This article will show you three techniques you can use to save more than half of the time you use in reading newspapers.  You will not only save time, but also your focus will increase and you’ll have fun reading even the uninteresting reports.

Read the first paragraph

The reason why journalistic writing is called ‘history in a hurry’ is because of its wont to quickly condense vast information in a very small space.  This plays to the advantage of the harassed reader who wants to stay current but has very little time to read.

Often all you need to understand a news piece is the first paragraph.  Here the reporter will tell you what’s happening, who it’s happing to and where it’s happening.  Sometimes you don’t even need to read the entire paragraph because the first sentence or the first couple of sentences give you all the information.

If you still have more time you can move on to step two; otherwise, you can stop reading.

Read the last paragraph

Some news pieces are follow-ups of events that were earlier reported.  In such a situation, the first paragraph may not give you all the information you need.  But the last paragraph will do the job.  It’s usually in the last paragraph that the user is given the background information that leads to the story.

Read the “quotes”

After you’ve read the first and last paragraphs and you still feel you need more information or have more time to play with, you can dabble into middle of the piece by reading the direct speech of the sources of the news item.  

In all forms of writing where quotations are used, the writer leads the reader into the quotes and then leads the reader out.  This (leading) takes too much space and therefore, robs the reader out of some precious time.

Fortunately, you’re intelligent enough to understand what the subject or the source is saying without any interpretation from the reporter.  So glide directly to the quotation marks and read what’s within them.

Conclusion

Read the first and the last paragraphs.  Then read the quotations.  If you follow these steps, it’s possible to get about 80 per cent of a news piece.  And it’s rare to find a report that’s compelling to the extent that you want to get more than 80 per cent out of it.

Prior knowledge of the company that has called you for an interview is pretty important. There are some easy techniques that will help you to gather all the information that is needed in order to face the interview board. Here are a few tips that we think will help you a lot in the collection of information about a company.

Visit Company Website

Visit the company website. In case they have not provided it with the e-mail or in the advertisement then you can call them up and ask for the address of their website. They should give it to you because you have every right to know about the company that you might join in the future.

Internet Search

You can also give some random search over the Internet. Chances are you will get some information on the company. Note these information down. Search engines like google are quite helpful in these matters.

News portals

You can also visit some news portals and look whether any recently published news speaks about the recruiting company. Apart from the company website these news portals will tell you about the company’s best practices and any recent developments.

Search While Posting Forced Application

In case you are sending a forced application then know all the important details about the company you are going to join. You should also know whether your strengths will match with the job profile that you are applying for. You should also judge your knowledge about the market that the company represents. There is no use of applying for the post of a copywriter unless you love to write and you can write well.

Search After the Interview Call

Once you get the call for an interview make even more thorough search. This will make you ready for any kind of questions that the interviewer might ask about the purpose of the company. Knowing about the company in detail will also help you in asking questions about the company.

Research on Finance

Your research will also tell you about the financial condition of the company. You will get a clear picture on this by visiting the news portals. You will definitely not want to join a company that has unstable financial condition.

Note Down the Key Areas of the Search

It also helps if you make a clear note of the key things that you want to search for. Apart from the economical stability of the company you may also like to know whether it is a market leader, whether its product has a mass appeal, and what culture it has.

We hope that our suggestion will help you very much.

About Author
Sai People Solutions, Inc. – Providing Staffing Services across various parts of USA. As a leader in the staffing industry, we pride in our ability to deliver right staffing resources.

The old saying about “pounding the pavement” for job hunting is now more about “pounding the keys.” In today’s technologically advanced world, job seekers don’t necessarily have to pound the pavement anymore. Instead, many people looking for jobs look to the virtual world to gain an edge over other job seekers. To really get ahead on the internet, however, many will find that they need a little online resume help.

Applying for jobs on the internet or sending your resume via email can be a little trickier than the more traditional methods of job hunting. Fancy formats that may impress prospective employers on paper can look garbled when sent over the internet. Likewise cover letters sent via email can be trickier to compose. Before you start applying for jobs online, you may need a few internet-specific resume tips.

• Follow instructions. If you are responding to an internet job listing that advises against calling, don’t call. Likewise, if the instructions tell you to paste your resume into the body of your email, don’t send your information in an attachment. Following the instructions in the job listing show that you pay attention to details.
• Design an email-friendly resume. Many of the graphic elements used in Word don’t translate well in emails. If you’re going to be applying for many jobs via email, do yourself a favor and create a simply-formatted resume that you can paste directly into your emails.
• Preview your information. Sometimes you just aren’t sure how your information will appear when you send your information to prospective employers, so you should perform a test run. Helpful friends may let you email your information to them and let you know how the information appeared.
• Keep your resume handy. As you fill out job applications on the internet, you will often find yourself entering the same information over and over again. The process will go much more smoothly if you don’t have to recreate your work history each time you fill out an application.
• Include a cover letter. Many job candidates think of email and the web as informal and do not include a cover letter or send a poorly composed one. These people are being left out of consideration. Make sure you send a powerful well formatted cover letter.

As you embark upon the world of virtual job searches, don’t be afraid to ask for a little resume help. An hour or two spent perfecting your application process could mean the difference between a two week job hunt and a two month job hunt.