Job Hunting

5 Things Employers Wish You Knew Before Applying For a Job

May 20, 2016 by Guest Contributor

Some maintain there has never been a wider gulf between employers and job candidates than there is right now. While this is debatable, there can be no doubt job hunting in the 21st century bears little to no resemblance to the job hunts of the previous century. The potential for misunderstanding between manager and future employee is high, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Here are some things employers would like their candidates to know.

Honesty is Still the Best Policy

Employers want the best people in the right jobs. To make sure that happens, they need [Read more…] about 5 Things Employers Wish You Knew Before Applying For a Job

5 Unusual Freelance Jobs

November 19, 2015 by Guest Contributor

In the new gig economy, the key to successful freelancing is having a variety of profit centers. Whether you choose to have several projects in one field, or work in a variety of fields, having an arsenal of freelance options will keep you successfully self-employed.

Here are 5 unusual freelance jobs that you can explore, or mix and match for extra cash.

Podcasting

Due to the overwhelming popularity of the podcast serial, podcasting has exploded as a way to communicate. These days, many businesses and individuals want to get into that game. If you have some technical chops, a great freelancing gig would be to offer your services as a podcasting engineer. You could both set up and instruct a client or you can be a weekly regular.

Blog Food Stylist and Photographer

Nowadays, the key to a successful blog or website are the photos. Clients are in need of someone who can come in and help create a visual brand for their food blog. If you have a knack for making a table look inviting, are able to make food look scrumptious on a plate and have the love and talent to create photographs of it all, this may be for you.

Truck for Hire

People are always looking to move things from place to place. Whether it is produce, merchandise, vehicles, small buildings or even just hauling trash to the dump. There are many options for freelancers to purchase a used truck and start their own hauling business. If you are hauling trash locally you won’t need more than a small truck. But, if you are considering hauling large loads locally or cross country you might consider starting with a used tractor trailer from a company like Arrow Truck Sales.

Professional Instagrammer

Instagram is the fastest growing form of social media in the city, and many companies like, airlines, media organizations, municipalities, tourist authorities, and other groups use it to post current photos. These companies need freelancers to take photos of landmarks, new installations, special events, and other points of interest.

E-Learning

E-Learning is the hottest trend. Learning about a new app, system, upgrade can help you create your own course. If you want to find clients looking to convert their material into an E-Course, E-Learning is a profit center that has not yet realized its potential.

The key to successful self-employment now is having a variety of gigs. Whether they are all related, or all different, mixing and matching unique profit centers will give you many options to realize your career dreams. Most importantly, your unique skills will always make getting up for work exciting and challenging.

Reconsidering Your Resume: Five Ways to Sell Yourself Better

October 14, 2014 by Tim McMahon

When you are trying to construct a good resume, you need to make sure you are using your resume to speak to your skills and attributes and sell yourself to a new employer. The five ideas below are all designed to make your resume look better, and you need to be certain your resume features as many of these ideas as possible. Don’t be afraid to stand out.

One Page
It is definitely better to limit your resume to one page long. Today’s world is simply too busy for you to send out resumes that are several pages. When you getting ready to e-mail your resume, you need to make sure they are confined to one page. Unless you are applying for a high level management position, human resources people won’t [Read more…] about Reconsidering Your Resume: Five Ways to Sell Yourself Better

What it Takes to Get a Job in Healthcare

December 23, 2013 by Guest Contributor

Jobs in healthcare have a large number of entry points, depending on the type of job you intend to get. Healthcare jobs are in high demand currently, and as the population ages, the demand for these jobs is only going to increase. Here are some tips to get you started in your job search and ways to know if you have what it takes.

Professional School

At the high end, healthcare jobs require extensive education, including an undergraduate degrees, as well as one to three years in professional school, residency, and internship requirements. Surgeons are, of course, at the top of this healthcare career chain, but nurse practitioners, midwives, and even some therapists are included under this umbrella. In order to get a job in healthcare through this route, it is necessary to prepare diligently from an early age.

Nursing School

Nursing school lasts [Read more…] about What it Takes to Get a Job in Healthcare

6 Reasons Employers Prefer Experience

December 7, 2013 by Guest Contributor

After you’ve spent years studying, you may think that your degree will be all that potential employers are interested in. However, a study carried out by High Fliers, a graduate recruitment research company, reveals that graduates with work experience, or who have undertaken an internship while at university, are much more successful in securing employment.

ID-100194333 — Without experience a new graduate is just a big question-mark.

According to the UK Graduates Careers Survey, published in June 2013, graduates who had gained practical experience in the workplace were three times more likely to secure a job than their inexperienced counterparts. Researchers from High Fliers spoke with 18,000 graduates from 30 universities across the UK.

1. Basic Workplace Skills:

Employers are looking for graduates who understand how a workplace operates. The rules that apply to attendance, timekeeping and deadlines at university are perceived to be more lenient than those that apply in the workplace. Employers do not want to spend the first few months of a graduates’ employment educating them about basic workplace rules and etiquette. If you have a proven work history, even if it is not in the same field, you can [Read more…] about 6 Reasons Employers Prefer Experience

The 7 “P’s” Job Interview Tips

December 4, 2013 by Guest Contributor

The hardest part of getting any job is the application and interview process. This is the part where you have to show that you are better than the dozens or even hundreds of other applicants. At this stage it is essential to illustrate your particular skills, show the qualifications you have and the industry training courses you may have taken. This is not a time to be modest.

Once you get an interview you know that on paper the company is interested. But of course you need to show in person that you are someone who they can rely on and get on with too. You should relax as much as you can and try and be yourself – well your professional self anyway. So here are 7 tips to help:

“P” #1: Be Prepared

Always prepare properly, don’t just turn up on the day of the interview and expect that you will be able to answer everything without any preparation. Go online and research the company that you have an interview for and you will be prepared to answer various things on what the company does.

Of course, you’ll never be able to [Read more…] about The 7 “P’s” Job Interview Tips

Job Hunting Today: Nailing the Video Interview

November 21, 2013 by Guest Contributor

Location was an integral element in finding and securing jobs. Whether a need to travel for an interview or relocate for a new position, one’s geography mattered. However, given today’s technological innovation and tools, a workforce can be managed remotely, and initial interviews may be conducted across state lines or oceans.

A proactive candidate searches for local, national and (even) international opportunity; a number of owners are willing to (in the least) conduct video interviews searching for potential in-house or remote workers. It’s only a matter of time before an experienced and valuable candidate secures a video interview; here’s how to do it successfully.

Dress for Success

Distance and video technology does not dismiss the formality of the business-related event. Dress as you would for an in-person interview, men wearing a tie and women in a dress or pants suit. In some cases, an interviewer may propose an informal interaction, but allow them to decide such logistics.

Use Notes

While a video interview provides [Read more…] about Job Hunting Today: Nailing the Video Interview

More Ways to Improve Your Resume

October 10, 2013 by Tim McMahon

Life Experience

Make your resume interesting by including some unique facts about yourself. If you start off with a small section called “Life Experience” and include a few interesting things you’ve done like hiking the entire Appalachian Trail or catching a 50 pound fish or whatever, it will make you memorable and give the recruiter something to ask you about if they call you in for an interview.

Choose Your Words Carefully

The right words can make a resume stand out, while the wrong ones can make it doomed for the trash. Use action words to allow you to be seen as a can-do person, and keep everything concise.

Bulleted lists are great for emphasizing skills while making your resume easy to skim.
Instead of just listing facts about yourself, show an employer how you got results in your previous jobs.
Use good grammar, check your spelling and have at least one other person read over it to look for mistakes.
~~See how many words you can eliminate to give the same information in a concise organized way.~~
Eliminate words to present information concisely.

Layout

Many job seekers make the mistake of trying to make their resumes stand out by using unusual fonts or layouts. However, this usually has the opposite of its intended effect. A resume that’s too distracting to employers often winds up in the reject stack. One thing that can be done to improve the looks of a resume is to save the file as a PDF document. That way it will always appear the same no matter what kind of computer or type of software the recruiter is using to look at it. Once it is saved as a PDF document if you want to make changes normally you would have to go back to the original document and edit it and then save it as a PDF again. But now there is software that allows editing PDF files directly so you can skip that extra step. Sending a resume to an employer in PDF format not only shows you know your way around a computer, but also presents the resume in an easy-to-read format.

Focus on the Job

Too many resumes are generic, rather than being tailored to the job for which a person is applying. In the old days, when resumes were run off in mass quantities on a commercial “off-set” printing press, you couldn’t customize it, but these days with word processing software and even electronic resumes there is no reason you can’t customize your resume for each job (except laziness) and every reason why you should take the time to do it right.

Many people think if they list all their previous jobs, that will make them more appealing to employers. However, if you’re applying to be a computer programmer, it’s a good idea to focus on why you would make a great programmer. So you need to tailor your resume to that specific programming job using the exact keywords used in the job description. But you don’t want to leave gaps in your employment history either, so only include the bare minimum about the fast-food job on the resume. Focus instead on skills, certifications and knowledge that can be applied to the specific job at hand.

By following these tips to improve your resume, the dream job that’s been waiting for you can become reality in no time.

See Also:


Resume Paper	Resume Magic, 4th Ed: Trade Secrets of a Professional Resume Writer	Knock ’em Dead Resumes: How to Write a Killer Resume That Gets You Job Interviews	Resumes For Dummies

Dressing for Success at Job Interviews for Men

July 19, 2013 by Guest Contributor

According to psychological studies, when someone gets up to speak to a room full of people, an incredible 75% of the interest they generate in the first few minutes is entirely dependent on whether they look like they are worth listening to.

Put that into an interview situation and your chance of landing that job is well on the way to being decided before you utter a word.

The message is simple, you need to dress for success.

Dress for the Part

One of the best pieces of advice when it comes to deciding what to wear to an interview is to remember to dress for the job that you want not the job you currently have. According to recruitment specialist Essential Personnel, many applicants do not pay enough attention to this simple and maybe sometimes overworked but essentially true, cliché.

Turning up in a pair of jeans for an office job is the quickest way to fail the interview process before you even start. The one exception to this rule might be in the creative arts field where if you wear a suit you might not be considered “artsy” enough.

Here’s a simple test:

Put yourself in the hiring manager’s position. Which of these three guys would you hire?

If you have nothing but looks to go on but which one would you pick?

Think carefully, Why would you pick him? Here are a few things to consider. [Read more…] about Dressing for Success at Job Interviews for Men