Posts Tagged ‘Job Search’

New Job Search Articles This Week

January 19th, 2009 by Susan P. Joyce

This week, Beverly Harvey, Job-Hunt’s new “Executive Job Search Expert” joined the professionals providing detailed information for job seekers, and her first article, “Your Executive Career Portfolio” helps job seekers see some important opportunities developing.

Also sree great new articles this week from the Job-Hunt Experts for Entrepreneurs and for the Medical and Pharmaceutical Industry Job Search:

More articles on Job-Hunt every week, in additon to the posts here on Job-Hunt’s http://www.job-hunt.org/job-search-news/.

New Job Search Articles This Week

January 12th, 2009 by Susan P. Joyce

This week, Kathleen Lyons, Job-Hunt’s new “Green Jobs Job Search Pro” joined the experts providing detailed information for job seekers, and her first article, “Heat & Light: Green Collar Jobs Brighten a Bleak Economy” help job seekers see some important opportunities developing. 

Also sree great new articles this week from the Job-Hunt Pro’s for Veterans’ Job Search and for Mid-Career Job Search:

More articles on Job-Hunt every week, in additon to the posts here on Job-Hunt’s Job Search News Blog.

New Articles This Week

January 6th, 2009 by Susan P. Joyce

Three great new articles this week from the Job-Hunt Expert’s for Personal Branding, Social Networking, and Job Search for Introverts:

More articles on Job-Hunt every week, in additon to the posts here on Job-Hunt’s Job Search News Blog.

Passive vs. Active Candidates

December 9th, 2008 by Susan P. Joyce

Many job seekers are unaware that an unfortunately popular and widespread theory of recruiting divides the workers of the world into 2 categories:

1.)  Active candidates – those who are looking for a job

2.)  Passive candidates – those who are (supposedly) happily employed and NOT looking for a job.

By posting your resume on one of the job boards or by responding to a job posting you see, you are an “active” candidate.  And, therefore, by definition, undesirable.

Don’t we all know idiots who – inexplicably – remain employed while much more intelligent, talented, capable, and hard-working people are shown the door. 

Based on my observations of who stays and who leaves, particularly during a mass layoff, the discriminator isn’t talent or even good work.  It’s 100% LUCK – “right place; right time.”

FINALLY, someone in the recruiting world is seriously questioning this idiotic (IMHO) belief.  Ronald Katz has written an article on ERE.net (Electronic Recruiting Exchange – an online forum for recruiters to exchange ideas and network).

Mr. Katz’s article is “What’s So Great About Passive Candidates?“  Read it and the responses and understand the marketplace you are facing.  Many recruiters do not agree with Mr. Katz, unfortunately.

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Job Search Finds Graduates Unprepared

December 9th, 2008 by Joel

Many college graduates are unprepared for the job search process.

According to a recent poll conducted by CollegeGrad.com, 69 percent of college graduates looking for jobs don’t have a resume that’s up to par, or don’t have a resume at all, even though having an up-to-date resume is a crucial part of the job search process.

Of the nearly 600 people who responded to the survey, only 30.1 percent said their resume is perfect, according to an article by PRWeb. Additionally, 46 percent said their resume needed help, compared to 45.2 percent last year and 23.9 percent said they don’t have a resume yet, compared to 26.8 percent last year.

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Bogus Job Postings

November 10th, 2008 by Susan P. Joyce

Whenever the scammers of the world sense an opportunity, they jump into action, and the current worries about the U.S. economy have attracted their attention.

Be Careful Out There!

So, BEFORE you apply for a job:

1. Google the employer’s name.

Is there a Google map with a flag at the employer’s street address location?

No? Be careful.

Is there a Website for this employer?

No? Be VERY careful.

Is there a local Yellow Pages directory (or other business directory) listing for this employer.

No? Not a good sign.

Does the Website have concret contact information (physical address, city, state, non-800 phone number)?

No? Not a good sign. Either they are ignorant or they are hiding something. You need to know where they are located, even if you are working from home, so that you can contact them if you have any problems or questions.

2. Google the recruiter or contact name on the job posting.

If the only “contact” information for the employer is a form for you to complete or an email address, be leary of them.

The job seems to be for Acme Widget Company, but the contact e-mail address for your resume is AcmeWidgetHR@hotmail.com.  Be very careful – this is not a good sign.  If the posting is legitimate, the recruiter’s email address should be at the domain name of the employer or the recruitment company.  Anyone can get a hotmail.com, yahoo.com, or gmail.com address, and no one checks to see that there is any reality to the name chosen.

3.  Does it seem like a sensible job?

A position without any requirements is not a real job. Be suspicious of jobs with no skills or experience required. Real employers can only afford to pay people to do real work. Ask yourself if a reasonable person would hire someone to do that job?

Keep your “shields up” as Captain Kirk suggested many years ago.  Still good advice, coming back from the future.

 

LinkedIn Improvements

November 6th, 2008 by Susan P. Joyce

LinkedIn has undergone some major changes recently, and one of the most useful ones is the addition of the capability to have “discussions” with members of the different LinkedIn Groups you may have joined.

For me, it has turned LinkedIn from an enormous collection of names to a collection of people.  LinkedIn now enables you to interact more directly with people with whom you have something in common (or, presumably, you wouldn’t belong to the same Group), but who are not part of your first level connections.

I’ve joined a number of LinkedIn Groups associated with my past – my college, for example, and groups associated with my profession (”Career Professionals”) and my previous jobs (”digital alumni” for people, like me, who worked for Digital Equipment Corporation in the past).

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Cover Letters Are Useless Now – or Are They?

November 2nd, 2008 by Susan P. Joyce

This is one of those questions for which no “right” answer really exists because each recruiter or employer has their own preference. 

I recently saw a panel discussion by recruiters from very large companies, including Microsoft and Starbucks, and each recruiter had a different response to a question about cover letters being useful.

Some recruiters said, “Don’t bother with a cover letter.  We don’t read them – they get immediately thrown away.  We go straight to the resume to see if it contains what we need.” 

Other recruiters said, “The cover letter is very important.  We won’t even look at the resume without a good cover letter that provides us with a reason to look at the resume.”

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Job Search Tactics to Review

October 23rd, 2008 by Joel

If you’ve been on a job search, but haven’t been able to find a position yet, there are some tactics you should review.

It’s important to stop and look at your job search history and figure out what is working and what isn’t working. By reviewing the past six months of your job search history, you may be better able to asses and diagnose your situation while pinpointing specific job search areas you need to work on.

According to an article by the Cleveland Examiner, there are three main parts of the job search you should review.

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Job Search Strategies for Long-Term Unemployment

October 5th, 2008 by Susan P. Joyce

The official August to September U.S. Unemployment Rate stayed steady at 6.1%. Not bad news (although we hope for better, of course).

On the other hand, the “long term” number has climbed to over 20% of those currently counted as unemployed. The “seasonally adjusted” rate for September is 21.1%, a 1.5% increase over August’s seasonally adjusted rate of 19.5%. (more…)

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