Stone Press

Standing out at a Career Fair can make a difference in your job search. Job Fairs are starting to pick up, and Dice is running some nice ones, called Targeted Job Fairs. At a SF Bay Area Career Fair in January, 10 companies as showing up, and a major job search company has 82 career fairs scheduled for 2010 across the US.

How do you get to the real interviews at a Career Faire? The rivalry can be considerable, but you can help yourself stick out from the bunch with early homework. At AA-Careers, we have a simplified 6-step process to prepare. Planning to go? Here’s how to prepare:

First, investigate the organizations that are going and pick your objectives. Use the internet to check out the companies that are there before you even decide to go. Go to their sites and see if they have their openings posted. Pick a limited number to go after, and get ready to spend an hour researching each one. It’s hard to do more than 10 in a day, and five or six is a much more reasonable target. For each hiring company, you want to know: recent news, key product lines, and contacts you know. Try to see if you know anyone at the target companies. You will end up with with a page or two of research for each company/job.

Second, if there are job postings on the web, read them to see what the company is looking for. Create a mapping of your accomplishments and skills to the demands of the job. Make the language match. If the hiring company calls customers "clients", your resume should do the same thing. The accomplishments should be written in the style of the hiring organization.

Third, create a ‘thumbnail sales pitch’ for each likely company/job combination. Write down a 60 second ‘thumbnail’ that you can repeat verbally describing why you are a great prospect for that position. You’ll use this in your resume and when you meet the company at the job stall.

Fourth, modify your resume for each position. The objective on your resume should exactly match the job you’re want. The executive summary should be a written form of your “mini sales pitch” for the job. Then choose the accomplishments and skills that most clearly match the job prerequisites. Especially at a Job Fair, the purpose of your resume is a sales tool for you – to get you on-site job interviews. It should be a no-brainer to see that you’re a fit based on your resume.

Fifth, rehearse your ‘mini-sales-pitch’. Collect your research and the resume for each position - bring a couple of copies for each – and put each in a clearly labeled folder. Keep them in a lightweight briefcase or folio.

Finally, dress and prepare as if you’re doing on-site interviews. Dress nicely and be fittingly groomed. Avoid strong cologne or perfume…use any eau de cologne or perfume sparingly, if at all.

Remember to smile, and good hunting!

The Swiss Army knife was first produced in Switzerland in the late 19th century. First made for the Swiss Army, it is now the greatest selling pocket knife across the globe. Victorinox and Wenger, the manufacturers and proprietors of the trademarked term ‘Swiss Army knife’, still supply the Swiss Army with about 50,000 of these knives each year. With an extensive assortment of attachments, the Swiss Army knife is popular amongst travellers, the army force, hikers, or for those who are searching for the perfect present. They are so well known globally that they are immediately recognised as the premier brand of pocket knives.

Karl Elsener was the first individual to make the Swiss Army knife in its current form. When he found out that the Swiss Army were supplied with knives made in Germany, K. Elsener decided to produce locally created knives. He was not content with his first knife so took upwards of 5 years to perfect the design. As an added touch, he contributed the cross and shield that is still used by Victorinox today. In 1909, Elsener renamed his company Victoria, after his mother who had recently passed away. In 1921, when the company started using stainless steel, or inox, to manufacture its knives, it was renamed Victorinox. Victorinox is still owned by the Elsener family, with Carl Elsener heading the company today. The term ‘Swiss Army knife‘ was not originally conceived by Victorinox. Its recognised name at the time, ‘Schweizer Offizer Messer’, was too difficult to pronounce, and thus the term ‘Swiss Army knife’ was coined.

Standard tools on the Swiss Army knife include multiple sized blades, scissors, toothpicks, pair of tweezers, corkscrews and many more. Larger models contain a number of application-specific tools such as screwdrivers, pens, saws, magnifying glasses, scalers, pliers and can openers. The latest models, termed ‘Victorinox Cybertools’ feature a digital clock, MP3 player, optical laser pointer, altimeter, hex screwdriver and even a USB flash drive. The knives come in several sizes, with the Basic model being about 9 centimetres long and the smaller models some 6cm long. ‘The Giant’, produced by Wenger, was the biggest ever manufactured. It was over 22cm long and featured 85 different instruments.

How to Explode Blog Traffic (Part II) Most of you might have read Part I of this article on my blog Bloghit.blogspot.com

In this artile I wish to add a few more tips and strategies to explode blog traffic on your blog. Read them and use them at your own risk of attaining unexplainable traffic to your blog.

1. Get more Eyeballs to your site. Simple Logic. The more people see your blog, more are the chances of somebody actually liking and posting a link to it. Mind you, half of my inbound traffic comes from other blogs that are linked to me. How do you do it? Well, for starters I suggest you try BlogExplosion. Though they promise you generous traffic, the actual amount of people who really read your blog are few, but what the heck its still more exposure.

2. Categorize. Agreed that you can write good stuff, even lots of it, but the truth is not everybody likes to read everything. Make sure you have different categories for your posts. This helps people to find stuff they like and want to came back.

3. When Headlines do matter. These aren’t the lines on your forehead when you don’t see people visiting your blog, what I’m talking about is actual headlines in the news. Yeah, try posting posts that have current media frenzy topics as the subject. As search engines scour the web, they would pick your site as a relevant match and will index you more often.

4. Interactive Addons. Get interactive stuff on your blog like polls, quizzes, ratings….the works. However, make sure they are simple with choices to make and takes the least amount of time (People shouldn’t be calculating E=(MC*MC) for every poll you have.

Also don’t have a poll that asks, I don’t normally participate in online polls. Yes. No.

5. Get Visitors to work for you. Invent activities like nominations, games etc. where your online audience can participate. You can give away prizes, but if you are not in the mood an award will suffice (remember, people will do anything for awards).

6. Search Engine optimization. Please ensure your title, description and your keywords (in the meta tags) have your blog theme in common. This not only gives you a higher ranking in searches but is the first rule of site optimization. Also don’t forget to periodically submit your blogs to the major search engines such as google, yahoo, Dmoz.

It’s time to work hard at gardening this time of year. We only have a few months to get everything planted and harvested in my part of the world.

Just wanted to share a few things that make my life enjoyable and super easy this season. Hope you like these - let me know!

Cultivating

Rototillers come in a variety of sizes, power, etc. Is it time for you to get a cultivator? Sometimes buying one is the right choice. A lot of stores carry rototillers, but you can almost always find one online for less. You can get some of the best deals I found out there on a rototiller from the Rototiller Store. Information is easy to read and use from the Rototiller Store. You should check it out soon. You can buy a rototiller in a store or online. They might end up cost about the same but one gets delivered right to your door. Great deal!

The New Kid on the Block

I promise I’m going somewhere with this roundup. Want to be energized? I sure do. That’s why I joined this program that sells energy drinks - they’re healthy too. This energy drink was something I had to try before I would buy…and let me tell you, the experience was exhilerating. My friend seriously downed a can at Noon and was going full throttle until midnight - and he’s 70. I wonder who is still reading this. Go get a healthy energy drink already! Everybody should go check out efusjon at Startup4Less - I recommend running with the ‘A’ team because they are showing a ton of promise for the income side of things. I haven’t ever seen anything like this. I normally don’t push an opportunity but I have to say that I joined earlier this week and you should too. Ha!

Splitters

Log splitter needs to be put into a shed or away for a season. Keep your log splitter out of the elements with a heavy duty tarp. Cleaning is good maintenance protocol. Log Splitter Sale is the best place I found for purchasing a good splitter. They have a fantastic buyer’s guide…and come to think of it, they look like they’re part of the Rototiller Store circle of sites. Very useful intel for your next wood split purchase.

Time to go! Hope these were useful.

Wow, can you feel the heat? It’s getting hot out here in my neck of the woods. We’re just starting to put splitters away and break out the tillers.

I’m a sharing person. I like to share my favorite finds so I thought I’d do it in a more public arena today. Let me know what you consider of these:

Cultivators

So many choices for a rototiller these days. Learn how to find and buy the right rototiller for you. It really depends on a lot of things. Sending a tiller can be expensive but prices are cheap online. If you’re in the market for a rototiller, I would start your search at the rototiller store. If you visit the cultivator web store you will find out that you can find anything quickly. You should visit the website today. The right tiller for you is at this store - don’t forget to check out the super cheap shipping for most of these rototillers. Cheaper than purchasing in a store.

Energy

Don’t read this if you don’t want to make more money. This is really a proper opportunity because it’s different. I am a MLM hater…a skeptic. But this one turned me around and I’m energized! This isn’t the answer to all your problems but it’s close. I recommend emailing the ‘a’ team to get a taste for free. Early morning and still going strong? Yes! Because I had this energy drink around Noon! Go visit the link and check out the healthiness of the drink yourself. Having a solid team is important with this efusjon opportunity. Go check out Startup4Less.com to find the ‘a’ efusjon team. This is an opportunity of a lifetime. You should go out and do it already. The income is great, I haven’t seen a plan like this ever. A different idea - worthwhile. Sign up!

Wood Splitter

Log splitter needs to be put into a shed or away for a season. Sheds help protect your wood or log splitter during storage. Long lasting equipment is prepped for storage. I think you’ll love the info and the prices found on the site linked to above. Visit today. I couldn’t find a better guide to buying log splitters than what I found at the site I linked to earlier. You should visit for that. Compare and review the guides on this site before buying a log splitter.

Alright! Glad you read this far.