There are two big pieces to the resume puzzle – the resume itself and the well-crafted cover letter. If your resume is the car, then your cover letter are the tires. Most people don’t think about the tires on their car but your tires are the only thing on your car that touches the road. Most people don’t think much about their cover letters, especially with so much job hunting online, but it’s important because it gives you the opportunity to relate your resume to the job. A listing of accomplishments is nice, especially if your accomplishments are many, but sometimes hiring managers need help figuring out why you might be the best fit for a job opening.

After you’ve figured out the template and written a few cover letters, the process will be very easy and you’ll be able to produce a good cover letter in just a few minutes. If the hiring manager never sees it, it’s only a few minutes lost. If the hiring manager does, it’s a great opportunity to present your skills and accomplishments in a way that matches the job opening.

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Losing your job can be a blessing and a curse. Most people understand the curse part, but few look for the silver lining in the otherwise stormy cloud. When you don’t have the encumbrance of a full time job, a well-charted path, you have the opportunity to do whatever you want. If you have an emergency fund saved up, now is the time to rethink your career and put yourself on a path that will help ensure you’re happy tomorrow, in ten years, and in forty years.

This article is part of Bargaineering Career Week 2009, a week-long series focused on your career – how to find a job, how to tailor your resume, how to find the job opportunities and how to nail the interview. This article is the first article of day one – career planning.

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A few years ago, when unemployment was low and the economy was rosy, all you needed to do to get a job was get your resume in front of as many people as possible. You had to carpet bomb, stuff electronic resume boxes, and simply wait. One of the companies you reached out to probably had a job opening and you probably were a pretty good fit.

Nowadays, the jobs are harder to find and companies aren’t going to take a risk on a “pretty good fit.” So, I compiled a list of ten tips I’ve tried to use when crafting my resume during a job search.

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When I started college in 1998, the dot-com bubble was only an anxious froth. Computers were becoming increasingly popular and hardly a day went by when you didn’t hear about some hot new startup. They hadn’t really exploded yet, that wouldn’t be for another year, but everyone wanted to get into “computers.” The path to riches was paved not with cheese, as Feivel once thought, but with Internets and electronics.

Nowadays, computers are commonplace and while computer science and engineering still pepper the top job lists, there are a few jobs out there that you probably didn’t know paid as well as they do. Thanks to US News and World Reports, we now know eleven of them. I only looked at the more interesting ones.

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With the weak economy and everyone feeling like their job, if they still have one, is in peril, people are trying to add to their skill set and make themselves a more productive and valuable employee. They’re augmenting themselves, not their résumé. If you’re one of these people, you’ve probably considered taking some courses or preparing for exams so you can get additional certifications. If you’ve done a little bit of research about self-paced computer training software packages, you’ve probably come to the same conclusion as I did – there are two very separate and specific “types” of self-paced learning packages and each one is designed to fulfill a very different need.

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Do you know what the top ten recession proof jobs are? According to Laurence Shatkin, author of150 Best Recession-Proof Jobs, they are:

1. Computer systems analysts
2. Network systems and data communications analysts
3. Network and computer systems administrators
4. Registered nurses
5. Teachers, postsecondary
6. Physical therapists
7. Physicians and surgeons
8. Dental hygienists
9. Pharmacists
10. Medical and health services managers

Unfortunately, the list itself is useless. It’s useless because we’re already in a recession. The people who are looking for jobs can’t switch careers on a whim. The people who are working aren’t going to quit their jobs for a “recession proof” job. In that respect, they’re useless because you can’t act on it. Fortunately, you can learn something from it.

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If you’re out of work or looking to supplement your income, you might want to consider working for the U.S. Census Bureau to help collect the 2010 Census. According to CNNMoney, the 2010 Census will put 1.4 million people to work and projected to cost $14 billion, $212 million in advertising. If you want to make some extra cash and have the time, you might want to get the ball rolling on securing a job with the U.S. Census.

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Over three million, six hundred thousand jobs have been lost since the recession started over a year ago. Three million, six hundred thousand. If you’re one of the three million, six hundred thousand, my heart goes out to you and I hope you’ll follow my friend Sarah as she chronicles her battle against joblessness in Diary of a Firee. If you still have your job and you haven’t started preparing for the possibility that you will lose it, start preparing. You have all the tools you need right now to fortify your finances so that, should you lose your job, you will be prepared for it.

These tips were tailored for young professionals but they can apply to anyone. They are focused less on family-related money saving ideas and more on the things individuals and couples tend to do, especially if they’re in the younger working demographic.

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