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4 Keys to a Better Employment Search

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application-1915345_640Having trouble locating the job you want? If the answer is yes, you are not alone.

For millions, the thought of finding the ideal employment opportunity can be frustrating.

As an example, if desperate to pay your bills, you are more than likely going to take the first position out there. In doing so, you may find yourself stuck in a job that is both stressful and frustrating. You could also end up in a situation where boredom sets in. As that happens, you could find it impacting your job performance.

If your employment search is coming up empty, what options are on the table moving forward?

Know Where the Work is

For starters, your job search may be teetering on the edge because you’re looking in all the wrong places.

For instance, are you following the right employment and job market info in your search? If not, you are less likely to locate the ideal job situation.

Keep in mind there are countless online and offline services out there to educate you on where the jobs are. With that information in-hand, you are in a better position to nab the job you want.

With that in mind, take these four keys to heart:

  1. Attitude

First, a positive attitude is a necessity when search for new employment.

If you go into the process with a lackluster attitude, the results tend not to go your way. Be sure to stay positive throughout the experience. Yes, there are going to oftentimes be some down points, but keep your ultimate goal in mind.

You also want to show off that positive attitude when going on interviews (see more below). If a prospective employer sees you are not all that interested in the position, it more times than not will show.

  1. Personality

Everyone has their share of bad days from time to time.

With that in mind, it is crucial that your real personality shines through when you interview for a job. Go into each interview with excitement and a desire to show the interviewer that you want to work for them.

Unfortunately, too many people show up at interviews with less than stellar actions. From little interest to having not researched the company (see more below), they fall flat.

Always remember that you should never burn bridges on an interview.

Even if you do not get the position, thank your interviewer for taking time out of their schedule to meet with you.

You might very well discover that a future position with the company can come your way. This is because of a solid interview you had the first time around, yet did not get the position.

  1. Research

While you are not taking a quiz in high school, a job interview is a test or sorts. As a result, you need to have done your homework on the company and what it does.

As an example, how silly would you look if you went into an interview and did not understand the following?

  • What the company does
  • What are the duties of the person they will hire for the job opening?
  • How long the company has been around

Always be sure to read up on any company you’re going to interview with.

By being knowledgeable about the company and the opening, you improve your odds.

  1. Determination

There is a good chance you’re not always going to get the job you want the first time around. With that in mind, will you stay determined to keep shooting for your goal?

With countless job seekers, you have to remember that there are only so many positions one can fill. With that being the case, you’re not guaranteed anything.

For instance, what if you want a job with a certain company and you interview, yet they hire someone else? Do you write that business off moving forward?

Remember, there is always the chance the person they hired won’t work out or will go elsewhere sooner than later. By staying engaged with that company, you could end up working there.

Ways to go about this include:

  • Following their job boards
  • Dropping the H.R. person an occasional email to see if they still have your resume on file
  • Improving your work skills so you are an even better option the next time around when they have an opening

The employment search can be a challenge.

That said are you up to the task?

Photo credit: Pixabay

About the Author: Dave Thomas writes about business topics on the web.

How to Wow with Your First Resume

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Ana Rose

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In these days of online job sites, it may seem the resume is dead. In reality it’s far from that. Whether it’s a traditional hiring process or one that starts on the Internet, you’ll find that having your goals and what you can offer organized will make any job search easier.

How to Wow with Your First Resume

Resumes always tend to make a candidate jittery for basically two reasons, viz., if the proper format is not known to them and secondly, if they do not have any experience to show and I mean the voluntary kinds. A candidate also gains advantage if he or she is involved in some extracurricular activity. At the entry level resume, one has the liberty to mention about the activities that are not totally related to the job profile.

Resume – Tricky Document
First resumes are the easiest and at times the trickiest to write, depending on the job field and the profile of work. Since freshmen have no substantial experience in the practical field, they need to pay special attention to the presentation of their credentials in the resume. The resume thus functions like a document that represents the candidate to the recruiter and employer. To ensure there are no chances of getting rejected in the initial selection rounds, the entry level resume template will come to your rescue.

Purpose of Resume

The following will tell you what to include in the resume, but before that it is important to know and be sure of the purpose of making the resume, i.e. to get a job or to secure an internship. In case of the former, we will see the points below, but in the latter case one needs to highlight the interest in the subject, marks scored in those subjects, hobbies or special efforts taken in order to learn more about it.

Tabular Format for Systematic Presentation

Entry level and college resume templates focus on the academics; make sure you present your details with respect to what subjects you have studied, which college, the university, the academic duration, specialization subjects, etc. Do make use of tables (tabular format) for putting in your details systematically.

Special Sections to be Highlighted

Extracurricular activities of the candidates are something which they can cash in on. In case the candidate has interest or some experience in their choice of line, then it should be highlighted right after the education section or just before it, if one has something of outstanding nature to mention related to the same.

Skills

A dedicated section for mentioning the special skills set and abilities, technical competencies, etc., is advisable. Use bulletined points and include two line elaboration with details like where did you participate in the activity, what you are competent in, for example, computer skills, using some particular software program, etc.

Creating a good impression is important whether you’re new graduate, a college freshman, or someone re-entering the workforce after a long absence. Use these tips to create a strong image.

Author’s Bio:
Ana Rose is a freelance writer who writes on various career related subjects and she keeps her interest in writing about resume and cover letters. For more info visit bestsampleresume

Showcasing the Professional You Are to Land that Job

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Jobseeker, Freelancer, or Entrepreneur

We all need meaningful work to pay the bills and feel good about who we are.

In the past six months, I’ve had the experience of interviewing candidates for positions with my conference and a new roles for a company that’s starting up. What I’m finding explains a lot. Most of us don’t know how to talk about ourselves, our personal vision, and our successes. Few of us have a real strategy..

To bring it down to it’s most basic form, most people only think they are actively looking for work. They are waiting to be hired. That makes their role to react to a “job offer.” In hopes of getting more they open their net broad and wide, and then wider, and wider to take more and more potential customers in.

Unfortunately, most people who are hiring aren’t looking for anyone who do anything. We want someone unique who’s passionate about working for us.

Showcase the Professional You Are to Land that Job

We start by defining you and who you love to serve — the ideal employer, client, customer. I’ll ask questions that get to the heart of who you are — your successes and your passions. It won’t take long — maybe an hour. We’ll pull out the relationships and patterns to define what talk most about and where you excel. We’ll discuss the kind of problems you enjoy solving and identify the passion at the heart of your business.

The Complete Story

We’ll get to a business profile of you that includes
1. What your professional strengths are and what you want to be known for.

  • What problem do you solve?
  • What is your unique value?

2. What you can promise and will deliver — this usually is bringing people or customers to the table, getting people to buy, act, move,

3. The a partnership you offer — that you hear them and will be there, that you can think as they think, what you bring to any work situation that no other person will, what work situations you thrive in and what sort of people you want to work with.

4. A “do” line — the brief answer to “What do you do? With a tagline that describes you that’s easy to remember because it expresses the authentic you.

We’re all attracted to people who know who they are and where they’re going. We know people like that get things done and moving. They have time for ideas and action.

Don’t fit yourself into a job, find the job that fits you.

Yes, you can afford this. It’s a special offer for 15 readers of my blog. Email me lizsun2@gmail.com . . . It’s fun. Really. It’s what I’m good at. If you like that, we can keep going and make a longer plan for your business.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Buy the ebook. Learn the art of online conversation.

Interview 14: Jason Alba Knows the Value of Relationships

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Jason’s Dream

Jason Alba

Jasonn Alba had a dream. That’s what he called it. You might call it a vision. He saw too many people who found themselves without employment and with no network or networking skills to support their need to get back into the work force.

Jason’s dream was to build a a personal relationship manager that allows folks to nurture their most valued relationships – for the lifetime of a career! Jason is a natural relationship blogger.

I got to talk to Jason on the phone yesterday. We agreed to this interview. I’m hoping it might be able to get him to SOBCon. He’s the kind of guy who would add great ideas to the audience mix.

Jason, When I first visited Jibber Jobber, your site, some time ago, I thought it was a job recruiter site. Now I know it’s more. Why would someone want JibberJobber while they still have a job?

It’s true there is an area in JibberJobber to manage a job search. But it’s much more than “job search” software. JibberJobber is a personal relationship manager – relationships may be the most important thing to direct your career! Statistics claim that jobs are filled by networking between 60-80% of the time.

JibberJobber is your personal relationship manager. Understanding, managing and growing your network is important for everyone: student, entrepreneur, job seeker, cubicle warrior, executive, artist… don’t we all have relationships to manage.

It makes sense to network (build relationships) when you don’t need to. And it makes sense to start using JibberJobber when you don’t need to look for a job!

As an added bonus there are other features that make sense in managing a career. A place to store elevator pitches. An interface with Google Maps to get directions to your contacts or target companies. A relationship management goals tool. A view of your network graphically, which will allow you to see how wide and deep your network really is. There’s a ton of features in the system – but just realize it was designed to give you professional tools to use in your personal career management.

What was the inspiration behind Jibber Jobber?

It started when I lost my job in January of 2006. I was using a homemade spreadsheet to keep track of who I talked to, where I sent my resume and where I was at with each job I had applied to. It was okay at first but as my job search went on the amount of data grew… and it became a mess (and I even studied how to manage data in college)!

I thought “what if I could take the CRM tools (like Goldmine or SalesForce) and marry them with what career experts tell us to do? That would be an awesome, useful tool for just about anyone!” And that’s what we did – we made it web-based and we made it very affordable (90% of the program is free, with an optional upgrade for $10/month).

It incorporates advice from master networkers, job coaches, resume experts, etc. Put all of this together and you have an excellent personal career toolset.

What part does the Jibber Jobber blog play?

I started blogging last June – and haven’t stopped since then! I love to blog about career issues – sometimes I talk about specific job search techniques but I love paradigm-shifting topics. My most commented post is in response to a monthly award I give called the “You Get It” award for people that use the web to quantify their personal brand. The winner put that she is associated with PETA, and one of my readers commented that some people association PETA with terrorists — and the pursuing conversation was incredible!

So I blog on personal branding, networking (social and unsocial), job search stuff, recruiters and general career management. Its been a blast and I enjoy the conversations around the issues.

Jason sees a bigger picture. He sees how relationships move with us from job to job and from career to career. Jason has found a way to help us keep our business relationships thriving and part of our lives, despite the mobility of the job market and the world in which we live. Plenty of testimonials tell the value of what he’s built.

That’s why Jason is hoping to make it to SOBCon 07 in Chicago in May.
He knows everything he learns about relationship blogging can only add to the effectiveness of what he does and that every relationship he makes will only strenghten his business.

Thanks for the interview, Jason! Hope to see you in Chicago

Don’t let important relationships you value slip away over time. Sign gn up for Jason’s easy to use managment tool. Jason is offering a special lifetime upgrade of JibberJobber premium for only $99 (that’s down from $495), but its only available through April 9th. The price goes back up after Monday!

Then come meet Jason at SOBcon with me.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Reister Now for SOBCon 07, the hotel is sold out except for our special rate room block. The content-rich presentations all demonstrate how to take your blog and your business to the next level though conversation and relationships that turn readers and customers into brand-loyal evangelists.