistake on Your Job Search

Can I Get A “Generic” Résumé? Unfortunately, it is not possible to create an effective “generic” résumé that will be truly effective in helping you land your dream job. A résumé that is not tailored towards a specific type of position is a “career obituary” and tells...

The Biggest Resume Mistake You Could Be Making

Résumés use a unique style of writing to emphasize brevity in order to maximize the reader’s time. Many people find this style of writing a bit confusing when they first encounter it, so I wanted to clarify for you how résumés are written. Résumé Tense Examples: ...

Dispelling the One-Page Résumé Myth

There is no “rule” that a résumé should be only one page. In fact, there are many instances when a multi-page résumé is not only appropriate, it’s expected. Length is not the only consideration for a résumé’s effectiveness. Yet, the one-page résumé myth persists....

The Best Way to Write Your Resume Bullets

Polishing up your resume? Here are some tips on bullet points. List your accomplishments with resume bullets and you will outshine the other applicants.

Free 2016 Career Planner

Are you happy with your job? Are you happy with your life? The beginning of the year is a natural time to take stock of the past year and plan for the year ahead. This Career Planner is designed to guide you in taking a look back at 2015 and looking ahead to 2016....

Salary Negotiations – More Than Money!

Benefits can make a huge difference in your compensation package, so don’t overlook them in your salary negotiations! Non-cash benefits can add 30 - 40% to your total compensation package. Know what is most important to you. When asked if they’d like more money or a...

How to Give — and Get — LinkedIn Recommendations

LinkedIn Recommendations are a natural evolution of references and letters of recommendation. However, they often are more credible than these traditional documents, because it is harder to fake a Recommendation on LinkedIn than it is to forge a letter. Since many...

Don’t Get Scammed In Your Job Search

Did you know that performing an online job search puts you at a higher risk of getting ripped off, scammed, suckered, or phished? (Phishing is the term for fraudulent—but official-looking—e-mails that attempt to acquire personal information such as usernames,...

Declare Your Career Independence

My first career crisis happened in college. After investing three years and a lot of my parent’s money in a college education, organic chemistry stood between me and graduation. Either I passed this course or I would not graduate. I would not get into graduate school....

4 Things You Must Do On LinkedIn

To get the most out of your LinkedIn profile, make sure you do these four things: 1. Complete Your Profile. Your profile is the “front door” to your LinkedIn account. First impressions matter — so make sure you’ve made your profile as complete as possible. As an...

7 Reasons Why You Should Be On LinkedIn

What? You’re not on LinkedIn yet? What are you waiting for? These seven reasons outline why you should be on the social networking site: 1. Because That’s Where The People Are. Over 95% of all social recruiting efforts are being done on Linkedin! LinkedIn is the...

Do You Need A Career Coach?

One of the most recent developments in the job search industry is the evolution of the career coach as an essential component for any top-level job search campaign. We hear about coaches in the media, read about them in resume books, and even see them on Oprah! Five...

The Best Tools and Websites to Research Your Next Company

Earlier this month, you answered questions about your “dream employer” and created a list of ideal companies. Once you have the list, it’s time dig a little deeper and do some research. How can you research these companies? The simplest way to start your research is...

What To Do With Your New Resume

You have a new resume. Now what? What should you do next with your new resume? Apply for a job! Of course, this is the most common use for your new résumé. Where most jobseekers fall short in maximizing their résumé, however, is that they simply use the résumé to...

What Does a Job Recruiter Do?

Recruiters and Your Job Search At some point in your job search, you may consider working with a recruiter. It can be helpful to understand more about the recruiting industry and how recruiters work. What Does a Job Recruiter Do? A job recruiter has 3 main...

What To Do If You’re Suddenly Laid Off

Oh no! You've just been laid off! Being laid off can shake your foundation to the core. It can happen to the best of us; the result of unforeseen circumstances that are no fault of our own. First and foremost, DON’T PANIC. Follow the steps below, and you'll be well...

How to Beat those Pesky Job Search Computer Systems

Most online applications end up in one of two places: an applicant tracking system (ATS) or an email inbox. Neither place is particularly easy to get out of during a job search. The Madness behind the Applicant Tracking Systems Although companies can search their...

Keeping Your Job Search a Secret on LinkedIn

One of the best times to look for a new job is when you already have a job. You are more confident, secure, and open to possibilities. Looking for a job when you already have one also provides financial benefits. Investing $1,000–$2,000 on having your resume and...

How to Help a Loved One on their Job Search

It could be your husband, wife, sister, brother, best friend, colleague, or next door neighbor. Every day you see that they become more and more miserable, depressed, and unhappy because of a recent layoff or they happen to be a part of the 70 percent that hate their...

Activate Your Interview: Create a Brag Book

If it’s true that a picture is worth 1,000 words, why don’t jobseekers come to job interviews prepared to show and tell? One of the best ways to do this is with a “brag book,” otherwise known as a portfolio, leave-behind, or interview presentation binder. While...

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