WHAT NOT TO DO: 7 WAYS TO RUIN YOUR RESUME

In the time it takes you to read this paragraph, the average recruiter will have plowed through six resumes. (We know; we timed one.) Want to increase the chances of your resume making it to the next round? Then don’t do any of these seven things, which recruiters say — more than anything — make them want to push the “shred” button.
(For more resume tips, check out our interactive critique of an actual resume.)
1. Apply for a job for which you are not remotely qualified
Many candidates believe the job hunt is a numbers game — drop enough resumes, and you’re bound to land something. But shotguns are for hunting pheasant, not finding jobs. The reality is that recruiters hate wasting time on resumes from unqualified candidates. Morgan Miller, an executive recruiter at StaffMark, recalls the security guard who applied to be a financial risk manager (maybe Lehman should have hired him), while Scott Ragusa at Winter, Wyman talks of the aerial photographer who sought out a position as a tax specialist.
“Sorting through unqualified resumes is frustrating, unproductive and puts an extra burden on staff,” says Katherine Swift, Senior Account Director at KCSA Strategic Communications in Natick, Mass. “It also makes it much more challenging to find the right candidate.” So the next time you’re thinking of blasting out resumes to all 60 of the job listings on Monster.com that have the word “finance” in them , save your time (and that of the recruiters) and only apply for ones for which you’re qualified.

2. Include a lofty mission statement
More than ever, today’s savage job market is about the company, not the candidate. As such, mission or objective statements — particularly ones with an applicant’s hopes, dreams, and health insurance aspirations — will dispatch otherwise fine resumes to the circular file. Employers don’t care about how they can solve your problems — certainly not before they’ve met you and possibly not even after they’ve hired you. Instead, write an “objectives” statement that explains specifically how your skills and experience will help the company you’re applying to, not the other way around. And be very clear about what kind of job you’re seeking.
3. Use one generic resume for every job listing
To stand out amongst the sea of resumes that recruiters receive, yours must speak to each and every specific position, even recycling some of the language from the job description itself. Make it obvious that you will start solving problems even before you’ve recorded your outgoing voicemail message. Your CV or query letter should include a just touch of industry lingo — sufficient to prove you know your stuff but not so much that you sound like a robot. And it should speak to individual company issues and industry challenges, with specifics on how you have personally improved customer loyalty, efficiency, and profitability at past jobs, says workplace and performance consultant Jay Forte. Plus, each morsel should be on point.
“Think hard about how to best leverage each piece of information to your job search advantage,” says Wendy Enelow, a career consultant and trainer in Virginia. “Nothing in your resume should be arbitrary, from what you include in your job descriptions and achievement statements, to whether your education or experience comes first [recent grads may want to put education first] to how you format your contact information.”
4. Make recruiters or hiring managers guess how exactly you can help their client
Sourcing experts want to know — immediately — what someone can offer, and they won’t spend time noodling someone’s credentials. “Animal, vegetable or mineral? Doctor, lawyer or Indian chief?That’s what I’m wondering every time I open a resume. If it takes me more than a split second to figure this out, I feel frustrated,” says Mary O’Gorman, a veteran recruiter based in Brooklyn.
5. Don’t explain how past experience translates to a new position
Though candidates should avoid jobs where they have no experience, they absolutely should pursue new areas and positions if they can position their experience effectively. A high school English teacher applying for new jobs, for example, can cite expertise in human resource management, people skills, record keeping, writing, and training, says Anthony Pensabene, a professional writer who works with executives.
“Titles are just semantics; candidates need to relate their ‘actual’ skills and experiences to the job they’re applying for in their resume,” Pensabene says. An applicant who cannot be bothered to identify the parallels between the two likely won’t be bothered with interviews, either.
6. Don’t include a cover letter with your resume
A cover letter should always accompany a resume — even if it’s going to your best friend. And that doesn’t mean a lazy “I’m _____ and I’m looking for a job in New York; please see my attached resume.” Says Lindsay Olson, a partner at Manhattan’s Paradigm Staffing: “I’d like to know why you are contacting me (a particular position, referral, etc.), a short background about yourself, and a career highlight or two. It’s important to attempt to set yourself apart from the competition.”
7. Be careless with details
Reckless job hunters rarely make for conscientious workers. As such, even promising resumes must abide by age-old dictums: typo-free, proper organization, and no embellishment. Susan Whitcomb, author of Resume Magic: Trade Secrets of a Professional Resume Writer, says that almost 80 percent of HR managers she surveyed said they would dismiss otherwise qualified candidates who break these rules. She tells the story of one would-be employer who, when looking for an assistant, decided not to hire anyone because every resume she received contained typos.
“With a 6-to-1 ratio of jobseekers-to-jobs in the current marketplace, you can’t afford to make mistakes with your resume,” Whitcomb says

GIVEN IDENTITY THIEVES A KEY TO STEALING YOUR FINANCIAL LIFE: 6 THINGS YOU SHOULD NEVER REVEAL ON FACEBOOK

The whole social networking phenomenon has millions of Americans sharing their photos, favorite songs and details about their class reunions on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and dozens of similar sites. But there are a handful of personal details that you should never say if you don’t want criminals — cyber or otherwise — to rob you blind, according to Beth Givens, executive director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.
The folks at Insure.com also say that ill-advised Facebook postings increasingly can get your insurance cancelled or cause you to pay dramatically more for everything from auto to life insurance coverage. By now almost everybody knows that those drunken party photos could cost you a job, too.
You can certainly enjoy networking and sharing photos, but you should know that sharing some information puts you at risk. What should you never say on Facebook, Twitter or any other social networking site?
• Your birth date and place. Sure, you can say what day you were born, but if you provide the year and where you were born too, you’ve just given identity thieves a key to stealing your financial life, said Givens. A study done by Carnegie Mellon showed that a date and place of birth could be used to predict most — and sometimes all — of the numbers in your Social Security number, she said.
• Vacation plans. There may be a better way to say “Rob me, please” than posting something along the lines of: “Count-down to Maui! Two days and Ritz Carlton, here we come!” on Twitter. But it’s hard to think of one. Post the photos on Facebook when you return, if you like. But don’t invite criminals in by telling them specifically when you’ll be gone.
• Home address. Do I have to elaborate? A study recently released by the Ponemon Institute found that users of Social Media sites were at greater risk of physical and identity theft because of the information they were sharing. Some 40% listed their home address on the sites; 65% didn’t even attempt to block out strangers with privacy settings. And 60% said they weren’t confident that their “friends” were really just people they know.
• Confessionals. You may hate your job; lie on your taxes; or be a recreational user of illicit drugs, but this is no place to confess. Employers commonly peruse social networking sites to determine who to hire — and, sometimes, who to fire. Need proof? In just the past few weeks, an emergency dispatcher was fired in Wisconsin for revealing drug use; a waitress got canned for complaining about customers and the Pittsburgh Pirate’s mascot was dumped for bashing the team on Facebook. One study done last year estimated that 8% of companies fired someone for “misuse” of social media.
• Password clues. If you’ve got online accounts, you’ve probably answered a dozen different security questions, telling your bank or brokerage firm your Mom’s maiden name; the church you were married in; or the name of your favorite song. Got that same stuff on the information page of your Facebook profile? You’re giving crooks an easy way to guess your passwords.
• Risky behaviors. You take your classic Camaro out for street racing, soar above the hills in a hang glider, or smoke like a chimney? Insurers are increasingly turning to the web to figure out whether their applicants and customers are putting their lives or property at risk, according to Insure.com. So far, there’s no efficient way to collect the data, so cancellations and rate hikes are rare. But the technology is fast evolving, according to a paper written by Celent, a financial services research and consulting firm.

ELECTRIFYING POVERTY IN NORTHERN NIGERIA

The causes of Nigeria’s poverty problem are well known to all Nigerians, and to some extent the rest of the enlightened world as well. Ridiculous as this might sound, but the solution to the problem is also known. It is therefore important to state upfront that this paper is not an original thought, but a compilation of the many and various already documented statements of the facts on the Nigerian poverty problem.
At independence in 1960, efforts to eradicate poverty in Nigeria centered more on education, something that was seen as the door-opener to economic, technological and social development. As the late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Nigeria’s first President at that time said, “Show the light, and the people will find the way.” Then enter the oil boom in the 1970’s. Rising global oil prices boosted exports from 4 billion naira in 1975 to 26 billion in 1980. GNP per capita also rose from $360 to more than $1,000. But, as oil prices began their downward descent, so did the nation’s export revenues. Growth turned negative and GNP per capita fell to $370 in the 1980’s.

According to the Nigerian Federal Office of Statistics, in 1960 about 15% of the population was poor, but by 1980 this percentage had risen to 28%. By 1996, the incidence of poverty in Nigeria was 66% or 76.6 million people.

The UN human poverty index in 1999 placed Nigeria amongst the 25 poorest nations in the world. Presently, it is estimated that two thirds of the 120 million, or 80 million, people that call themselves Nigerians are said to be poor. A very tragic situation, when one considers the fact that Nigeria has realized over $300 billion in oil and gas revenues since independence.
What Is Poverty And How Is It Measured?
According to the World Bank, poverty is hunger. It is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. It is not being able to go to school, not knowing how to read, not being able to speak properly. Poverty is not having a job, and is fear for the future, and living one day at a time. It is losing a child to illness brought about by unclean water. And lastly, but by no means exhaustively, it is powerlessness, lack of representation and freedom.

The World Bank’s most commonly used method of measuring poverty is based on incomes or consumption levels. A person is considered poor if his or her consumption or income level falls below some minimum level necessary to meet basic needs. This minimum level is usually called the “poverty line.” This “…line” however varies across time and societies. Each country uses lines that are appropriate to its level of development, societal norms and values.

The world’s per capita income as at 2003 was $7,140. Compared to this, Nigeria’s per capita income of $290 makes the country one of the poorest in the world. This, sadly, placed our beloved nation in the ranks of Togo ($270), Rwanda ($220), and Mali ($210).

Causes Of Poverty
The World Bank’s Poverty Task Force has identified the following as the main causes of poverty:
• Inadequate access to employment opportunities
• Inadequate physical assets, such as land and capital, and minimal access by the poor to credit even on a small scale.
• Inadequate access to the means of supporting rural development in poor regions.
• Inadequate access to markets where the poor can sell goods and services.
• Low endowment of human capital.
• Destruction of natural resources, leading to environmental degradation and reduced productivity.
• Inadequate access to assistance for those living at the margin and those victimized by transitory poverty.
• Lack of inclusive participation; which is the failure to include the poor in the process of designing development programs.
Strategies And Methods Of Tackling Poverty

The strategies and methods for tackling poverty have a universal applicability, as can be found in the UN’s Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) agenda. According to Ilungole (2006), MDGs range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS, and to providing universal primary education, all by 2015. The MDGs blueprint has been agreed to by all the world’s leading development institutions.

The approach recommended by the Millenium Project (2005), is a four step strategy:
• First, each country should map the key dimensions and underlying determinants of extreme poverty, by region, locality, and gender.
• Second, consistent with the poverty maps, each country should undertake a needs assessment to identify the specific public investments necessary to achieve the goals.
• Third, each country should convert the needs assessment into a 10-year framework for action, including public investment, public management, and financing.
• Fourth, each country should elaborate a 3-5-year MDG-based poverty reduction strategy within the context of the 10-year framework.