Fascinating post on EscapeBlog on how President Elect Barack Obama managed his career.

For  graduates just coming out of colleges and finding themselves challenged due to dire economy, there is plenty of food for thought here:

Barack Obama never escaped from Corporate America. But he has made many courageous and non-traditional career choices — all of which helped guide him to the White House.  He graduated from Columbia University and Harvard Law School and took a job as a community organizer. “Community organizer” was certainly not the most lucrative or prestigious choice to make (just ask Sarah Palin). Obama could have easily opted for a more traditional path and accepted a position at a law firm or as a corporate attorney. I’m sure many wise people advised him that he would never make any money as a community organizer.

But Obama followed his principles and his passions. They led him to the Illinois Senate, and then to the U.S. Senate (after an unsuccessful run for the U.S. House of Representatives). And now, he’s preparing to move his family and new puppy into the White House. Oh yeah, and  along the way, he also became a bestselling author (so much for those predictions that he’d never make any money).

So what is Obama’s lesson for career changers? Don’t let anybody tell you that your dream is impossible or unrealistic. Your goal may very well be a long shot, but that doesn’t mean you can’t achieve it. It may take a lot of hard work and some temporary sacrifices and discomfort, but so what? Nothing worth achieving is easy.

Now step back and think. Be unrealistic. Hard work and sacrifices.

Facebook provide you lots of fun with your friends. Considering the amount of time we spend on it, it now makes sense to cleasn up our profile a bit

To make sure you look good when company or recruiter runs into your Facebook profile, we have rolled out MY RESUME. My Resume is an application developed by CodeMunch team for Facebook platform.

CodeMunch is a Web 2.0 Social Resume Builder. Where you can get your resume on your profile by just filling some relevant information. By using this application you can send your resume to any of your friends. Sharing and adding review to your friend’s resume is just one click away.

My Resume will play a very important role in your life and resume building. Your all Facebook friends can see your resume and they can forward your resume for suitable position. Build your social resume on Facebook, It will build your career.

“Find a job you love and you will never work a day in your life.” 
– Confucius

We all look for such a job but it is very difficult to get such job, not because they don’t exist but because we are not able to find it. Positions given on job boards, papers may not be what you are looking for. Enter social media. You must be using social media since long for making new friends, finding old colleagues and other purpose, but have you tried to use it for making friend. Social media has a huge potential and realizing this employers are moving now to social media to find right candidate. In order to make social media work for you it is essential that you make your resume social.

With social resume you can make employer see your resume and contact you freely. You can also add your resume on social networking sites like Facebook and Orkut with our application CodeMunch and can make this platform work for you. To create social resume just create your profile (which is very easy and hardly takes 5 minute). Now you can see profile of all members, can contact them, get your resume rated and rate others resume. One most important thing is your participation on forums. The more you participate, stronger your identity is. Also you can be easily discovered because of active participation. Add this resume on your Facebook and Orkut profile and start getting your dream job opportunities from your personal network and jobs forums on facebook and orkut.

Good positions are unadvertised – you need to be in the known.

In recent years, the job market has become increasingly competitive. Still some professionals are highly successful in conducting effective job search. According to me they are successful not only because of good resume as many jobs portal sites are providing resume builder tools and its easy to create an attractive resume, I think they are successful because they know how and where to share resume. Sharing resume in effective and efficient way is important as it is the first step towards creating your Personal Branding (the process of clarifying and communicating what makes you and your unique value proposition different and special). In Web2.0 world we often share our own and others’ resume. It has provided much ease to job seeker as now recruiters can be reached easily through social network.

Some common mistakes made while sharing resume are:

• Sharing resume with inappropriate person:

Sharing resume without knowing whom to share with is the biggest mistake and almost ends with frustration. Before sharing resume it is necessary to know which job profile you are looking for and job profile offered by employer. Once you are clear with objective and get the opportunity matching your profile, then only share resume.

• Sharing without Cover letter:

Cover letter is a letter of introduction and creates first impression about you. So when you are sharing resume with someone it is necessary to enclose the cover letter. Many times job seekers send their resume without cover letter, which is just like going for tea with someone without introduction. Cover letter must be brief and to the point, and should demonstrate that you meet the requirements listed in job description. You can add bullet points to make it attractive. Also address your cover letter to a specific person and avoid general salutations like “Dear Sir/Madam” .

• Improper Subject Line:

Most of the recruiters in job description specifies job code along with title to be entered in Subject line, so proper subject line must be entered. Even if any specific job code or title is not given in job description, then also subject line must be relevent and indicate which job you are applying for.

• No Customized resume:

You may be eligible for some different type of jobs, so while sharing offline make relevant changes in resume as per needed. This is a common mistake as job seekers have only one resume and they share it without even customizing it. So make sure to share a customized resume as it will increase your chance for an interview call.

• Spelling Mistakes:

Check for spelling mistakes not only in resume but also in cover letter and subject line as any spelling mistake in this will create a bad impact.

• Using vague email id:

Email id used for sharing resume must be professional and simple. It can be your name or somewhat similar to it if exact name is not available. But make sure not to use absurd email ids.

• Sharing resume in bulk:

Often job seekers share resume in bulk and this habit can yield adverse effects on job hunt. When resume is shared in bulk, then in cover letter general address is made which is wrong. Also recruiter can see all others with whom resume is shared.

• Sharing with friends:

Social networks are the biggest source of job opportunities today, which makes it very essential to share resume with friends. But many times job seekers share resume in a very informal way, forgetting that they are sharing it for job opportunity. This is a very common mistake as while sharing resume with friends everyone thinks that our friend is going to take care of all things, which is not the case.

Creating a good resume is easy and so is sharing it effectively, if these common mistakes are avoided. Just remember that -

“Be discriminating; don’t shoot at everything that moves and shoot such that you hit the target”

The time has come and we are pleased to announce the launch of Facebook CodeMunch application. Now you can add your resume on your Facebook profile and show it to your friends.

Showing your resume on Facebook is a good idea because about 60-70% jobs comes from networking and Facebook appears to be the clear leader in social network innovation. Apart from showing resume on Facebook profile you can also edit resume as per need and share it with your friends and potential employers from Facebook itself.

You can view all your friends who have added CodeMunch app and share with friends who have not. CodeMunch app provides smart way to showcase your professional skills, achievements, and personal information enabling you to stand out of competition.

Our developers with the general motto- “Come, join and showcase your expertise and skills” have been busy creating this application, so don’t miss it and promote yourself to potential employers on Facebook in smart way.

These days submitting resume to potential employers has become a piece of cake. With increasing job sites and companies advertising their needs on their web sites, you are just a few clicks away to sending your resume. But, that does not mean it gets read and noticed. The more easy this gets, the more careless the candidates get. It’s not about how many companies you have applied to, it’s about how serious you are to work for a given company. It’s important to choose the company, study the company, align your interests with the companies long term goal. If these are not well aligned, very soon one will feel the stress, as passion would be lacking.

Key is to differentiate yourself from the crowd. Remember, the HR who sorts through thousands of resume for a said job will spend less than 1 minute per resume. Unless he/she finds something interesting and creative, the resume would go into the trash bin. If you are a fresher and don’t have much experience to show, you got to get creative.

Not having work experience does not mean you are not intellectually and technically sound.

This is where CodeMunch can help you differentiate from thousands of resumes. When you actively participate in groups, start intelligent threads, respond to others queries. One is not only becoming more technically savvy, but one is also proving to the world that he/she can tackle situations and get the said job done.

Add to it, the added advantage of having friends review your resume, rate and comment on it. Just another way to know where you would stand in the crowd. These could be friends or potential employers seeing how the community views you.

Happy munching!

Social Resume – might sound like a new concept for a young Indian graduate, but its a trend in developed countries.

Social site:- A site which provides a platform to share your experience, knowledge, connecting with people. Get to know what others are up to.

Social Resume site:- We are in web 2.0 generation – a must for you. Because now companies don’t ask for your resume, they ask about your online profile. Social resume site is a platform to share your Technical, Educational and Social skills with the world. Make recruiters and friends visit your profile, rate and comment on your profile, share tips.

CodeMunch is one of a kind social resume site which is providing you with a platform to manage your resume, see what others are doing, discuss, rate and share comments. Share your experience using our groups, rate your friends, ask questions and get expert advice from peers.

CodeMunch is not just a social site, it’s your demand. It is driven by your suggestions and a lot of research work. Not only does it provide a platform, it lets you download your resume free of cost in pdf format. You can choose from various template. Send us your feedback if you wish to see more templates.

Now there is no need to find jobs from different jobs portal, just complete your profile on CodeMunch and companies will find you.

Happy munching

Nowadays, social networking has been influencing the community a lot. Here we have taken the initiative to give the developers community a new platform to showcase their technical, academic and project expertise and achievements along with their personal information.

At CodeMunch it’s our regular effort to provide community with a tool that will help them out to showcase their skills- technical and personal; in a smart way. We at CodeMunch have the general motto- come, join and showcase your expertise and skills.

Take a quick look at what geeks are doing here on CodeMunch.

We raised the curtain with more features added to CodeMunch. As we have been emphasizing on making the impressive resume building effortless, so this time we introduce more features in CodeMunch.

Power registration to empower your profile-cum-resume with more spark from the first step. The new registration page is powered with Ajax.

Browsing resume, searching resume and accessing CodeMunch is now more handy with the browser tool. Install CodeMunch browser tool and browse your social resume links.

CodeMunch now expands to provide the resume empowerment to Non-IT and Non-Engineering folks also. So, what to wait for, sign-up to CodeMunch and showcase your skills- social and technical.

We also fixed the profile picture issue. Now you can upload your profile picture without any constraint.

Now our wildcard search is more powered with Advanced Search facility which filters your search on the basis of parameters you provide. The resulting list will show the most recent updated profile. So, what are you waiting for, log on to CodeMunch and update your profile right away.

CodeMunch team pushed out tons of enhancements. We have made lot of improvements in ensuring great user experience. CodeMunch provides an effortless way of creating social resume. So we really put a fine lens on “effortless”.

Chances to buddy up on CodeMunch has been increased from earlier. Now you can keep track of the fellows who visited your profile and possibly connect with them.

Latest buddies on CodeMunch can be seen on your personalized home page. Top rated, Most viewed, Most commented CodeMunch hero’s will always be in your service.

Profile integrity can be checked with completeness graph of your profile. Registration became more simple and secure.
Just one click on the link provided in your registered mail id, validate your email as well as confirm your registration.

Also resume entry format is greatly improved. There are better ways to enter academic and project experience information.

If you haven’t signed up so far, now is a good time. Resume surfing and resume rating is very addictive, so you have been warned