Archive for the ‘Job Search’ Category

Job Search Time & Effort Wasted

September 1st, 2010 by Susan P. Joyce

We’ve had a fairly active discussion on Job-Hunt Help, Job-Hunt’s LinkedIn Group, about the biggest mistakes job seekers make.

The biggest mistake that I see job seekers make is “keeping [their] options open” which is another way of saying that they apply for EVERYTHING they see that they even remotely qualify for – “just in case…”

Applying for everything can temporarily give people the feeling that they are doing something for their job search, making some sort of progress (”I applied for 15 jobs today!”).

The problem is that the feeling they are making progress is an illusion, and the reality is that these job seekers are wasting their time and effort.

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Heat Up Your Job Search: Be ProActive

August 7th, 2010 by Susan P. Joyce

Following up on my June post, Heat Up Your Job Search: Avoid Job Boards, this post offers 5 PROactive (vs. REactive) approaches to a successful job search.

A reactive job search puts the job seeker in the position of only reacting to what they find posted on job boards.  This costs them time and energy, and hides the majority of job opportunities from them.  It also puts them at the mercy of whatever is posted and available where they are looking, and it puts them in the most competitive job marketplace.  All negatives.

A proactive job search puts the job seeker in charge, is much less passive, less discouraging, and, even, less competitive – often MUCH less competitive. (more…)

Networking for the Networking-Phobic

July 27th, 2010 by Susan P. Joyce

Career Collective post: Once every month or so, a group of career professionals blog on a subject topical and timely for a job seeker. We post our thoughts on our own blogs, and link to the posts of our colleagues on the same topic.

This month’s topic: “Networking.” Responses from others contributors are linked at the end.  For updates, follow our hashtag #CareerCollective on Twitter. (A new window will open.)

“We get by with a little help from our friends…”

That’s what the Beatles told us in 1967, and many times that line has run through my mind when yet another good thing has happened for me as the result of the actions of one of my friends.  Or when I help a friend out with something.

On the other hand, when I talk with job seekers, I often hear comments like:

  • “I hate networking!”
  • “Networking is just another name for using people!”
  • “Networking doesn’t work for me.  Going to an event.  Collecting business cards.  What’s the point?  It just doesn’t work.”

Those are comments I hear often from people who are struggling in their job search.  Because if you aren’t doing well in your networking, your job search will be harder and longer.

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Getting Lucky in Your Job Search

July 25th, 2010 by Susan P. Joyce

When you were a kid, did you cross your fingers “for luck” when  you were really, REALLY hoping something good would happen –  maybe as you were about to ride your bike for the first time in front of your friends or as the teacher/professor was handing out the final exams?

And sometimes - perhaps often - it seemed to work.

But, then you “grew up,” and you stopped believing in crossed fingers because you knew that superstitions are dumb or, worse, useless. (And, anyway, crossed fingers are SO obvious!)

Scientific Research Shows That Crossed Fingers Work!

Well, it turns out there’s a reason for that positive outcome, and the reason many of us are – at least a little bit – superstitious:  IT WORKS! (more…)

Finding the Jobs Hidden in .jobs Sites

July 8th, 2010 by Susan P. Joyce

Just a quick note on a way to leverage Google for your job search using a couple of Google’s cool, but less well-known, functions, combined with the dot-jobs top level domain.

Dot-Jobs Top Level Domain?

Related Articles:
Using Google Alerts
Google-izing Your Job Search
Great Google Toolbar Tricks
Finding Jobs on Employer Websites
Finding Hidden Jobs on Dot-Jobs Websites

The primary “top level domain” (”TLD”) we’re all most familiar with is the famous .com (dot-com). A new TLD category was created specifically for job postings in 2005, named (not surprisingly) .jobs (dot-jobs).

Registration of dot-jobs domain names has been limited to employers for use posting jobs.  This TLD should be a treasure trove of jobs that are relatively easy to find with Google. 

Dot-jobs sites should also be relatively scam-free.  Should be!  No guarantees, unfortunately.

I haven’t been able to find any numbers on how many dot-jobs domains have been registered in the last 5 years, and how many of those registered are actually in use.  Testing it today, using Google’s site search delimiter as described below, proved that many employers are using the dot-jobs TLD, and job seekers can find job postings with it.

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Summertime: A GREAT Time to Job Hunt!

June 26th, 2010 by Susan P. Joyce

If you think of your job search as a sales process, and you really should, one of the best times to try to make a sale is when the competition is the least intense.

Welcome to Summer!

While your competition is at the beach or backpacking through the mountains or, if they can afford it, touring Italy or Hawaii or some other place a long way from home, they are NOT job hunting!  So they are not competing with you for the jobs you want.

Take advantage of this opportunity because it won’t last long.  Come September, they’ll be back to “reality,” and the competition will heat up again.

Most job seekers slack off during two times of the year.  I’m not saying they’re slackers (although they might be), but I am saying that they are making wrong assumptions about what employers are doing during those 2 times.

As a consequence, they are costing themselves FABULOUS opportunities to connect with employers and probably extending their job search for longer, possibly MUCH longer, than it needs to be! (more…)

Activate and Manage Your Avatars

April 26th, 2010 by Susan P. Joyce

Avatar!Your avatars aren’t blue and sparkly and on another planet, like the one in the movie of the same name.  But, they are in another world: Cyberspace (or maybe we should call it “Google-Yahoo-Bing-space”).

In a sense, we’ve been using avatars in our job search for years. We called them “résumés,” and they are still important today, particularly  when you are reaching out to potential employers. 

Your 21st Century Avatars Bring Employers to You

Unlike resumes, which are similar in function to a product sales brochure, the new, 21st century avatars are more like a smart marketing campaign attracting employers and jobs to you!  You aren’t trying to find employers, employers are finding you because they are finding your avatars everywhere.

Seen Avatar, the movie?  (No?  GO!  Or watch the DVD!)  Picture your avatars in cyberspace, showing you at your best - demonstrating your skills and knowledge, cataloging your accomplishments and education, collecting and displaying recommendations, helping you pull the jobs in to you rather than you reaching out for them.

You don’t have a 21st century avatar? You could!  You should!  And you probably do, whether or not you know it.  Here’s how… (more…)

21st Century Job Search Revolution

April 19th, 2010 by Susan P. Joyce

Job search has been changing for quite a while, and the changes are picking up speed.

In the Age of Google, what you do online has an impact on your career, both negative and positive.  Learn how it works, and what you can do to both leverage it and to protect yourself.

For follow-on information, based on the questions the audience asked during this presentation, read the blog post, On-Brand Tweeting for Your Career.”

For another presentation on this topic, watch Online Reputation Management for Job Seekers.

This is the presentation I made in New Hampshire on April 9, 2010 at the Spring New Hampshire Women in Higher Education Leadship (NHWHEL), a great group!

On-Brand Tweeting for Your Career

April 15th, 2010 by Susan P. Joyce

Last week, I had the honor of speaking to a very smart, and congenial, group of professional women at the New Hampshire Women in Higher Education Leadership (NHWHEL).  My topic was 21st century job search and career management, so – of course – I spoke about Twitter.

I encouraged my audience to focus on Tweeting “on brand” for their careers.  Near the end of the talk, one of the questions focused on what an on-brand Tweet would look like – what it would contain and how it would be worded. That’s when I realized I had a gaping hole in my presentation.

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Ask Author Carol McClelland Your Green Jobs Question

March 22nd, 2010 by Susan P. Joyce

On March 31, Job-Hunt.org Green Jobs Job Search expert, Carol McClelland, PhD, visited Job-Hunt’s Job Search News Blog to answer questions for job seekers who hope to find their place in the green economy.  Read the job seeker questions and Carol’s answers in the Comments below.

As the author of Green Careers For Dummies, Carol has spent much of the last three years studying developments and trends in the new economy and finding resources and job search tactics that work.

For more about Green Jobs and Careers, including green employers, job boards, professional associations, plus articles about green jobs, visit Job-Hunt’s Green Industry Online Search Guide where you will find much more from Carol.

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