Title: The Super Easy Guide to Job Searching and Resume Sculpting
Author: Andrea Charlotte Angell
ISBN: 9784-4-759-2855-6
Publisher: iUniverse
Pages: 226
Genre: Business & Economics / Career
Reviewed by: Beth Adams
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Pacific Book Review
It is often said the most difficult job out there is finding a job in the first place. The average job seeker spends 3 to 4 months immersed in this task; a dauntingly difficult, sometimes humiliating, uncertain pathway to satisfy the basic human needs of financial security and career stability. It all begins with a sheet of paper, your resume.
Author Andrea Charlotte Angell, for years, has been instructing people how best to achieve success when in the job market and now she has compiled her work in an easy to read, rather enjoyable interactive workbook titled, The Super Easy Guide to Job Searching and Resume Sculpting.
Captivating from the start, Angell breaks down the incremental elements as to how to achieve finding a job by instructing the reader in an articulate, respectful, step-by-step process on the fundamentals necessary to plan one’s time and actions. She stresses how important it is to use your network of friends and colleagues, and provides the ultimate expert advice to write your resume that will achieve results. Just as importantly as knowing what you want when seeking employment, she stresses it’s also important to know when to say “No,” and walk away. I found it very interesting how, according to her statistics, only 5% of people find a job using the Internet, whereas around 50% of people achieve success in concentrating on their personal network – it’s imperative to get the word out there that you’re “available and looking” for a job to everyone you know. People that sit on their computer thinking it’s “working at finding a job” might be wasting much of their time, albeit nowadays most corporations require going to their career page on their website as a prerequisite. As many automated resume review software packages are used, meaning your resume isn’t even being read by a human, it is important to create a unique resume for each particular job opportunity to maximize your “hits” in the process which will then bring your resume up to the HR manager.
Finding a job is full time work! Angell outlines how to plan a week at a time, identifying the best parts of the week to phone people, do your research, and of course when best to interview. What to say during the interview, and what not to say, are clearly outlined as well to provide confidence and add a heightened sense of professionalism to the interviewee. She even comforts the reader by suggesting psychological ways to prevent a loss of self-esteem, a section I found most clever.
Interleaved throughout the book are appropriate clip-art images of business situations drilling in the lessons. Most notably are blank forms in which the reader can use to begin to gather essential information in a clear and concise fashion; such as listing your references, providing a timeline of prior employment, and bullet pointing your skill sets.
The Super Easy Guide to Job Searching and Resume Sculpting is just what it says, super easy. I found it impossible to put down and read it in one sitting, being amazed how clearly the information is presented, like a machine gun firing good advice. Good advice, well received, is the sign of intelligence.
You might think you know how to write a resume, and how to seek employment, however I will state unambiguously there is so much useful information between this book’s covers that it will keep you turning the pages, thinking to yourself, “That’s a good idea – why didn’t I think of that?” I would recommend this book to anyone looking for practical guidance and sage advice for their job search.
