| 40x50

How To Use Common Sense In The Job Search

From Brazzen Careerist by Andrew Weitsman

So I’m gonna gloss over the whole networking aspect of this, as I think it was covered pretty well in a previous post, and skip right on to the cold-call aspect of the job search, what with the Internets and the classifieds and the trade magazines and so on.
When considering a job to apply for, there are only two questions that one needs to be able to answer:

What kind of work do I want to do?
How far (literally and figuratively) will I be willing to go to do it?

The answer to the first question should come based off of your personal checklist and your prior work experience, education and so on. I’m not saying that it’s a bad idea to apply outside of your comfort zone, but rather to make sure that you have some expertise/logic/reasoning to bridge the different industries. Unless you’re prepared to jump into an entry-level position in your new field, you might want to rethink your options.
According to a recent survey I lost the link to, relocation is becoming more prevalent among today’s workers. And while this may be a good thing for those of you who are afraid of being the only kid on the block to move because of a job, it’s also something to take into consideration in another way. Due to the stressful economy, fewer and fewer companies are helping to fund relocation expenses for new hires, so one may have to weigh the costs and benefits of the move financially first.
Finally, you might have to think about the costs of the job. I’m not just referring to money you might lose paying for the commute, but also the comparative value of the work. What would you lose (besides the opportunity at a different job)? What would you gain (besides employment and money)? It’s essentially a pros-and-cons list, but many people gloss over this step only to be sorry that they didn’t think about these things beforehand. After all, some jobs are almost entirely bad.
As for where to look, there are so many different job search sites that it can be confusing. I am not much of a fan of the Big Two because of the number of unrelated jobs/pyramid schemes/repeated postings that flood their job boards. I’ve made a list of a number of good search sites on the links bar on this site.
You can usually find a website or twitter account devoted to job searches in your particular career field, and in many cases, a social network as well. You can use these sites to find more pertinent job postings in less time than if you were using a generic job search site. Or, you could skip the third party stuff and go straight to the company’s website itself. In many cases, companies will not post all of their available positions on job search sites. So it’s to your benefit to do some industry analysis and track down the business’ web sites to see all of the positions that they really have available.
Does all of this seem a bit elementary? Like stuff that you already know? Of course it does, and of course it is! It’s common sense! But are you using it in your job search?

Don't Say These Things In A Job Interview

from Consumerist by Chris Walters

Don't hit on the interviewer. Don't ask whether they might be able to discover your past arrests. Don't ask what the company does, or see if they can pick you up when it rains. In fact, here are 43 things you shouldn't say during an interview if you actually want the job.

On the bright side, if you're looking for work try to remember that there are people out there who do say stuff like this, so if you can learn from this list you'll already be one step ahead of them.

"43 Things Actually Said in Job Interviews" [AOL Jobs]

Turning Your Natural Born Talent into a Career

Original Post: Turning Your Natural Born Talent into a Career

Image via RagingRouge

Crystal Cotton says: With 20 years of experience in Human Resources, Recruitment and Staff Development, I‘ve had my share of really bad interviews. I confess, early in my career the bad interview experience could have conceivably been my fault. After all, the interview process can be just as grueling for the interviewer as it is for the interviewee, especially if either are inexperienced, overly nervous or just have poor communication and social skills. But, as I became more experienced, more precise with my questions and more skilled at soliciting critical information without crossing any lines of legality (this takes a great deal of intuitive skill), it became apparent that sometimes…no, most of the time; it’s not me it’s you. Yes, YOU…the ill prepared, inexperienced, unprofessional and inconsiderate job applicant. YOU are the primary reason why you’ve gone on a dozen interviews and were not hired!

Before I move on and explain, let me put in my disclaimer to stave off all the nasty-gram email I am bound to get. The job market is bad and opportunities are few and far in between. There are more job seekers than job opportunities. However, when you are getting interviews but no offers, you must look at yourself more closely. Something could be amiss.

Recently at a round table discussion with several of my HR colleagues, I posed the following question, “assuming all major qualifications are met, what’s the one stand-out thing that makes you think twice, or even disqualify an applicant for hire?” These are the things that make a difference when the playing field between you and another candidate is leveled and now the employer is making character judgments, as a means of finding just the right fit.

Eager to vent and air their pet peeves, my colleagues all chimed in, almost simultaneously. It was like HR harmony as they vocalized their top 5 reasons for not hiring an applicant. It echoed what I’ve personally experienced over the years, and have heard time and time again from employers and recruiters. It’s YOU… and your inability to make a good and convincing impression. This explains why you’ve gone on a dozen interviews and were not hired! Listed below are the top 5 reasons revealed in my informal, unscientific query. Take heed, these are opinions of people who influence and sometimes make the final hiring decision. These are experienced Human Resources Professionals who give weight to these 5 things when deciding who gets hired and who doesn’t.

YOU ARE DRESSING INAPPROPRIATELY: By inappropriate we mean too much cleavage, or too body conscious. It’s a job interview, dress like you have a clue. Tone down the cleavage. Ok, I get that some people don’t have a suit, and no-one’s saying it has to be Armani, but at least put on a blazer. Please remember that flip- flops are traditionally beach wear, and even if they are embellished with rhinestones, or made from the finest leather, they are not appropriate for a job interview.
YOU ARE NOT PREPARED: Did you do your homework? Employers are impressed when you know more about the job than what is on the posting. It shows you have a sincere interest in the job and the company. Take what you’ve learned about the company and formulate some questions to ask at the interview.
YOU CANNOT CLEARLY EXPLAIN YOUR ACCOMPLISHMENTS, GOALS OR POTENTIAL WORTH: This is a key point. So you’ve got skills, but what have you done with those skills which demonstrates your successes? Can you clearly state your goals and align those goals with the company in mind? Worth, in this sense does not mean salary, it means value. What value do you add to the company? What will be your contribution to their bottom line? Know how to express these things and you’re well on your way to your next job or career move.
YOUR RESUME DOES NOT SUPPORT YOUR INTERVIEWING SKILLS: A prime reason to draft your own resume (get the help of a professional if necessary, but know what it says and make sure it accurately reflects your skills and capabilities). When I work with people to re-write their resume, I make sure we do it together, I get their input, and see that the client understands how to present it to employers. Know that the resume is an extension of you and is the first way you are identified by the employer; know it like you know your birth date and social security number.
YOU’VE FORGOTTEN YOUR MANNERS: Never under estimate the power of being polite and just using a bit of common sense. Confirm your appointment, this shows responsibility and interest. If by some freaky chain of events you are late, call. When you get there, apologize and offer some explanation. Let me be clear, your explanation should be short and simple. Save the melodrama for your friends. Don’t interrupt the interviewer when speaking. It might lead the interviewer to think you have control issues. Lastly, say thank you for the opportunity to interview at the end of the meeting and in your follow-up communication.

Believe it or not, these things can be just as important as your skills. Make one of these faux pas and you may still be a contender. Make a few of these at once, and you’ve earned yourself a standard rejection letter. So the next time you go on an interview and things don’t go well, think about what you could have done differently.

Guest Expert:

Crystal Cotton is a career development consultant, President of Crystal Clear Connextions, and author of career blogging site, Job Ready, Job Savvy www.JobReadyJobSavvy.Blogspot.com. She specializes in empowering individuals with communication skills necessary to succeed in the workplace and beyond to create meaningful and intentional relationships. Through communication workshops, seminars, and coaching, Crystal helps people connect, influence, create and achieve career goals. Get Better Communication Skills Now at www.BetterCommunicationSkills.com .

Crystal has a Master’s in Public Administration & Human Resources; a Corporate Training Certification from NYU’s School of Professional Studies, and is the Director of Human Resources for a NYC non-profit.

Recently Laid Off? Here’s A Quick Job Search Refresher Guide

Recently Laid Off? Here’s A Quick Job Search Refresher Guide: "

First job search in years? Use this refresher guide to get your new job search moving in the right direction.

This a guest post by Pearl, a veteran Human Resources Specialist.

The employee trap

Searching for a new job can be very stressful and is actually a job in itself. If you are the one who just got laid off, do not forget that staying in the same job for years sometimes has its own share of disadvantages.

When we know our jobs are secure and safe, we tend to become complacent and lazy and learning a new skill either never comes to mind or when we do think about it, it feels like an effort especially if it’s something that has no use in our current job.

With many companies completely going out of business or closing their plants and offices, many of your skills may also be outdated and not needed by other companies.

Solution: learn new skills

Treat your time out of work as an opportunity by

enrolling at a vocational institute or take a class at a local community college
doing something positive with your time instead of sulking will stand out in the stack of resumes.

But what if you cannot afford to go back to school? And finding another job is the only way you and your family can survive?

Start your job search off right

The very first thing you will have to remember is not lose heart and stay positive. Treat this whole process of job searching as an important project and not give up until you have achieved your desired goal.

There are many ways to tackle a job search project. The easiest and quickest way is to do a Google search of course. Now, most people use the Internet but not everyone knows HOW to search and find the things they are looking for.

As a matter of fact, I know quite a few people who have no clue how to search through millions of pages on the Internet without giving up. If you want to learn how to get better results from Google when doing job searches, watch the following video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Don’t forget that Google is a general-purpose search engine. With that in mind, you might prefer to go directly to where the jobs are being listed.

There are hundreds if not thousands of job sites and resources to choose from. Make your job search activities more effective by taking the time to find the right job site for your job search goals.

But how to know which is the right job site?

Use these criteria to judge which are the right job sites for you

1. Look at the site’s popularity.

If the site is popular, it’s probably because many companies regularly post their jobs there and more companies will get to see your resume.

2. See how their notifications process works.

Many sites notify their candidates via email and keep them up-to-date for free about the site’s various features, new companies or new jobs in your area, etc.

3. Confirm that the job site allows you to modify your resume after posting.

As you look for a permanent job, you might be working on smaller projects or temp jobs during summer which should be added to your resume on an ongoing basis. Any job site that doesn’t let you modify your resume after posting it is no good for your purposes.

4. Make sure the site lets you register for FREE.

If they want you to use your credit card or pay them to just register and search for jobs, move on to the next job search site.

5. Check out their search process.

Does the site let you search based on location, industry, years of experience, education, etc.? Once you get the search results, make sure they meet your search criteria.

6. Use job listing aggregators.

Save a lot of time by using job search sites that aggregate postings from multiple search engines and companies for your location or your industry.

7. Job portals are more useful than simple job boards.

Many sites have company reviews and demographic information, which are always helpful. Sites that incorporate job search articles, advice and assistance are better than the ones that just spit out the search results.

8. Make sure they let you build your profile in addition to just posting a resume.

Companies sometimes don’t just search for the resumes, their recruiting agent might want to view a virtual profile.

9. Pay attention to the date of posting of the job in your search results.

You might get a good batch of jobs within your industry and your location, but what if those jobs are from last year? If that’s the case, this job site is probably not getting new jobs posted or isn’t removing old listings.

10. Most importantly: read the job search site’s Privacy Policy.

Especially before posting any of your personal information such as address and phone numbers you must read it first.

Now that you know how to recognize good job sites, here are some recommendations.

21 top job sites

With hundreds of jobs listed on these sites, there is sure to be a match with your current skills.

Once you’ve found matching listings, learn about the hiring companies so you can approach them in the most appropriate way.

Where to do company research

To educate yourself further for an American job search, use the Open Business Directory which lists companies by state. The site has also business directories for:

Also, use LinkedIn which has 160,000 profiles of different companies as well.

About the Author

Pearl has a Bachelor of Science and Education, Post Grad in Computer Information Science. She has many years of experience as a Human Resources Specialist with one of the Civil Service Commissions in United States. She blogs over at Interesting Observations.

This article is part of the 3rd Annual JobMob Guest Blogging Contest. If you want Pearl to win, share this article with your friends.

Subscribe to JobMob via RSS or email and follow me on Twitter for more ideas on how to manage your job search.

-- Jacob Share, Job Search Expert and Professional Blogging Consultant

Why I Walked Away From A Job Opportunity

Original Post:Why I Walked Away From A Job Opportunity

This is the first year in a few that I do not have a job for the school year, and am not involved in any way in Welcome Week (McMaster’s orientation/frosh week). But I happen to have McMaster’s campus events co-ordinator on Facebook, and in my news feed it showed up that a company she knows of was hiring a promotion team for a few days during Welcome Week.

It also turns out that I somehow managed to get both Thursdays and Fridays off for first semester this year (long weekend every weekend woohoo!). In my head, I thought “Hey, this could be a good way to make some extra money before school, and maybe turn into something a bit more permanent during the year.” So I emailed the contact person asking what sort of information they wanted from me, hoping for a quick response.

Shortly afterwards, I got a reply. They told me to send the sort of things I was expecting:

Resumé
Contact info
Time available for a phone interview
Availability during the school year

But there was another item on the list that really threw me off. I was required to submit a head shot. But I didn’t feel comfortable applying for a job where part of the basis for me being hired was my physical appearance.

This position instantly reminded me of the scantily-clad girls at sporting events and concerts handing out swag, samples or coupons. That is something I could never see myself doing. I do not ever want to feel like I’m using my body to sell a product – it would make me feel I had abandoned my values.

I’m not necessarily insulting my physical appearance here, but I feel that my ability to work for an organization should have nothing to do with what I look like, but the skills I possess. I have developed lots of skills that would be useful for doing promotions because I’ve previously done some niche marketing work.

Now, I’m not saying that the people who do this kind of work are knowingly using their physical appearance to sell products. Money is money and sometimes jobs in your field of interest can be hard to get, especially without a degree to back it up. I’m just saying it’s not for me because I feel it compromises my values.

Part of me still wonders if I should have gone through the application process. Maybe I’m making everything seem worse off than it is. I don’t know how likely it would have been for me to be walking around campus in booty shorts and a halter top hawking a product – as well as part of myself – to passers-by.

What I do know, however, is that having a bit more extra spending money right now would be useful.

13 More Weeks Of Unemployment Benefits For Some Americans

Original Post: 13 More Weeks Of Unemployment Benefits For Some Americans [Unemployment]

On Tuesday, the House voted to extend unemployment benefits for Americans who live in states where the unemployment rate is greater than 8.5 percent. 400,000 people were set to run out of benefits at the end of September, and will now continue to receive them until the end of the year if the bill passes.

The new federal extension applies to 27 states, and will be funded, to the tune of $1.4 billion, with a tax on employers.

As Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke stated earlier this month, while the recession may be over and the economy is growing, that isn't doing anything to reduce the jobless rate. In fact, many experts expect it to go higher.

The House action reflects the continuing depressed state of the job market despite some signs that the economy is recovering. The unemployment rate now is 9.7 percent and economists see it topping 10 percent in 2010.Some 5 million people, about one-third of those unemployed, have been without a job for six months, the highest number since data was first collected in 1948. There are nearly six unemployed for every available job.

''The job-finding situation is still dire,'' said Andrew Stettner, deputy director of the research and advocacy group National Employment Law Project. ''Until we figure out how to create jobs there is so much collateral damage'' from neglecting to help the jobless, including people losing their homes and facing food insecurity and mental depression, he said.

Here, according to the AP, is the list of states where the extension will apply, if passed.

Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Washington, Wisconsin and West Virginia.

House Votes to Extend Jobless Benefits [AP]
Meltdown 101: How extended jobless benefits work [AP]

(Photo: clementine gallot)

Strategies to Enhance Your Job Application

Recently, I attended a career fair at one of our local universities with many of the career development educators and industry representatives sharing some interesting and critical information that all graduates and current students should be aware of.

Employers are now more than ever placing greater emphasis on a candidate’s employability skills than they are on a candidate’s grades in the selection process. While Australian employers have been following this principle for some time - interestingly international employers (who were, up until some time ago, focused primarily on grades) now too are far more interested in a candidate’s employability skills than just their grades alone. So students beware – if you think top grades alone are going to guarantee you a role, you could be sadly mistaken.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics early this year stated that youth unemployment levels had risen to 24%. This means that all students should be implementing sound career management strategies whilst studying to ensure they are able to differentiate themselves within a competitive market.

And, according to the feedback I’ve been receiving, being able to demonstrate employability and transferable skills is critical and will allow a graduate to have the upper hand in the job market.

So what are employability skills and how can you develop these?

The Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST), the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) and the Business Council of Australia (BCA) have developed the following list of employability skills, which can also be referred to as ’soft skills’:

• Initiative
• Communication
• Teamwork
• Technology
• Problem Solving
• Self Management
• Planning
• Learning

While studying it is important to continue developing your employability skills. Here is a list of activities you can consider to increase these important skills:

• Voluntary work – even if the work is not necessarily in your field of study.
• Part time/casual work – again, either in your field of study or any other environment that will allow you to demonstrate development and growth of the above-mentioned skills.
• Join school groups, societies, committees and any extracurricular activities and ensure you are an active participant in their events.

This information is extremely valuable when developing your personal marketing document – your résumé. The fact that you will probably have limited experience in your field of study, including the information from your extracurricular and other involvements as detailed above, will allow you to create a document of substance, while demonstrating key employability and transferable skills to a potential employer.

Consider including these sections when developing your résumé:

• Extracurricular involvements: memberships and sporting involvements are always a great way to highlight employability skills;
• Volunteer work;
• Work Experience, completed either through your tertiary or secondary schooling years;
• Awards and other areas which have recognised you for your contributions and achievements;
• Technologies and understanding of computer applications, specifically if they relate to the industry/role you are targeting;
• Special projects and assignments that you received impressive marks for to demonstrate your understanding of the information. Include information about the projects, your specific involvement (especially if this was a team-based assignment) and the outcome of the project;
• Academic achievements, including the subjects you have successfully completed, especially the subjects you received top marks in to demonstrate a solid grasp of the information.

As you can see, the list is quite extensive and should provide you with some impressive information to include in your résumé, in order to highlight your transferable and employability skills to a potential employer.

Author:

Annemarie Cross is a Radio Host on CareerCommuniqueRadio.com, a Career Coach, Personal Branding Strategist, a triple certified multi award-winning Professional Resume Writer and Author of ’10 key steps to Ace that Interview'.

40x50