So you were all Gung-Ho for this big turnaround in the job picture huh. Well you may need to put that idea on the ice for a while as the Feds are coming back and revising the job growth picture, essentially point to stalled job growth compounded with unemployment benefits set to expire. The long and short of it is that the Feds are saying that up to 50,000 jobs are being added monthly but approximately 150,000 new jobs are required just to keep up with the huge increase in population growth on a month to month basis.

Now lets take a guess at how many of the 150,000 contributing to the steady population growth are illegal aliens? Uhh Ohh - silence huh. Nobody wants to talk about that huh. Well if you ask me its a slap in the face to Americans that are already dealing with unemployment, now adding insult to injury with loosing a potential job opportunity to a person who is not even a legal resident of the US. Can you go to any other country in the world and be given preference for job openings before the natives of that soil? You know better than that - using my best English - it ain't going to happen. Yet we are debating about it here, versus closing the illegal alien loophole. Maybe its time for that change Washington promised...To top it off - the job openings picture has been revised until sometime 2010. Okay. So what about the millions on unemployment in danger of loosing their unemployment benefits by the end of the year? Let me guess - silence again huh. Stalled job growth is one thing, allowing unemployment benefits to expire by the end of 2009 is whole different thing. Enough already. geezzehh. 

It is no secret, of course, that your resume is your principal tool during your job search expedition. The question is, with all the trendy little side talk about this and that, in particular, the resume - how to go about leveraging resume fundamentals to get you over the hump in your job search? The answer, for starters is that there is no such thing as one size fits all. If you keep believing that then it will likely keep you in the free soup line for a while; no crackers either just the soup - tomato soup on top of that.

So let's go back to the basics with resume writing tips; that are part fundamental and part current day affairs. I won't steal the thunder and thus let you read it for yourself, but i will say this. One thing that may be quite burdensome for the job seeker, but unfortunately seems to be a reality, is this idea of recreating your resume for each job you apply for. Talk about a heap of work. I hate it for the guy/girl who is applying for 10, 15, 20 job openings a week. Talk about the overhead in just getting your resume ready to submit. It's almost as if some companies want you to court only them, despite the fact they have rejected you a half dozen times. On the other hand, a case can be made as to whether or not you are properly leveraging resume fundamentals to get you over the job search hump. As the saying goes, there are two sides to every coin - check your side first!

Sure you know you need to have a plan, if you want to land your new job sooner than later. The question is more so, how effective is your job search strategy? How do you measure the effectiveness of your job search goals? Well for starters, if you are stuck in the same bad habits that have been ineffective to date, why would you continue those bad habits in a new medium i.e. social media networking, versus adopting new habits? That may seem like a simple answer to a complex question but i can assure you that quite a few folks are doing just that.

Take the use of social media networking sites, such as Twitter, for example. Many people go over to Twitter and utilize the same ineffective job search strategies that they have used in other mediums such as relying on your "run of the mill recruiter" for job leads to help land the next gig. If you don't know by now, the vast majority of recruiters are paid on a per placement basis. So no placement = no pay. What does that mean to you? It means that, to many recruiters, you are simply a number - they operate on mass submit basis quite often knowing little or nothing about the candidates they submit to job openings or even worse, knowing little or nothing about the job opening for you're contacted.

A recruiter worth your time will be willing to take some time to work with you as an individual and see how the two of you can work together to make it a win-win situation. If your recruiter wont bother to have a phone discussion with you or respond via email with details about the job of interest, than it is probably not in your best interest to have your resume in the hands of such a person. So in short remember to use Twitter for what it was made to do - connect with PEOPLE. Connecting means engaging, conversation and getting to know one another versus blind "send me your resume" requests from someone who won't even bother to chat with you. Don't be the one with the new job search medium but same bad habits. New medium plus same bad habits equals the same results you have been getting. Nothing - Nada. It's kinda like the New Year's resolution that only lasts a few weeks for most people.