Category: Service Reviews

Service Review: Resume Distribution Services

Posted by Brady – January 19, 2009

Job searching process may be desperate, thrilling and time consuming, not only for fresh graduates but also currently employed.   However, things can be far more efficient and effective if you take advantage of the job search techniques and services thatInternet now offers.

Resume distribution is one of these services that’s very effective and cost-efficient.  It emerged in 2002, and became increasingly popular since then.  Job hunters can reach employers through distributing hundreds or even thousands of resumes automatically to increase personal visibility within the job market.

So far, resume distribution services can help you do these two types of work:

  • Resume blasting: directly email your resume to thousands of employers, recruiters, headhunters in short time frame.  Serious providers in this category include: EmailMyResume and Resume Zapper, Resume blasting is the most direct approach to market yourself to recruiters and head hunters, since it directly transfers your profile and resume to the emails of your targeted recruiters.   Comparing with posting your resume on job sites and wait for recruiters to find you, resume blasting allows job seekers to take a more active approach by reaching out and find recruiters.   By taking a more proactive approach, resume blasting allows job seekers more ability to target certain recruiters by industry, company or special areas.
  • Resume posting: post your resume to multiple job sites, one of famous providers in this category is Resume Rabbit.  No doubt, job sites are a major place where recruiters and head hunters spend a lot of time daily browsing, therefore getting your resume posted on as many as possible job sites is important.  In addition to Monster.com, Careerbuilder.com, Ladders.com, there are hundreds of job listing websites out there, each requires a complicated process of registration of your personal information and resume, resume posting service automates this process and immediately let your profile appear on hundreds of job listing websites.

Service Comparison

This post reviews major five resume distribution services on market now, compare pros and cons of each services to help you make an informed decision.

Company Service Audience Region Industry Price
Email My Resume Blasting 1000+ recruiters and employers 3 regions 3 industries $49.99
Resume Zapper Blasting 600+ recruiters 3 regions 3 industries $49.99
Resume Zapper Blasting 600+ recruiters 3 regions 3 industries $59.99
Resume Zapper Blasting 1000+ recruiters 3 regions 6 industries $68.99
Employment 911 Posting 76 career sites USA General $59.95
ResumeRabbit Posting 83 job sites USA General $59.99

Service Provider Profile

Detailed information of each resume distribution service providers:

Resume Rabbit

Pros: Password access to check status on your site postings in real time. Personal link list to all sites with your usernames and passwords.
Cons: If currently employed, posting your resume to the Internet job boards could lead to negative responses from your current employer.

EmailMyResume

Pros: You will be able to select companies where you do not wish to distribute your resume.
Cons: You will be able to add industries and regions for extra pay.

Resume Zapper

Pros: Over 10,000 recruiters in its US database and 1100 recruiters who make international placements.
Cons: You pay extra fees for additional services like increased exposure, privacy protection, report of resume activity, etc.

Employment911

Pros: Free electronic formatting.
Cons: Website design not so user friendly. You have to pay the service before the details of service are displayed.

Expert Take

Here is an excerpt from Jason Kay, a career expert, on the power of resume distribution services.

By utilizing a resume distribution service, you can help cut down your “to do” list, so that you have more time available to accomplish the items remaining on that list. This, in turn, allows you land a job more quickly and limit the time that you are unemployed and without a steady income.

A resume distribution service will also do something for you that can be particularly difficult and time consuming for you to do on your own – find out-of-area jobs in other towns and cities across the nation. This presents an amazing possibility for job hunters who are willing to relocate if the right opportunity presents itself.

All in all, a resume distribution service can be the perfect solution to simplify a process that can otherwise be draining, time consuming, and slow down other important activities that contribute to a successful job search. It is almost like having your own personal assistant to assist in your job hunt – one who is dedicated to helping you discover the best job opportunities out there and bringing you one step closer to finding the job of your dreams

Resume distribution services offer a wide range of services. Depending on your job level and field you may choose which services, and what cost, is right for you. Be sure to compare services, especially former customer reviews, of a resume distribution service before you choose to purchase their service. After you find the distribution service for you, relax, let them do the work, and get ready for a career boost.

Rate Q&A: APY to APR and APR to APY conversion methods

Posted by Brady – January 14, 2009

APR and APY are common concepts of savings interest rate that you have to deal with.  For example, the review of online saving accounts lists APY version of various bank’s saving account interest rates.  The concepts of APR and APY are so close to each other, they sometimes confuse a lot of people.  In fact, they describe the same thing, interest rate, from two perspectives.  APR stands for Annual Percentage Return, it measures how much interest dollar you will get if you cash out whenever you earn interest.  APY stands for Annual Percentage Yield, it measures how much interest dollar you will get if you don’t cash out interest earned, but put it back to earn interest again.

The two types of rates are interchangable, here is how to convert one to the other.   Before you calculate, you need to set a method of compounding, which is how many pieces you want to slice a year into.  Daily compounding slices a year into 365 days, then periods of year is 365.  Monthly compounding slices a year into 12 months, then periods of year is 12.  With this in your mind, you can start converting.

Supposing you want to calculate daily rate for the year of 2009 which has 365 days total.

If you have APR available, here is how to calculate APY:

APY = (APR / periods of year + 1) ^ periods of year – 1

For example, for APR 2.08%, and you want daily APY,

APY = (2.08% / 365 + 1) ^ 365 – 1 = 2.10%

Converting APY to APR is a little more complicated, say If you have APY available, and need APR

APR = ((1 + APY) ^ (1/periods of year) – 1) * periods of year

For example, for APY 2.10%, and you want daily APR,

APR = ((1 + 2.1%) ^ (1/365) – 1) * 365 = 2.08%

Service Review: Online Auto Parts Dealers

Posted by Brady – December 27, 2008

Recently I found my car unable to start because of some mysterious problem.  After taking the car to mechanic, I was told the throttle body was broken, and need to be replaced.  The mechanic gave me two options: 1. order replacement part from original dealer which costs $500+; 2. order a used throttle body from third party, which costs much less than from original dealer.  Although the 2nd option is cheaper than 1st one, I was told that taking the 2nd option essentially means gambling.

Having spent $1000+ last year on repairing my not so old car with less than 100k mileage, I found with a surprise that my car repair expense ranked 3rd high in my year-end expense summary after apartment rental and gasoline.   So my priority this year was to keep the car repair cost low, under this guideline, I decided to do some research myself on auto parts

Amazon offers a wide selection with a handy auto parts finder tool below:

However, Amazon doesn’t allow you to search a particular part for a certain make, for example, for 1997 Honda Civic, it could you 1500 replacement parts listed, however, you are not able to search within these listings with a keyword.

Here are some additional sources of car parts dealers:

  • PartsGeek.com – its car parts finder is pretty easy to use
  • Autogeek.net – Polish your car to perfection with the Ultimate Detailing Machine Car Polisher!
  • Tirerack.com – revolutionize tire buying
  • 4wd.com – Shop 4Wheel Drive Hardware For All Your Jeep Needs
  • empirecovers.com – The Lowest Price for Truck and Car Covers. Large Selection of Budge, Covercraft and Tyvek Products
  • usaautoparts.net – Ensure optimum performance in your car with premium grade auto parts from US Auto Parts.
  • AutoPartsGiant.com – 10% Off All Auto Parts
  • partsamerica.com – Automotive Tools and Garage Equipment

Credit Score Q&A: Positive and Negative Actions on FICO Score

Posted by Brady – December 16, 2008

Q: if you cancel/close a credit card account within a short time (lets say 6 months) you took it, will it affect your credit score?

A:  It will probably not.  This kind of behavior should fall into the “New Credit” section that is in your credit report, however, since the majority of this section is to figure out your interest to new credit, the more you are interested, the more negative to your credit.  Given this guideline, if you close new accounts shortly, that doesn’t affect your credit score negatively.

References: How Your FICO Credit Score is calculated from myFICO.com.  You may also find out your FICO score by visiting here.

FICO Scores are calculated from a lot of different credit data in your credit report. This data can be grouped into five categories as outlined below. The percentages in the chart reflect how important each of the categories is in determining your FICO score.

What's in your FICO?

These percentages are based on the importance of the five categories for the general population. For particular groups – for example, people who have not been using credit long – the importance of these categories may be somewhat different.

Payment History

  • Account payment information on specific types of accounts (credit cards, retail accounts, installment loans, finance company accounts, mortgage, etc.)
  • Presence of adverse public records (bankruptcy, judgements, suits, liens, wage attachments, etc.), collection items, and/or delinquency (past due items)
  • Severity of delinquency (how long past due)
  • Amount past due on delinquent accounts or collection items
  • Time since (recency of) past due items (delinquency), adverse public records (if any), or collection items (if any)
  • Number of past due items on file
  • Number of accounts paid as agreed

Amounts Owed

  • Amount owing on accounts
  • Amount owing on specific types of accounts
  • Lack of a specific type of balance, in some cases
  • Number of accounts with balances
  • Proportion of credit lines used (proportion of balances to total credit limits on certain types of revolving accounts)
  • Proportion of installment loan amounts still owing (proportion of balance to original loan amount on certain types of installment loans)

Length of Credit History

  • Time since accounts opened
  • Time since accounts opened, by specific type of account
  • Time since account activity

New Credit

  • Number of recently opened accounts, and proportion of accounts that are recently opened, by type of account
  • Number of recent credit inquiries
  • Time since recent account opening(s), by type of account
  • Time since credit inquiry(s)
  • Re-establishment of positive credit history following past payment problems

Types of Credit Used

  • Number of (presence, prevalence, and recent information on) various types of accounts (credit cards, retail accounts, installment loans, mortgage, consumer finance accounts, etc.)

Also check out service review of credit reporting/monitoring and identity theft services