Let’s say your name is Robert. Maybe you should go by Bobby at work? Check that — why not Bob instead? According to a recent report released by TheLadders, the shorter the name, the better (when it comes to your wallet, that is).

Upon analyzing the first names of the site’s six million members against factors such as industry, salary level and location, their experts concluded a correlation between the number of letters in a name and actual salary ranges.

So, if you want to go by Bobby instead of Bob, it’ll cost you about $7,200. Here’s why: Every letter added to a name decreases a salary by $3,600. This could equate to almost $288,000 over a 40-year career for dear ol’ Bobmeister! Read more

Amidst the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, job seekers may take a snooze from the search until the new year.

As such, more than five million members of TheLadders were surveyed about their job search endeavors and the findings may help bolster your ammo for 2013.

And according to Amanda Augustine, job search expert for TheLadders, there are four things job seekers can do to make an impact with pounding the pavement.  Read more

WikiThreads

Six seconds. According to a new study from TheLadders, that is how much time recruiters spend reviewing a resume for fit.

Remember when it was four to five minutes?

The study used a scientific technique called  “eye tracking” that assesses eye movement then records and analyzes where and how long a person focuses when digesting information or completing activities. The study gauged the behavior of thirty recruiters as they reviewed online resumes and candidate profiles over a 10-week period.

What does this mean for job applicants? Keep it simple.

“If you have a photo online they are going to fixate on that photo; same thing with video resumes,” Will Evans, the head of user experience at TheLadders told MSNBC. “It could be problematic.”

Credentials still trump design. “Recruiters are focused on the most important information: what titles you held; the companies you worked at, the fact that you have a degree,” Evans added.

Although, as MSNBC notes, this doesn’t mean you have to discard your  infographic-looking resume. Just keep two — the straightforward resume that you use for applying and the more creative one that you can provide interviewers.