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Careers, Jobs & Employment Information
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Career Advice: Are Resumes Obsolete As A Primary Job Search Tool? In a day of background checks, pre-employment drug screening and multiple interviews, where do resumes fit in? According to many successful job applicants, not very well. An ever-increasing number of new hires say that resumes were not crucial in landing them the job. Instead, they simply played a part in sealing the deal. If that's true, it means that mailing out resumes and waiting for the phone to ring is the last thing any recent grad or serious job seeker will want to do. Three Steps to Writing Your Own Resume While most professionals hire a professional resume writer, some draft their own resume. People who write a lot for business usually have more success in putting together a sharp, focused presentation; still, anyone can learn the basic steps to prepare his or her own resume. Resume Objectives ... The Hidden Pitfalls Why Use Resume Objectives Interview Preparation Made Easy: Create An Interview Preparation List Here's a quick way to compare your own job experience and qualifications with those that your prospective employer is looking for in a specific job position. Make an "Interview Preparation List". When you prepare for a job interview, it's good to have a quick reference of your past work experience that you can study ahead of time to help prepare you for the specific job you're interviewing for. How To Get More Interviews In Your Job Search Richard Bolles, job search guru and author of What Color Is Your Parachute? predicts that you can expect to search for work 1-2 months for every $10,000 you hope to earn. So, if you're looking for a $40,000 a year position, you may search for 4-8 months to land it. Back when the economy sizzled, that job search length would have seemed outrageous, but now, many people would be thrilled to only search for 4-8 months. American Idol Syndrome I like Simon, one of three judges on American Idol. I find his feedback refreshingly honest. And while his words startle me with their ego wounding potential, the traditional feel-good, let-you-down-easy, sugar-coated feedback is not much of a gift. It's hard to tell someone they're not good enough and their dreams are not going to happen, at least in this venue. But not telling them is no gift either. Some contestants rise to the challenges he throws at them. Some don't. And, some can't. Which one are you? The people who influenced me most in my career were those who gave me the hardest critiques. Stricken with a bruised-ego for days, or on occasion for months, inevitably their feedback helped me make the right life choices to improve, change direction, or stay the course with intensity. In fact, the boss who was the hardest on me is the one I thank the most. Good was not good enough if I was capable of better, and she was quick to point out when that was. No sugar coating from her. And the funny thing? When I was honest with myself, I knew she was right. Being honest with yourself is one of the challenges to winning at working. We all have talents and abilities, but they're not always in the areas we pursue at work. Too many people I've run across in my career have American Idol Syndrome (AIS). Like Idol contestants auditioning with little or no singing ability, these people believe they are good at what they do. They can't understand why they don't get the promotion, the outstanding review, or the highest increases. They view themselves as varsity team material, but they play with junior varsity skills. When I was a freshman at Stanford, I got a D in biology. Stanford graded on a bell-curve, so an 84% that might traditionally put me in a B category, was near the class bottom. Accustomed to A's, first quarter grades woke me up. At first, I rationalized a D at Stanford was an A or a B at most any other school. But, reality prevailed. I wasn't at another school. If I was going to compete at the school I was at, it was time to use more than high school skills to bring results. Are you applying yourself? Are you as good as you could be to get the raise, the promotion, or the more interesting work? If these are things you want, don't suffer from AIS. Give yourself some Simon-esk feedback. Ego aside. A Simon-esk answer to the questions, "how good are you?" and "are you in the right field?" offers you a chance at becoming happier and more successful at working. The answers give you choices: you can stay the course; find a playing field at your skill level; improve your skills to compete where you are; or change directions. (c) 2004 Nan S. Russell. All rights reserved. Ten Tips to a Job Winning Interview These days, interviews don't come easily. When you get The Call, make the most of your time -- and go for it! The Springtime of Your Career Rick Jarow, author of Creating the Work You Love, introduced many of us to the notion of career seasons. When we're struggling with a career, we're most likely to think of winter. At some point a career change (or other transition) feels like being buried under a coat of ice, hibernating through long, dark days. Hopefully we learn to see the beauty of winter -- sun on the snow, clear air, the bare outlines of trees denied their leafy cover-ups. Writing Resumes Use a resume as a foot in the door Day Trading ? The Ultimate Work-From-Home Job? Ever dreamt of giving up the daily grind? Want to strike out on your own and work from home, but don't know what you could possibly do to make a living? Full time Nasdaq trader Harvey Walsh wondered just that, and now he asks "Is day trading the ultimate work from home job"? Mastering the Job Interview - 5 Tips to Make Yourself Irresistible to the Interviewer So you've figured out, more or less what you want to do and where the opportunities are. Now; you have been called for an interview. Here are five steps for interview success for students and graduates: Job! Money! Career! Feel somehow your life is stuck in MS-OFFICE ? The reality of life for MBAs is Excel or PowerPoint , I heard Google is catching up at campus. Having gone through this myself, (I am still not out of it!), having had the nightmare of freshly minted MBAs reporting to me every year ( 90% of MBAs in their first job believe that their first Boss in Incompetent) and struggling to manage their transition to reality, guess I am now in a position to give some Gyan on assessing your job and career moves. I crystallized these thoughts while discussing these situations with a friend of mine, her issues with the first job where similar to what most of you would be facing. Job!! Money !! or Career !! Career Tips: How To Start A New Career These days most people accept that jobs are not for life anymore. People are more mobile and much more likely to change jobs every few years and even careers a number of times throughout their lives. And it is increasingly common that we may also find that we need to change jobs because of retrenchments, redundancies and closures. Having confidence in your skills and experience and your ability to deal with the challenges of starting over can give you a greater sense of confidence about your career, and whatever life brings your way. What Every Employee Should Know About How to Overcome Boredom Do you find yourself easily becoming bored or tired at work for no apparent reason? If that's the case, then pay close attention. Research has shown that fatigue and a worn-out feeling are often caused by unproductive mental attitudes. If this describes your case, read on to learn six ways you can overcome boredom. Resume Writing and Preparation is Free Online Creating a strong resume is a very important part of applying for a job, either online or off line. There are many resume writing services that will help you build an impressive resume for job interviews. How To Deal With A Nightmare Boss It can happen to anyone. there's a change in the organization and -- suddenly -- you find yourself working for the boss from Hell. Arrogant, demanding, ignorant, bullying and insensitive. Do you leave right away? Do you fight back? Here are some tried and tested ways of coping with impossible bosses -- and coming out on top. How Much Can You Earn Working As A Proofreader? Thinking of a career as a proofreader? Then you will most likely want to know about salaries. Are you hoping to hear that you will make thousands and thousands of dollars a month in this field? It is very possible that you will barely make a few hundred when you are first starting out. There is no guarantee of a paycheck in this field. If you do not provide quality work, you probably will not have many clients returning for repeat work. Proofreading as a career is hard, but when you get in the door, you may do fairly well. Proof reader salaries are not glamorous, but they can be fairly good. The Organized Job Search Many people, under financial or other pressures to find work quickly, feel they can't afford to take the time to get organized. On the other hand, conducting your job search in an organized manner will reduce the amount of time you spend looking for information, following inappropriate leads, or waiting for your dream job to fall into your lap. It generally takes at least a month to find an entry-level job, and as much as nine months for one requiring a high level of skill and experience. Getting organized before you begin your job search can ultimately save you a lot of time and frustration. Phone Interviews: Prepare to Ace Them! More companies are saving time and effort by doing initial telephone interviews before committing themselves to hours of time assessing and evaluating applicants. They are doing this because, frankly, it's a good way to save a team's time from interviewing obviously unqualified people. From your standpoint, this means that you need to develop an additional interview skill. How To Deal With A Difficult Boss Most people at some point in their lives have to deal with a difficult boss. Difficult supervisors vary in personality from being a little pushy or rude, all the way to being downright abusive. Many people feel that an abusive boss has control of their personal life outside of work by lowering their self-esteem and making them live in constant fear. The role of a supervisor sometimes attracts certain controlling-type personalities because they crave the power it gives them and because they lack such control in their own personal lives. A supervisor has complete control over your most basic human needs-your ability to put food on the table and a roof over your head. These are powerful motivating factors that allow a difficult supervisor to control people out of fear of losing these basic needs. We may not be able to always correct their behavior, but we should never have to live in fear and let our difficult boss control our lives.
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