Answer to Question 1
Answer: Technology will make researching your career options easier, with the entire Internet at your disposal to learn about the educational requirements, salary ranges, and other details for particular jobs.
Technology presents a wealth of options for finding job opportunities. Online resources like Monster allow you to post your rsum and search job listings. Professional sites like LinkedIn are used by recruiters to find job candidates, so posting a profile there can help you. You can also use social networking tools like Facebook to put the word out to all your friends that you are job hunting; this is an effective way to learn of unadvertised job openings. The Internet can help you research specific employers you are targeting in your job search.
Also be aware of projecting a professional image. Make sure your email address is professional sounding, and that you include a professional signature block in your emails. And don't forget to clean up your existing social media websites, so that prospective employers won't find anything about you online that would give them pause.
Answer to Question 2
Answer: Your rsum can make or break your job search because it is the first impression you give to a potential employer. When the stakes are high and there are many applicants, you may be tempted to enhance your rsum by listing job duties you did not perform, stretching your responsibilities to include qualifications that you do not actually have, or inserting keywords from a job advertisement that do not apply to you so that you can pass the automated screening process. Other common errors include changing dates of education or employment, increasing previous salary amounts, inflating titles and job responsibilities, and padding grade point averages. Potential employers can easily check all of these facts.
It may seem obvious not to lie on your rsum, but potential employers can perceive even slight exaggerations of your accomplishments as liesfor example, rounding up your grade point average (GPA) or listing a major GPA without labeling it. The Society for Human Resource Management reports that increases in rsum lies have led managers to check the accuracy of candidates' rsums with greater detail than they had in the past.
Even if you make it through the application process and have proven yourself as a valuable employee, lying on your rsum can cut your career short. Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson was forced to resign when the company discovered that he had lied about his academic qualifications on his rsum.