A quick guide to avoid wasting your job search budget.
High Cost, High Risk
Image Consultants
Anyone can become an image consultant and charge large fees for their opinions on how to impress people. Notice how they're usually the first ones to tell that you need them.
Designer Wardrobe Anything
Stuart Weitzman shoes or Mont Blanc pens can only help if your job search includes people who can recognize what you're wearing or carrying.
Billboards
Can you wrap your branding message and contact information in only a few big words? The response signal-to-noise ratio alone is probably a reason to avoid doing this, but the rarity does make a great story.
LinkedIn Premium Accounts
Aimed at heavy corporate users such as recruiters who are happily willing to pay to use InMails to reach you. Let them! Spend your time instead tweaking your LinkedIn public profile into a magnet that will attract them.
Low Cost, Low Return
Resume Writers
It's much easier to find a similar resume on the Internet and adapt the layout with your own information.
Business Cards
This is overkill unless you're currently (self?) employed while job searching. Let your resume be your business card.
Resume Blasters Distribution Services
Even when free, using a resume distribution service can easily come back to haunt you. Follow these tips to successful resume posting on the Internet.
Newspaper Classified Ads
Do you know who's going to see the newspaper with your ad? Or even just the one page with your ad? The newspaper publishers don't even know for sure. It's a long shot that may not be worth the hassle, free or not.
Books
Considering all the freely available information on JobMob and other job advice sites, there are few good times when you really need a book to get job search help.
Oh, and the billboard picture? It's fake.
This article is part of the MoneyBlogNetwork's Budgets group writing project that I found on Group Writing Projects.
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With you on the image consultants! Employers are interested to see if you are wearing appropriate, tidy dress. They really, really don’t care how groovy and stylish you are. In fact, the more of a fashion victim someone is, the less likely they are to fit in with a company’s dress code.
Well said, Ro
Remember to get what you can from your past employer and the government. Exploit every angle you can before you spend your own money. You need it while you’re unemployed.