Career Hub

Spring Cleaning

It's that time of year again when I can't wait to get home from the office and get in the yard asap and delight in Spring's splendor. Picking up, cleaning up, uncovering, discovering, discarding -- getting my flower beds tidy and organized for the new season. My garden is so pretty right now, filled with spectacular daffodils here, there, and everywhere.

But the true delight comes with the first rose of Spring, and yes, she's blooming in all her glory in my front yard. She's the Helleborus rose, the first flower of Spring. And as I'm cleaning and doing my yard work, I'm also writing a training program, developing new hand-outs, creating a new career poem, thinking how I want to change up this or that. All in my head, of course, but it works so that when I arrive back at the office, I'm ready to jump in with clarity and purpose.

If you are thinking about some Spring cleaning for your career and need a little extra help in doing so, you may like HassleMe, a little tool that nags you. Nag, nag, nag! It nags you via e-mail about things you know you should be doing, but may forget (write resume, practice interviewing, network, call recruiter, etc.) You can set up a frequency, but it will nag you at random times and maybe it will help you get better organized and keep your career management plan on track this Spring.

The Right Way to Use the Internet

I often talk about the ways in which the Web is changing job search, but I don't think I've ever seen a better example than Tijs Vrolix, a Belgian web developer who is currently looking for work.

Tijs is asking site visitors to help him find a job by letting him know of any vacancies that might suit him. In exchange, he's awarding an iPod Shuffle to the person who ultimately helps him find a new job.

So instead of just relying on his own contacts, and on the jobs he finds himself, he now has hundreds of people searching on his behalf. And because his site is elegantly designed, he's also showcasing his web design skills at the same time.

This really is personal marketing at its very best and I hope it's inspiring to anyone who's frustrated with applying to online ads and rarely receiving a response. Take some time to brainstorm ways you could use the web for more than just posting a resume.

Cross-posted on Blue Sky Resumes Blog

How to Make Your Online Resume Turn Up in an Employer's Search Results

When you create your online resume, it is important to use keywords that employers will search for. Generally, to find candidates, employers enter one or two words in a keyword search field. These words are usually job titles or names of important skills. Search results, then are determined by word relevance; how many times the keywords are used within a resume. So, if you're looking for a sales position but only include the title, "account manager," in your resume, your resume won't turn up in an employer's search for "sales" or "sales representatives". Therefore, it is important to include words that an employer will most likely search for.

Tips for Creating Good Keywords

1. Use some industry jargon in your resume; for example, "CAD designer" or "SQL Server." A lot of times, employers are searching for key elements like knowledge of a particular computer software program. Don't just assume that employers will know that you are proficient with a program because of your job title. Instead, include a skills section in your online resume so that you will be included in an employer's skill-related search results.

2. Use different word forms like "manager," "management" and "managed." This way, you'll have all the bases covered, because you can never be absolutely sure which word form an employer will search for. A good rule of thumb is to repeat nouns and include action verbs.

3. Vary your use of abbreviations. It's fine to write, "Human Resources," but it's a good idea to also write, "HR" elsewhere.

Think like a recruiter – if you were searching for your resume online, what keywords would you enter? Now, make a list of words – nouns and verbs – that would best describe your experience and incorporate them as much as possible into your online resume. Remember that every recruiter has a different style, so when writing your online resume, it's best to exercise variance.

Cross posted from www.JobHelper.com.

Blogworking

A job seeker involved in a full-time search should dedicate a full work week (35 hours) to their search each week. Since networking tends to be the most effective method of search, it's best to spend approximately 28 hours of each week planning and managing your networking strategy. Sounds like a lot? Not really when you consider all the components of networking including sourcing contacts, setting up and going on informational interviews, attending professional and social networking meetings, and managing relationships through business and social networking sites.

Another excellent way to efficiently use some of your networking hours is to become part of the blogging communities within your industry or job function. I refer to this as blogworking and view it as an important part of your overall networking strategy. Blogworking enables you to build your credibility and visibility online and helps you forge new relationships with people who may be able to assist you in your search.

Take blogworking a step further and search for and participate in the blogging communities for specific companies you are targeting in your search. This allows you to become an active and known member within a previously closed community. Blogging in these circles can bring you one step closer to your ultimate decision maker.

Here are a few of the company blogs that I like...

Accenture

Microsoft

Southwest Airlines

General Motors

Sun Microsystems

Yahoo

Boeing

IBM

Posted by Barbara Safani

 

Finding Your Dream Job

Lucky me! I live in the Boston area, where a full 37% of people - the highest rate in the nation - are in their dream jobs, according to a survey by CareerBuilder. Nationally, the rate averages just 16%. That's a lot of dissatisfied or even unhappy people.

A nice story in the Boston Globe profiled six people who are in their dream jobs. The interesting thing? The six people were in wildly different professions, from dog runner to operations director to spa owner. Yet they all shared a common thread - a passion for what they do and a positive eagerness to get to work every day.

When you're in a job hunt, do your best to match up the work environment as well as the work itself with what will give you the greatest satisfaction. Ask questions like these during the interview to get a sense for the culture and atmosphere -

• What do people love about working here?
• Tell me about a time when the department faced a big challenge. How did people respond?
• Describe a typical day.
• What is the average staff tenure?
• How do different departments / different generations / different functions interact?

It's also important for you to define the job and environment that will give you the most satisfaction - it's hard to chase your dream job when you don't know what it is! If you've gone through your career vaguely unfulfilled or held a series of dissatisfying jobs, perhaps now's the time to engage a career coach to help you figure out how to marry your passions with your career.

As quoted in the article, Stephen Flavin, dean of corporate and professional education at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, offered this very wise advice: "Find a job that combines something you're passionate about and something you do well. Passion plus competence equals dream job."

Posted by Louise Kursmark

Is Your Personal Branding Iron Hot?

Love her or not, Madonna's personal branding iron is hot! According to a Madonna-watch blog post by William Arruda, the guru of the pioneering Reach Branding Club and first personal-branding assessment, Madonna is due to launch her 'M by Madonna' line of clothing available at H&M next week. With a string of simultaneous career titles, like pop singer and children's book author, under her oh-so-fashionable belt, Madonna seems to surf on the cutting-edge of her own ever-evolving definition of personal branding.

For a few sizzling tips on how to max your personal brand, check out this article on '4 Underused Hot Spots for Your Personal Branding Iron' by Scott Ginsberg, professional speaker and self-described 'World's Foremost Expert on Nametags', in a recent issue of Rain Today online newsletter.

Cross-posted at Career Goddess Blog

Jobs Without Borders?

Unionized workers at The Boston Globe recently placed an ad protesting the outsourcing of their jobs to India: "It's the Boston Globe, not the Bangalore Globe," the ad said.

But the horse is already out of the barn. At a recent Boston conference on the offshore outsourcing trend, Craig McCaw said, "Essentially, it's a marketplace realignment that we can't stop."

It's not just a one-way trip, though. Some of the same jobs are returning stateside as quality concerns surface. The offshore outsourcing trend itself is predicted to die a natural death by 2027 as wages level out.

So US workers are trying to track a moving target. As companies chase lower-cost labor across borders, employees see that the jobs being outsourced include ones higher up in the value chain, such as design engineering and project management.

While there may be fewer career “safe havens,” there are a few key ways to enhance your job security:

• Keep up with leading-edge skills, certifications, and training
• Be an innovator or support pockets of innovation in your organization
• Grow your management abilities, business savvy and people skills as part of becoming a "versatilist," Karen Ann Kidd's term for people who gain deep cross-functional skillsets and broad general competencies
• Build a strong personal brand by knowing what you bring to the table and what you want to be known for
• Stay in frequent contact with your networks inside and outside of the company to keep your brand fresh and visible

These lifelong career skills can give you an edge as you navigate the white water of today’s work environment.

Does Your Resume Resemble a Ransom Note?

I ran across an interesting and rather amusing entry on Daryl Cagle’s Cartoon Web Log for March 18 in which he blasts a major newspaper for the degradation in quality of their front page in terms of graphic appeal. He counts and describes in detail no less than 22 font changes above the middle fold alone, in a re-designed look that violates one of the major no-no’s in graphic design: overuse of fonts. He describes each of them in a numbered list keyed to tags in a screen shot of the paper.

As an executive resume writer, I have reviewed and evaluated many thousands of resumes over the years, and all too often have seen well-intentioned word processing novices go completely overboard with fonts… 4 or 5 different font families, each used in all of its potential variations (bold, italic, bold italic, regular). Worse yet, they are sometimes inconsistently applied—headings at the same level feature different font faces and formatting. Eeeek!

So here’s a word of warning to any job searcher who would like to be taken seriously: Limit font faces in your resume to two, absolute maximum of three if you have a really good reason, and be sure to consistently apply bolding, italics, color, etc. throughout. If you find yourself irresistibly drawn to pressing that font key, a good way to introduce discipline into the process is to create styles for the heading levels in your document and stick to them!

Posted by Laurie Smith

You're Fired

Lose your job today? Somebody did and that somebody wound up in my office this afternoon, absolutely devastated. If you lost your job today, here are some very specific things you can do within the next 24 hours.

1. Call at least 10 people in the next few hours and tell them what happened. It will give you something to do and telling your story 10 times will help.
2. Have a conversation with your immediate family and share with them as much as they need to know right now about your job loss. Know that they will worry about you and wonder how you're doing. They may be afraid to ask, so voluntarily tell them.
3. If you were given legal papers to review and sign, call your attorney first thing in the morning for his/her professional opinion.
4. Hire a career coach, career counselor, and/or professional resume writer if you weren't offered career transition services. It is much too competitive in today's market to try and go it alone, so seriously consider securing professional help, guidance, and support.
5. Stay calm. Breathe. Slow down. It will be OK. Just keep telling yourself that!
6. Browse around on the Internet if you can't sleep tonight. You will soon realize that you are not alone, even though you might feel like it right now. This Career Hub blog has a plethora of insightful posts, for starters.
7. Tomorrow, go to the library or bookstore and get at least one career transition book and start reading and learning more about the process.

There are many, many things to think about, contemplate, and do as you deal with this news. Today, tomorrow, this week-end...one foot ahead of the other.

Interview Advice for International Candidates for US Positions

If you have an MBA, are not a U.S. citizen, and wish to work in the U.S., what do you need to know about your international status when it comes to job interviews?

This article contains valuable information on the subject you may want to check out. It's your responsibility to know the basic immigration laws, so do the homework yourself and don't simply rely on a friend's "expert" knowledge.

As the article's author, Deb Koen, points out, "Combining solid interviewing skills with knowledge of the process related to work authorization will strengthen your performance in future interviews."