resume is a one or two page summary of your skills, education, experiences and accomplishments designed to capture a prospective employer's interest. A resume is a tool to get your foot in the door. It serves as a letter of introduction to get you considered for a position...the rest is up to you and your interviewing skills!

The employers that are reviewing resumes are looking for a candidates who can fill a particular position within the company. The first step is to get a better understanding of what the employers are looking for. The second step is to give it to them in a clear, easy to follow format. If you can do this, you will be one step closer to getting in the door. The following sections can help you along as you begin this important task.

Going green means doing more than recycling, buying environmentally friendly products and supporting environmental activist groups.  With the dawn of a significantly more environmentally-friendly Obama administration, environmentalists finally have a real opportunity to turn green rhetoric into green action - on the job.  If you have been following the discussions about job stimulus legislation and programs, you already know that many people believe that the United States is in the position to be a world leader as a producer of green technology and alternative energy innovations.

As a job seeker who cares about the long-term sustainability of the environment, there are many things you need to be doing right now that will position you to be able to participate in the development of this green technology revolution.  Not only do you need to filling any gaps in your education, you need to be able to demonstrate your commitment to energy efficiency in your current position.  Even if you do not land the perfect alternative energy job, you will have made a positive contribution to our economy and "mother earth."

Following are examples of actions you can take right now that will help to improve both your company's position and your own career security:

• Construction jobs - If you work in the building industry, you can take courses on the use of recycled materials in construction as well as ways to build structures to maximize energy efficiency.  Become an expert in compliance with environmental regulations and investigate ways that your company can promote itself as a green contractor. You can also help your employer institute company policies against such practices as leaving equipment idling for hours (burning gas and dollars) or paying to toss materials into landfills that may be used on other projects or donated to Habitat Restore.
• Transportation jobs - If you work for a trucking company, a city or state transportation department or any other organization that uses large numbers of motorized vehicles, you can become your organization's source for innovative, cost-saving, environmentally friendly proposals.  There is a huge amount of information online, in local libraries and at thousands of universities across the country.  The trouble is that much of the information, including cost studies, never make it to the "front lines."  If you use whatever position you have to help bring that information to your company, you will be saving money for your organization and probably positioning yourself for a promotion.
• Retail jobs - As a retailer, you can become a leader in promoting green ideas that reach out into the community.  Not only can you stock and promote eco-friendly products on your shelves, you can offer things like "bag credits" for the use of reusable bags or for customers who do not ask for a bag.  You can pass on the word to your suppliers that you will strongly favor products which make an effort to reduce packaging and pass on green ideas you receive from your customers.
• Office or accounting jobs - Financial statements and internal documents never need to be printed on unused paper.  Using the back side of paper, discouraging staples that make paper harder to re-use and placing recycling receptacles all over the building is only the beginning.  Most companies can realize huge savings by going paperless in many areas.  Not only do electronic files and PDFs save paper, they save dramatic amounts of storage space, since you can put the documents from an entire room full of file cabinets onto a significantly smaller computer disk.  Your task is to become the office expert in this area by studying, reading, attending online (green) conferences and preparing reports to demonstrate the significant cost savings to your organization.  As the office expert on green cost-saving policies, you will soon see how much more marketable you will be to other employers.  No matter what the state of the economy, making yourself more attractive to employers is never a bad move!

These are just a few examples of actions you can take now.  If you are currently unemployed, you can still use this knowledge to make yourself more employable.  No matter what you do, be sure to document your knowledge and accomplishments and add them in summary form to your resume.  This becomes the perfect win-win-win situation where you can help your employer help the environment and get paid to do it!

For CV and interview advice follow these ten pointers.

· CVs used to be a list of dates and facts, now they are marketing tools.
· Adapt your CV to suit each application; do not use just one standard.
· Look at the job description and make sure your CV matches that description.
· Do send a covering letter explaining how you offer everything they are looking for.
· Use bullet points to make the CV easier to read and list your best points first.
· Before an interview research the company and the people likely to interview you.
· How will you use your past experience to the advantage of the company?
· Dress appropriately for the interview, personal presentation matters.
· Watch your body language, especially if there are grey areas on your CV.
· Remember it’s not only candidates who may not tell the whole truth, that job may not turn out to be everything promised.

Lying on your CV has become all too common recently for a number of people. If you’ve been watching the apprentice lately, then you will have seen what potential questions employers ask about your experience. They’re interested in what you have done and that you have had the right amount of experience to progress in the role they are recruiting for.
I mean we all want to enhance our CVs, don’t we? Isn’t this just so we get a foot in the door and get that all important interview and chance? Absolutely, and the difference of not ‘tweaking’ your CV to make you an attractive candidate for the shortlist or not, could well be a major turning point. The importance of doing this cannot be underestimated, but blatantly lying about having a degree, or experience could end you up receiving a prison sentence for committing fraud – so you need to be careful.
If you’ve extended a 6 month placement to become 12 months, then I think you need to review what you’ve written – you’re not going to get anywhere if you’re doubling the amount of time you spent in different jobs – after all, you wouldn’t think of doubling your age now would you?
It’s quite common to slightly ‘beef up’ or ‘tweak’ your CV to ensure you have a fair chance against the competition, as you want to be able to get over the first hurdle of a shortlist. Be confident in your CV and your ability to write persuasively, you are selling yourself in your CV, but sell yourself the right way.

I always now go by what my Gran used to tell me – if you lie, then you better be ready for it catching up with you, because it will!

I set out to write a David Letterman-style Top Ten list about finding joy in the workplace in tough times. But recent revelations about how Letterman found joy at work is not what I’m advocating. His extramarital affairs with subordinates were perverse, dishonest, conspiratorial, and exploitative power-mongering — harmful and possibly illegal. No joke. Jobs are not saved nor enhanced by turning workplaces into sleaze factories.

Exploiting others is definitely not on my list for getting more joy out of work. But enlisting others in a great cause tops it.

In researching my SuperCorp book, I saw joy during what I call “Rubik’s Cube moments,” when everything clicks into place for an uplifting accomplishment. “Rubik’s Cube moments” might come after pulling off a complicated food drive for the homeless; collaborating across functions for a creative presentation that wins a big client; flying technology experts to the rescue after a natural disaster to manage relief supplies; convincing bosses to try job-sharing instead of a layoff; or seeing a product prototype work for the first time. Creating collaborative innovation to save the business (and overcoming frustrating drudgery) was how managers Juliana Azevedo and Tarek Farahat found themselves holding hands with workers and customers at a P&G factory as a new product first came off the line – an iconic “Rubik’s Cube” SuperCorp story.

Although some studies report growing employee cynicism, job satisfaction polls show high satisfaction rates for those still employed. Job security has been the most important factor in an 80% satisfied rate for the past two years, followed by compensation and benefits, in Society for Human Resource Management surveys.

Clearly, people report job satisfaction simply because they get a paycheck. But are they getting joy? OK, maybe work was never all that joyous, and that’s why it’s called “work.” But the post-crash daily grind is grinding some people down to a pitiful pulp. Melodramatic, I know, but I’ve heard sad tales from people in numerous cities during my book tour. People in secure jobs they once liked report working harder with fewer resources just to hold their own, like treading water in an endless swim machine. If current economic trends continue, we might face not just a job-less recovery but a joy-less recovery.

Here are some clues about joy. On a recent Gallup Healthways survey of 100,000 Americans, business owners outrank 10 other occupations in overall well-being, despite working longer hours and earning slightly less, on average, than professionals and managers/executives, who rank second and third. The surprising fourth is farming, fishing, and forestry, despite the lowest income of any group. (Maybe not surprising, given how many leaders unwind by fishing or brush-cutting.) More confined service, clerical, transportation, and manufacturing workers are at the bottom, in the low 40s on Gallup’s 100-point well-being index compared to over 70 for business owners.

Autonomy, influence, and a sense of meaning are associated with lower stress and fewer work-related illnesses, regardless of hours worked. Supervisors are better-off than the supervised, and entrepreneurs are the best-off of all.

This suggests that exerting leadership is the surest route to joy (other than going fishing). The key is setting the agenda and starting the pieces moving towards a purpose-driven goal. If 90% of success in life is just showing up, Monster.com founder Jeff Taylor advises that when you show up, you might as well run the meeting.

So here is my list of top ways to find joy at work.

10. Identify long-term personal purpose. Write a personal mission statement, to review often.
9. Be an entrepreneur from anywhere. Even if you don’t start a business (now), imagine starting a project that will improve your current job, workplace, or community.
8. Discuss the idea informally to find others feeling the same way. Enlist them in the quest. Now they’re counting on you not to let them down. Describe it as an experiment that will benefit others. Incorporate feedback so that others hear their ideas in yours.
7. Get a Big Name to endorse giving it a try.
6. Negotiate out of demands that don’t contribute to the goal.Keep doing what you must to keep your job, but simplify.
5. Find every supporter a task, however small. Show that you’re working for their goals, too.
4. Widen the circle of the informed. Involve people not usually included.
3. Remain positive. Smiling takes fewer muscles than frowning and is contagious. Ignore skeptics unless easily converted.
2. As the bits of the cube start moving, keep communicating and coordinating.
1. Celebrate each “Rubik’s Cube” moment of accomplishment.Share the joy to multiply it.

More jobs with more joy – now that’s an agenda the public should rally behind. Let’s not wait for employers to make changes, necessary as those are. A few good “Rubik’s Cube moments” can keep us going – and influence employers to see why joy matters.