Revamping your Resume: Check out Wordle

My favorite personal finance blog, GetRichSlowly, recently posted an excellent article about was to rescue your rotten resume. 

I particularly liked the comment about the purpose of a resume. Your resume is not for you...it's for them. You want the company to see what you can bring to them, so you want to make sure that the qualifications they are asking for are highlighted in your resume somewhere. 

A great way to pull out the keywords from a job description is to copy and paste the description into Wordle. Wordle takes out all of the basic words like 'is' and 'the' from the pasted materials and compiles the big words into a cool piece of artwork. Not only is it fun to play around with, but it really helps you strategize and market yourself appropriately to future employers.

Image Source: 'Design Book Proposal Through Wordle' CC juhansonin

Financing Grad School (outside of loans)

There are definitely a few things to consider when it comes to financing your grad school education. It's great that you're thinking about the resulting debt and how to minimize it now. 

 1. First, you should definitely see if the program has any Graduate/Teaching/Research Assistantships: By working 20 hours a week for a professor or your program, you could finance you whole tuition! Some assistanships are not listed on web sites, so it's important to call your program directly to ask about these opportunities. 

 2. Second, you'll want to research scholarships and fellowships: Although there are fewer scholarships available for graduate students, there are some options. 

• Nationally Coveted Scholarships and Fellowships: Highly competitive and prestigious scholarship, fellowship and internship awards for college study, graduate school and postgraduate research. Free financial aid, scholarship grants, fellowship awards, student loans, internships, prizes, and stipends.
  
• Cornell Graduate School Fellowships: Search by deadline through over 700 scholarships and fellowships!
  
• School Soup: Scholarship clearinghouse that provides students with over 32 billion dollars in scholarship money each year. Fastweb is very similar.
  

 3. Consider residential life: While living in a dorm might not be the ideal situation, becoming a residential advisor could provide you with free housing and a stipend. Check with the residential life office at your institution to find out more.

4. Have you contacted your employer about tuition assistance: Sometimes employers offer tuition reimbursement as part of a total compensation benefit package for employees. Check with your human resources department to find out more if you intend to work while going to graduate school.

 5. Research the various loan forgiveness: There are a number of loan forgiveness programs for those who pursue work in specialized fields such as law, education, and nursing. Visit Finaid's web site to learn more about these programs. In addition, there are a number of service positions that we have listed with these benefits!

 I hope that helps get you started!

The Employers are Coming!

Careerbuilder recently conducted a survey of 2,600 hiring managers to learn more about social networking trends.

The verdict? Over 45% of hiring managers research candidates on-line! That's right, they're checking out your Facebook, myspace, and blog pages to dig up any digital dirt that you haven't cleaned up.

What can you do to make sure you shine on-line?

1. Clean up your own photos and comments, and make sure your friends remove any inappropriate crumbs related to you: The first impression is everything, so make that whatever you have posted is appropriate for your grandmother to see.

2. Build up your positive online presence: You can bury your negative digital dirt by adding positive, professional online material to your repertoire. Join LinkedIn.com or begin a professional blog on blogger.com.

3. Know your score: There are many web sites that rank your hire-ability based on your online presence. Check out Brandyourself.com to see where you rank.

Above all, keep in mind that the online world is public. How you choose to portray yourself is up to you.