Knowledge is power. Understanding how a company determines its pay structure is vital to understanding how to maximize your potential compensation, should you be made an offer. The first thing to know is that different industries will offer different pay scales.

Q: What is your best productivity tip? I work full time and have limited time for my job search, but I always seem to get distracted. Any suggestions?

You know you need to work on your job search. You have been laid off and need to pay your bills. Or you hate your job and know that you need to find someplace better. Yet, sometimes you are just not motivated to make that phone call to a networking contact or research that potential employer. You wake up with good intentions but get distracted by the latest news, your child's needs, or just wanting to do something else.

The social part of being on a social media platform is interacting with others. Since LinkedIn is geared toward business, it is an excellent place to find people who can help with your job search or work in companies where you would like to find a position. Building a robust network can allow you to find job opportunities and build relationships with decision-makers.

The first thing you should do on LinkedIn is to fill out your profile information. You want to maximize the opportunity within the profile to tell your story. You want the information you provide to emphasize your experience, skills, and accomplishments.

If you do not have accomplishments listed on your resume, go back and add those relevant to a particular position you aspire to do. This will differentiate you from most of the applicants.

What value do you bring to an employer is a crucial question to ask yourself. When you do this (and you need to do this for each employer since your value may be different), you will write a targeted resume that addresses that employers' needs. If you have not been getting interviews, it may be because your resume is not reflective of the value you bring to this employer.

Part of building a relationship is to take an interest in the other person. Making the effort to learn about your interviewer(s) can pay dividends in helping the interviewer have positive feelings about you, address any objections, and ask questions that the interviewer will find interesting.

There are two readers for your resume. The software that reads your information, stores it, and matches it to the job opening, and the human reader - either in HR or the hiring manager. Your resume does have to appeal to both. What is optimal for one does not necessarily work the same for the other. Therefore, you do need to focus your attention on how your resume information is extracted. If crucial data cannot be read, then undoubtedly, your match to the job opening requirements will suffer.