ExitBuddy

Unemployed per Job Posting How hard is it to find a job in your city? Here's the number of unemployed per job posting for the 50 most populous metropolitan areas in the U.S. Here is a list of the top 10. From  http://www.indeed.com/jobtrends/unemployment Updated April 2010 Posted via web from AndyWergedal

Social Networking Sites… You might have heard about it day in and day out. Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, LinkedIn (There is a lot of debate going on about it being a professionals networking or Social Networking site). The reason for getting into this topic was to understand from the end users about its impact on the Recruitment process. (Today’s) The question that I always wanted to know from the Recruitment Guru’s out there was “ Impact of Social Networking Sites in today’s Recruitment process! There was an encouraging response from the professionals; they too were keen to know about the actual impact of these sites. In my previous blog there was a special mention about Job Portals going social!! Naukri.com has come up with an option to post jobs directly on my social / professional networking sites. This was a huge step forward (in the right direction), as this will help the recruiters to tap the resources having presence in the Social networking world out there. ...

I’ve had a few conversations recently with a wide range of individuals about resumes and cover letters, and I was finding a common theme: whatever the career services people at their school taught them is not really in line with what businesses are looking for today. To be clear, this is not a knock or insult to the university/college career services department.  They have an enormous value to many students (the ones that actually take the time to seek their input and guidance, anyway).  I am looking to provide further insight into and clarification about a few key issues. Having said that, I think there are a few areas they miss, or do not stress enough.  The resume and cover letter are about you, but are not just about you.  They are about how you are the best candidate to help the company.  It’s about making a match! Cover Letter 3 Paragraphs – This may seem short to most of you but, for the most part, recruiters don’t want to spend their day rea...

“I don’t measure a man’s success by how high he climbs but how high he bounces when he hits bottom.” -  Patton Posted via email from AndyWergedal

Your application and resume pleased the prospective employer and he has asked you to come in for an interview. You are confident that the interview will be a success except for one concern. What do you wear? You know from experience that first impressions are of the utmost importance. First impressions start with how a person looks. I have read somewhere that a first impression takes under thirty seconds to make. What you wear to an interview is largely based on the position, the company’s preference, and your wardrobe. Dressing formally can give the impression of being rigid and uncomfortable if it is not what you are used to wearing. Dressing too casually can give the impression of laziness and that you really do not want the job. Call or visit with an employee about the dress code and how strict the policy is. If it is not possible to get this information, then the best choice is business casual. Make sure the clothes are clean and ironed. Dress slacks and a button up shirt wou...

Since I saw the first real photos of the iPad and its gorgeous screen, I wondered how many developers would start developing VNC clients for it. I mean, back then it was pretty clear that the iPad’s screen was perfect to access your computer remotely, and it’s more than clear now that we’ve tested a bunch of applications to do so. I’ve downloaded and tested many VNC clients for the iPhone and the iPad, and I think that many of them show good ideas and possibilities, but most of them fail in the most important aspect: providing a stress free and easy way to just show your computer’s screen on a mobile device, and interact with it. They overwhelm the user with tons of useless features but, fortunately, iTeleport is nothing like that. iTeleport is now available as a universal app , so if you buy the iPhone app you’ll be able to install it as a native app on the iPad as well. I was a previous customer of the iPhone version, and I got the iPad update for free. Also, let me say this s...

It would be safe to say that most of us value the connections we have in our personal networks.  That’s why we make them in the first place, right?  Some people have even attempted to put a monetary value on them .  But take a minute to think about it. Do you appreciate the quality of your connections, or is it the quantity? Maybe you have thousands of connections and can send out a quick ping to the group and get many responses. That is one aspect of the power of social media! Or you could be focused in on a tiny niche, with less than a hundred contacts, but they are worth gold, each one of them. Before we go any further, let me explain what I mean by “personal network.” For the sake of this post, let’s take it in the context of an online personal network . This may consist of your Facebook friends, LinkedIn connections, or those whom you follow on Twitter. Now imagine what you would do if that entire personal network that you took...

In a business world of shrinking hierarchies and individual contributors, one of the toughest challenges for the high-achiever is learning to lead without authority.  In my years in the workforce, I’ve been responsible for several large, multi-departmental initiatives with only a few direct reports to engage.  Here’s what I’ve learned through my own experiences: Let your passion shine through It’s hard to be critical of someone earnest, and if you infuse your communication with a genuine sense of excitement about the challenge ahead, your colleagues will naturally want to follow your lead.  Show them – through your behavior – why you got into this field in the first place, and what your experiences (good and bad) have shown you about what needs to be done next. Appear humble It’s bad enough when your boss has an ego that needs some serious downsizing, but it’s even less appealing when someone without power thinks too highly of himself.  T...

1. You are bored out of your mind You can do your job fine and actually do it pretty well but the fact is that it just isn't interesting to you any more! There is no passion, no motivation, no inspiration in the role. Nothing new really happens and you could do it in your sleep. Perhaps it is time to move on? 2. Your boss or manager has no idea what you do Too many times is this the case that a manager or boss has no clue what you or the other team members are actually doing or what you are capable of. You will have annual reviews in which you do not receive any decent feedback or recognition for the good work and achievements that you have done. Is your boss too busy doing their own thing to notice the great work you are doing? Do they actually care about you at all? Is this the sign of a good manager? 3. You have gone as high as you can go Have you reached a ceiling at this company? Will it be another X (too many to wait) years before the next promotion? When you ...

If affirmations aren't your thing, you've come to the right post. Because even though I've used the word "attraction" in this post's title, and I'm convinced that we can do a lot to attract the kinds of people and situations we want in our lives, there are more effective ways of attracting what we want than simply repeating, "I welcome the abundance of perfect job offers" to yourself in the mirror every morning. You need to know what value you provide to an employer, envision your ideal job and take steps to make yourself attractive to your ideal organization. Stacey Hall and Jan Brogniez's book, Attracting Perfect Customers: The Power of Strategic Synchronicity , is one I turn to weekly as I develop and grow my own business. I have a business, and the business depends on customers. Every business owner has to figure out where those customers are going to come from.  The tactic of running around, chasing after customers wasn...

An oldie-but-goodie post from entrepreneur Guy Kawasaki directly addresses the kind of problems the military has with complex PowerPoint decks —boring read-throughs stuffed with too much on-screen text. His parameters for preventing audience paralysis is dubbed the 10/20/30 rule. Photo by alice_c . Kawasaki, who we have no doubt has sat through his share of boring pitches, suggests that most people can only appreciate about 10 explanatory slides at most, and that's only if each slide speaks directly to solving a problem or a key aspect of something to learn. The 20 is a time limit—you may have an hour, but between setup, late-coming viewers, and the very important Q&A section, you'll want to limit yourself to 20 minutes. The 30 means 30-point fonts—a smart creative constraint, and one that directly speaks to the U.S. military's nightmare slides . The reason people use a small font is twofold: first, that they don't know their material well enough; second...

“I’m an Electrical Engineer, I go to a job networking meeting and ask for contacts at one of my target companies, and someone gives me the name and contact information for an Accountant! What good is that???” Or… “I already know someone at ‘XYZ Company’, I don’t need anymore contacts there.” Leading job networking groups and teaching job search classes, I get the same kinds of questions or comments all the time. What good does a company contact do you if it’s not the hiring manager for the kind of job you want? And, why should you pursue multiple contacts at a company you are targeting? Because the more information you gain, and the more allies you develop, the better your chances of gaining an interview and a job! When networking for contacts in your job search, any contact can be a great asset to you. Also, pursuing multiple contacts in the organization can boost your exposure when you need it. There is a great deal of value to those introductions and names. They can eac...

When you’re looking for a job, the importance of networking cannot be emphasized enough. Having a network of contacts is vital to ensuring your job hunt success. Yes, it’s imperative to study hard while you’re in school and do well within your field of study, but the old saying holds true: It’s not what you know, it’s about who you know that counts. Who you know could bring about some new life-changing possibilities for you – and a job opportunity could be one. That’s why you need to make sure you’re meeting as many people as possible and focusing on building quality relationships with them. And, you always need to continue building your contact base – even after you’ve been working for 30 years. Social networking is great, and it’s definitely a must, but doing a little networking in person also never hurts. So, what are some basic tips to ensure your networking works for you? Meet in person. Regardless of what type of networking you do, there’s still no substitute for meeting ...

The idea of brand management is growing and gaining momentum among the corporate and professional communities.  Over the last two weeks I have given three presentations on the topic to business and HR professionals as well as job seekers, and received almost a dozen emails and phone calls.  Bottom line is that your reputation is everywhere and online is no different. Just last week, Ad Week released a monetary dollar figure attached to Facebook Fan (now “Like”) Pages.  Based on Virtue’s research of their own clients, they determined the average value of a Fan is $3.60 .  This is the first ROI evaluation I have found that places a value squarely on a personal network. Finally, your friends are worth something! Having a strong online brand and presence is essential to your future success in the workforce.  I believe that over the next 12 months, job seekers will begin to be evaluated based on more than just their education and work experience. ...

Today’s post may well be another installment from the Harvey MacKay School of Obvious Things but it never hurts to be repetitive. Most of us don’t have much experience in  interviewing for jobs . We just don’t do it very often. Contrast that with the hiring managers who interview dozens of candidates. Some HR and hiring managers have some gotcha questions designed to knock you out of consideration early. Here are some ‘gotcha’ questions I have heard: What accomplishment are you most proud of at your last job? Candidate answer:  “I was a whistle-blower at my last job and exposed some wrong doing, and got a couple of people fired.” Hmmm, nope, find another accomplishment and talk about that one. We admire whistle-blowers perhaps, but probably won’t go out of our way to hire one. Where do you see yourself in 2 years? Candidate answer:  “By then I’d like to be running my own business.” This might be factually correct and a dream of yours but few companies want to...

via artofmanliness.com Posted via web from AndyWergedal

As an employer, I am always looking for the right talent for my team, and one of the most important traits I look for in my employees is that they have a proactive approach to life and work. For me it is not only important that the people I work with are proactive, but also that their personal brands tell the people around them that they are proactive. So, why is this? A proactive person takes initiative and asks herself “How can I do this?” rather than “Will I be able to do this?”. This might seem like a small difference, but let´s look at an example of how this can make a huge different: Anna is working on a project and encounters some problems. If she is reactive she will in the best case turn to a colleague to get help to solve the problem in a way that has already been done, over and over again. If she is proactive, she could try to find a novel way to solve the problem, one that has never been tried before but might yield better results than the traditional met...

Meant to assist a wide-ranging target market of people looking for work, policy creators and agency management, Where the Jobs Are identifies nearly 273,000 mission-critical employment opportunities which will be available in the us government from October 1, 2009 through September 30, 2012. Top Areas Where the US Government is Hiring Medical and Public Health Security and Protection Compliance and Enforcement Legal Administrative/Program Management Here is where you can go for a more detailed breakdown of exactly hiring projections in each area. The job opportunities include many professions, are in cities all over the US and abroad, and have recently been described by the government agencies as essential to performing their service to the American people. This specific employment survey, carried out by the Partnership for Public Service with support from Aon and Monster Government Solutions, includes 35 federal agencies employing at least 1,000 full-time, per...

If you have managed to secure a job interview then you need to start doing some serious preparation. With unemployment levels sky high the chances are there are a good number of competing applicants and you need to do all you can to set yourself apart from them. You need to start focusing on your career history to date and importantly all the key achievements and milestones you have reached. Think about the things you have done well in your previous roles. Perhaps you secured a major new client, or brought about a cost saving initiative. You may have been praised by a line manager for good customer service or have perhaps been recognised for outstanding attendance levels. It’s things like this that you need to bring to the attention of the interviewer, but be careful how you do it. There is a fine line between bragging and selling. You need to sell yourself, that’s for sure. But avoid bragging or you will come across as insincere or even arrogant. Your achievements should also be tr...

A purple squirrel is a C#, SQL, and ASP.net developer, who has financial markets experience, and speaks German. His brother (also a purple squirrel) is a Financial Analyst with SAP FICO, Hyperion, Excel Macro, and VBA skills, Pharma experience, and has done some market research. As you can see, purple squirrels are hard to find, which is one reason they are so valuable to companies and recruiters. 5 ways to successfully transform yourself into a Purple Squirrel: Describe close accomplishments and experiences - Don't lie. Instead use the hiring manger's language to describe describe even minor projects and responsibilities that may solve employer problems.(see: http://recareered.blogspot.com/2010/03/job-seekers-tell-your-readers-wift.html ). Describe even your minor accomplishments confidently - Don't use words like proficient (signifies minimal experience), light, minimal when describing your experience. Why make yourself look "light" when you don...

The average job search in the U.S. is 4-6 months and slightly shorter in Canada. Dismaying statistics. Keeping up your motivation to spend another day gathering leads, making contacts and polishing your hiring package can be daunting, never mind the constant rejection. Do yourself a favour. Be kind to yourself in this competitive job market and don't abandon your search altogether. However, here are some quick strategies to stay motivated and competitve: 1. Focus on what is going well rather than not well . As a career coach who is certified in solution-focused interviewing and counselling, I really believe in seeing the positive in any situation. "Solution-talk" is replete with positivity. For our purposes, this means really identifying your successes, however small. Did you make another cold call in person today? Did you persuade a decision maker or influential person to set an informational interview with you in the next week? Did you step out of your co...

Georgina earlier today detailed the method she uses to find new contacts on Twitter , but if that doesn’t suit you — perhaps you’re looking for something a bit more automated — there’s 99Tribes , a fun “discovery engine” for people on Twitter. The idea behind the service is that you can expand your own “tribe” by finding people with similar interests and following them. Start by entering a term into the site’s large search box (suggested terms pop up as you type) — hit enter and it returns a list of Twitter users who match your result. Hovering your mouse pointer over a user will display their bio information and number of followers, while clicking on a user takes you to their Twitter page. If that was all there was to it, 99Tribes would be no more interesting than any of the many other Twitter directories that are available. But you can refine your search further, by adding filters to it. Down the left-hand side of the search results page, 99Tribes lists filters that you ...

Most people, when interviewing for a new job, forget the process is supposed to be a 2-way street. It’s as important for you, as a candidate, to determine if the job, the company, the culture, and the work environment is right for you as it is for the company to determine if you’re right for them. You do yourself no favors by accepting an offer for a job that is not a good fit. It will make you miserable, your employer dissatisfied, and likely not end well. In order to make a rational judgment as to the fit, you must have your criteria figured out in advance. Very often, when you’re in the middle of an evaluation process, it’s easy to rationalize all the things that don’t feel right to you because you want a job, any job, so much. Having a list of criteria that you created before you’re in the heat of the process helps you tremendously in determining if this role is a match, or not. Then, it’s up to you to ask the questions, and do the digging necessary to see how well the posi...

1.) The first thing you should not overlook when submitting your resume is to include a keyword summary. This lets you add keywords that may be used by the searcher even if those same words are not found specifically in your resume. Be sure to separate each keyword with a comma. 2.) Just providing a keyword summary is not enough. Having a keyword loaded “Qualification Summary” at the beginning of your resume creates a visually stunning document in addition to making your resume database search friendly. 3.) Use your industry’s most preferable search terms. Get keyword hints from the job itself. You will find that each employer may use certain keywords to explain the position that they are hiring for in the job description. Use those words to your advantage when compiling keywords for your resume . 4.) Fill your resume with top keyword titles. These titles should also expose valuable keywords to search engines. 5.) Lastly, spell out exactly what you are looking for from your fu...

I was reading your article about Fighting the Overqualified Label: 10 Tactics for a Successful Job Search . I wanted to ask a question that pertains to my situation. I was a director at a major healthcare organization until 2008, when I was outplaced due to an organizational downsizing. At the beginning of 2009, my dad took very ill, so I went to care for him (leaving the state) until his passing in late summer. I began looking for a position within my area of expertise. My challenge is that I made in the upper $80s as a salary, looking to stay within the area where I live, and feel that whatever I apply for, looks like they cannot afford me, or I am overqualified. My question is how can I get noticed? The Career Doctor responds: I think you may face multiple challenges. You are limiting yourself to a specific and limited geographic area, you were downsized, and you have been out of work. What kind of jobs and in what industries are you looking? Was...

1. You dream about your project deadlines If you are dreaming about your work this is a sign that your work is really starting to take over your life. You are beginning to eat, sleep and breathe work and it could lead to a downwards spiral. Being focused and truly interested and passionate about your work is great but there needs to be a good balance for you to have a healthy and fulfilling lifestyle. To only think about work and for it to be constantly on your mind can be a sign of real stress whereby work maybe invading your personal life. Think about your work life balance and if it is really working for you. 2. Your only friends are your work colleagues If you stop and think about who you see everyday and socialise with – is it mostly your friends from work? Is this a good sign? What happened to everyone else? Enough said! 3. Your personal number is your work number So let's see – your personal number has become your work number. So that means that most of your p...

By Steve Weber (excerpt) If you haven't looked for a job lately, you're in for a surprise. Until recently, job searching was fairly simple. You scanned the classified pages of your local newspaper. You chatted with family, friends, acquaintances, and you asked for recommendations. When you found a lead, you mailed in a resume and cover letter, crossed your fingers, and waited for the phone to ring. To put it mildly, things have changed. Most job opportunities aren't listed in the classified pages anymore. Your cookie-cutter resume and cover letters no longer cut it. And on top of all that, today's job market is tough, the worst since the Great Depression. The old places people used to look for jobs, like newspaper ads, are dying. Even the online employment sites you might know about, like Monster.com, CareerBuilder.com or HotJobs, are a dead end for most people. Here's why: -- The job often doesn't exist. The job listings at these big-name employment sites ...

by sherri Edwards An article on resumes recently hit my inbox. It started with "The purpose of a resume is to land an interview. Nothing more, nothing less." I couldn't disagree more. Resumes serve a greater purpose than "getting your foot in the door." A carefully composed resume will not only nail each requirement stated in the job announcement, it will encompass the unpublished information learned through networking or conducting informational interviews. The process of researching and collecting the appropriate data for your resume does more than catch someone's eye. It is one of the most important steps in preparing you for an interview. After all, getting in the door is not your final goal. Getting the offer is. It has been said that a crafty, eye-catching resume is all that is needed to get your foot in the door for an interview. That may be so. Then what? How many times have you heard of a person having interview after int...