As the economy is still on the heels of the recent recession, hiring managers and recruiters in the insurance industry have increased their requirements and are demanding that job seekers have more business development and financial modeling experience.

That being said, you'll need a good resume regardless of the type of insurance job you're applying for, whether it's a mid-level underwriter or a business analyst. Having a resume that correctly highlights the skills you bring to the table can make all the difference.

One way to produce a great resume is by making sure every bullet point promotes your skills and accomplishments. If you're having trouble coming up with a great-looking, effective resume, you can use a free resume builder (Click here) to keep you on track.

Fins.com has some more great advice on how to create an exceptional resume when applying for insurance jobs:

• Use numbers - Insurance revolves around numbers, and your resume is a great place to include as many pertinent numbers as possible. You should highlight everything from numbers of premiums, revenues and loss ratios to number of clients and growth of book of business.
• Skip the "Accomplishments" section - Instead of creating a bullet point for each accomplishment, weave those accomplishments into your chronological history, which will better show a recruiter how you and your history will fit in with the company you're applying to.
• Clear up confusing job titles - Include the most popular versions of your previous job titles on your resume instead of pandering to the titles that companies create for you.
• Be honest about employment history - Make sure to remain honest on your resume and in your employment history, even if that means including employment gaps, because it's more likely than not that a recruiter will find out the truth eventually.
• Show off quantitative skills - Use the "Experience" section of your resume to address specific achievements or projects that allowed you to gain financial modeling insight. Be sure to also include any related certification courses you've taken.
• Highlight business development experience - In addition, use the "Experience" section to highlight any situations in which you influenced growth at a previous employer, even if it's not specifically insurance related.
• Demonstrate long-term thinking - In order to show that you're always thinking strategically, describe any achievements of projects that began with an uncertain outcome or demonstrated a long-term commitment.

Recently, many companies have been conducting personality tests on future hires, either to make sure they will fit into the organization or to make sure they have the right skills for the position. These tests can range from a simple question and answer format to a job simulation, such as Agent Day in the Life.

If the company you're recruiting for doesn't have its own form of personality test, there are several available personality tests online, some of which are more unconventional than others. Many of these tests are free and do a good job of giving you some insight into a job seeker.

PsychCentral, a mental health Web site, created a list of the best online psychology tests. Some of the tests are used to collect data for research experiments, but others are skill tests or quizzes that offer personal insights.

The top 10 online personality tests include:

1. You Just Get Me - This is a social psychology experiment about personality impressions. You must test yourself on five measures of personality, which are based on the IPIP-NEO psychology scale, presented in a bubble graph and try to guess the qualities of other people while they guess your answers.
2. Bad Vibes - This is a sound psychology experiment from the University of Salford that helps you find out what sounds you think are unpleasant. You'll be forced to hear sounds such as fingernails on a chalkboard, babies crying and a dentist's drill. This could be useful to anyone applying for a job in a noisy environment.
3. The Stroop Test - This is a well-known neuropsychological test named after John Ridley Stroop. It tests how flexible and fast your thinking is by showing you the name of a color with the typeface in a different color, then measures how long it takes you to say the color and not the word.
4. FaceResearch.org - Developed by psychologists at The University of Aberdeen, this test allows you to rate the attractiveness of various characteristics, including facial, voice and different ages. It also asks you questions about your tastes and attitudes, and asks you to choose between two faces and rate images on a 1-10 scale.
5. The Concept of Intentional Action - Created by Joshua Knobe, a researcher from Princeton University, this test is based on experimental philosophy and asks what you think instead of assuming you think the way a philosopher does. It is meant to study perceptions of morality and intent.
6. Project Implicit - The Implicit Association Test uses sorting to see whether or not you openly express your social biases. The test measures interference between conflicting categories. It requires you to respond to words related to yourself and to others' faces.
7. Basic Music Intervals - This test, from Cognitive Fun, measures music cognition by allowing you to identify piano music intervals while listening and reacting to a visual interface. Obviously, this would be helpful to anyone applying for a job that has anything to do with music.
8. Face Transformer - From the Perception Lab at The School of Psychology at the University of St. Andrews, this test includes a collection of face perception experiments. The test makes you move a slider bar to morph computer-generated faces until they're attractive to you.
9. Visual Phenomena & Other Psychological Diversions - This is a collection of experiments from the University of Essex that asks you questions and shows you a graph of your results and a discussion of what is being tested.
10. Casual Fridays - This is actually a weekly series of online experiments from the Cognitive Daily blog. Every Friday, the site offers an interactive test based on research, news, theories and curiosity, with the results published the following week.

Kenexa, a company that provides business solutions for human resources, recently announced that it has opened an international office in Buenos Aires, Argentina. This is the company's first physical presence in Latin America. Kenexa now has offices in 19 different countries.

The company's new office is an "RPO Center of Excellence" that currently serves more than 20 clients and plans to add an additional 20 clients next year. Working in conjunction with Kenexa's knowledge of human behavior sciences, the new office location provides the ability to source more qualified candidates to and from Argentina.

"We have recently experienced solid business growth thanks in part to the demand for our world-class recruitment process outsourcing offering," Phil Stewart, global practice leader for recruitment process outsourcing at Kenexa, said.

"By opening an RPO Center of Excellence in a region with a highly educated talent pool, we are enhancing our ability to support our clients in multiple languages," he continued. "Not only does the Argentina location expand our global footprint, but it also provides a local presence for the many large organizations headquartered in Latin America."

Kenexa's RPO division combines science, technology and business process to deliver measurable quality candidates. Apart from the new Argentina office, the company also has RPO centers in China, India, Poland and Texas.

Kenexa is known for making significant investments in research and development, as well as offering award-winning technology and comprehensive solutions for employee assessment, talent management, employment branding, employee engagement surveys, performance management and human resources analytics.

Not only do background checks help recruiters and employers avoid making costly bad hires, but they also can help companies find the most qualified candidate for the position. Because of their growing popularity, many companies are looking for ways to improve their background checking procedures.

In addition, there are a number of trends recruiters can expect to see when it comes to background checks.

The top trends, as compiled by Onrec.com, are:

• Quality - More employers are realizing that the quality of a background check can make all the difference. One mistake can gravely cost the company or the potential candidate for a lengthy amount of time. Because of this, most reputable background check providers will begin to have a certified quality process in place.
• Technology expansion - Just as technology has begun to revolutionize background checks in the United States, expect it to do the same to background checks throughout the country. Many countries will begin to use automated databases in order to get quick access to information.
• Expungement laws - Given the record number of people in prison, the scarce job prospects for previously convicted persons and the current state of the economy, there will be more of a focus on expungement laws.
• Falsification - Due to high unemployment and major layoffs, job seekers are likely to become more desperate, which will lead to an increase in the use of fake credentials, degrees, references and exaggeration of experience. This will make background checks even more important.
• Recurring background checks - As the threat of identity theft and employee fraud increases, there also will be an increased need to conduct post-hire background checks in order to continue to verify the legitimacy of employee credentials.
• References - New online technology has emerged that allows candidate references to provide competency-based behavioral feedback on applicants that produce high-quality feedback. These types of tools will make reference checking more prevalent.
• Credit check limitations - There is currently a movement underway to change the law that allows background check companies to check a prospective employee's credit during the hiring process. Many officials have argued that an applicant's credit score cannot predict future performance or the risk of inappropriate behavior. Washington, Connecticut and Hawaii have already passed laws that regulate the use of credit screening during background checks.

MBS is a dedicated business unit within Manpower that specializes in the delivery of customized employment strategies and outcome-based solutions. Through its RPO service, MBS is capable of managing any or all parts of a client's permanent recruiting and hiring processes, including everything from job profiling to onboarding, globally or in a single location.

"Manpower's vast global network and our enduring role as world leader in RPO services give us a distinct competitive advantage in the delivery of outsourcing services," Jonas Prising, president of Manpower's American operations, said. "We are unique in our industry for our strong track record of improving client performance through innovative talent solutions that raise productivity, mitigate risk and reduce costs."

Manpower also offers MSP services, including overall program management, reporting and tracking, supplier selection and management, order distribution and consolidated billing. The company's BPO services include management of financial and administrative processes, including call center and customer service activities, and accounting and payroll.

"Our clients' expectations have become increasingly sophisticated," Kate Donovan, managing director of Manpower Business Solutions, said. "By aligning key outsourcing service lines under the Manpower Business Solutions umbrella, we can offer deeper expertise in individual product lines, while structuring truly innovative solutions that offer a much higher value outcome for clients. The newly centralized infrastructure and a common operating platform enable us to provide clients with a new level of reporting and transparency into local and global processes."

Manpower Business Solutions resources offers: complete workforce management and consulting; centralized program management that yields cost savings; the breadth of the Manpower group of companies; and a global footprint and local approach.

U.S. News & World Report recently released its list of the 10 best jobs for college students. The jobs listed were chosen because they look good on a resume, work around class schedules and/or offer decent pay.

The 10 best jobs for college students include:

1. On-campus IT support job - This is a great job for anyone working on a degree in a related field. Students can gain real-world experience without leaving campus by solving technical problems for other students and teachers and installing and setting up computer systems on campus.
2. On-campus career services - This job can help students learn the ins and outs of the professional world, as well as become familiar with the job-hunting process and talking to employers and recruiters.
3. Paid internship - Many college programs require students to partake in internships, and the experience is that much better if you can get paid while doing it. Internships allow you to get professional experience while building knowledge in a real-world setting. Paid internships can help you see if a career in a particular field would be right for you.
4. Unpaid internship - While not as great as a paid internship, unpaid internships look just as good on your resume. If you're unable to find a paid internship in your chosen career field, settling for an unpaid internship could pay off later. In addition, many companies are more likely to hire unpaid internships since they will receive all the benefit for little to no cost.
5. Waiter or waitress - This is honest work that can help you earn a lot of money on your own schedule. Restaurants often allow you to take time off and return to work, which shows future employers that you have the ability to be consistent.
6. Lab assistant - This job is especially beneficial to anyone looking for a career in laboratory sciences. You can often get a part-time off-campus lab assistant position with only a high school degree or an on-campus lab assistant position in a research lab.
7. Professor's research assistant - You can often propose a position to a professor in your chosen career field, which will allow you to gain skills that will ultimately improve your career prospects and make great connections.
8. Home health aide - This job is particularly beneficial to students looking for a career in healthcare. Being a home health aide gives you plenty of practice working with the elderly and helping them take medication, work through physical exercises and perform basic grooming.
9. Writer - Paid or unpaid writing jobs can be beneficial to anyone looking for a career that involves communications. You may be able to work for a campus publication, school paper or online company, all of which look great on your resume.
10. Bank teller - Anyone looking for flexibility should consider this job, as one in four tellers work part-time. The position allows you to gain customer service experience and work with numbers, making it particularly beneficial to students looking for a career in the financial industry.

FINS, the financial Web site from The Wall Street Journal, recently created a list of the top five Twitter feeds that recruiters and job seekers in the accounting industry should pay attention to.

The list includes:

• @AccountingMA - Manned by the Boston-based staffing firm Hollister Inc., this Twitter account with 869 followers has a lot of advice to offer when it comes to accounting. Although some posts cover more mundane industry developments, many highlight the companies you should keep an eye out for and the companies you should avoid. The account also frequently posts new job openings and points out its favorites.
• @Big4Alum - This account is run by the alumni group that publishes Big4.com, a blog that caters to the interests of former employees of Accenture, Andersen, Bearing Point, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, CapGemini, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Most posts chronicle the latest job appointments, openings and other happenings. The account currently has 709 followers.
• @KuninAssociates - Maintained by Kunin Associates, an accountant recruiting firm, this account, with 1,269 followers, offers career tips and job openings. Posts tend to avoid industry news and focus more on job searching advice. A good number of the posts are about happenings in Florida, where the firm is based, so those with recruiter jobs in Florida may benefit more from the feed.
• @Lifeatmcgladrey: This account is run by Ben Gotkin, national recruiting director at RSM McGladrey, an accounting, tax and business consulting firm. Gotkin offers information on job openings, upcoming recruiting events and office expansions. The only downside is that the feed can become too focused on public relations for the company. The account currently has 851 followers.
• @CPA_Trendlines - Rick Talberg, head of Bay Street Group, a marketing firm for accounting firms, is in charge of this account, which currently has 2,857 followers. While Talberg is not a career specialist, he offers a lot of advice about job interviews, latest trends in the CPA world, links to accounting news and even trivia.