Are You Shooting Too Low in Your Job Search? - Careers Articles
Age Discrimination: Are Workers Over 50 Cursed in the Job Market? - Careers Articles
How Do I Prevent Getting Laid-Off Again? | Tim's Strategy
I’ve said getting laid-off is like experiencing a tornado. The way it can come so randomly. Picking folks out of the crowd and dropping them into a new unstructured world.
Blog Indeed » Blog Archive » Transportation and manufacturing lead job recovery
From blog.indeed.com
July 2010 Industry Employment Trends
Industry Job Postings Annual Change Accounting 125,730 11% Construction 100,136 19% Education 115,863 19% Financial Services and Banking 222,521 16% Healthcare 691,223 -2% Hospitality 90,259 34% Information Technology 299,652 32% Manufacturing 100,597 44% Media and Newspaper 40,885 40% Real Estate 26,311 8% Retail 336,880 39% Transportation 107,484 103%
Be sure to check back each month for Industry Employment Trends, a leading indicator for the job market. Also, take a look at our recently updated Job Market Competition index for the latest on the number of jobs available in your area.
via blog.indeed.com
References are Not an Afterthought » Blog | Great Resumes Fast
If you’re asked about your references in the job interview, do you have a few names ready?
Do you know what those people would say about you if they were called?
You need to know how to choose the best references, how to make sure they say fantastic, glowing things about you, and why it’s so important to the success of your job search. Many candidates hem and haw when asked about references even if they have spectacular ones. And when they’re asked what the reference will say about them, they stumble even more-because they don’t know, they’re wishy-washy. That’s unacceptable. If you’re an outstanding employee, you should have an outstanding reference. And if you don’t know what your references will say, and if you aren’t sure that they will tell the interviewer what they need to know to hire you, you need to prep your reference.
Choosing a Great Reference
When you are asked for your references, the interviewer wants the name and title of the person as well as what they did in relation to you. Past managers are the best references of all. But any reference needs to have strong credibility that speaks to your work life. That means you can have no references who haven’t worked with you. If you have someone in a supervisory position you didn’t actually work for, but who you worked with in a relevant capacity, that could be acceptable, too.
Prepping Your Reference
No matter who your reference is, they need to give you a strong, glowing, and above all, specific reference. You don’t want someone who will just give the dates of your employment and say something vague about how you were a good worker. To get a great reference, call those past managers and remind them of the work that you did overall, or on a particularly relevant project or two, and remind them of your outstanding attitude and ability and ask if they will represent that to a particular company who’s considering hiring you. Get them to be solid in what they’ll say about you, and that will give you more confidence when the recruiter or interviewer asks you about your references.
The references question can knock you out of the hiring process if you don’t answer it well. Remember, the job search is like a sales process. That means that your resume acts as a marketing brochure, and your references become a testimonial for how you, the product, are fantastic and how they can’t afford not to hire you. They are a critical piece of your job search strategy.
| Guest author: Peggy McKee has over 15 years of experience in sales, sales management, sales recruiting, and career coaching. Her website, Career Confidential (http://www.career-confidential.com) is packed with job-landing tips and advice as well as the practical, powerful, innovative tools every job seeker needs to be successful. |
**We also recommend that you bring a reference sheet with you to the interview. This shows the interviewer that you are prepared, proactive, and very interested in working with them. It also avoids you having to go back and scare up some references later and the interviewer having to wait. When I was a hiring manager those candidates that were really a hit we would go ahead and call their references to decide if they were going to move forward in the hiring process. By providing references at the interview you’re assisting the hiring manager in actually hiring you – faster! Make sure your reference sheet is professional, polished, and concise.
Bad Career Coaches : CAREEREALISM
I’ve been in the career coaching business for 9+ years. Prior to that, I was in the HR/staffing industry. I’ve met all kinds of career coaches. Some are truly exceptional. Others are okay. Then, there are always the few who give our profession a bad name.
Positioning Yourself as an Executive Candidate | Career Rocketeer - Career Search and Personal Branding Blog
As you advance in your career as an executive, the number of opportunities appropriate for your skill set decreases. You know what they say: It’s lonely at the top. In order to secure an executive position that will fully utilize your talents and abilities, it’s important to have a resume that effectively markets you as a truly outstanding candidate. Some ways to distinguish yourself include:
Graduate degree or continuing education
Many executives have set themselves apart from the others by going back to school in order to obtain an MBA or some type of continuing education. Even if you don’t have a graduate degree, in all likelihood your company has sent you to conferences and management training seminars throughout the years; if any of that training was relevant to your career goals, it can certainly enhance your resume.
