Accountemps, the largest staffing services firm for accounting and finance, just released their latest survey on social media in the work place.

Yes! There is right way to read a job advertisement! Too many job seekers read advertisements, but fail to grasp what the employer is seeking. One of the main reasons job seekers do not receive responses to their resumes is that they do not have all or most of the qualifications, skills, knowledge, education, and experience that is required.

We have many clients that we coach and they always seem to ask us the same question, "How do I stay motivated while looking for a job?"

 The Baltimore Business Journal reported that "Maryland’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate worsened to 7.5 percent in January as employers cut about 2,500 jobs for the first month of 2010." Even so, Labor Secretary Alexander M. Sanchez believes that the economy is beginning to rebound. “While it is not yet across the board, we are seeing some signs of improvement in Maryland’s employment market,” Sanchez said in a statement.

 As a career coach I find that one of the major stumbling blocks to finding a job in a struggling economy is that job seekers do not update their skill sets. As we know, it’s an employer’s market and most employers can choose from a large pool of qualified or overqualified applicants. Why would they hire someone who does not have the required skills?

I had a great conversation the other night with another guest at a dinner party. My new friend, lets call him "Jon", is a recruiter for a very well-known Fortune 500 company. After discovering that we were in related fields, Jon and I began to compare notes on what makes an effective resume. We definitely agreed that 99% of submitted resumes are, how shall I put this nicely, not worth downloading. This is because they read like job descriptions and not career achievement documents.