Near the top: After the heading and summary/profile, the education section is the first thing the reader will see. Recent college graduates and people with less than two years work experience will lead with this section in most cases.

Near the bottom: At the very bottom, or above volunteer work, additional qualifications, etc, the education section is one of the last pieces a reader will see. If the job seeker’s education is unrelated to their career goals, they’ve been in the workforce for awhile, or they don’t have a degree (yet have other types of professional education), it usually makes sense to have this section near the end.

As far as other sections – volunteer experience, professional membership, language abilities, etc. – you’ll want to make sure the reader sees the most relevant information first. In general, this means ordering the sections on your resume from those that are most in line with your career goals to the least.

What do you do when you’re mojo just won’t go? We’ve started a list of ways job seekers can cheer up on the cheap, but we’d love to hear your ideas too – won’t you chime in?

The reasons vary, but when eager to get a new job, most people hand all of their power to the potential employer. The interview process is a two-way street, and it’s worth taking the time to determine if you want to work somewhere – before getting hired. With a high percentage of new hires leaving within their first six months on the job, proper research will help you beat the odds and find a long-term fit. This will save you time, money, and energy in the end – the last thing you probably want to do is re-start an active job search so soon!

So, how can you find out if a company is a good fit?

1)    Check out the company’s website. It sounds like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised how many people overlook this resource!

2)    Google the company, but go back several pages. This is where you’re more likely to find information NOT put out by the company.

3)    Visit CareerBliss.com and GlassDoor.com. Both sites include company reviews given anonymously by employees.

Of course, nothing takes the place of talking to someone directly. Find an internal contact and see what you can learn “off the record.” Also, practice reading – and seeing –between the lines. When you go to the company to interview, do the employees seem happy? Are there numerous empty seats? These types of observations can help you get a read on the state of a company and its culture.

Though there are always unknowns, conducting a wide range of research activities will improve your odds of getting into a company where you’ll be happy to stay.

Whether you’re writing a cover letter or seated across the table from the final decision-maker, consider what makes you remarkable, and make sure the other person knows it too.

If you worked through college, participated in extra-curricular activities, and got good grades, you may think there’s no way you could fit everything onto one page. You’d be right – and you’d have to be very selective about what you keep on. Most CEOs could fill a book detailing their background, yet their resumes don’t often go past three pages. Clearly, they’re not including everything, and the same applies to recent graduates. In addition, employers expect to see one page resumes from recent college graduates. Their professional experience simply doesn’t warrant more.

So, what do you keep in and what do you leave out?

IN: Classes that are highly-specific to your target job; volunteer activities within your target industry; internships; work experience.

OUT: Your high school diploma/graduation date; coursework not related to your job goals; any activities you quit after a short period of time.

Of course, there are always exceptions, including recent graduates who went back to school later in life. Consider your background, target job (and level), and years of professional experience to help you determine your resume’s length.

Before you send any more email to a recruiter, ask yourself these 5 questions:

1. Does this recruiter know anything about me or am I just another nameless candidate?
2. How can I catch his or her attention quickly?
3. What can I say in my email to help make his or her job easier?
4. What 2-3 things do I want this recruiter to know about my skills and credentials?
5. What action do I hope will happen as a result of this email?

A letter to a recruiter should be highly personalized. It should be actionable. It should make his or her job easy – you want them to help you right? And it should have a clearly defined next step. Remember a job search is not unlike a marketing campaign… the product is YOU!

For example, let’s say you want a job in web development. To simply tell a recruiter that you build websites is like saying you’re a box of cereal. Are you filled with fiber, topped with berries, a crunchy granola blend, or good for the heart? In other words, what kind of websites do you build, and how?

Nicki suggests that instead of attaching your cover letter, you make it the body of your email instead – it’s just one less thing for the recruiter to open! Next she strongly encourages you to tailor your letter to the recipient. Do your homework. Check out the company website, any Twitter feeds and don’t forget the recruiter’s LinkedIn profile too! If you are inquiring about a specific job, let them know where you read about it. If you are just introducing yourself, include your top-level “positioning” – who you are, what you do and what makes you special.

It’s important that you make a strong first impression. Appear thorough, diligent, professional and savvy – after all, those are the very qualities the recruiter’s clients want to see!

Fortunately, your resume can be altered in as little as 10 minutes – assuming you already have a solid foundation. Follow the tricks below to find out how:

1)    Change the heading: Include the job title near the top so the employer knows exactly which position you want. You can then switch this out with something more aligned with your next job target (i.e. marketing coordinator vs. marketing analyst).

2)    Include a keyword box: This can take different forms, but “areas of expertise” is one common heading for this area. If the jobs for which you’re applying are in the same “family” you may not need to change much. Still, it doesn’t hurt to review and see if there are any important hard skills required – that you also possess, of course – that should be highlighted.

3)    Reorder your information: Always lead with the information most relevant to the job. If you’ve supervised two interns in your career, and “supervisory experience” is important for the position, this information should be placed further up on the resume. If you’re applying for a more junior role and don’t want to appear overqualified, this information can be placed further down, where it’ll be less obvious. The key is to make the reader really see the most important information!

One caveat: these tips won’t apply if you’re targeting two very different job functions (for example, going after accounting and marketing positions). In cases like this, it’s recommended that you have a separate resume foundation for each.

{This is a revised version of an article I penned for the American Marketing Association Career Update newsletter last month.}

You can like it, you can love it, but you can’t ignore LinkedIn. Arguably the most professional of all the social networks, having a polished and keyword-optimized LinkedIn profile is critical in the age of social recruiting.

If you haven’t logged in lately, here are five updates to make to your profile today. You can make all of the recommended updates by navigating to Profile > Edit Profile once you’ve logged in.

1. Optimize Your Headline

Your LinkedIn headline need not be your most recent job title. Instead, consider using words or phrases that describe who you are, what you do, and why you’re special. Talk about your skills and talents so recruiters and hiring managers can quickly assess your potential fit for jobs they’re trying to fill.

2. Add Skills & Expertise

The Skills section of LinkedIn is still in beta but it’s rapidly growing. This section allows hiring managers and recruiters to search on a keyword, such as “customer service representative,”  to quickly uncover candidates who can get the job done. It’s also a clever way for you to benchmark your competition.

3. List Your Honors & Awards

No one can see that fancy Volunteer of the Year wall plaque hanging in your office but you. Now LinkedIn offers a designated place to list your honors. Don ‘t be shy – if ever there was a time to brag, this is it. Just out of school? Consider adding the Test Scores section instead.

4. Customize Your Public Profile URL

Did you know that Google indexes your LinkedIn profile? As such, each page has a unique URL, but you can easily customize it to underscore your personal brand. Mine is LinkedIn.com/in/simasays. Once you have a custom URL, drop it into your email signature. It’s a subtle way to encourage people to check out your profile and ultimately increase the size of your network.

5. Include Twitter (only if you tweet)

LinkedIn has a field for you to include your Twitter handle in your profile. This is perfect for people who tweet. However, if you are not an active user or you keep your tweets private, consider skipping this field altogether. For the socially savvy, there’s little worse than clicking that hyperlink to check out your Twitter stream only to hit a dead end.

When I was in college, I heard that the best answer was, “I’m a perfectionist.” I’m embarrassed to say that I used that line during my first few interviews. Not only was it not true at the time, most interviewers will recognize this as a “line.” Plus, contrary to popular belief, this isn’t necessarily even considered a “positive” weakness. There are some positions (for example, those in deadline-driven environments), where you have to be able to accept good enough.

So, what CAN you say that won’t immediately knock you out of the running? Use the tips below to create a response that’s authentic to you yet won’t raise a red flag with an employer.

Point to a “fixable” weakness: If you’ve always had trouble with numbers, it’s probably not going to be something you can overcome easily. On the other hand, if you are disorganized, this is something that you can take steps to improve. For example, you can enroll in a class, implement a 15-minute desk clean up at the end of the day, or learn a new calendar management system. Ideally, you’ll have already started moving forward on these improvements before the interview, and can include this in your response.

Avoid naming a weakness that would keep you from being able to do the job: If you’re impatient but interviewing to be a pre-school teacher, you probably won’t be taken too seriously (though, you probably wouldn’t want this career in the first place!). Instead point to a “fixable” weakness, as is explained above, or a skill that won’t come into play very often on the job.  

The key is to point to a weakness that is accurate, but can also be improved upon and/or won’t affect your ability to perform the job.  If you find that you have do have a serious weakness that prevents you from being able to do your target job, you may need to take extensive action to improve it, or consider an alternative career.

Want to find out how to respond to other tough questions? Check out 21 Killer Interview Questions in the MarketMyCareer.com store.

If you read between the lines, you can sometimes discern hiring patterns that may signal a particular industry is hitting up (or shrinking!) If you believe a particular industry is growing, why not send unsolicited resumes to the top ten employers in that segment?

You may also be able to notice when one of your target companies is going through a growth spurt. For example, if Acme Paper Co. is hiring four new customer service agents, might they also need a new manager too?

When perusing job boards, want ads or other online listings, stay alert for subtle signals you can leverage to get a leg up on the competition. If you want more job search tips you can use, check out 28 Stealth Job Search Strategies in the MarketMyCareer.com store.