Video: Quick Cover Letter Tip

Kevin Donlin has a good tip for your cover letter. Cover letters are kind of passé but I would use his tip in your email.

Return of the Geeks

Geeks have come a long way since their 1984 debut. If you happened to catch 60 Minutes a few nights ago, you saw just how far.

Once shunned by the masses, today's geeks are the superstars of the business world. With the information age now firmly entrenched in our society where would we be without geeks? There'd be no Google, no Yahoo, no YouTube.

Ten years ago I took my first step into 'geekdom' when I changed careers and switched to my company's help desk. For over a year I took the calls, I rebooted pc's and macs and I calmed the angry caller. Some of the time it was a frustrating and lonely job. But I was able to get my feet wet in the world of IT. After my stint on the hotline I moved to the web division and started coding my first web pages. After that, working the web became my passion.

So this one's for you geeks. Live long and prosper.

Watch the 60 mins piece. The guy from Geek Squad has a great quote at the end..."Geeks may inherit the earth, but they have no desire to rule it."

For everything recruiting, checkout ERE.net.

Podcast: Interview with a Recruiter, Maureen Mackey

Learn some job hunting tips and tricks from a veteran of the recruiting industry. Maureen Mackey is the Principal and co-founder of Mackey & Guasco Staffing Associates. (15 min)

Ziggs Zagging with new social networking tool

In the shadow of more popular professional networking such as Linkedin, Ziggs has existed in a low key manner hoping to surf into their own mindshare. Today they announced a new tool for those of you who cant get enough social networking. Its called Ziggs People Hub. Here's the PR that just came out;
Boston, MA (PRWEB) January 29, 2007 -- Leveraging their expertise serving the professional market with a people search engine and personal brand management services since 2004, today Ziggs announces the Ziggs People Hub™, a new free online service that gives individuals the ability to organize and personalize the Internet around their people, their work and their lives. The Ziggs People Hub allows users to customize their own online hub for organizing and communicating with people and assists them with the management of a variety of everyday online activities that are central to professional life.

The foundation of a Ziggs Hub is an easy-to-use, unified online home for organizing your network of contacts. The most efficient way to create your personalized Ziggs Hub is to instantly import your contacts from Outlook, Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail, AOL, Gmail or an Excel spreadsheet. Once in your Ziggs Hub, organize your people with Ziggs Group Builder™, easily creating meaningful, customized groups such as co-workers, consultants, colleagues, college alumni contacts, even friends and family.

Once your people are visually organized into intuitive groups, you will be in position to improve your frequency of contact and strengthen your relationships with each individual through your personalized Ziggs Hub™. You can email or instant message your people with the click of a mouse. In addition, Ziggs lets you aggregate your most frequently used links into one easy-access location. Personalizing your Hub with links to your favorite news sites, bank accounts and preferred online stores completes the centralization of your daily web activity into one easy-access online home at your Ziggs Hub.

Whats interesting is the fact they've integrated partners like Starbucks into the mix;

"We are also delighted to offer a unique set of integrated, peer-to-peer online services for professionals from our three new category partners; services that are designed to give Ziggs members new convenient ways to strengthen relationships and improve efficiency in daily business-related tasks," added Tim DeMello. "Ziggs is pleased to announce that we have teamed up with Amazon.com, PayPal and Starbucks to deliver these new services. Now transactions such as showing appreciation by sending a cup of coffee, sending payments, and sending gift incentives are centralized, simple and easy to do."

Both the Ziggs Index of Professionals™ and the Ziggs people search engine - developed over the past two years - are now integrated into your Ziggs Hub to provide up-to-date, searchable content on millions of professionals. Ziggs' next generation people search results display the most authorized and actionable information on professionals available today, including communication icons, services icons and content icons that enable the searcher to find and connect with people with greater understanding, accuracy, and rapport.

Ziggs also provides the most powerful and elegant online profile service available today for free. The Ziggs Profile™ for professionals has been enhanced with the ability to add new content that's important to you in your Ziggs listing, such as a resume and/or blog. To help you keep your fingers on the pulse of search activity to your online profile, Ziggs sends you an email alert every time someone searches and finds your Ziggs Profile. Ziggs also provides personalized metrics that inform you how often your profile and other content is viewed online.

Job hunting at work: everyone does it

NY Times has an article about the perils of job hunting at work. This passage pretty much sums it up;

Her story is not unusual. In workplaces where high-speed broadband Internet access is typically available and 60-hour workweeks are commonplace, many employees believe that the office is the most convenient or effective place to do a job search. And people who are unhappy with their jobs sometimes believe that they are entitled to use the workplace to find something better.

There are no statistics on the extent of the practice, but according to workplace experts and employees, it is widespread. The problem is that such activity is often against company policy and may even lead to dismissal.

So what can you do to hide the fact you're job hunting? Well here's a few tips.

1. Use a private web based email like MSN Hotmail or Google Gmail.

2. Use your lunch hour to fax resumes or make copies at the local Kinkos.

3. When possible, schedule interviews after 5pm.

4. Don't put your work number on anything. Instead use your cell phone for communicating with employers.

People will always job hunt from work. Thats why traffic to job boards is strongest monday - friday. I remember one job long ago (pre-internet) where I came in on weekends or at night to work on my resume and make copies. I did feel a little guilty about it. But the lure of a new job was too strong. And having a key to the office didnt hurt!

Whatever your situation, try and stay under your bosses radar. An unethical as it may seem, most employers know its happening and still tolerate it. Just be aware that it is a fire-able offense.

Job Search Roundup

Here's some useful links from the job blogs for your friday reading.

Job Search in Overdrive discusses the start of the busy job hunting season.

Top 500 Employers for College Graduates in 2007.

The Power of Referrals from the good folks at Spherion.

College Recruiter asks Would You Interview for a Job in a Virtual World?

CareerHub says Post/Update Your Resume Online Before The Superbowl!

VIDEO: the best way to quit your job

Hat tip to the Jobacle blog for finding this terrific video about one guy who filmed his "exit" interview. Enjoy.

Is your work like jail?

Then check out the podcasts over at Jobacle. I was going to wait to share them with you until I appeared on the show, but T-mobile man beat me to it. Jobacle is a weekly podcast show about all things career. Without a doubt, its the best podcast show I've ever heard about your working life. Give them a listen and stay tuned for my appearance in the coming weeks.

New salary tool: SalaryScout

"SalaryScout is a network of users seeking fairness in compensation and benefits. Discover your true value in the marketplace and demand what you're worth."

This is one of those web 2.0 sites which rely on users to generate their content. You can even get salary information via RSS which is a neat way of keeping track of your salary range. According to their site they are different because, "SalaryScout allows you to view real jobs and real salaries, which can provide you with greater leverage during negotiation."

The service is completely confidential.

Other sites like this include WageExchange.

Ethical Employment Screening

In this modern day and age it is essential to understand the importance of having the most update information on employees. The option of employment screening gives the management and human resources department an ability to set guidelines for their companies prospective employees. Within these guidelines, human resources is capable of "weeding out" potential financial, and possibly even physical, threats to the company and its current personnel.

Considering all aspects of a potential employee's ability to contribute to the growth and stability of the company should be the first priority. Followed closely by their qualifications is weather a particular individual is qualified based purely upon their education, or upon their experience in the work force. Ideally any prospective employee will have a combination of both. Finally, a prospective employee should be put through an employment screening. Employment screening varies from industry to industry, as it should.

For example, a potential Accounts Manager applies for an accounting job at local bank. She is a professional, with over five years experience in the banking/accounting industry. She has excellent references and according to her last employer, "was an asset to the company." Upon an employment screening of her criminal record, human resources discovers that she had a failure to appear in traffic court and was arrested for this. Human Resources has set their policy in such a fashion that a prospective employee must have no arrests what so ever in order to qualify for the position. In this situation, an employment screening can cause a company to lose a fantastic asset because of a trivial misdemeanor.

On the other hand, if upon the viewing of her criminal record human resources discovered she was convicted of “possession of a forged instrument” or stolen checks and financial documents, this is certainly a reason not to consider her for the position.

Another attribute of employment screening is voluntary drug screening. In most cases a prospective employee voluntarily submits themselves to a drug screening. This can occur either on a one time basis or as often as the company deems necessary. This screen is vital in some industries, especially industries that involve the operation heavy machinery or industries that primarily work with the care and maintenance of children or the elderly. This particular aspect of employee screening has the ability to save the company large sums money by preventing unnecessary accidents and, more importantly, it has the potential to save lives.

Finally, one of the last avenues used to screen potential employees when recruiting is to check their financial credentials. This within itself can be a double edge sword. By checking whether or not the potential employee has filed for bankruptcy, or is behind on there credit card payments, some companies hold the belief that this will eliminate irresponsible people from their workforce. However, in most cases checking someone’s financial credentials is a relatively costly and time consuming venture. Also, it may not give a company an accurate picture of the potential employee. There are a myriad of different reasons why individuals file for bankruptcy, or fall behind on credit card payments. Reasons range from divorce, to serious healthcare issues, or even a death in the family.

Employment screening gives companies valuable information on potential employees. It accomplishes this by checking potential employees' references and their criminal record. With this information in hand a company can gauge if a potential employee is reliable, trustworthy and safe. Then upon viewing a potential employee's financial credentials a company can evaluate if the potential employee is good with time and money management.

All in all, employment screening is an essential part of bringing qualified personnel into any company's workforce when filling jobs.

Over 40 Job Boards Proliferating

The NY Times has a story on the new trend in job boards. Sites for baby boomers are all the rage. Now there's even one for the "over 40" crowd. Jobs4point0 has entered the mix.

Retirementjobs.com

jobs4point0.com

seniors4hire.org

yourencore.com

seniorjobbank.com

Search for baby boomers on chimby.

Jobs in Recruiting

It has only been a few years since the responsibilities of a single recruiter encompassed the complete value chain of the process, both on the candidate and the client sides (internal clients in case of the corporate recruiter).

Thus, consultants were accountable for tasks such as job ad writing, employment pre-screening, interviewing, on one hand; as well as client relationship development, account management, billing and administration on the other. That would have made for a chunky role description, for those lucky enough to have one.

In the search for efficiencies derived from specialization, agencies and corporate recruitment teams broke down responsibilities along the lines of audience and process steps. Candidate-facing professionals divvied up tasks into sourcing, interviewing, etc; whilst client focused personnel segregated business development activities from say, existing relationship management tasks.

As candidates and customers have increasingly sophisticated terms of engagement, brought about the economic cycle, the supply and demand of labor's own dynamics, and other influencing macro trends (e.g. demographics); it appears that further atomization in the responsibilities of recruiters is required to drive their effectiveness up once again.

Specifically, with recruiting jobs this atomization may be performed along three dimensions:

Value a chain component; that is, breaking down the process steps and derive efficiency from focus and repetition (e.g. creating candidate leads from job fairs, writing candidate reports, inducting new employees). This is a cost-centered strategy

Skills set requirements: whether they are web-related (career site optimization), marketing and ancillary (ads writing, candidate program management, employer branding), etc; all in addition to the core HR know-how. This is a value-centered strategy.

A combination of the Value-chain and Skill set dimensions. This matrix approach would see marketing professionals joining the recruitment team and applying their tools and practice to the appropriate recruitment process steps (manage the employee value proposition using the product lifecycle management model, for example).

Similarly, technology-trained professionals can make use of the expertise to enrich tasks such as the usability of the company career (or agency) website, or perhaps even contribute with some of the process overarching aspects (e.g. optimizing the lead output from the company's ATS).

Multidiscipline teams such as this have the potential of not only produce efficiencies with their 'outside' skills, but also to challenge and overhaul the online recruitment process.

The CHIMBY Widget for Webmasters

I've been pleasantly surprised with the success of CHIMBY, my career advice search engine. Last month it received a record number of visitors (6,239) and the responses and emails I've been getting have been very positive. Today I'm announcing a new way to share CHIMBY across the web.

It's called the CHIMBY Widget. By cutting and pasting the code below anyone with a website or blog can add CHIMBY as a career resource. Grab the code.


I'm also offering privately branded versions of CHIMBY for other job boards or career sites and even college career centers. Check out this version for PACE University or this version on a job board.

Site owners should contact me for privately branded versions: "info at chimby.com "

Risk Management

A business venture is essentially a kind of gamble as no business is immune to risks. A risk is the possibility of loss that badly affects the business. Every business is prone to one or more kinds of risks: loss of expertise by accidental deaths, damage to commercial property, and even legal matters that may sever the reputation etc. Some risks may be fairly easy for the managers to tackle while others are more difficult to defuse.

All the risks that can pose possible threat to a business are broadly divided into two types: pure risks and speculative risks. Pure risk is the possibility of a disaster like fire that, if it occurs, can cause loss but its absence or non-occurrence does not bring any profit to the business. Pure risks are hard to predict and escape. A speculative risk on the other hand prompts people to go for a business venture because it also brings profit in case of success, loss of course in case of failure. The recording and marketing of a new artist’s album by a record company is an example of speculative risk. In case the album goes hit, the company makes profit; otherwise a loss results. Speculative risks can be avoided by careful decision-making.

We can define a risk management consultant as the supporting the process of reducing the threat of loss due to uncontrollable events. It is an integral element of all successful businesses.

Protection against Risk

There are four main types of protective strategies against risks in business. These are:

* Avoiding Risk
* Absorbing Risk
* Minimizing Risk
* Insuring against Risk

Consider the case of a publishing company that ships a large number of its books to bookstores in another state by means of a truck. The possibility that the truck may crash and burn before it delivers the books is a pure risk to the publishing company. As part of its risk management strategy the publishing company can employ any one or a combination of these tactics. To fulfill their needs, they can also look at posting their risk management jobs online.

The company can entirely avoid the risk of loss by requiring customers to purchase copies of books at the press rather than choosing to deliver them to bookstores. Once the copies are sold, the company is out of the threat of risk. Another way the company may manage the risk is by absorbing the possible loss e.g. by setting aside funds to make up for the cost of the books lost in the crash. The company could also try to minimize the risk of the crash. This can be done, for example, by carefully screening the records of truck accidents of several years along the same road and taking care of any threatening factors that have been responsible for the accidents in the past.

Finally, the publishing company may choose to buy an insurance policy that would cover at least some cost of the book if they came to be lost during such an accident. Insurance is an important element of risk management in businesses. However, it is not always the best choice and it is not available for all kinds of losses.

Cheezhead Top Story on Onrec

Thanks to Onrec for making my recent deal with JobCentral their top story.

Who are the worst fictional bosses?

The guys at Jobacle think they know. "Fictional bosses. They are often even more dreadful then their real-life counterparts. They can utter the words ‘You’re Fired!’ on a whim, cause in the fake world, wrongful termination lawsuits don’t exist."

Get the Worst Boss List here. (pdf)

You'll find dreadful bosses such as Captain Kirk, Keyser Soze, and Willy Wonka.

Coffee anyone? JobLeadsCafe

Here's something that might be useful down the road. Seems to be a lot of techie-related job leads.

JobLeadsCafe is a people-powered site where anyone can submit, link and share great job leads. Jobseekers and Web users decide what the top job opportunities are at any moment. Do you know of any job lead? Why not share it at JobLeadsCafe. You don't have to be a jobseeker to use JobLeadsCafe. JobLeadsCafe is not a job board. If you know about any job leads/opening, all you have to do is to post the link at JobLeadsCafe.com.

Free ebook: Insider's Guide to Resume Writing

The "Insider's Guide to Resume Writing."

This 70+ page book features great advice from some of the very best professional resume writers and career coaches and there's no further sign-up required. You can get it here

From the career coaches at Career Hub

The Resumes from Hell blog

"Your resume should sell your skills and experience to the World, but there's plenty of people who are a few feet short of the runway." Here's some of them.

Hat tip: Recruitment Views

JobVent: love it or hate it

Want to vent or rave about your job? Well now there's JobVent:

"Inside Information About the Jobs and Employers we Love and Hate"

It's a user generated site that features reviews of jobs online at companies. It's getting to a point where employers are going to have to hire someone just to troll sites like this and tecross to find and fight the digital dirt being spewed on them.

Audio & Video come together on CareerAV.com

Today I'm launching a new resource for job hunters. CareerAV.com is a portal for videos and career podcasts. You can watch a collection of videos related to resumes, job hunting, interviewing and more. Or you can browse & listen to audio channels of your favorite career podcasts from around the web.



At the moment its ad free, ...feel free to make a donation if you think its useful. I've spent hours filling the database with interesting stuff, so please spread the word about CareerAV.com.

Secrets of the Job Hunt 2006 web stats

I just took a look at my year-end web statistics. By all accounts 2006 was a great year and I was able to increase readership about 30% each quarter to the blog. All told, this blog recorded 42,242 unique visitors and generated 69,216 page views.

Here's a look at the graph.

I look forward to bringing you more job search tips, tricks and tactics in 2007. Average daily visitors in January is already averaging 300-400 per day!

Mixed Economy

Theory and History seem to indicate that the economy moves in boom and bust cycles. In fact, the last few years have seen a raft of positive, apparently unending up-trends in wealth growth and jobs, encompassing high rates of employment, productivity increases and unfettered consumption.

This in spite of the doomsayers who have been calling out for a global financial crisis and overall recession in view of some macroeconomic imbalances (chronic account deficits, cost of credit, take up of environmental concerns). If it happened, the down slope of the cycle would kick in, as it has in the past.

I am somewhat inclined (maybe given my training in neo-classical economics) to think that sooner or later, things will need to cool off. That or we need to relearn how to interpret the global economy, and goodbye to our hero Dornbush!

My money is therefore still on the cycles' theory, with a proviso: not all areas of the economy will follow a common pattern, but will respond to its own particular dynamics

More specifically, I venture that labor (employment rates) and its price (wages and salaries) can remain strong in the context of possible economic chilling. The reason for this phenomenon, as hinted, would respond to labor's own influence variables:

Labor supply trends will remain unchanged due to:

* Continued friction in the international labor transfer (e.g. international candidates) due to immigration policies, recruitment practices.

* No imminent sign of skills and experience shortages being attended to (training, mature worker hiring still not making a huge dent yet)

* Individual job seekers continuing to search for suitable work-play equation (more time at home, self-employment)



Labor demand trends would also remain fairly constant due to:

* Unchanged demand for skills driven out of the demographics landscape in the developed world (health, social services)

*Knowledge and Services based economies still requiring people in the related professional slots - financial services, technology infrastructure. Otherwise, do you see Accenture, IBM Global Services or Deloitte’s laying-off consultants en masse?

*Emerging employment opportunities in new industries, boosting new areas of specialties and skills sets

It certainly may all come down to the extent of the recession/stagnation. I am sure there is a tipping point where labor demand will shrink from government and business as a way to avoid permanent collapse. But as we open 2007 I am feeling bullish about employment expectations given its driving forces.

This landscape in turn, will assist in the uptake of services and tools intended to help organizations source and engage talent, such as SEO for Internet recruitment. Consistent with this – and here’s prediction’s time – employers in ’07 will deepen their knowledge and increase their activities in human resource planning, as a way to meet their talent demands from their own operations context.

Experience.com provides information on entry level jobs and internships.

This Video Resume Site Needs Work

These guys appear to be the first site to charge a job seeker to post their "video" resume. The cost? $9.95 per year.

The idea sounds good but it fails to deliver in many ways. First, the site does not display well in Firefox browsers. When I checked it out in Internet Explorer the site has an amateurish look and feel to it. They even have a cheezy look-a-like trumpasaurus character like Monster as a logo.
To view a video one must double-click on it which is counter-intuitive to what people do now (no one double clicks on the web). And by charging job seekers they wont attract a large pool of candidates for employers to browse. Why pay when you can post on Youtube for free?

If Youtube were smart they'd start their own recruiting channel with video resumes and recruiting videos.

Hot hot jobs for 2007

Fast Company has a list out of 10 hot jobs for 2007. Nice to see web designers and bloggers made the list.

Experience Designer: These talented individuals work in the retail industry, creating the essence and aura of a store. Experience designers go beyond the look of a place, creating a unique experience in which shoppers can immerse themselves. From cellular boutiques to the American Girl doll store on New York's Fifth Avenue, the shops created by an experience designer are often considered works of art...

Medical Researcher: It's no news that what's on the forefront of medicine is on the forefront of America's collective mind. Individuals with the know-how and creative juice to mix tech with medicine can expect seven figure salaries in the year ahead...

Web Designer: What's new about web designers? We already know they have cool jobs, working as the creative arm behind highly trafficked websites. Monster.com charts a 26 percent growth rate in this field for the past year, which will continue to blossom for the coming year...

Security Systems Engineer: Monster.com reports that individuals in the protective services industry can expect a rise in demand and salary for 2007. Individuals with a head for engineering and computers can easily expect a seven-figure salary in this industry...

Urban Planners: From the Hong Kong International Airport Residential Tower to suburban "McMansion" sprawl, individuals in residential planning and development can expect a lot of work in the coming year. Urban Planners must meet the demand for real estate that's both decadent and practical...

Viral Marketers and Media Promoters: a viral marketer knows how to build an audience from nothing with little more than rumor and excitement. Known for such coups as MySpace's Lonelygirl15 and the Blair Witch Project, Viral Marketers begin "contagious" campaigns that spread largely through word of mouth...

Talent Agents: As Clint Eastwood would say, "These days, everyone is famous." And as fame and fortune grows for performers and athletes, a new arena opens for their managers, promoters, and general go-to guys...

Buyers and purchasing agents: These individuals are in charge of store inventory and make decisions on item color, size, quantity, and country of origin. With the recent vicissitudes of the retail industry, these jobs are often hard to come by and can be very lucrative if store profitability increases...

Art Directors: From Broadway to movie sets, any job that involves paint, lights, cameras, and action is in demand, especially within the 20-30 demographic. Now perceived as the ultimate career for inspired artists with an affinity for pop culture...

News Analysts, Reporters, and Bloggers: The Internet has created a new realm for reporters and writers, who previously only saw their names and ideas in print. Now, publications with an online division often hire three levels of correspondents: Print news writers, online news writers, and bloggers..

Marketing a Career Image

Marketers use the concept of product branding to help make their goods and services more appealing to consumers. Career experts say workers canuse the same principles to give their careers a boost by creating a"personal brand" to market their skills and abilities.

Read more from Yahoo! News

Friday humor from the HR World

Tecross: user generated company reviews

I'm losing track of all these new user-generated content sites. They're spreading like wildfire.

Case in point: Tecross

Their mission:

Know the truth before joining or doing business with a company. Just remember murphy's law - things will go wrong in any given situation, if you give them a chance.

Our mission is to give you 360 degree view of a company - Just see what their employees, former employees and customer have to say.

"F" this Job

A place to vent.

F This Job

(warning: crude language)

2007 Sick Day Calendar

Plan your sick day accordingly with this calendar...

"2007 Sick Day Calendar is useful to plan for those extended weekends Plus, request the days surrounding a holiday before your co-workers snag 'em!"

Hiring Trends in the New Economy

Jobseekers could uncover new labor market trends by watching the hiring practices of global employers. One worldwide employer says the workplace is evolving and offers some insight into the new "world of work" and which skills are likely to be in demand.

Read more from the Economist.com

SEO Jobs

As featured in many online publications and highlighted by numerous industry pundits, SEO jobs are hot!

As more and more companies across many industries discover the power of search engine traffic, the need for professionals and SEO firms will only increase. As a result, the demand for SEO services is sure outpace the supply.

Freelancers across the globe will prosper, particularly those who specialize in niche markets. However, agencies with full-on staffs will have to put on the full court press on finding talent. In many cases, agencies will have to relocate SEO professionals from other parts of the country or world in order to succeed. Therefore, many firms are posting their jobs to a myriad of sites and solutions.

With the growing competition to outrank your competition, everyone in the SEO space will prosper immensely as prices continue to increase. If you have an in-house SEO, be sure to do everything you can to hold onto them, because a higher salary and potentially more appealing destination is calling them everyday. And make sure that you're continually advertising your SEO jobs as strategically as possible.

Headhunter Punks CareerBuilder

I get a newsletter published by AskTheHeadhunter. His latest issue is a slam on CareerBuilder and I must say, I tend to agree with him.

Responding to a readers question asking if CareerBuilder was more useful he says "CareerBuilder is for dopes" and offers the following proof direct from the company's mission statement;

"We are changing the way companies around the world recruit their most important asset: their people. Our mission is to be the global leader in online recruitment advertising by being an employee-driven, customer-focused organization that provides the best rate of return to our shareholders."

No where does it say CareerBuilder exists to help people find jobs. They're all about fulfilling shareholders pockets. He goes on to say;

"CareerBuilder is not in the business of matching people with jobs. It is a marketing and advertising company that uses trivial data base methods to make money from naive job hunters and employers. And it succeeds: corporate America and job hunters fork over millions of dollars each year to play on this weighted roulette wheel."

The bigger job boards value to job seekers is no doubt shrinking. All the stats are proving that to be true. The new push is niche and local sites like the one I run. Headhunter agrees;

"But the main reason you'd be wasting your time with CareerBuilder is that it doesn't work well. None of the big job boards publish (or claim to track) success rates -- that is, your odds of finding or filling a job by using them"

He also says CareerBuilder takes advantage of job seekers by "upgrading" their resume for fees ranging from $100-$150 which will give your resume more visibility. To this he says;

There are over 20 million resumes in our database... how will you be noticed?" Just how high up in that massive data base is $150 going to get you?

If you're going to use job boards, go local he says;

If you're going to use job ads, look at the small independent newspapers and at local and niche web sites....the good ones focus on local jobs and also provide relevant business articles that can give you an edge as you research and select good target companies.

Searching for a job after college, Part I

One of my readers was kind enough to share his job hunting experience in the form of his new blog. His name is Alexander Kharlamov and here is the beginning story of his job hunt. You can then finish reading it over at his blog.

In 2003, I graduated from Stony Brook University with a bachelor’s degree in computer science. In retrospect, I could not have picked a less appropriate time to enter the job market. During my senior year, I met some recent computer science graduates driving trucks or working in a deli – the job market was so atrocious that they could not land an offer.

There were very few companies willing to hire recent grads, because a lot of people with 10 or more years of experience were jobless, and were willing to work for entry-level salaries. Those that did hire set impossibly high standards – 3.5 (out of 4.0) GPA, degree with honors, and years of real world experience in a big corporation – right after you graduate. My GPA was below 3.0 and I graduated with no honors whatsoever.

Nevertheless, with hard work, I found the career of my dreams. After coming home from my temporary job, I put in 4-5 hours daily into my job searching. At the time I wished there was a complete guide to job hunting, but there was none. With this article (split in multiple parts due to length) I hope to fill the void for that guide. If you’re not a recent college grad, you should still read on, because some of the items you will discover will come as a surprise to even the most experienced job hunters.

The single most important thing you have to realize is searching for a good job is a full-time job in itself. Fully expect spending a few hours job hunting, even if you have taken a temporary “McJob” to make ends meet. Make sure you’re ready, mentally and physically, for the search. The easy part ended when you graduated college.

Continued >>

10 Resume Tips and Improvements to Create a Better Resume

The folks at emurse, the online resume creator tool have started a blog and today's post offers some good advice for creating a better resume. If you haven't heard of emurse, then you should really check it out. Their online resume tool is the best around and is a search engine friendly way of posting your resume online and getting found.

Job seekers expect a longer job hunt

Job seekers expect to spend seven to 14 months searching for work, according to a call-in survey conducted by outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

The average length of unemployment for callers was 1.14 years. However, the average was skewed higher by the 12 percent of callers -- mostly women returning to the workforce after raising a family -- who have been out of work for four or more years. For those unemployed less than a year, the average length of unemployment was 3.6 months.

Thirty-nine percent of callers identified age discrimination as the primary obstacle preventing them from finding a job. Only 14 percent of survey respondents said that the biggest obstacle to new employment is a lack of jobs in their field.

Passado

The UK's largest business social network site raises USD $13 million to expand into continental Europe. Passado, the UK business social networking site rivaling the likes of LinkedIn, has secured financial backing from venture capitalists to formally launch in the UK. The site, the UK's largest business
networking platform, also has plans to expand further into Europe. It claims it currently has 5 million users in the UK.

Passado has been in operation for the last 4 years and was started by two friends who wanted to build a platform for friends and colleagues to reunite. Passado's financial deal was accompanied by figures that underline recent momentous growth. It published ComScore Networks calculated numbers showing that last October unique visitors reached 1.3 million, dramatically up from 287,000 unique visitors in October 2005.

Competition in the UK market is stiff but the site owners think they will continue to pick up momentum. The company's larger brother niche player in the UK is Friends Reunited which says it has 15 million registered users. Passado aims to play into the older-age market, which is considered a lucrative niche area in light of an expected tightening employment market. It offers blogging and photo sharing, but not yet jobs in London or other places in Europe.

The European market which the company has started to canvas is huge, with an estimated 300 million potential targets. Passado is headquartered in London and has specific plans to open in Russia and Italy in the near future.

IT Jobs in London, UK

The UK's top IT talent is beginning to make use of Hollywood-style talent agents.

"The queen is dead, long live the queen" has taken on a new, slightly altered meaning. As LA's legendary theatrical talent agent Ruth Webb passes away, the phenomenon of talent agents appears to have blown over from the US to the UK. To the IT recruitment sector, to be precise. Glam value in the UK IT sector is effecting a talent agent activity that is operating on rather different premises than your average Hollywood agent works from; only 5 percent of all top IT jobs in London, UK are seen as potential talent agent material.

There's an undeniable shortage of talented employees in the top echelons of the UK's IT sector, and despite a lack of news reports about the phenomenon, talent agents are definitely beginning to get a firm foot in the door.

It's a trend that started in US IT sector just before the dotcom bust, according to the Association of Technology Staffing Companies (ATSCo) in London.

"Top IT contractors in the UK are at last joining the ranks of film and football stars and getting personal agents to manage their careers and secure them high paying positions with client organisations," according to the association.

The top 5 percent of IT professionals are becoming superstars as demand for elite talent becomes increasingly competitive. Niche areas including games development or systems security are especially expected to be canvassed by talent agents.

Talent agents are relatively new and their activities are turning the tables in the search for London jobs. In face, recruiting companies usually match candidates to employers' specific requirements but talent agents act on behalf of highly-skilled individuals, negotiating contracts on their terms. The impact talent agents will have on the wider sector will likely be noticeable.

"Many traditional IT recruitment companies are now seriously looking at the talent management model and the possibility of providing a gold-plated, bespoke service for the highest-earning IT professionals."

However, rigid hiring processes will likely counter impact on the innovation. Large IT organizations in the UK are known to stick to preferred supplier lists when hiring staff and are often reluctant to negotiate with agents who are new to them when looking for jobs UK.

But the association's spokeswoman, Ann Swain, also pointed out that the talent agent route might mean a breakthrough in the IT recruitment system.

"The talent agent route does perhaps give us the chance to move away from the established procurement model and develop higher margin business," Swain said.

Get free career advice during SeekWeek

January is historically the peak month for high-end job hunting, and it is also the time when many highly qualified candidates realize they are ill-prepared to start a job search. TheLadders.com, the world’s leading online service for $100,000+ jobs answers the call with its second annual SeekWeek, a week-long virtual career management 101 for senior-level job seekers.

TheLadders.com SeekWeek 2007 will kick off on Monday, January 8.

Interested attendees may register online at http://online-e-vents.com/theladders/seekweek2007.

Overcoming the Stereotype of Age

Experience counts, but older workers are finding that age can be a barrier in the job hunt. Here's a look at how some individuals are working to fight the stereotypes and how to turn age into an asset.

Read more from MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16315196/

What's an Education Worth?

Over the past couple of years, I have reflected on this topic, but never put anything down on paper: What is an education worth? With the rising costs of college and universities, is it really worth taking an education to the next level and obtaining the certification. Or is it more practical in taking the hands-on approach and learning from someone through either internships or on the job training?

A good friend of mine, Lauren, recently graduated with a Master's Degree in Architecture from the University of Georgia. Since graduating, Lauren secured an entry level job within a firm located in Fort Wayne, Indiana, with a salary of $42,000. Her interest began in high school when she had an interest in art and became more involved with design and structure. After graduating with a 4.2, she then too the next step at the University of Miami and graduated with a degree in Architecture four years later. Her self quote throughout this experience has been “work hard, play hard”, which goes to show that hard work does pay off.

Now, take myself for example. Throughout high school I enrolled in various business courses. Therefore, my junior and senior year, I was given the opportunity to enroll in the Business Technology program. While in that program, I took advantage of the opportunity to mentor individuals at various businesses.

By the time I graduated, I secured employment within a financial firm and was given the opportunity to work along side a financial advisor. While in this position, I utilized my knowledge and used my skills to obtain my next job working alongside a Certified Public Accountant during tax season. It is now seven years later, and I have extensive experience working within an accounting firm, as well as a law firm. I have been told that my experience is extremely marketable because you do not find many people who have a legal background as well as a financial background, let alone someone who has this experience without a college education and presently making $37,000.00 annually.

Getting back to my main question, what is an education worth? I have shown you two examples of successful individuals, one who has an advanced college education and another who simply has a high school diploma. To my knowledge, there really isn't a right or wrong answer to this topic.

Lauren, simply wanted to become an architect and in order to do so, she needed the proper schooling for the right jobs. When asked if she regrets what she did and if she should have gone into something else, she told me "the loans are a killer, but I love what I do." I on the other hand, have gotten where I am today by observing and learning hands on.

If I hadn't taken advantage of the technology program and mentorships, I probably would have gone to a college of some sort and obtained a degree, but I’m not sure in what. I love business and when I go to work everyday, I am faced with a challenge of numbers. So there you have it, two individuals, two different learning experiences and both are happy with what they do everyday - college isn't for everyone.

Read and write internship reviews

Internship Evaluation's hope is to have a single website people can go to to find an internship review about any company. The idea is that everyone wants to know about the company they are applying to before they do an internship there.

Business in a box: how a blog can let you work from home

Most people think of a blog as a personal diary where you rant or rave on the subject of your choice. This is all true. But to me, a blog is a business in a box. The versatility of this simple, easy to use technology often goes overlooked.

In its purest form a blog is a database. It is also a content management system. The technology behind a blog allows anyone to publish anything. So why not start a business with it?

If you want to change your life and start anew, here's a work at home business opportunity for you. The costs to startup are extremely low and its never been easier.

Start a news site for your community. Become a reporter for your town. Cover events, take pictures and seek local businesses to advertise on your site. Take a look at these examples from my state: NewHavenIndependent, HamdenDailyNews.

With the content management capabilities that blogs provide you can write stories and cover events about your hometown. Then you can sell advertising space to local businesses or use Google Adsense to generate income. Local businesses love web traffic from sites relevant to their market so thats why community sites like the ones above have value to them.

And best of all, blogs are magnets for search engines which means lots of free traffic for you.

These days the web holds possibilities for all kinds of businesses. A blog is one of the best ways to take advantage of that.

I-9 Form

The purpose of the I-9 form is to verify the employment eligibility of potential staff members and to ensure that businesses hire only individuals who are legally permitted to work in the United States for their jobs. All individuals, both citizens and non-citizens, who are hired after November 6, 1986 are required to fill out form I-9 with in three days of being hired by a business unless they are serving as an independent contractor. Individuals who submit receipts for replacement documentation to their employers are given an exception to the three day rule. These individuals are allowed a period of 90 days to provide the proper documentation to their employer. If at the end of the ninety day period the worker still cannot provide the proper documentation then their employment should be terminated.

Employers are responsible for making sure that the entire I-9 form is filled out no later than the close of business on the third day of employment by each new employee. Employers should also provide the official list of satisfactory documents for determining identity and work eligibility to each new employee. All employers are expected to examine the documents provided by a new member of staff and are expected to accept them if they seem genuine. An employer is allowed to refuse to accept a document that is provided by a new employee is it does not appear authentic. In a situation such as this, the employer should request another form of documentation from the list of documents that meet the requirements of establishing identity. Any employee who cannot provide the required documentation should not be allowed to continue to be employed by the company.

Employers are also expected to retain I-9 forms on all employees, due to the fact that this form is not submitted to the U.S. government as is the case with tax records. An I-9 form must be on record for every employee for at least three years after the date on which they were hired or for at least one year after they ceased to work for the particular business, whichever event occurs last. Therefore employers are expected to retain I-9 forms for all current employees along with those of terminated employees until at least a year after their employment ceased.

These forms are expected to be stored at either the worksite or at company headquarters. Where ever an employer decides to store these forms, they must make it possible for the documents to be sent to the relevant business within three days of an official request for the production of the documents for inspection.

If at any time an employer finds out that an I-9 form is not on file for an employee, they are required to request the employee to fill out the form right away and submit the necessary documentation. All new forms should be dated for the day they are filled out. Under no circumstances should an employer ever post-date an I-9 form. If an employee is unable to make the satisfactory documentation available, then the employer is considered to have discovered the individual’s ineligibility to work at that time. If the employer continues to employ such a person, then the employer may be penalized.

Employment Drug Screening

Let's say you are an employment-brand-aware hirer. You maintain a career website that includes information about the online recruitment and selection processes, with a view to increase transparency that – in turn – is aimed at positively impacting a candidate’s job seeking experience with your organization.

Let's assume also that in addition to the employment drug screening of skills, qualifications and attributes to determine a suitable match; candidates have to have a successful (pass) drug test as a pre-requisite to receiving an employment offer.

At this stage, you as employer are fully committed to a comprehensive disclosure of the details of your policy. This does not stem from a necessity to defend your practice, but rather to showcase the consistency of your hiring policies with the values and behaviors espoused by your organization.

In practical terms, the nitty-gritty about the employment drug screening does not have to feature on the career site itself; this might go in detriment of other important aspects of the selection process that need to be highlighted. Rather, the information online can point to contacts within the organization who can provide it on an as-requested basis (anonymously over the phone, etc). In this scenario, a request for further information should be construed as a positive outcome in terms of the company’s candidate engagement.

Ideally, the employer's recruiting policies would cover the motivation, reasoning and logistics of the drug screening process. This data assists hiring managers on a day-to-day basis, but is also the foundation for the interaction with potential applicants who show interest in the specifics of this aspect of online recruitment.

Broadly speaking, the information that can be covered on the site should aim to answer the following potential applicant questions:

* What are the reasons for the employment drug screening? What objective is being fulfilled? OR
* Why is employment drug screening important given the organization’s commercial context, legal and controls posture, its social responsibility stand, HR philosophy?
* At which stage of the process does employment drug screening happen?
* What are the logistics of the pre-screening process?
* What are the measures taken to ensure the individual’s privacy in respect to the screening results?

Similarly, the organization should be prepared to clearly respond to follow-on questions such as:

* What are the drugs that you test for?
* What happens if the test is not successful?
* Can I reapply for another job in the future if you were unsuccessful due to a non-pass drug test in the past?
* How can I reassure myself that information about my results remains private?

Things that you may not want to broadcast but prepared to act on given specific applicant situations are

* Practices concerning applicants contesting their results
* Re-testing
* The company’s policy on post-employment testing as a means to “double-lock” the original results that enabled an employment offer

By definition, none of the lists are exhaustive. They aim to address the need for preparedness, which arises from disclosure

And why do you as an employer want to be bothered with all this:

* Because employment drug screening is a touchy issue as it impacts on personal privacy and freedom

* Because there is a lot of fear and ignorance out there, which leads to prejudice and misjudgment of both individuals and companies

* Because you might want to answer if a candidate knocks on your door

VocationVacation: your dream job awaits

The coming of a new year often leads many people to rethink their career choices. If you've always been interested in testing the waters and trying out your dream job here's a way to do just that. A vocation vacation is for people who want to try out a "dream job" without risking their regular one...just take one of their vacations for a variety of jobs from Wine maker to Fashion consultant.

According to their web site;

Whether your inner voice is telling you to go find your true calling or you're simply curious about a career change, VocationVacations® can help. Our one-of-a-kind holiday adventures are empowering people everywhere to realize their dreams not only in work, but in life.

While on your VocationVacations® holiday, you'll work alongside an expert mentor who shares your passion and will offer invaluable insights into your dream career. You'll also receive two free sessions with a VocationVacations-approved Life/Career Coach.

Imagine how great it would be if every day felt like a Friday. We know it's possible. So what's stopping you from going for it?

Whether you're seeking a new career, a unique vacation, the perfect gift for a loved one or simply satisfying a curiosity, VocationVacations® offers the experience of a lifetime. So go ahead - dream a little and explore which VocationVacations® holiday is right for you.

Do a search for your dream job and fuel your true passion today!

2007 Job Market Trends

If you are planning to find a new job in the new year, you just may be in luck.CareerBuilder.com has released the results of its latest survey. Economists and employers predict a stable hiring environment to carry over in the new year."Recent reports from the U.S. Department of Labor support a sense in the market that the economy is slowing at a gradual, reasonable pace and inflation has steadied," said Matt Ferguson, CEO of CareerBuilder.com.

He said that 40 percent of hiring managers and human resource professionals surveyed said they would increase their number of full-time, permanent employees in 2007. Eight percent expected to decrease their employee head count, while 40 percent said they expect no change in the numbers. About 12 percent surveyed said they were not sure. While 36 percent of employers expect to add 10 employees or less in 2007, 29 percent will hire more than 50 and 20 percent will hire more than 100.

Nearly one-in-10 employers will hire more than 500 new employees. On par with previous surveys, the areas employers will be recruiting for the most include health care (24 percent), administrative-clerical (19 percent), sales (17 percent), accounting-financial operations (17 percent), customer service (13 percent), information technology (13 percent), management (12 percent) and engineering (9 percent). "Employers expect to face greater human capital challenges as a large number of baby boomers retire and productivity growth plateaus," said Ferguson. "Forty percent of employers report they currently have job openings for which they can't find qualified candidates.

Going into 2007, the U.S. workforce is likely to see employers become more competitive in recruitment and retention efforts evident in higher salaries, better training and career advancement opportunities and more flexible work cultures."

The survey found seven trends for the new year.

1.) Bigger Paychecks: Eighty-one percent of employers report their companies will increase salaries for existing employees.
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Sixty-five percent will raise compensation levels by 3 percent or more while nearly one-in-five will raise compensation levels by 5 percent or more. Nearly half of employers (49 percent) expect to increase salaries on initial offers to new employees.
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Thirty-five percent will raise compensation levels by 3 percent or more while 17 percent will raise compensation levels by 5 percent or more.

2.) Diversity Recruitment -- Hispanics Workers in Demand: Understanding the positive influence workforce diversity has on overall business performance, employers remain committed to expanding the demographics of their staffs.
• 
  
One-in-10 employers report they will be targeting Hispanic job candidates most aggressively of all diverse segments. Nine percent plan to step up diversity recruiting for black job candidates, while 8 percent will target female job candidates.
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Half of employers recruiting bilingual employees say English-and-Spanish-speaking candidates are most in demand in their organizations.

3.) More Flexible Work Arrangements: Work-life balance is a major buzz phrase among U.S. employers as employees struggle to balance heavy workloads and long hours with personal commitments.
• 
  
Nineteen percent of employers say they are very or extremely willing to provide more flexible work arrangements for employees such as job sharing and alternate schedules. Thirty-one percent are fairly willing.

4.) Rehiring Retirees: Employers continue to express concern over the loss of intellectual capital due to a large number of baby boomers approaching retirement.
• 
  
One-in-five employers plan to rehire retirees from other companies or provide incentives for workers approaching retirement age to stay on with the company longer.

5.) More Promotions: With the perceived lack of upper mobility within an organization being a major driver for employee turnover, employers are carving out clearer career paths.
• 
  
Thirty-five percent of employers plan to provide more promotions and career advancement opportunities to their existing staff in the new year.

6.) Hiring Overseas: Companies continue to drive growth by entering or strengthening their presence in global markets.
• 
  
Thirteen percent of employers report they will expand operations and hire employees in other countries in 2007. Nine percent are considering it.
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Twenty-three percent of employers report they will hire the most workers overseas in China and 22 percent will hire the most in India.

7.) Better Training: In light of the shortage of skilled workers within their own industries, employers are looking for transferable skills from other industries.
• 
  
Seventy-eight percent report they are willing to recruit workers who don't have experience in their particular industry or field and provide training and certifications needed.

Hiring activity is expected to remain strongest in the South and West in 2007, according to the survey. Forty-four percent of employers in the South plan to add new employees compared to 41 percent of those in the West, 38 percent in the Midwest and 36 percent in the Northeast.Measuring the number of employers expecting to decrease head count, the Midwest leads at 10 percent followed by the South and Northeast at 7 percent and the West at 6 percent.The survey said that 36 percent of hiring managers and human resource professionals plan to add new employees in the next three months.

Eight percent will decrease head count while 48 percent anticipate no change and 9 percent are unsure.There is more good news: 51 percent of employers reported that salaries for full-time, permanent employees have increased over the last three months. Forty-eight percent of employers expect salaries to increase in the next three months.

Thirty-eight percent estimate the average raise to amount to 3 percent or more while one-in-10 (11 percent) anticipate an average raise of 5 percent or more.The survey was conducted by conducted by Harris Interactive, tracking projected hiring trends for 2007. The survey, titled "2007 Job Forecast," was conducted from Nov. 17 through Dec. 11, of 2,627 hiring managers and human resource professionals in private sector companies.To view the entire forecast, click here.

Top Buzz words for 2007

Top trendspotter Marian Salzman and slang guru Grant Barrett (doubletongued.org) foresee these top slang terms for 2007.

•Adultescents: Young adults who won't grow up — or move out.

•Alpha moms: Mothers who are strong, decision-making multitaskers.

•Data Valdez: Personal private info accidentally released online.

•Fling a craving on: Cause someone to desire something, such as food.

•Gastroporn: The glorification of food.

•God wink: An incident that seems to indicate presence of a higher power.

•Hummer house: Grotesquely large single-family residence.

•Litter on a stick: Billboards, signs and ads.

•MAWG: Middle-aged white guy. (Still not hip.)

•Peerents: Parents who are friends to their kids.

•3,000-mile screwdriver: Micromanagement from the home office.

•Trailing spouse: Husband or wife who follows a partner to a job in a new city.