But today’s business people also need actively managed profiles on the social media sites that recruiters and others are using to find and learn more about potential hires.

LinkedIn is the most popular of these sites. While many people think of it as a Web-based contact management system, it’s so much more. In fact, it’s really a 24/7 personal branding machine.

The first step to fully leveraging LinkedIn is to think about your “positioning.” Since most people will not remember a lot about you, you want to give them one or two nuggets of information to associate with your personal brand. Let’s say you’re a salesperson who specializes in selling widgets to emerging bio-tech companies. Your profile should be constructed around reinforcing that bit of information so anyone reading it knows that’s what you are about: selling bio-tech widgets.

You’ll want to populate your profile with keywords that someone looking for a person with your expertise would use when they search LinkedIn for job candidates. This helps LinkedIn serve your profile to them as an option.

Once your profile is configured, you’ll want to proactively cultivate your image as an expert. An easy way to start is to join LinkedIn Groups where people with similar interests congregate. Resist the temptation to jump into the conversations you find posted there. Rather, sit back and observe for a week or so, getting a feel for the ways people communicate, then start participating in discussions. Eventually you will want to begin new discussions for others to join too.

These are just a few of the ways you can make better use of LinkedIn for business networking. For more on using LinkedIn and Facebook for business networking, order Jump Start Social Media’s reference guides. And if you’d like expert help in setting up your profiles and LinkedIn and/or Facebook, order the professional set-up services which include the guides. You’ll be networking like the pro you are in no time.

The general manager of a water and power agency who does the hiring sums it up: “Outstanding letters summarize authors’ knowledge, skills, abilities, and specifically why they are interested in my organization. They summarize an understanding of how my recruitment process works and references their attached resumes, identifying sections that are responsive to a specific request for information that may have been included in my job announcement.”

A planning advisor for a huge oil corporation who scans hundreds of resumes a week looks at it this way: “The more someone can tell me what attracted him or her to my company, the better. I try to get a feel for whether the applicant is interested in our industry, which is sometimes clear in the resume and sometimes not. That is where a cover letter can make a difference. If I get 10 resumes with similar experience and skills, the cover letter prioritizes who I need to speak to. If the resume is strong, then I don’t need the cover letter, but lots of times resumes don’t answer the questions I have.”

Keep in mind that the people who read resumes and cover letters spend mere seconds on them. You could meet every requirement of the job you’re going for but unfortunately, your qualifications might be buried somewhere in your resume. The people who are considering you for a job don’t like to dig. Readers don’t want to search for your abilities among the various jobs you have held or experiences you list.

Resumes are a record of your past and current experience. A well thought-out cover letter selects only those skills and experiences that apply to a job description and company. It summarizes your qualifications for that particular job so the hiring manager doesn’t have to search for them on your resume. If your cover letter doesn’t showcase the main points of your resume that match their requirements, the hiring manager is more likely to move on to the next candidate. And in this job market, you don’t want that to happen.

You’ve heard the hype. The economy is bad. There aren’t any jobs to be had. Things are tough all over, kid. But since when do you listen to the naysayers?

Sure, you’re not going to step out of college and into a CFO position. But you’re also not stepping into a part-time job selling hot dogs on the side of the road. Being realistic about your opportunities goes both ways, and the most fatal mistake job seekers make is selling themselves short.

Be Confident

Congratulations, you have a college degree! Maybe you weren’t in the top of your class with a full academic scholarship, but you have a higher education and that means something to hiring managers. What it means exactly is that you have the latest information about your field of study. You’ve most likely worked with cutting-edge technology. And you’re not so set in your ways that you can’t be trained. This gives you a distinct advantage over people who aren’t fresh out of school. When you go to interviews, remember this.

Be Enthusiastic

College graduates have something many other job applicants don’t have. Enthusiasm! All things being equal, someone with a positive attitude will get the job over someone who is jaded, indifferent, or world weary. It’s not all about what you know. It’s also about who you are. Show hiring managers that you’re someone other people would want to work with.

Be Strategic

Employers are looking for long term investments and are hopeful that you will be loyal to their company. When they ask you what your five year plan is, don’t tell them that you hope to be traveling in Europe. Nor should you point to the company president and say, “I want to be there.” Consider your audience.

Be Persistent

Don’t be so confident that you think everyone should want you. Always tailor your resume and cover letter for each position. Follow up with a phone call. If you don’t hear from the employer in 4 weeks, send another letter with another resume. Call again. Don’t give up until you’ve heard a definitive answer. If it’s a “no” send a thank you letter anyway to ask that they keep you in mind for any future positions. Repeat for each job search. If you want an employer to see you’re willing to go the extra mile, show them up front.

Being a realist when it comes to job searching is hard work. Sure, it takes work to get work. But landing a job and putting yourself on the road to a successful career is worth it.

Every job candidate faces the same challenge after graduating college – How do I get a job when all I have is a degree? If you look closer, you’ll understand you have more than a degree – you have group projects, research papers, class assignments, honors, activities, campus jobs, and campus leadership experiences.

Hiring managers are looking at your resume to understand your background and the type of employee you will be at their company. After all, past performance is the best predictor of future success…this statement is true whether you are referring to past professional or academic performance.

The first step in preparing your post-college resume is to take an inventory of any and all experience you have that falls into the following categories: academic honors (GPA, Dean’s List, awards, recognitions), class projects, leadership experience on project teams, extracurricular activities, campus work experience, publications, papers, and volunteer activities. It is important to highlight any projects that pertain to the industry you are targeting, e.g. business case studies, design projects, research papers, etc.

After determining your areas of experience, you can divide the resume into sections and add bullets to detail your involvement in the activities.

Examples of resume sections include:

EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES

UNIVERSITY NAME, City, State
Committee, Organization or Group Name, Position Held
* Add information on projects, assignments or work completed

HONORS & AWARDS

Name of Award, Organization Presenting Award, Date Received

CLASS PROJECTS

UNIVERSITY NAME, City, State
Course Name
* Add bullets with information on the project; focus on your specific role in completing the project

If your collegiate activities, honors and projects are limited, then you can always list the specific courses you completed that relate to your target industry or position. You can also include special projects or assignments within these courses.

The most important thing to remember is that your experiences during college help to demonstrate the contributions you will make to a company or organization. By expanding the details of your collegiate experience, you are communicating your value in your post-college resume.

2. A document that will guarantee an interview or job offer: A resume is the beginning of your job search. It cannot guarantee the end result. No matter how beautifully a resume is written, if your background doesn’t closely match the requirements of the job you will not be called in for an interview.

3. A document that will please your spouse, parents, colleagues, etc: The only audience that matters are hiring managers. Relatives, friends, colleagues, and acquaintances may be well-meaning, but they are not experts in resume writing.

4. A document that reflects your personality: Unless you’re in the performing arts or involved in a creative industry, a resume should be professional – period. Use of designer fonts and unusual formats will get you noticed and quickly dismissed as not being serious enough for the position.

5. A document that tells the hiring manager what you want: Hiring managers don’t care what you want – they’re interested in what you can bring to their companies in terms of increasing profits or reducing costs.

6. A document that is perfect in every way: Organization of data and showcasing accomplishments are what matter most in a resume. Worrying about cosmetic changes (eg: should there be one or two spaces after periods?) or tweaking the content (eg: should it be oversaw or managed?) till the end of time won’t garner an interview. In fact, endless revisions will cause you to miss out on important opportunities. Hiring managers aren’t looking for perfection in a resume, they are looking for hard skills that you can bring to their companies.