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Posted on 27th January 2012 by Jason Van Steenwyk in Articles

career advice, engineering jobs, IT jobs, Job Search Tips, Technology

The information technology sector is no stranger to rapid change. The immediate obsolescence of my high school advanced placement Pascal programming class taught me that right out of the gate, and that was over 25 years ago.

The pace of change is increasing. A recent survey from Gartner, a prominent information technology company, found that corporate IT chiefs were increasingly being drawn out of their operations comfort zones – and of course, forced to drag their staffs out with them. No longer is information technology primarily a function of internal communication, data storage and – oh, yes! A Website! IT departments are now being asked to transform the way customers interact with the business – in ways that go far beyond the standard five-tab homepage and website architecture.

And they’ll have to do it all on a flat or declining budget, at least in the United States and Europe. Gartner’s survey of some 2,300 corporate information technology chiefs found that IT budgets worldwide were increasing an average of 0.5 percent, year over year, for 2012. And how is this spending being allocated? “Analytics, mobility and cloud are the top three CIO technologies,” said Gartner vice president Mark McDonald, in a January interview with the Financial Times.

What does that mean? IT chiefs worldwide (Gartner’s survey spanned 45 countries) are looking beyond short-term cost savings internal to their departments. For example, retailers are seeking ways to circumvent the expensive brick and mortar stores and those annoying salesclerks by doing more business online – cutting facilities costs, staffing, redundancies, and allowing them to inoculate themselves – to some extent, against the Amazon.coms of the world.

Likewise, insurance companies are seeking ways to eliminate the agent, whose commissions and relentless appetite for printed glossy marketing materials adds significant overhead to the cost of doing business.

IT chiefs are also looking for ways to exploit and profit from cloud computing – which enables them to improve the quality and reliability of many projects.

This spells opportunity for those who are quick on their feet. To have the best chance of success, match your skills – and your resumes – up with the top ten information technology priorities according to the Gartner survey:

• Analytics and business intelligence;
• Mobile technologies;
• Cloud computing (SaaS, IaaS, PaaS);
• Collaboration technologies (workflow);
• Virtualization;
• Legacy modernization;
• IT management;
• CRM;
• ERP applications;
• Security.

This last bullet surprised us, too. We had expected security concerns to rank higher. Apparently, the world’s C-level IT managers believe they have security issues decently in hand, though, and are working more on improving customer experiences, outreach and efficiency.

Significantly, some 61 percent of respondents project improving mobile capacity over the next three years. Most companies have a business strategy that involves becoming the market leader, or one of the leaders, in their industry – and will therefore be investing in improving their presence, both via the traditional Web and through mobile marketing as well, including application development and the development of mobile and social networking-friendly websites.

Looking at things more broadly, the Gartner survey also identified the top ten overall business priorities for 2012:

• Increasing enterprise growth;
• Attracting and retaining new customers;
• Reducing enterprise costs;
• Creating new products and services;
• Delivering operational results;
• Improving efficiency;
• Improving profitability;
• Attracting and retaining the workforce;
• Improving marketing and sales effectiveness;
• Expanding into new markets and geographies.

If you’re interviewing for jobs soon, or you want to optimize your resume for today’s important trends, it may make sense to incorporate some of these key phrases into your resume, cover letter, and your interview conversation. Just make sure you have enough information to know what you’re talking about!

Bottom Line
So where are the jobs coming from in 2012? Look beyond internal communications, file storage and data security. Develop your skills in mobile technology, cloud computing and app development. And semper Gumby! Always be flexible, because IT trends change faster than trends in most industries.

Look no further! Best IT JOBS are right here!

The Rise of Employment and Small Businesses

employment, Employment News, small business, Small Business Administration, unemployment

Posted on 16th January 2012 by Michael Gabriel in Articles

Good news: the possibility of a double-dip recession is becoming bleaker. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported that the unemployment rate decreased to 8.5%, the lowest it’s ever been since February 2009. More than 150,000 jobs had been created, especially in the areas of health care, mining, manufacturing, retail, and warehouse. Consumer borrowing, based on Federal Reserve’s report, also went up last November 2011, the biggest monthly gain since November 2001.

Interestingly, though, majority of the job ads didn’t come from more stable and huge companies, those with 500 or more employees. They were “looking for” posts from small businesses. These are the ones that have been badly hit by the slowly growing economy for the last 4 years, as reported by William Dunkelberg, chief economist of the National Federation of Independent Businesses. In November 2011, for example, around 200,000 private jobs were created, yet only 37,000 came from large-scale companies. The rest were from small businesses. Moreover, many are expecting for hiring to increase in 2012 as more people will open their own small businesses. If this were to push through, it would be a far cry from what the industry suffered in 2007: there were more failed businesses than new ones.

In spite of the bright picture, there are some serious challenges small businesses have to address or contend with. One is the lack of right people to do the job. For instance, if the small-based company has adopted certain technologies, it then becomes mandatory to hire someone with the appropriate technical skills. This poses a problem for laid-off workers too, since they may not get their jobs back.

Second, there are still a number of banks with strict credit standards, making it quite difficult for small businesses to obtain loans. They cannot open their businesses on time, compete in the market, or expand their enterprise.

There’s also the volatility of the international market, especially countries in Europe, such as the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, and Greece. Though the European Central Bank is working on providing more long-term and less-risky solutions than bailing out harshly affected banks and countries, it’s still not an assurance things are getting brighter in this side of the world.

The Possible Solutions

There’s no doubt small businesses will continue to play a huge role in a more stable U.S. economy in 2012. What is essential then is the assurance it continues to stay afloat or even improve within the next 12 months.

Needless to say, the small business sector cannot do this alone. It requires the assistance of the government, who has to strengthen small business policies and create guidelines that are beneficial to them. It is also necessary to understand the changes in the needs of small businesses, particularly in employment skills, and determine ways on how to bridge the gap. It may offer tech programs or short courses for current and potential in-demand positions.

The Federal Reserve Bank should strive to maintain a lower interest rate and monitor banks that charge excessive loan charges or implement stringent credit rules.

Check out our CAREER section to find the right job for you!

5 Tips on How to Find a Reliable Headhunter

Posted on 5th January 2012 by Michael Gabriel in Articles

career advice, job hunting, job search, Job seeker

We all need a little help sometimes, especially when it comes to job searches. One of the best people to approach when you need broader career options and more job opportunities is a headhunter.

Here are five tips to know you are dealing with a good one:

1. He or she handles several large accounts.
There are two keywords in here: “many” and “huge businesses.” The former means the headhunter has a much higher chance of assigning you to a job that fits your experience as well as your preferred job description. The second is pretty obvious. If given a choice, you would surely want to work with companies that are more stable and, as much as possible, multinational. There are several positions you can fill in, there is always room for growth, and there’s a good chance the salary and benefits are superb.

2. Find someone who deals with your expertise.
Contrary to popular belief, headhunters do not really deal with you. They are working for employers or companies that are searching for someone like you. Because the demands of these bosses differ depending on the industry or the need, some headhunters tend to specialize. This way, they can recommend the best people for the job.

So if you say you are a marketing expert, go for those that are working for business executives, marketing companies, and enterprise directors.

3. Seek them in fairs.
Here is one good thing about joining expos and fairs: you could meet headhunters. Usually, these are the ones who need countless talents to build their pool of candidates. They can screen you right away. Seeing them in these events also mean they are dependable. Only the serious ones are willing to spend money to look for people at job expos and fairs.

4. Skip Craigslist.
The most reputable headhunters completely understand the importance of making a good impression to their clients (again, this is not you). How can they bring in business if they are nowhere to be found online except on Craigslist and perhaps some message boards? They have to get rid of any shadow of doubt, and the only way to do that is to set up their own website. Their site contains plenty of details about them, especially what they do, the kinds of people they are dealing with, and their list of services. You may also be able to read a couple (or more) of testimonials.

We are not saying Craigslist is not good. You can definitely find some real people there. However, since it is your future job on the line, we are simply reducing the risk of becoming a victim of scams.

5. Listen to other people’s recommendations.
In the end, it is going to be you who will decide which headhunter you should pick. Nevertheless, it still pays to listen to other people’s ideas as well as recommendations, especially if they themselves found jobs through such process. You may even obtain pointers on how to increase your chances of obtaining the headhunter’s attention.

Look no further! You’ve just found yours!
All you need now is to find a JOB you’ll love.

Job Hunting During the Holidays

4 comments

Posted on 23rd December 2011 by Jason Van Steenwyk in Articles

career advice, job hunting, job search, Job Search Tips

Job hunting during the holidays is tough. First of all, if you’re out of work, you already know the pressure’s on. Christmas is a psychologically tough holiday to endure when you’re out of work. Meanwhile, once you get past the Thanksgiving holiday, it gets harder and harder to make contacts and gain headway in your job hunt. Key decision makers take time off work, it’s harder to get appointments and interviews, and companies are busy with holiday sales activities, year-end accounting, holiday parties, and the like.

It’s important to keep the initiative, and keep your plan moving forward – especially if you’re vulnerable to depression at this time of year. Having a positive, pro-active approach to your job hunt through the tough holiday period can make a big difference.

Keep Plugging
Hiring activity slows during the holidays. But it doesn’t stop. And some companies would rather pay a headhunting commission to an employment agency in December rather than January, because they can expense it in the current year, rather than the next. Also, when you do get a December interview, it’s a very good sign, because employers don’t want to waste time during the holidays.

Enroll in Classes
December’s a great time to enroll in any education programs that will help you in your job hunt. Why? It keeps you busy and on task. Furthermore, for 2011, there’s an additional important reason to enroll in any planned education programs now: Any tuition and fees you can pre-pay before the end of the year qualify for an above-the-line adjustment to your income, under Internal Revenue Code Section 222. That means you don’t have to itemize expenses – you can take the standard deduction and still get the benefit of the college tuition tax deduction for qualifying programs, provided you meet the income requirements (and if you’re unemployed, you’re more likely to meet the income requirements!).

Furthermore, even if the education program doesn’t qualify for favorable tax treatment under Section 222, it may still qualify as a deductible expense, if it is directly related to your profession. For example, if you are an IT professional, classes leading to a Cisco or Microsoft or other certification would be a deductible educational expense (but flight lessons would not). Talk to a tax advisor for more information about your particular situation.

Stay Social
Accept those Christmas party invitations. Don’t hang around the house too much. Stay social, and continue to work your network. Chances are good your next job is going to come as a result of a referral from someone you already know, or will meet socially, as opposed to a total stranger who reads your resume over the transom in December. So stay out there, enjoy your time with friends and colleagues – and make sure everyone you meet knows you’re in the market for work! People want to help – especially during the holidays. Let them! Then you’ll be in a better position to help.

Send Cards
If you’re out of work, you’ll probably want to scale back the gift giving this year. But ramp up the card sending! These cards may be the best investment you can make. Because every card you send is an excuse to call a few days later and reconnect with old contacts. Then they will know you’re looking, too – and may have some ideas. Keep a notepad with you, and write them down. Have a system for tracking whom you’ve sent a card to and when, and when you’ll follow up on the phone. Hint: Send those cards early – well in advance of the holidays, so they don’t get lost in the rush, and they have time to talk to you. This effort alone can give you lots of work to do in the first couple of weeks of December. Some successful salespeople will send Thanksgiving cards, rather than Christmas cards. Why? So their card stands out.

Use Employment Agencies
With most businesses, HR is an afterthought – an adjunct to their core competencies. When time gets tight in December, the HR staff doesn’t get the same bandwidth as the accounting, operations and sales staff, in the effort to clear out the calendar year’s activities. However, with employment agencies, the HR people ARE the sales staff, and they ARE operations. Recruiting is the employment agency’s core competency. And so unlike many companies, HR companies such as employment agencies continue recruiting and interviewing through the holidays. December’s still a good time to meet with employment agency recruiters. You may be in the right time and the right place, as other job-seekers “check out” during the holidays and lose their focus. If an employment agency has a hot vacancy to fill, you may be “johnny-on-the-spot” while the competition is moping the holidays away at home.

Take Care of Yourself
It’s easy to “let yourself go” for the holidays. But remember that if you keep pushing, sending your cards, seeing your social contacts and working the system, you’ll have some interviews lined up in January – and you’ll want to be slim and trim for them. Enjoy Thanksgiving, Chanukah and Christmas, but stick to your exercise and nutrition plan the rest of the holidays. You don’t want to be showing up to your January interviews popping out of your shirt!

The thing to remember during the holidays is that you are really fighting two battles: The battle against the general hiring slowdown in December, as companies and decision makers have other priorities. You can’t do anything to control that – so don’t worry about it.

The second battle is the struggle to control yourself and your emotions, and the natural tendency to lose focus during the holidays. This aspect of the job-hunt battle, however, is entirely within your power to win.

Even on holidays we are working to get you BEST JOBS!

6 Steps on How to Get Your Job Back

Posted on 16th December 2011 by Michael Gabriel in Articles

career advice, career tips, job advice, job hunting, job search, Job seeker

For some reason, your new job is not working too well for you, and you are feeling that tinge of regret why you decided to leave your previous one in the first place. Then you start to wonder, “Is there a way to get my old job back?”

The answer is yes, but it’s going to be a lot of challenge, and the success rate is not that too high. Nevertheless, if you are dead serious of working in your previous company, then there are ways to make it somehow possible. Here are six of them:

1. Determine why you are out in the first place.
There is no reason why you should apply for your old job if you have left because you do not like it. Sooner than you have expected, you will begin to feel the burnout and itching to search for another work again. The chances of getting it back are also nil if you have suddenly dropped out of it without proper explanation, or you have been terminated.

Give it a very serious thought. Sometimes you make irrational decisions when you are in tight situations. Decide when your mind is clear and free from stress.

2. Know if the position is still open.
If you do not know for sure, contact your previous colleagues.

3. Back your resume with much stronger references.
Most definitely, your old boss is going to be apprehensive to hire you back, so you need a more solid arsenal to reduce his or her doubt on you. One of the best ways is to not only update your working experience and skills list but also provide better references. Find out who among your previous employers, teachers, or other professionals can vouch for your sincerity, honesty, and expertise.

4. Be ready to eat humble pie.
It is definitely humbling and even embarrassing to ask for your old job. In fact, some bosses relish on ex-employees who beg to them. So unless you are prepared to drop all airs, admit whatever wrong decisions you have made, and prove yourself 100 percent more this time to them, let go of the re-application idea.

5. Offer something new and different on the table.
Make yourself a lot more valuable than before. This way, there will be fewer excuses for them not to hire you back. Perhaps while you are processing your application, you can already start gaining new skills through trainings and classes. See to it that you can let your bosses know about your current and future plans, which will help you contribute more to the organization.

6. Never ever jeopardize yourself on your present job.
A lot of employees make the biggest mistake by forcing their present employers to terminate them. They usually perform poorly. That will surely not sit well with your old company, as you are seen as a potential headache and liability.

Always remember it is not the company’s fault why you feel miserable, or you feel there’s a need to go back to your old job. Give it some respect and don’t ruin your future by being negative.

…or find a better new one in our CAREER section !

How to Get Referrals – A Guide for Job Hunters: Part II

Posted on 2nd December 2011 by Jason Van Steenwyk in Articles

career advice, job hunting, Job Search Tips, referral

In our previous article, we examined the importance of expanding your own network of contacts through the use of referrals. We also went through the first five of ten steps for successful referral prospecting. To recap, the first five steps were:

• Get over your fears
• Bring value
• Invite them for coffee
• Lay the foundation
• Get their permission to mention their name to your prospects

At the end of this process, you should have done all the preparation, and created a favorable environment for the critical part of the conversation: The part where they agree to be a source of referrals for you – and actually provide them! Steps 6 through 11 are where the rubber meets the road. Here’s where you actually get people to call – and lay the groundwork for a favorable introduction to the best of them.

Step 6. Take the initiative

Don’t put your friend in the position of having to raid their mental rolodex for people to call on the spot. Chances are, they’ll draw a blank. Instead, have some homework done ahead of time. For example, look them up on a social networking page. LinkedIn, for example, but Facebook, Google+ and other social media pages work, too. Identify those individuals that they already know, and make a list.

Drawing a blank? Look at their professional organizations. Identify other colleagues that work in their industry in the area. Look up the names of competitors, vendors, suppliers, other business owners in the same street or neighborhood, or the same chapter of the Chamber of Commerce. Make a list of people you’d like to be introduced to, before the interview.

Step 7. Show them the list

Here’s where you say “look, I like to be prepared, so I made a list of people that you may know whom I’d like to target for my job hunt. Would you mind taking a look at it, and telling me who the good guys are?”

Smile and show them the list.

Tip: Try to position yourself on the same side of the table by now. So you are side by side at the table, and not diametrically opposed to one another.

“Which of these people do you know?”

Try to get your guest laughing, if possible. If you’ve done your homework, he’ll give you a lot of information right off the bat. Listen up. He’ll tell you “Yeah, I know that guy. He’s a great guy! He’s looking for someone actually! You should call him!”

Sometimes he’ll say “Yeah, that guy’s no good. I know people who worked for him. Stay away from him.”

All of it is valuable information for you. Mark up the list!

Step 8. Expand

Ask “Who is not on this list, but should be?” Then shut up! Wait for the answer! Notice I don’t phrase it as a “yes or no” question. You don’t want to risk a “no”. You’re asking for names! Give them the opportunity to give them to you. Ask open-ended questions. Then, keep asking “Who else? Who else? Who else?” until you run out of names. Find out a bit about each person and why you should contact them.

Step 9. Narrow The List Down

Now’s where you want to prioritize things. Ask “Of all the people on this list, who are the three or four people I should definitely call right now?”
Get him to answer that question.

Then keep asking “Who else? Who else? Who else?” Until you run out of names. Don’t stop at three! You’re on a roll!

Step 10. Get the top prospect

“Of all the names on the list, who is the one person you respect the most, who I should put at the top of the list?” Circle that number.

Step 11. Ask on the spot

Be bold! Ask flat out: “Can we call the guy?”

There’s no downside to asking directly! You’ve got most of the information you need already. You’ve collected the best names. If your guest isn’t comfortable calling, you haven’t lost anything. But there’s a world to be gained if the answer is “yes”! The best referral to get is the in-person personal introduction. The next best one is the phone hand over. You may be able to get acquainted with a quick cell phone call on the spot.

Then ask “Hey, you guys got breakfast plans tomorrow?”

Bang. You’ve got one more appointment with an industry or community leader, you’re cementing your friend’s relationship with that leader, you’ve got a list of 20 or 30 people to contact. You’ve got inside info on who the best people to call are. Not a bad return for the price of two cups of coffee and 20 minutes of your time!

Hourly updated employment opportunities in our CAREER section!

How to Get Referrals: A Step-By-Step Guide for the Job Seeker

Posted on 2nd December 2011 by Jason Van Steenwyk in Articles

career advice, job hunting, Job Search Tips, Job seeker, referral

Chances are good that your next job isn’t going to come via a classified ad. Few people hire unknown quantities. Your next job, most likely, is going to come, directly or indirectly, via someone you know. If it’s direct, that’s easy. But by expanding your network via referrals, you increase your network of contacts exponentially. Five friends can become 25 potential employers, and so on.

If you want to learn how to get a referral, talk to people who make their living from referrals. The masters of the art of referral are salespeople. There’s an old saying among sales professionals: “Salespeople who can’t get referrals have skinny kids.”

There are all kinds of techniques for getting referrals. But this article is going to take one proven approach now in use by thousands of salespeople worldwide. The purpose is to give the non-sales professional an easy, nonthreatening, and effective, proven roadmap to expanding your referral base.

Step 1. Get Over Your Fears

It’s tough asking for a referral. Pride gets in the way. And we feel uncomfortable exploiting our network of friends, family and business contacts for economic gain. Cher had the right idea in the movie “Moonstruck:” “Snap out of it!” Not a single person you will talk to wants you to stay unemployed, underemployed or unhappy. Not a single one. They all want you to succeed. The best of them would feel hurt if you were hurting and didn’t come to them.

Second, everyone wants to feel important, and they want to help. If they know you to be a good worker, who can provide good value and really be a help to whatever organization you join, they want to be a referral source. If they know someone who needs your skill set, it’s a feather in their own cap to be the person who refers a great employee.

Third, some employers actually pay a referral bonus to employees who refer a new successful team member. Often, this bonus is $1,000 or more. Why would you want to deny your friends the opportunity to collect?

Job hunting is salesmanship. And like any good salesperson, you must leverage your contacts to have the best chances for success. You owe that much to yourself and to your family. Don’t let false pride get in the way.

Step 2: Bring Value

The best source of professional referrals is happy clients or former employers. They are the ones who know your worth best. And their word carries the most weight with their own network of contacts. Contact these people first.
But there are many other ways to bring value to a relationship than just via being an employee or contractor for someone. If you have demonstrated leadership, generosity or any other quality in the past (and I hope you have!), then those whom you were associated with can also be great sources of referrals, too. Stay in touch with colleagues from the military, fraternities and sororities, professional organizations, churches and synagogues, community service organizations, youth sports leagues and other volunteer organizations. Write down their names and go down the list. The bottom line is that each of these people should already know your worth, and that you have every reason to believe that they will be positive references for you, and perhaps even be enthusiastic partners in your search.

3. Invite them for a cup of coffee.

If you’re unemployed, you don’t want to be springing for dinner. Coffee is cheap, noncommittal, and informal. And with free refills, you can meet people in a coffee shop one after another and spend very little money. If you must have a meal, breakfast is usually cheapest. Avoid dinner, which often comes with alcohol. That gets pricey fast.

4. Lay the foundation.

There’s a reason you asked to see them. Spell it out, in a positive, complementary way. “Look, I wanted to see you because I respect your opinion, and I know you know a lot about the industry.”

You want your guest to actually take pride in his or her industry knowledge, and the worthiness of their own opinion or referral. Make it clear that you’re talking with someone you really respect and admire. Yes, you can call it “buttering them up.” And you can call it a few other less printable things, too. But I prefer to think of it as “creating a favorable mindset.”

Why? Because lots of people enter “shields-up” mode when they sense they will shortly be pumped for referrals. Before asking for names, you must first disarm this reflex. Otherwise, you are likely to experience the “stonewall.” As in “yeah, I don’t know anyone. But I’ll keep you in mind. Send your resume to me!” This is what you don’t want.

Instead, you need to close the rhetorical trap door behind them. By first complementing them on their industry knowledge, or their standing in the community, and getting them to assent, before you go on to the meat of the conversation, you eliminate the “I don’t know anyone,” escape. Instead, you want to create a circumstance where they are inclined to want to show off their industry knowledge. You want to tap the “pride” cortex, and reinforce that, prior to the next stage.

5. Get permission to mention them.

No one likes to be blindsided with a reference. So it’s important to get your friends’ assent and cooperation up front. Here’s one way of doing it: “Look, I’m planning on contacting a lot of leaders in this industry/community just like you, and I know you know a lot of them. I just wanted to ask if I needed an icebreaker or something, would it be ok with you if I mentioned that we worked together?”

Almost no one will tell you “no.” If they do, that’s an important signal for you: It means this person is not going to be a good reference for you, if contacted. Time to pay for the coffee and get out of there.

But 99 percent of the time, if they were willing to meet with you, and you buttered them up appropriately, they will tell you yes. Move on to the next step.
Where’s the next step? Well, it’s in our next article! Stay tuned!

Wide spectrum of jobs is available at our CAREER section!

Great Tips from Starbucks in These Difficult Times

Business Management, Management Style, Management Tips

Posted on 28th November 2011 by Michael Gabriel in Articles

While a lot of companies are suffering major setbacks financially, Starbucks remains stable. In fact, it continues to invite investors into the mold and has just experienced a boost in its dividends last week, climbing up to 17 cents from 13 cents.

We do know many people crave for their specialty drinks, those Frappuccino and lattes. However, what really drives Starbucks to ultimate success during recession times is their innovative, methodical, and sometimes bold decisions and strategies:

Reduce the pomp and pageantry.

Is your company spending tons of dollars just for your annual or quarterly meeting? Then it’s time to take heed to Starbucks’ technique.

In 2009, Starbucks was badly hit. Their shares dramatically fell to almost 40 percent, and their price in NASDAQ was close to that of a coffee bean pound. So in an effort to save on costs, during their annual meeting in Seattle on the same year, they got rid of celebrity performances and focused on the core: assessing their anti-recession strategies.

Go lean.

The lean method is one of the best ways to ensure you remain afloat after truly difficult times. During the 2008 recession, Starbucks was one of the many companies forced to let go of their employees and stores, closing 900 of them.

Besides that, however, they turned their attention on their own methodologies. They reduced the time spent by their baristas in preparing coffee, carefully selected the best suppliers on their list, and negotiated rental fees with building and lot owners.

Don’t forget your own brand.

Starbucks still remains one of the most sought-after and franchised brands in the world, but it’s also facing huge threats from McDonald’s and Dunkin’ Donuts that are serving cheaper brewed coffees.

Instead of going on the same route, though, they decided to stand out and re-emphasize their brand as a specialty coffee shop. For example, they opened stores that remind customers of the first Starbucks, with wooden furniture made from recycled materials. They want customers to feel as if they’re really inside a coffeehouse.

Go beyond traditional marketing methods.

Starbucks has its own Facebook and Twitter accounts (they were one of the first international enterprises to promote on Twitter, with ads appearing in between conversations or user searches). Its website invokes a homey feel. It has also taken spots in newspapers and magazines.

Yet Starbucks didn’t stop with them. They think outside the box. In 2009, iced coffees in grande were sold at a much lower price and paired with other drinks and sandwiches. This way, customers could also try their non-moving products.

Recently, they joined the Create Jobs for USA Campaign, selling well-designed Indivisible bracelets at $5 all over their branches. By purchasing, customers contribute to Opportunity Finance Network, which provides micro-loans to small business owners.

They also partnered with other application developers and companies. In the coming holidays in China, 20,000 Starbucks patrons can enjoy a free upgrade on cup size as long as they check in on or before December 17 using Jiepang, China’s own Foursquare.

Recession and any type of economic crisis often forces business owners, especially small ones, to reduce their advertising budget, if not stop their marketing campaigns all together. But that isn’t the best solution. In fact, it’s one of the best times to market so you can keep your enterprise afloat.

You just have to be practical with your approaches, seek out the best partners (those that can help you reach your objectives), and stand out by reinforcing your brand, the one thing that makes you worth it against your competitors.

Check out our CAREER section to find the right job for you!

Between Jobs? Get Back In Shape!

Posted on 18th November 2011 by Jason Van Steenwyk in Articles

career advice, health, job hunting, job search

A few years ago, some wag wrote a fake news story with the headline “Unemployment Among Hot Young Women Hovering Around Zero.”

It was funny because it’s true.

The fact is that if you’ve put on a few pounds from eating too many lunches at your desk, and you’re out of work now, reclaiming your body might be one of the most important things you can do not just for your physical health, but for your career health as well – especially if you are a woman. And before anyone takes offense, it’s not just me saying that. I’m just pointing out the obvious: The data are in. Across the United States and Europe, obesity correlates negatively with income. The more overweight you are, the more likely you are to under earn relative to your peers, and the longer you can anticipate staying unemployed.

Consider:
• 42 percent of women in households with incomes of below $29,000 per year are obese; Only 29 percent of women in households with incomes above $77,000 per year are obese. (There was no statistically significant difference for men, however.)
• Women are 16 times more likely to report weight discrimination than men (Caliendo, 2011).
• A study by Mark Roehling, published in the Journal of Business Ethics in 2002, found evidence of workplace weight discrimination “pervasive” and “overwhelming.”
• 15.9 percent of employers surveyed believed that obese job applicants should be “barred from employment,” while 43.9 believed that obesity was a valid medical reason for not hiring an applicant (Roe, Eickwort).

Furthermore, employers are increasingly adopting wellness programs, and even requiring employees to be non-smokers as a condition of employment. The reason: When employees get sick, it costs the company money not only in absenteeism and lost productivity – it also costs the employer real money in health insurance premiums. This is because most health plans assess premiums based on the company’s actual claims experience the prior year. If claims rise, so do health premiums.

If companies are overtly screening out smokers, it’s hard to imagine they aren’t covertly screening out the obese. And because of social media, chances are pretty good they don’t even need to bring you in to the interview before you get screened out because of your weight. You won’t get called for an interview, and you’ll never know why.

Take Charge
Being between jobs is an ideal time to take charge of your body again. Habits are your best friend and your worst enemy at the same time. If you are significantly overweight, you probably have some bad habits. Losing a job breaks up your routine, but it also gives you a chance to design a better, healthier routine.

Here’s what you can do:

Eat out less.
Restaurant entrees are calorie bombs. Restaurant chefs load up their meals with tasty but calorie-dense oils, sauces, cream, butter and fatty cuts of meat. One restaurant entrée can easily send you soaring over 1000 calories. Make a sandwich at home, and you’re eating for half that.

Be Aware of Stress Eating
Joel Garfinkle, an author and and career coach who has worked with hundreds of people in career transitions has seen it happen: Stress, food in the fridge and time on your hands spell trouble. “It’s always a good idea to maintain proper nutrition, but especially so during stressful times. Being at home and having easy access to junk food or leftovers make for an unhealthy combination.”

Consider a Gym Membership
The recession has been terrible – but gyms have been forced to drop their membership prices substantially in response. You can get a full membership to a gym for less than a dollar a day. What’s more, if you shower at the gym in the morning, instead of at home, you also cut your hot water bill. If you do it a lot, the net cost of your gym membership could go down to nearly nothing!

In addition to the health benefits of regular exercise, you’ll also expand your social circles and networking opportunities. And meet people with good habits, just like yours. Your next job could well come as a result of a contact you make while working out.

Try Group Activities
Pumping iron solo can give great results if you’re focused and you have good form. But the more group activities you pursue, the wider you cast your net for employment contacts as well. Try taking classes, team sports, basketball, racquetball and volleyball tournaments, yoga classes, tennis lessons. The main thing is you do something you enjoy and that you’ll stick with over time as you build new habits.

Can’t Splurge on a Gym Membership?
You don’t need to. You can get a terrific workout using nothing but your own body weight! For ideas, try Bodyrock, at www.bodyrock.tv. Zuzana Light has scores of self-contained exercises and workouts that are useable and challenging for any fitness level – absolutely free.

You Are In Control
You can’t control who calls you back for an interview. You can’t control what employers do after they interview you. You can’t control the economy around you. But you absolutely can control how you take care of yourself, and you can control whether you leave the couch and work out, and you can control how hard you push yourself to improve. Unemployment can be stressful and depressing. But it’s very hard to be depressed when you’ve set a personal record for a one mile run, or lifted more than you could a week ago, or you lost two pounds last week from exercising and eating right. That lift can carry you through the day, will give you energy and confidence as you navigate the challenges of a job hunt, and the process will help you get better jobs sooner and make more money in the long run. It may be that your biggest challenge will be buying new work clothes, because the old ones don’t fit anymore!

Our jobs are most likely to fit you. Would you fit them?
Find out in our CAREER section!

The Misfortunes of Obamacare

8 comments

Posted on 8th November 2011 by Michael Gabriel in Articles

career advice, health benefits, Healthcare, job hunting, Obamacare

We have to admit: Obamacare was created out of good intentions. Health care costs continue to rise in alarming rates, and millions of Americans cannot afford them. Plenty had no other choice but to suffer their diseases and sickness in silence.

Some of the main provisions of Obama’s health care bill have to do with how businesses operate. For one, companies with more than 50 employees should purchase a certain government-approved insurance coverage. Otherwise, they will be penalized. Second, all businesses are obliged to provide health care benefits to their full-time employees.

At initial glance, this is ideal. Employees are the ones who really work hard for the companies to stay afloat. It’s been proven over and over again that sickness, a high level of physical and emotional stress, and death can definitely reduce any enterprise’s productivity and competitiveness in the market.

However, there are also major concerns that should be raised regarding Obamacare.

First is the cost of insuring the full-time employees. Health care insurance is not as cheap as other people would think. Assuming that an employer has to pay at least $150 for every employee and he has around 30, then the company has to spend another $4,500. With a double-dip recession looming in the horizon, that’s not a small amount that can be ignored.

Worse, not all employees can produce a profit equal to the health insurance cost the company has to spend. In the end, businesses may end up losing more money than earning them.

It’s certainly not impossible therefore for businesses to take actions that can hurt not only the economy but their employees’ jobs as well. They may reduce full-time employment and settle for part-time work, or they may have to let go of those who are unskilled and inexperienced.

Second, there’s the threat of non-expansion. As mentioned, huge companies had to spend more for health care insurance. In order to avoid the additional expenses, they may have to maintain their small size.

Though small businesses are some of the driving forces in this country’s economy, their stagnation will not do us any good.

Many times, major economic and health care policies are often left for the Congress, Senate, and the rest of the executive government to tackle on. Those who always feel the impact are often left on the sidelines and perhaps hoping the government, especially President Obama, would hear them out.

We definitely believe it’s time for a serious dialogue, not only among the people of the government but also among and along with those in the business sector. Though we definitely recognize the grave importance in insuring employees, making sure they can have the financial capacity to take care of themselves and give their family a bright future, we also could not simply ignore the huge negative consequences businesses go through once Obamacare is passed. We don’t want to push ourselves to the brink, forcing us to let go of the employees we learned to care about or worse put an end to an enterprise simply because we couldn’t meet the requirements of the law.

In fact, we find it ironic. The government challenges us to produce more jobs, but the laws prevent us from doing so.

Hourly updated employment opportunities in our CAREER section!

Education Must Become More Sensitive to Employer Demand

5 comments

Posted on 28th October 2011 by Jason Van Steenwyk in Articles

career, career advice, education, job hunting

During the American Revolutionary War, John Adams, America’s 2nd president, wrote in a letter to his wife: I must study politics and war, that our sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. Our sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history and naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry and porcelain.”

And now, thanks to the industry and sacrifice of past generations, we have reached the last stage in Adams’ sequence, and even moved beyond – with young people in recent years even incurring staggering sums of debt in order to emerge from school with multiple degrees, including women’s studies, African-American studies, gender studies and generic degrees in “humanities.” Many of these same people are struggling badly in this economy, as their traditional jobs are shipped offshore, while student loans cannot generally be discharged in bankruptcy.

The total amount of outstanding student loan debt is now approaching a mind-boggling $1 trillion in the United States. Meanwhile, campuses are racing to attract students by building more and more amenities – turning them into 4 year resort areas with classrooms attached. Andrew Rosen, the CEO of Kaplan University, which specializes in online education, observes that the number of administrators now threatens to outstrip the number of faculty members.

The private sector – the source, ultimately, of all employment, public or private – rebelled long ago. Low-end manufacturing has already fled the country for Asia. College graduates leaving school with liberal arts degrees and degrees in soft sciences such as sociology and psychology are increasingly driven to fields well outside of their academic preparation, and even to relatively low-wage jobs in the service sector with limited career prospects, benefits or ability to advance. At the same time, employers in high-tech fields can’t get enough Americans with advanced skills in engineering, chemistry, medicine and biotechnology, and are importing thousands from China, Pakistan, India and the Middle East.

Winds of Change
Florida governor Rick Scott, a Republican, made headlines earlier this month, when he announced plans to reform the budget of the Florida state university system, increasing funding for math, science and engineering programs, at the expense of degree programs that just aren’t in demand.

“We’re spending a lot of money on education, and when you look at the results, it’s not great,” said the governor in an October 2011 speech in Tallahassee. “Do you want to use your tax money to educate more people who can’t get jobs in anthropology? I don’t.”

Scott’s opponents wryly pointed out that his own daughter studied anthropology. But the point stands: Owners of capital are not committing their investment dollars to construct homes for think tanks in anthropology and comparative literature. But they do shell out money to build technology parks, chemical and pharmaceutical plants. Case in point: Back in the 1950s, an American push to encourage young people to study the sciences and maintain a technological edge over the Soviet Union led to the growth of the Research Triangle in North Carolina. The educated and technically advanced work force the area’s universities were generating at the time attracted scores of employers, many of whom became Fortune 500 corporations. While much of the region, still dependent on traditional Carolina industries such as agriculture and textiles has been devastated by structural economic changes such as offshoring, employment and standards of living in the Research Triangle area remain strong. Ironically, these technology workers also support a thriving arts community – increasing prospects for humanities and fine arts majors right along with the engineers and architects.

If You Teach Them They Will Come
This is what Scott is after: An educated work force that walks into an employer’s door already possessing skills that the employer needs and values. A skilled engineer can always read up on sociology. But a trained sociologist cannot quickly develop the fundamental engineering skills to make his employer competitive in the global economy. If the work force is there, and well-prepared with marketable technical skills, the investment – and the jobs – will come.

Colleges themselves are beginning to respond – particularly at the small college and community college level. For example, Zane State, in Zanesville, Ohio, recently began programs specifically designed to prepare students to work in natural gas. Other colleges are following suit, creating partnerships and internship arrangements with employers across the country.

Two Workforces
Those looking forward to careers and to changes in careers now have a choice: They can elect to be in the group of workers who are attractive to profitable industries that are able to support and sustain high wages; or they can elect to join a work force that is powerless and will always be vulnerable to being replaced with lower-cost workers off shore as well as incoming immigrants.

John Adams had a terrific vision for America. But if we go too far toward studying painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry and porcelain, and our university students neglect the fields that enable the country to manufacture, produce and export, to develop domestic sources of energy, and to maintain a winning technological advantage over potential battlefield adversaries, then our children won’t have a ‘right’ to study any of these things.

They will, however, be studying more and more Chinese.

Looking for a job? Check out our CAREER section!
You won’t leave empty-handed!

Being Like Ike: How To Make an Ally Out of the Receptionist

Posted on 21st October 2011 by Jason Van Steenwyk in Articles

career advice, job hunting, Job Search Tips, Job seeker

When Jana Eggers, the Ironman-competing CEO of Spreadshirt, interviews a potential new hire, she looks for a solid history of accomplishment and a passion for what you do. But in the process of making her assessment, she also consults one of her key advisors: Her receptionist.

“I always get feedback from them. I’ll want to know if someone comes in and if they weren’t polite, if they didn’t say, “Hello,” or ask them how they were. It’s really important to me,” said Eggers in a 2010 interview in the New York Times.

The point: Employers, then, look at small details of your interactions with their junior staff, their receptionists, and their veteran office managers that look like receptionists. And they’ll ask their staff about you, after you leave. It’s therefore vital to make an ally of the receptionist.

• Know her name. Everyone likes hearing their name. And everyone likes knowing that their name is remembered. Find out before the interview, and make a note of it. If I get a business owner or CEO’s card, and she mentions her assistant’s name, I make a point of writing it down on the card. It goes in my contact manager’s.

• Establish a rapport. This means you do more than sign in, sit down, and pick up that copy of Yachting magazine in the waiting area when you’ve never owned a boat in your life. How can you establish a rapport? Read on:

• Make eye contact and smile. You would think this would be obvious, but many people are not good at making and maintaining eye contact. Especially when they are nervous or preoccupied with the interview. Oh, and say her name.

• Scan the work area. There may be clues about her interests, aspirations and passions. She may have a book or two on the table, or photographs of her engaged in her hobbies, or pictures of her children. If she’s drinking something, her favorite Starbucks beverage could be valuable information down the road. Look for details.

• Thank her on the way out. By name. You shouldn’t even have to look at the placard.

• Did the receptionist do something above-and-beyond? If she’s a terrific receptionist, mention it to the boss in the interview. Good leaders look for opportunities to recognize good people. That’s a great thing to do for a good receptionist – and a good habit for you to be in as well.

• Send a ‘thank you’ note. Of course, you should do this with the person making the hiring decision. But here’s a twist: Send the note to the decision-maker, “care of” the assistant. It’s just one more branding opportunity. Hopefully, she’ll say “Oh, this came from so-and-so, who interviewed the other day. Oh, he was so nice!”

• Remember her at the follow-up interview. Of course you’ll remember her name. Did you remember her family, hobbies, interests or passions? If so, bring something along she might appreciate. It could be a photograph or a magazine article that she would probably enjoy.

One quality I’ve seen among great leaders – in business, sports, and the military – is their ability to connect with people from all educational levels and all walks of life, from the C-suite to the day laborer, and make them feel important and valued.

I recently spoke with a World War II veteran, Larry, who served as a junior officer in the European Theater. He had met General Dwight Eisenhower briefly in 1943, and they had a conversation in which Larry had mentioned his father, a doctor in Chicago, who hadn’t been feeling well, was worried about his health.

Larry didn’t see Eisenhower again until 1945, near the end of the war. Eisenhower said “Oh, I remember you! Your dad was a doctor, in Chicago!! Is he doing ok? He wasn’t well the last time we talked!”

Ike had a lifelong admirer, 62 years later.

Larry passed away earlier this year. But I’ll always remember that story, and work hard to be like Ike.

Hourly updated employment opportunities
in our CAREER section!

The Unemployed Are Turning their Job Hunting Attention to the Internet

Employment News, Recession-proof Jobs, Tech jobs, Technology

Posted on 14th October 2011 by Michael Gabriel in Articles

Career adivce, job hunting, job search, online job search

The unemployment rate has just gone up to around 9 percent, forcing people to take bolder steps just to find a job – and they’re looking more using the World Wide Web.

Craigslist and LinkedIn, among other websites, have become their best friends, and many resort to odd work just to keep income flowing: single fathers create furniture or clean lawns, women offer home organization and cleaning, and vets turn into daytime dog walkers. Once full-time employees, some have resorted to per-diem or per-hour charges.

Simply put, these online job sites have become the face of struggle, pain, and lack of options for Americans these days.

But is getting an online job only a temporary solution or even a sign of desperation?

The answer should be no. We’ve practically seen a lot of people landing decent jobs, opening their own businesses, and getting regular clients just by making themselves and their profession more accessible online.

One just needs to be patient, determined, and smart enough to know between scams and real requests.

We are going to outline the different ways on how to improve your chances of getting a good job online:

• Start within your area.
Craigslist, for example, compartmentalizes its pages into states and cities. Go for the latter. The nearer your clients are, the easier it is for you to provide services, send your invoices, and be paid.

• Look for companies.
Many startups and small-time businesses maximize the Internet to advertise several open positions. After all, it’s less costly. Moreover, many of these options are home-based. Who knows, you may definitely land yourself a permanent job through the Internet.

• Leverage by sending resumes online.
While applying for any type of job you can get into, begin sending out your resumes online. Monster, Indeed, LinkedIn, and SimplyHired are some of the top Internet job boards where you can set up a profile, upload your resume, and look for jobs. LinkedIn, for one, allows you to network to former colleagues, ex-bosses, companies, and potential clients and businesses.

• Enhance your skills.
Once you’ve started the ball rolling and keep it going for at least two to three months, find time to improve your skills, knowledge, and expertise. These three things can make you even more indispensable, professional, capable, and open to new challenges and tasks. It’s easier to seek out better opportunities not only online but also offline.

A number have decided to take their GEDs, pursue a vocational course, or enroll in an online college or university program. Others sign up for short course trainings and webinars. Legitimate, accredited, and reputable universities, colleges, and training centers provide certifications and even job assistance.

Undoubtedly, the country’s economy is grim, and it seems like it’s not going to pick up anytime soon. Obama’s jobs bill is facing a lot of challenges itself, and the government is at loss in increasing job slots. But you – you can do something and be that catalyst to making things better. Use the power and resources of the World Wide Web to find a good job.

… or just look through our CAREER section …

Obama’s Jobs Bill: Who Will Benefit the Most?

8 comments

Posted on 7th October 2011 by Michael Gabriel in Articles

career advice, Employment News, job hunting, job search

We do not need any more figures or statistics to tell us that we are on the verge of a double-dip recession. We may not be able to prevent that, but citizens can greatly decrease the negative effects if they have a job.

The problem is there is none. So Obama came up with a jobs bill, which, among other things, aims to reduce biases among the unemployed. Any company with at least fifteen employees should never turn down an applicant because of his unemployment status. If it does, it is considered unlawful, and the candidate has the right to sue and subject the company to litigation, where he can claim for damages.

What do we mean by bias?
How did this came to be? Some companies reject candidates’ applications because of their gender, age, race, sexual orientation, and / or religious beliefs. This practice is considered illegal. It is against the law, and some are in direct violation to the provisions of the First Amendment.

Now many unemployed are allegedly chastising firms for not hiring them simply because, well, they are not previously employed.

At one point, Obama is right. If the claims were true, it does not make sense for a company to reject applications simply because they are unemployed. In fact, they’re looking for jobs because they have none to speak of!

On the other hand, it might bring deeper problems not only for the companies or potential employers but for the entire country as well.

First, it encourages the unemployed to sue companies that refuse to hire them even for a sensible reason. The threat of lawsuits and litigations can be brutally damaging to companies, especially small- and medium-sized businesses. Not only are they time-consuming and dragging, they can also be extremely costly. Most of all, these types of cases can tarnish the reputation and the brand the company is building.

In relation to this, firms may be forced to hire unemployed applicants, even if their resumes are less than stellar or worse their work history is very poor. Any inferior-performing employee is always a liability to a company.

What should they do then?
The jobs bill of Obama was paved with good intentions, and surely there are provisions that are beneficial for the business industry, especially in increasing job creations.

But it may need some tweaking. For one, the bill should be very clear on the definition of the word “unemployed.” Is he out of the job because he has been laid off, or is he always terminated? How long is he out of work? What steps did he take to look for a job?

Second, there must be boundaries, limitations, or exceptions. Businesses should also be protected from unnecessary lawsuits especially on grounds of lackluster employment history, lack of adequate skills, and termination from his previous work.

Definitely, there is an immediate need to churn out jobs to boost economy once again. But to pass a jobs bill that may have a lot of loopholes and costly potential consequences doesn’t make sense to the country either.

Looking for a job? Check out our CAREER section!
You won’t leave empty-handed!

Is Technology Killing Jobs?

7 comments

Posted on 30th September 2011 by Michael Gabriel in Articles

Perhaps those sci-fi programs are right: Asimovs will start tending the garden and pouring coffee on our behalf, cars will start to fly, and everything works through touch. The continuous growth of technologies is embraced by the vast majority. New techs promote speed, efficiency, cost savings, and productivity.

On the other hand, a number of people express their concern. Technologies may also threaten the very jobs that put food on their table and send their kids to school.

But Why Would Companies Do That?
The answer is actually plain and simple: profit. Whether we like it or not, businesses reward their employees in order for them to be motivated to work hard. In the process, they bring in profits and cash flow.

The problem is, humans are prone to sickness, pregnancies, and death. They also desire greener pastures or demand higher salary once commodities go up. Companies are compelled by the government to provide mandatory benefits as well as train them to do their jobs right and better. Employee benefits and training are extra overhead costs for any organization.

This is where technologies come in handy. They don’t tire, they can work 24/7 – 365 days a year, they never complain or demand anything, and they’re easily controlled by mere press of a button. Laptops, tablet PCs, and smart phones now offer mobility that cannot be provided by an office filled with many employees. VoIPs, on the other hand, have features such as Virtual Attendants that tell callers what numbers to press, doing away with telephone operators.

According to CEO Gerhard Gschwandter of Selling Power, in a recent Sales 2.0 conference, by the year 2020 only around 3 million of the 18 million salespeople in the country will remain in their jobs. Over 80 percent will be displaced and replaced by new types of salespeople who use technologies, which automate a lot of sales-driven functions.

What Can You Do?
The reality is indeed harsh, and you are definitely not immune to the power of technology and innovation in terminating people from their respective jobs. And, yes, it’s scary. The good news is they don’t all have to mean you can’t do anything.

One of the first things you should learn is to embrace change – that is, technological change. If you wish to keep your job or find better opportunities, be ready to tackle gadgets and improve your technical know-how. It will also help if you stop seeing those machines as enemies but as allies in increasing your productivity and effectiveness. This way, you don’t end up being one of the easiest to dispense.

Never settle for what you have right now. Enroll in courses and training programs that deal with technologies and how they can be integrated in and to your line of work. Invest in new learning and new skill, especially a technology-oriented one.

With the introduction of a variety of software, hardware, and other hi-tech devices in the workplace, jobs start to evolve – sometimes very fast. But as an employee you need to be a good complement to this change. You also have to evolve.

While there are still jobs for humans, the best ones
are in our CAREER section!

Top Must-awaited Techs for Jobseekers

Posted on 20th September 2011 by Michael Gabriel in Articles

green tech jobs, job hunting, job search, Technology

Contrary to Back to the Future’s predictions, there are still no flying cars, though we are crossing our fingers for the sake of cheaper energy. We may also not see humanoids anytime soon.

Nevertheless, there are plenty of great technologies that are under way – enough for us to get excited. Moreover, these ideas are especially helpful for those who constantly seek better jobs.

1. T-shirt Gadgets
Stanford University scientists are busy creating textiles, but these are no ordinary ones. They are not only lightweight and stretchable, they’re also powered by carbon nanotubes, with fibers as thin as human hair. Because of these characteristics, the dyed fabric is already a device itself, allowing you to charge your mobile gadgets, surf the web to look for jobs, and / or receive calls for interviews with almost no additional carry-on load. And at the end of the day, you can place your clothes in a washing machine (or perhaps something more sophisticated than that), and get clean ones the next day.

2. Much Cheaper Mobile Broadband
One of the strongest selling points of smart phones and other mobile devices, such as tablet PCs, is mobility. With them you can check LinkedIn jobs or get referrals from friends in Twitter and Facebook on the go. You only have to make sure that there’s WIFI or 3G.

These options, though reliable, can sometimes go out of whack. Besides, why would we settle for them when we can definitely expect another choice that’s a lot faster? It may take around a year or two before we can fully see the impact of the new but cheap broadband network, but the idea itself is already enough to thrill you.

3. Wireless Docking Stations and Chargers for Mobile Devices
Imagine this: You’re waiting for a job offer call from one of the biggest firms in the country. All of the sudden, your phone conks out after losing its power. The solution would have been as easy as getting your charger and plugging it near your kitchen counter. But it’s not, because you’re basically out doing your groceries.

Thankfully, as early as now, you can already anticipate the release and boom of wireless docking stations and chargers for your device. As its name suggests, you don’t have to look for the nearest outlet or wait for someone to finish his or her charging spree. To give you a better idea of how fascinating these wireless tools are going to be, Powermat chargers are filled with magnetic inductors that can generate energy for charging. Moreover, they can charge multiple, even different, devices simultaneously.

4. 3D Printing
It wouldn’t take a long time before traditional, boring, and stiff business cards will be out of the picture. Prototypes and even some models for 3D printing are already available. This means that there’s a far better way of impressing future contacts and employers.

We aren’t sure what else is in store for us in the next few years or decade. One thing is for certain, though – by keeping yourself smart and street-wise, you can tap the different technologies in finding favorable jobs.

Until then search our CAREER section for best jobs

Is It Okay to Fire Someone by Phone?

64 comments

Posted on 13th September 2011 by Michael Gabriel in Articles

Career adivce, Emloyment tips, Fired, job hunting, Management Tips

Yahoo, one of Google’s strongest competitors, has been hogging the headlines lately – and all for the wrong reasons. It had just decided to fire the most overpaid CEO Carol Bartz, by phone, no less. This eventually sparked the exchange of words between both camps, Bartz calling her previous bosses and allies “doofuses” and Yahoo board insisting she should step down from the board too, which she wouldn’t do.

The rest of the financial and web community also took their stand. Just after a few hours of the announcement, Yahoo’s stock jumped to more than 6 percent from $12.91, which interestingly remained almost unchanged since Bartz took over the leadership. Pundits believed that firing Bartz was an excellent decision made by Yahoo. To quote Matt Rosoff of Business Insider, “The company’s stock is up more than 6% after hours on the news, validating the fact that Wall Street was placing a huge ‘Bartz discount’ on the company.”

Her ouster, however, brought another issue, which should never be overlooked by business owners, whether big or small. Is it really right to kick out someone, even as huge as a CEO, by telephone?

The Possible Reasons Why
No one really knows for sure why Yahoo did that. All we heard after Bartz herself broke the news was a series of obligatory well-wishes and apologies for a 30-month job cut short. Nevertheless, that doesn’t stop people from speculating.

Topping the list is practicality. If your mind is made up, why should you go through the lengthy explanations? The bottom line is she’s fired, and no amount of reasons from Bartz would probably save herself.

Many also think that Bartz herself scared them off. After all, she was known to be very. To make the saga even more interesting, she broke the “surprising” news to her employees through iPad. Surely, those who hold on to this theory believe Bartz has more guts than the guys currently controlling Yahoo. Besides, she wouldn’t be called “Hurricane Carol” (in reference to one of the most disastrous cyclones of New England) for nothing.

Yet There’s Still the Question of Ethics
But what do we really think about that? We still firmly regard that each management can adopt its own style of managing its employees, including terminating or dismissing someone in the top position. No law considers firing over the telephone is illegal. Nevertheless, we don’t necessarily agree to the process.

Bartz may have made decisions that didn’t sit well with the rest of the Yahoo board or didn’t bring back the glorious status of the search engine company, but one should be able to give credit wherever it is due. After all, she wouldn’t be considered as a CEO if her resume doesn’t speak volumes. On the other hand, the Letting People Go: The People-centered Approach to Firing and Laying Off Employees author, Matt Shlosberg, thinks that firing through telephone is inappropriate and, in turn, may only be risky for companies like Yahoo, who could already be viewed as unethical and unprofessional.

Termination is hard, even for ultra-large and well-known companies. The grim news, especially in these times, is a hard pill to swallow. But for respect’s sake, it’s best if both camps act like true professionals – especially on the part of Yahoo.

Wide spectrum of jobs is available at our CAREER section!

UNEMPLOYED! Should I Cash Out My 401k?

5 comments

Posted on 6th September 2011 by Jason Van Steenwyk in Articles

401k, Career adivce, IRS, unemployment

Unemployment is a scary thing in this tight job market. It’s tempting to look at that 401k plan you amassed over the years at your last employer as nice cash cushion while you get back on your feet and figure out what to do. Before you make any rash moves, though, you should carefully consider the consequences of making such a distribution:

Income Taxes
You won’t get the full balance. Your employer must withhold 20 percent of your plan balance to send to the IRS to cover income tax on the withdrawal. In addition, you will be liable to pay the remainder of any income tax due by April 15th of the year following the tax year in which you make the withdrawal.

Penalties
Unless you are age 55 or older, you will also need to pay a 10 percent early distribution penalty. Worse yet, this additional 10 percent is calculated based on the entire withdrawal – not just what you receive after taxes. So you will have to pay part of that penalty on money you never receive. Note that this age is 55, not 59 ½. This provision applies to those over 55 who have left their company. If you have not left your company, the 10 percent penalty will apply until you turn age 59½.

Exceptions to the 10 Percent Rule
The IRS waives the penalty on early withdrawals from 401k plans if you execute a rollover to an IRA or other qualified retirement plan, or you are over age 55 and have left your employer. For some public safety employees, that cutoff is age 50). If you have medical bills that are more than 7.5 percent of your adjusted gross income, the IRS will also waive the penalty on enough distributions to cover the remainder of the bill. Note that you don’t have to itemize your deductions to take advantage of this provision.

If the IRS levies your retirement account, you will pay income tax (duh!) but you will be exempt from the 10 percent penalty on the withdrawal the IRS forces.

Advantages of IRAs
IRAs, or Individual Retirement Accounts, offer a similar list of hardship exceptions to the 10 percent penalty, but with two notable advantages: With IRAs, you can also make penalty free withdrawals to cover college expenses, and to purchase a home. You may not feel like purchasing a home while you’re unemployed. But if you were sitting on the fence about going back to school and you have the money, you won’t pay a penalty if you tap an IRA to do so.

IRAs also allow you to make penalty free withdrawals to avoid foreclosure or eviction. To take advantage of these provisions, though, you will have to execute a rollover to an IRA. You cannot try it from your 401k, or you will run into the 20 percent withholding and 10 percent penalty issue.

Section 72(t)
Section 72(t) allows you to avoid the 10 percent penalty by spreading your income from your 401k over the rest of your life expectancy. This can provide a nice cash cushion, though you do lose a bit of tax-deferral benefit on any amounts you take as income.

The Unemployment Trap
There is one significant trap that may affect the unemployed, however: Any withdrawals you take from a 401k plan could offset unemployment compensation. Be sure to take a careful look at your state’s plan rules before you take anything out of a 401k, or you could render yourself ineligible for unemployment compensation altogether – just when you need it most. For this reason, I would be very wary indeed of taking any 72(t) or any other withdrawal unless I did not qualify for unemployment compensation.

Rolling it over
If you do choose to roll it over, I recommend executing a trustee-to-trustee transfer. You can have the 401k plan send you a check directly, but then the clock is ticking. You have only 60 days to complete the rollover. If you screw up, you will pay taxes and penalties on the whole thing at once. Have your 401k plan send the money directly to the IRA custodian. You’ll avoid the 20 percent withholding and you won’t have to worry about slipping up.

Roth IRAs
If your income will be unusually low this year because of the job loss, it may pay to consider rolling part or your entire 401k into a Roth IRA. You pay your income taxes now, but your tax brackets might be the lowest they will be for the rest of your life. From that point, your Roth IRA grows tax free.

Final Thoughts
If you have a lot of itemized deductions, don’t sweat the income taxes on small withdrawals. The penalty is bad, but if you can avoid the 10 percent penalty, and then take a taxable withdrawal to pay for an expense that’s tax deductible – like educational expenses directly related to your profession, or job search expenses – then you really have a wash.

…or find your next job in our CAREER section!

Reaching the Boss: A Lesson from Fly-Fishermen

6 comments

Posted on 29th August 2011 by Jason Van Steenwyk in Articles

Career adivce, career tips, job tips

Years ago, you could lick a stamp and send a resume, and you had a reasonable chance that someone in a position to at least get you in the short pile of resumes to be reviewed would actually look at it.

Those days are over. In the days of Monster.com, and amidst a tight job market, employers are frequently swamped with hundreds of resumes competing for each opening – even at wages 30 percent less than what a comparable job paid 5 years ago.

Those aren’t very good odds.
The days of the blind resume blast are over. Everywhere you go, you find frustrated job hunters with the same complaint: “I’ve sent over 200 resumes and I haven’t even gotten a call for an interview.”

Freshwater fishermen
Take a lesson from flyfishers: The fish don’t bite the same lures all the time. When the fish stop biting a certain lure, fly fishermen don’t keep fishing with that lure. They change lures! They talk to each other and go with what works! If you’re still sending resumes “over the transom” to someone who’s never even heard your name before, where you’re competing with hundreds of others, chances are good that one of the other people has already met the owner or director of H.R. You need to figure out what “lure” to place in the water so you can be that guy.

Cold Mailing vs. Warm Mailing
Sun Tzu wrote that the wise warrior made sure he had already won the battle, before committing troops. Likewise, you need to have most of the battle won, before you send your resume. That means you should have already met the boss, and already know what he or she is looking for.

How to Meet the Boss
One thing’s for certain: You aren’t going to meet the boss sitting at your laptop tweaking your resume. Go where the bosses are! Here are some ideas:
• Volunteer. Community organizations like the Rotary Club, Kiwanis, Boy Scouts and other community service organizations are full of business people seeking to give back to their communities – and build up their own list of contacts in the process. Just be sure to go to serve the community, before you go job hunting. If you go there with a self-serving purpose, they can tell. Trust me.
• Industry Groups. Just because you’re out of work is no reason to let your involvement in industry groups slide. If anything, you need to increase your involvement. If you have an industry or professional association, join it. Make sacrifices to attend meetings. Even better: Volunteer to organize events! What does this do? It gives you an excuse to get on the phone with business owners throughout your community, inviting them to the latest conference or luncheon.
• Bars. Don’t knock it – men and women have been picking each other up for years. Is there a bar located near where you want to work? Go there for happy hour. Order iced tea. It’s cheap. And strike up conversations with nearby workers as they get off work. Gain market intelligence. There’s nothing wrong with asking “who would I talk to if I want to work in your department?” Then when you make the phone call, you have a name to drop, and some intelligent questions to ask.
• Walk in. Most people are afraid to do this – but salespeople willing to walk in 50 to 100 businesses a day frequently make excellent money. Why? It works. Walk in with a stack of resumes and ask for the owner. You just got out of another appointment, but you were nearby, work in the field, and wanted to introduce yourself.
• Calling. In most cases, forget about calling between 9 and 5, unless you have an invitation to call, or you already know the person. You’ll get Miss Donut Box, the 9 to 5 flunkie who takes pride in being a gatekeeper. She can’t hire you, but she can shoot you down in a hurry. When calling the boss, call before she gets there, or call after she leaves. The boss often gets in early and works late. That’s why he’s the boss. (The exception is restaurant owners. Call them between 3 and 5 pm in most cases).
• Agents. Maybe you don’t have much of a rolodex yet. But any good employment agency does. Because they’ve been using these very techniques to build up relationships with potential employers for years. We can’t stress this enough: Leverage your contacts by using a quality employment agency. In most cases, the employer, not you, pays the fee anyway. If you do pay a fee, it’s tax deductible – and can save you weeks, months and sometimes years of unemployment. Even if a placement doesn’t lead to anything permanent, you are still working in the industry, keeping your skills current, and gaining new experiences, and meeting people you otherwise would never have known.

Sure, job hunting isn’t fly-fishing. But the two still have a lot in common. You need to go out dressed right, equipped with the tools you need, provisions to last you quite a while before you land a catch, the flexibility to alter your methods in pursuit of a goal, and the intestinal fortitude and courage to stay out in the river, among the fish, never letting discouragement get the best of you, and never letting up until you reach your goal.

Check out our CAREER section to find the right job for you!

How the Recent U.S. Credit Downgrade Can Affect Job Hiring

Posted on 19th August 2011 by Michael Gabriel in Articles

career, economy, Employment News, job hunting, job search, Job seeker

Just like that, the United States’ credit rating has dropped from AAA to AA+, according to Standard and Poor’s. Though AA+ isn’t bad at all, since it means that the country still has a strong capability to meet its financial obligations, nothing still beats triple A, and a downgrade isn’t really something you’d expect from a superpower such as America.

Needless to say, a downgrade can be a prelude to a more negative economic outlook, worse a double-dip recession. This may also mean that other credit rating agencies such as Fitch Group and Moody’s may follow suit, further propelling the country down.

Since all factors in economics are interdependent, you can surely expect some changes in the way businesses work and hire workers.

Though a lot of reports suggest that thousands of people have been actually hired and that there’s a reduction in unemployment claims, many things could happen between today and tomorrow. These include the following scenarios:

1. Companies may freeze hiring.
They may try to implement the “wait and see” attitude. Although many organizations won’t terminate thier employees, they may stop getting new hires until they can surely feel that the economy starts to pick up.

2. Businesses may become choosy.
Firms across the US will try their best to reduce their overhead expenditures as much as possible. One of the possible steps they might take is to avoid hiring fresh graduates or those who lack experience. Training can cost a lot of money for companies, especially for start-ups.

3. Enterprises may decide to look for workers elsewhere.
To be more specific, they may opt to outsource a lot of jobs to telecommute or home-based workers (both local and international). This can be both a good and a bad thing for you. It’s ideal since you’ll have more time at home. You can make the most out of your utilities, such as your phone and Internet connection, as well as spend less on outdoor expenses. However, home-based jobs may also make things unstable. Unless you have a contract from the company, the business owner has the prerogative to kick you out or lay you off even without the typical 30 days’ notice.

4. Organizations may lay off employees.
This is something that should be avoided. Businesses should continue to operate in order to keep the economy going. However, if things take a much worst turn, such as getting more downgrades from other agencies, companies may simply decide to lay off employees while it’s still early. It also doesn’t help that Europe, one of America’s biggest markets for exports and imports, is also experiencing its own economic troubles.

5. Companies may do nothing at all.
A common effect of a downgrade is an increase in interest rates. This way, the government can gather more money to pay off debts. Fortunately, the Federal Reserves has already announced that it’s going to keep interest rates low for the next two years. If businesses are happy with that, or if they believe they have good leaders and committed government agencies, they may just continue on with their normal operations, with hardly any changes.

And yet we have many great JOBS with most solid Employers!

Google+: What’s In It for the Job Seeker?

Posted on 12th August 2011 by Jason Van Steenwyk in Articles

Google Plus, hiring, job hunti, Job Search Tips, Job seeker, Social media

We’re all about new ways to connect. And the more ways you have to get feelers out there, the better.

If you’re living under a rock and you don’t know about Google+, here it is in a nutshell: Google+ is a brand new social networking site brought to you by – you guessed it – Google. It’s designed to be a competitor to Facebook and LinkedIn, though it has some twists of its own.

The project is still in its infancy. As of this writing, the site had taken a temporary hiatus on accepting new members.

The site has a number of pluses – no pun intended:

A sleek, intuitive interface. Think something akin to the difference between the user interfaces of the Blackberry and the iPhone.

Improved grouping functionality. Google+ makes it easy to segment your friends list in groups. For example, you can have separate group for co-workers, family, friends, lovers, drinking buddies, and bookies. You don’t have to worry about segmenting. “Leakage” of embarrassing information or posts between your personal and professional life is less of an issue. This is a huge plus.

Huddles. Think text messages, but among a group of people. For example, most of us are accustomed to having to key in several people into a text message. Or having to IM just one person at a time. Some phones support group texting, but it’s awkward. Google+’s huddles are going to make this capability an industry standard.

Instant video and picture uploads. You won’t have to plug your camera into your computer before you upload vids or photos. If your camera is also a cell phone, Google+ supports uploading it from right where you are.

Impact on Hiring

Our sources in the human resources community – that is, the people who recruit and hire – tell us they like the earlier reports. The segmentation allows prospective employers to separate their own professional and personal messaging, just as you do.

More pragmatically, they also like the Huddle function. Look at it this way – if you are a human resources professional and you are trying to juggle several executive’s schedules because the applicant needs to meet with multiple people, this is a huge timesaver.

Above all, though – Google+ looks fun! And this, more than any particular functionality, is going to be driving its success going forward.

While in Beta, Google + is only available per invitations, which we are giving out. To get an invitation please leave a comment on this article, having included your Gmail address and do one of the following:

1. Like our Facebook fan page;
2. Follow us on Twitter;
3. Follow us on LinkedIn.

Hourly updated employment opportunities in our CAREER section!

Leaving the Military: What Do I Need To Do?

3 comments

Posted on 5th August 2011 by Jason Van Steenwyk in Articles

career advice, career tips, job hunting, job search, Military

If you are about to ETS from an active duty military assignment and transition to the civilian workforce, first of all, thank you for your service to our country. Here are some things you have going for you:

• Employers like the discipline and reliability they find with military veteran hires.

• Military veterans often have more leadership and management experience at much younger ages than do non-veteran counterparts. This difference shows, and is often vividly clear to managers who have hired veterans in the past.

• Chances are you are in pretty good physical condition now, and height-weight proportionate. Studies clearly show that fit people out-earn overweight people.

• You have access to the New Post 9/11 GI Bill, which provides almost unlimited options for funding your education. Some not-for-profit military associations, such as the Navy League, Association of the United States Army, and American Legion provide additional scholarship opportunities for military veterans. Even if you aren’t planning on attending school part time, it is good to be able to show prospective employers that you are taking the initiative to further your skills.

• Security clearances. If you have a secret clearance, put it on your resume. If you have a top secret clearance, highlight it, because TS clearances are extremely expensive for employers to get for positions that require them. Many defense contractors require secret or top secret clearances, and if you already have one, that is a huge leg up over non-veteran competition.

• ETS Moves. The military will usually pay to relocate you to your home of record. This doesn’t need to be your home town. In fact, if your home of record or last duty station has limited civilian opportunities for you, you can take advantage of the military-paid relocation to move you and your family to a new job, or to where more opportunities are likely to be. Companies aren’t shelling out to relocate promising hires like they used to. They don’t have to, because there is plenty of talent looking for work right there where they are. If you don’t need the employer to pay to relocate you, that’s one less hurdle.
Now, transitioning from the military isn’t all honey and roses. Many veterans have some things working against them, as well.

• Untransferrable job skills. Strange as it may seem, few employers need to keep a tank gunner around on staff. If you held a combat arms MOS, your technical skills won’t transfer to the civilian sector. But your leadership skills sure will. Many times, the jobs with the least transferrable technical skills are the very ones where the leadership experience is most intense. Craft your resume to emphasize leadership. If you were an NCO or officer, and had people working for you, take credit for the activities of your unit.

• Jargon. People who spend years in the military don’t talk like civilians do. You may have picked up terminology that a civilian employer doesn’t understand. This can be confusing and off-putting to the civilian hiring manager. Drop the military jargon, and pick up the lingo of your new profession.

• Military resumes. Many veterans leave the military and go job hunting with resumes that are nearly incomprehensible to nonveteran hiring managers. Navy vets are particularly prone to this. It may behoove you to have an employment agency or counselor look at your resume and help you craft it for the civilian market – a process called “civilianizing your resume.”
What to do now?

• Change your voicemail. The day you begin your job search, take off all the military references, inside jokes, and other distractions off your voicemail. Don’t bark like a drill sergeant on your voicemail. Your troops may get a charge out of it when they call you, but employers won’t. A calm, measured and friendly voice with your name and possibly rank is just right.

• Get started. For many positions, the hiring cycle is months long. You don’t want months of inactivity.

• Stay disciplined. Now that you don’t have to get up early every day, it’s easy to slip on the job search. Keep the same dedication and professional focus on your job search that you had during your military career.

• Keep doing PT.

• Leverage your contacts. You may not have much of a civilian rolodex coming out of the military. Many veterans ETS or retire and look at their phone list and everyone in it is in the military, and none of them is in a position to hire. A good employment agency that understands military veterans and what they bring to the table is crucial.

• Consider continuing your service in the Reserves or National Guard. This can bring a few hundred extra per month into your bank account, and also help you meet people who also work full time in the civilian sector who can help you find employment. Some MOSs are eligible for a bonus, as well. You can also maintain your eligibility for TRICARE until you find a permanent full-time job.

Job searches take time, and there are never any guarantees. Cut your expenses, and stay disciplined and methodical in your search for your next opportunity. The hiring cycle is longer than it’s been in generations, so don’t get discouraged or give up if you aren’t picked up right away. Keep putting your best foot forward. And thank you for serving this great nation.

Wide spectrum of jobs is available at our CAREER section!

5 Great Strategies in Finding Jobs through Google+

8 comments

Posted on 1st August 2011 by Michael Gabriel in Articles

G+, Google, Google Plus, Invitation to Google Plus, Social media

As of July 31, 2011, Google+ already has over 15 million unique visitors – that’s quite a feat considering that it’s a new entrant in the world of social networking. There are plenty of reasons for Google Plus’ sudden boom. The most obvious explanation has something to do with curiosity; everyone wants to figure out if it can really kill Facebook and / or Twitter. Some members find it so easy to use, such as creating a profile. As long as you have a Google account, you’re ready to use G+. What’s great about this new social media platform is that it’s not only confined to social relationships. You can also use Google+ to expand your network and find jobs that you like.

If you’re currently looking for a job, here are some handy tips that could increase your chances of getting hired:

1. Fill out and complete your About profile.
Google Plus’ About page is very simple; it shouldn’t take you forever to fill it out. But once you do, make sure that you can make it as comprehensive as possible. For example, in the About section, talk about your professional interests. Don’t miss out the bragging rights. Consider it as listing down all the achievements you’ve made in your field. Then there’s Occupation, which is the best area to share the current and past jobs you have and had.

2. Create a link to your LinkedIn.
Some experts say that Google Plus is about to end LinkedIn, but until it happens, it’s a good idea to create a LinkedIn profile. This way you’re hitting two birds in one stone. See to it that your LinkedIn profile can be viewed publicly and treat it as your online resume. You can see the Links section on the right side of the About page.

3. Upload your videos.
It’s unfortunate to know that several candidates still don’t make the most out of videos. They (especially those that showcase your portfolio and skills) are some of the best tools in landing a job. You can show off the things that you can really do. Videos can make your resume more visually appealing.

4. Tell your contacts about it.
Don’t waste the status message section. Let the rest of your contacts know that you’re on the prowl for new jobs. But before you get too excited with that, keep in mind the following:

• Avoid spamming. Reminding your contacts once a week should be enough.
• Choose the right circle (you’ll learn more about this later).
• Don’t sound so desperate or blab about things. Employers would be having second thoughts in hiring you.

5. Take control of your circles.
One of the best and unique features of Google Plus is Circles. You can liken it to having your own circle of friends. The only difference is it’s literal, and it is online. By using Circles, you can sort out your contacts to work, family, friends, interests – the labels and classifications are all up to you (though it’s not recommended to create a lot because it will be hard for you to manage all of them). Place all your industry contacts in work and tag them in your status messages should you be searching for work.

Because Google+ is still on beta, plenty of helpful job searching tools are still missing. However, you don’t have to wait for them to happen before you start looking for work.

1. Like our Facebook fan page;
2. Follow us on Twitter;
3. Follow us on LinkedIn.

Check out our CAREER section to find the right job for you!
_____________________________

How Can I Turn an Interview into a Job Offer?

careers for women, Employment News

Posted on 25th July 2011 by Jason Van Steenwyk in Articles

Career adivce, career tips, find jobs, Interview Survival Kit, interview tips, job hunting, Job Interview, Job Search Tips

In today’s tight employment market, it’s easy to get so focused on securing the next job that you lose sight of the big picture. But an employee/employer relationship is a two-way street. The employer does not want to have to go through an expensive and time consuming hiring process because good workers are disappointed, any more than you want to have to resign from a job that doesn’t meet your expectations. In the long run, a successful employer/employee relationship is a collaboration.

Furthermore, smart employers appreciate a job candidate with a long-term view and one who asks intelligent questions. Deftly and tactfully interviewing the interviewer can help separate you from the pack of applicants, and perhaps give you the leg up you need to get the offer. The bottom line:

1. Do your homework. Yes, everyone says do your homework. But few sites actually get into doing a proper job of due diligence. Do a bit of research on the principals of the company. Sometimes you will find one or more of the principals of a company, or even your direct supervisor, has a criminal record, such as a conviction or accusation of fraud or embezzlement. You should know this going in.

2. Delve into the financials. If the company is publicly traded, it may help to understand whether and how the company makes money. If the company is bleeding red ink, ask your prospective employer about his assessment of a path to profitability. In the long run, only a profitable company is going to be able to pay you very well. Money losing companies tend to drag employees down with them.

3. Look prepared. Have some specific questions you want to ask that are written down. That makes it look like you are thorough and you took the time to learn about the company. Your questions should be more than Wikipedia deep. It’s ok to put a little spin on the ball, but don’t put the manager on the spot.

4. Don’t just talk a job. Talk a career path. Ask about typical avenues for advancement in the company. Or ask where the supervisor sees the department going at the end of the quarter, year, or five years. If you can steer the conversation into how you can help them get there, you win.

5. Evaluation. Ask about how your performance will be evaluated, and by whom. This isn’t an idle chit-chat question – the intent is to deliberately guide the interview into concrete topics that help the interviewer imagine you already filling the position! Sometimes, talk about evaluation criteria can lead directly to discussion of compensation. This is always tricky, but if you can get to the compensation point without committing to a figure before the company does, you are in good shape. Use caution, though: If you commit to a figure too soon, the company could use that information against you. Don’t bring up salary before they do, and don’t get involved in a discussion of compensation before you have been able to build a perception of value in what you have to offer. The bottom line: Make them want you. THEN talk comp.
Remember, based on the information you gather, you may not even want the job. If the company is going down the tubes, of if the management has a less than stellar track record, and you can’t clear the air at the first interview, you may want to pass on the opportunity. This is valuable information right there.

If, after having performed the due diligence, you do want the job, then your object is to move the conversation towards the offer. If your conversation is very specific about career opportunities, the company’s plans for the department in the coming months, your job performance criteria and your supervisor, you are quickly getting details out of the way, so that the only thing left is to accept or decline an offer. The trick is to get there quickly, but not so quickly that you haven’t had a chance to build a perception of value in yourself.

In the end, job interviewing is exactly like sales: Identify what they want, confirm that you can deliver what they want, and make it easy for them to visualize you in that role. Understand that they must do the same thing, selling themselves and their opportunity to you.

Good luck.

Want a Job offer? Find an opportunity in our CAREER section.
Our professional recruiters will help you get an Interview!
____________________________________

Top Reasons Why Women CEOs Tick

4 comments

Posted on 15th July 2011 by Michael Gabriel in Articles

It’s in the Bible and our history – work is dominated by men. They were the ones who hunted, fished, and fought off wild animals and enemies. They were the decision makers in the family, the ones who should seek quality education. They headed countries and armies. Women, on the other hand, were usually delegated at homes. They made sure husbands go home to clean houses, happy children, and well-prepared meals. They were taught to be submissive and to respect their spouses – no matter what.

Fast forward to the twenty-first century, more and more women are stepping out of the conventions set by society. Instead, they’re taking themselves to offices, right at boardroom tables, not just mere employees but leaders of multinational corporations. Times have changed. In fact, in 2011 Fortune 500 list, 12 companies are controlled by women.

You may ask then, “What happened in history? Why did business owners changed their minds and opted to put their trust on women?” Here are the top reasons:

1. Gender discrimination has decreased over the years.
Though there are still reports of discrimination in terms of sexual orientation, more companies have learned to adapt a more liberal approach on gender. They’ve emphasized that through their policies. Anyone who’s found to discriminate individuals based on gender can be terminated from work. Women, who are often victims of such, can also bring violators to court. The openness of contemporary businesses has paved the way for more and better opportunities for women.

2. Women are more empathetic.
Women will always be more emotional than men, and though this attribute can sometimes be their weakness, it can also be their greatest strength if used wisely. They are more sensitive to the human needs of their employees. Women CEOs are more attentive and open to better ideas.

3. They are more responsible and accountable.
Does this mean that men aren’t? No. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be leading firms for so many years. However, naturally, women business leaders display more sense of responsibility perhaps because they have been trained to do so. Again, go back to history. They are taught to take care of the house and of their loved ones, especially their children. You’ll find fewer women who report to work while nursing a hangover – compared to men.

4. The ladies are more hard working.
This should be taken with no bias to men. It’s just that women need to push themselves harder. Typically, women CEOs put in more hours at work, take more projects, and accept other job responsibilities.

Women still have a long way to go with regards to gaining recognition for all their contributions. There are also a number of flaws they have to correct, one of which is absenteeism. They often rank poorly in attendance because of family matters.

Although there are only a small number of women CEOs, HR experts and career managers are optimistic that the future years will provide better career opportunities for women as more of them are seeking higher-quality education.

Hourly updated employment opportunities in our CAREER section!
___________________________

How to Get Past the Silly Questions during Job Interviews?

13 comments

Posted on 11th July 2011 by Michael Gabriel in Articles

career advice, job hunting, Job Interview, job search

Kevin Douglas (not his real name) sat poised in-front of the manager. He believed he’s already halfway through the interview, and he is not only gaining momentum – he is also acing every question. In fact, he felt it wouldn’t be long before his most coveted job will be offered to him. It could have happened if the manager didn’t ask the silliest question he ever heard: “Are peanuts and coconuts related?” Kevin then froze, stuttered, and laughs.

The truth is, Kevin is not alone when it comes to this experience. Thousands end up failing the job interview simply because they haven’t come prepared for the “silly question.” Though we believe there’s no way you can ever be ready for it, there are some techniques on how to reduce its sudden impact on you. Here are some points to remember:

1. Anticipate it.
Never EVER underestimate managers, even the most traditional ones. They may give you questions out of the blue. Because you haven’t anticipated the question, you end up shocked, confused, and you then begin to falter.

2. Don’t immediately answer the question.
There’s a good chance you’ll end up blabbing your way out of it. Instead, take a deep breath, smile, and while you’re doing them, organize your thoughts. If you need more time, just tell the interviewer straight, “Oh, I haven’t really thought about that. Let me think about that for a minute.”

3. Never question.
Don’t ask the interviewer what he or she means by the question. Though some managers and HR officers ask them for fun, majority do so because they want to test your level of aptitude. Questions that require mathematical analysis may be needed for an engineering position. Managers can also determine your knowledge, as well as your ability to handle pressure, just by the way you come up with your answer and looking at your body’s composure.

4. Try your best.
There’s a good chance that your answer will be wrong, but for most interviewers, that doesn’t really matter. They want to know how patient, determined, analytical, and relaxed you are. As long as they can see that you really tried your best without stuttering, you still have a good chance to your preferred job.

5. Be honest.
If you really cannot answer the question no matter how hard you try, then just be honest. Tell the interviewer you don’t have an answer at the moment. You don’t have to match the question by also being “silly.”

6. Be witty with your answer.
You don’t have to be very detailed with your answer. Instead, be witty. Doing this could showcase your ability to converse and match other people’s thinking ability.

Regardless of what question is asked, never allow fear and panic to set in. These kinds of questions have no definite right or wrong answers. Just relax, maintain eye contact, and you’re good to go. It also helps if you keep the conversation going.

Looking for a job? Check out our CAREER section!
You won’t leave empty-handed!
______________________

Seven Mistakes People Make at Networking Events

Employee Motivation, job advice, job satisfaction

Posted on 1st July 2011 by Jason Van Steenwyk in Articles

career advice, job advice, job hunting, Job Search Tips, mistakes, Networking

Between Caller ID, zealous gatekeepers, no soliciting signs enforced by security guards, and increasing resistance to direct mail and email approaches, the business networking even is one of the last ways a job-seeker, salesman or entrepreneur can reliably reach good prospects. But networking is a skill, and there are many unwritten rules of etiquette, and best practices that are easy for eager but unskilled networkers to overlook.

1. Setting inappropriate objectives. Many novice networkers try to accomplish too much at a networking event. This can come across as pushy, and actually scare good products off. Instead, your objective at a networking event should be to identify who may be a good match for your skills, or who may be a good source of referrals, and simply build a rapport with them. At the end of the night, you should have several cards from people who know in very broad terms what you do, and who will welcome your call the next business day. That’s it.

2. Talking to too many people. Some people will strive to have a conversation with everyone at the event. This is unnecessary and undesirable. It is better to have a good conversation with five or six people than a very superficial conversation with dozens. That doesn’t set you apart, and that isn’t going to get you very many appointments. If you’re lucky, the prospect will remember you.

3. Talking to too few people. Have good conversations, but don’t monopolize anyone’s time, either. Remember, other people have their own objectives at networking events, too, and it probably doesn’t involve talking to you all night. Open a conversation. Qualify the prospect, to see if he or she needs or wants what you have to offer and can afford you. Build a rapport. Have fun. When you have the prospect agreeing to take your call the next day, your mission is accomplished. Politely break things off and move on, so he can move on. Or even better, help him, by introducing him to someone who needs his service.

4. Talking to the same people. It’s natural for you to make friends and forge close relationships with people. But guard against the tendency to stagnate. You and your friends should save socializing for social times. This is business. Your job is to develop and warm up your market, and fill your pipeline with leads. Period. Your friends will understand. Say “hi,” then “let’s get together later.” And get to work.

5. Yapping too much. It’s not about you. It’s about creating victories for everyone else, as well as yourself. Strive to be a listener, not a talker. You gain no information when you talk. You can learn a lot by listening. Once you have a prospect talking about his or her business, don’t miss the chance to keep your mouth shut. When you have an opening, ask open-ended questions that get the customer talking again. “What’s your biggest headache these days? How are you drumming up business lately? Who is your ideal customer?” At the end of the conversation, you should ideally have a good idea of what hot buttons to push at your next conversation – and have some possible solutions to their problems prepared.

6. Handing out too many business cards. We’ve all seen the eager beaver who hands cards out all over the place, but doesn’t know a thing about who he’s giving cards to. At networking events, it is much more important to be a card collector than a card giver. You can have a very successful networking event and not bring a single card with you.

7. Failure to follow through. There is no reason why you can’t do a professional job following through with every contact you make at a networking event. A simple, brief, hand-written “thank you” note, plus a first class stamp may be the best business investment you will ever make. Whether you are looking for work or selling a product or service, or just making connections, one legible and hand-written thank-you note, mailed that night, followed by a positive phone call, is worth many resumes in peoples’ trash cans. Keep detailed records. You cannot keep all your possible prospects in your head. Have a system for capturing leads and following through on them.

Boiled down to the basics, the keys to a successful night at a networking event are three-fold: Build rapport, gathering intelligence, gaining the go-ahead for further discussion, and following through, through meticulous record-keeping and prompt writing and calling. Do this on a regular basis, night after night, and you cannot help but be successful.

Wide spectrum of jobs is available at our CAREER section!
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Job Satisfaction and Emotional Intelligence: Keys to Happier and Longer-staying Employees

5 comments

Posted on 24th June 2011 by Michael Gabriel in Articles

Despite the healing of the economic recession two years ago and the growing movement of job hiring at present, there are still hundreds of men and women who decide to leave their respective jobs every day. It’s more than just seeking greener pastures. They didn’t find two things from their previous employment – job satisfaction and emotional intelligence. These are individuals who are under a lot of job stress and work-related burnout.

Their Importance to the Organization and the Employee
Based on a study conducted by the University of Haifa, employees who are more emotionally stable are likely to stay in their jobs for a very long time. They are also more dedicated and content with their present job descriptions. On the other hand, in 2008, a survey conducted by Segal Company (an HR consultancy company based in New York), stated that those who work in the public sector and employees below 40 years old are more likely to seek other job opportunities.

What do these figures entail? There are a couple of things. To properly stress the points, take a look at the following:

• Emotional Intelligence = Company Asset
Humans do have their inherent emotional intelligence, but it can be improved by the help of their respective companies. Firms should learn to reduce office gossip as well as office politics. If internal conflicts occur, they should also see to it that proper justice will be provided to the involved employees, perhaps through a setup of a grievance committee or imposition of penalties depending on the degree of error. Employees are also more convinced to stay if the company atmosphere isn’t too stiff. Human resource departments should also formulate teambuilding activities and other programs that will help establish camaraderie or belongingness of all employees.

Because emotionally stable individuals are less likely to leave companies and are more driven than the others, they are considered to be assets. In turn, it wouldn’t be long before companies would see the great importance of emotional intelligence, and HR would include it in screening their potential candidates.

• Money Inspires Workers, But not Always
Money motivates employees to leave or stay in companies. Nevertheless, salary isn’t the only reason. Dissatisfaction spells one of the biggest driving forces. Organizations can still do something to retain the young employees and prevent themselves from spending more money in continuously hiring individuals. They can provide trainings for them. HR can play a huge role, providing guidance or tips on career advancement and path. It’s also essential that young employees are encouraged to contribute more to the company and be given proper recognition for their hard work. Most of all, the company, with the lead of HR, should provide adequate and attractive benefits for their employees.

All points mentioned above coincide to Abraham Maslow’s theory: “humans are in continuous search for satisfaction” – even at their work and professional lives. They need more than just a home, food, clothing, and basic necessities to be happy.

Check out our CAREER section to find the right job for you!
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What to Do the Day you Lose Your Job

21 comments

Posted on 17th June 2011 by Jason Van Steenwyk in Articles

career advice, job advice, job hunting, job search

It’s never a good feeling to be let go, whether it’s for cause or not. But by keeping your head and taking ownership of your situation from the very first moments of joblessness, you can help maintain your support network.

Keep calm. Resist the urge to lash out. Sure, it’s natural. But if you’re losing your job anyway, make a classy exit. In job hunting, it never pays to have enemies. Build up your alliances on the way out the door. Don’t storm out in a huff! They might have been just about to mention a much-needed severance package, or hook you up with someone they know is hiring – and you just blew it because you can’t control your temper. Remain calm and calculating, and wait.

Ask for resources. In some cases, you may be able to use your office resources during a transitional period. Access to a copier, a desk a phone and an office may help you keep your head in the game while you transition to a new position.

Ask About Health Benefits. If you are young and in good health, you may benefit by buying your own insurance in the individual market. If not, or if you have a dependent with health issues, you may need to fight to keep your access to a group, guaranteed issue plan – at least for a while. Ask about your options under COBRA – a federal law which deals, in part, with the continuation of group health coverage. If you do not qualify for COBRA, you may ask to pick up the employer portion of your existing health plan until you find a new job.

Embrace the challenge. Chronic unemployment – that is, the percentage of job seekers who have been unemployed for a year or longer – is the highest we’ve seen since the Great Depression. To be honest, you now have a new full-time job: You are a sales person. Your job is to sell yourself. Full-time. And it may require a full-time, 8 to 5 commitment. You must gather leads, qualify them, prioritize them, approach the decision-maker, get an appointment and close the deal – just like any salesperson would.

Leverage your search efforts. The quickest thing you can do is get your updated resume or CV to a good staffing agency. Employment agencies are the single best thing you can do to leverage your job-seeking efforts. Except in some specialized niches, you usually pay no fees. Instead, fees are generally paid by the employer, not by the worker. And if you have a decent and up-to-date skill set, chances are good that a quality employment agency can help you score interviews right away.

Google Yourself. You can bet employers will. Google your name. What will a prospective employer find in the first five pages? Does it reflect well on you? Would you hire you, if all you saw was your Google trail?

Keep Facebook clean. One common mistake is using Facebook to post compromising pics of yourself. Keep the drunk-posting to a minimum, and eliminate gossip, trash-talk, rants about your old job and how stupid your boss is. Work with the assumption that employers will see everything. Have fun, but keep it professional.

Slash expenses. Easy targets include your eating out, non-professional subscriptions, and your Starbucks Latte habit. Learn to handle an iron and you can cut down on your dry cleaning. Go through your bank statement, line by line, and drop everything you can. Cut your nut to the bone. This will help you maximize your most precious resource: Time.

Secure a solid recommendation. If you’re not being let go for cause, ask your boss flat out “can I count on you for a good reference?” Most of the time, the answer will be yes. If the answer is no, or if they avert their eyes and mumble something about “human resources and policy” now is the time to find out.
Keep records. Your job search expenses are tax deductible, as long as you are looking within your existing career field. Keep a mileage log, and hang on to your receipts. Include receipts from career coaches and counselors, training and certification programs, air fares, train fares, cab fares, hotels and restaurants you visited as a result of your job search and resume preparation.

Set up a “War Room.” You must be dedicated to your job search mission. Your mission deserves a dedicated office space, where you can focus and not be disturbed or distracted. If you have a home office, that’s a deductible expense, too – provided it’s a dedicated area and not for mixed business and personal use.

It’s easy to give in to feelings of inadequacy, hopelessness, depression and despair. But by getting a good start, and focusing on the executing the job search process with intensity and a sense of mission, you can have every expectation of getting through this, and getting through it relatively soon. You are still in the United States of America – the land of opportunity, and the greatest country in the world. Bust your tail, and maintain your focus, and you will be fine.

Hourly updated employment opportunities in our CAREER section!
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Want to Lose Weight? Begin in at your Office!

Social media, social networks, work ethics

Posted on 10th June 2011 by Michael Gabriel in Articles

health, office fitness

If you are looking for another reason to stop being a couch potato and look for a job, then we will get it to you: exercise.

Contrary to popular belief, not all types of work result to expanding waistlines, gluttony, and sloth. Based on the recent study of the Department of Health of Washington State, over 70 percent of men and women in the country do achieve the minimum standards of physical activity. The percentage could have gone down, though, if the agency did not factor in work-related activities, which contributed to more than 6 percent to the statistics.

However, there is a huge BUT – a caveat. Sitting in front of the computer for more than 8 hours does not constitute a physical activity. In fact, it makes you more susceptible to cardiovascular diseases in the future.

To ensure that you belong to the healthy ones, you should take note of these tips:

1. Maintain at least 150 minutes or close to 3 hours of moderate physical activities every week.
Instead of taking the elevator, come down using the stairs. Take lunch or dinner a few blocks away from the office and do not hail a taxicab. Just walk. Once in a while, stand up from your desk and stretch.

2. Search for companies that support the health and wellness of employees.
Companies these days have evolved. They’ve learned to step out from conventions and apply radical techniques to keep their employees and make them happy. One of these is creating several health and wellness programs.

What you can expect from these programs vary, but usually, office buildings are already equipped with gyms or yards where employees can jog or walk during breaks or after office hours. They offer discounts to fitness class memberships, as well as come up with physical fitness events such as marathons and bike rides.

3. Find office buddies that share your passion in health and exercise.
Even if your office does not offer any health and wellness programs, you are still bound to lose weight (if not maintain your ideal one) if you have co-workers who are just as conscious as you. They can be your live weight watchers who would immediately call your attention if you’ve been raking in few more pounds.

4. Begin with 10,000 steps.
The 10,000 Steps Program aims to keep people healthy and active by taking the 10,000 steps literally. Usually, you do this with a pedometer, a device you can take with you in the office and which helps monitor your movements. Sans other ways of reducing weight and keeping yourself fit, you can already be a health buff by merely walking to and from the office or within just your company building.

Looking for a job? Check out our CAREER section!
You won’t leave empty-handed!
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Four Tax Tips for the Recently Unemployed

9 comments

Posted on 3rd June 2011 by Jason Van Steenwyk in Articles

career advice, employment, Tax Tips

Sudden unemployment can come as a shock. But it’s important to get organized right away. If you are accustomed to working for someone else, for example, you have to make a huge mental adjustment: You are now in business for yourself. And your business is marketing yourself to potential employers, with the goal of securing a new job.

If you have been a W-2 employee all your life, you may not be used to thinking very much about taxes. But now that you are in business for yourself, it’s important to take the initiative to organize your records, and take advantage of every tax break you can. Now that you are unemployed, you need these breaks now more than ever. Here are three things you can do to get started.

1. Start a mileage log. Miles you drive related to a job search are a deductible expense. Take a clipboard and put it in your car, and start noting your mileage, every time you make a trip related to your job search. As of 2011, you can deduct 58 cents for every mile you drive for the purposes of conducting a job search within your current profession. For example, deduct mileage for these trips:

• Interviews
• Networking events
• Meals with people related to your job search, provided you discuss your job prospects. (1/2 the cost of the meal is deductible, too.)
• Professional organization meetings
• Visits to employment agents or skill testing centers

Tip: You can find a free mileage tracking iPhone app here.

2. Take the home office deduction. Your full-time profession is your job search. Set up an office at home for this purpose. You can deduct a portion of your mortgage or rent, as well as a portion of your utilities for the business use of your home – including a home office you set up for the purposes of conducting a job search.

To figure the deduction, estimate the square footage of the space you devote exclusively to a home office. Divide the square footage you use for your home office into the square footage of your residence. For example, if you live in a 2,000 square foot home, and you devote 400 square feet to a home office, you can deduct up to 20 percent of your rent or mortgage and your utilities.

It doesn’t have to be a separate room, but it must be a space solely devoted to business use. You cannot use it for personal or recreation reasons.

What’s more, if you own the home, you can take an additional partial deduction for depreciation – the gradual wear and tear that comes with the aging of any home. You can only depreciate the home – not the land. For more information on the home office deduction, see IRS Publication 587 – Business Use of Your Home.

Tip: Take a photo of your home office and keep it for your records. Ensure there is no evidence in your photo of mixed personal and business use. This photo could be important later if the IRS attempts to challenge your deduction.

3. Deduct Job Hunt Expenses. As long as you are searching for a job in your current or former profession or industry, you can deduct any fees you pay to further that job search. This means you can deduct whatever you pay to employment agencies, resume preparation fees, mailing costs, professional organization membership dues, and even a cell phone bill, as long as the calls you make are for business purposes. You can deduct the cost of traveling to a job interview site, including air fare, rail travel and lodging, as long as the purpose of the trip is for the job search and not for personal reasons. So don’t try to visit your boyfriend in Hawaii for two weeks and show up for one job interview and try to deduct the whole trip.

To make the most of the deductibility of job search, keep meticulous records. Carry a folder or binder to gather all your receipts. In a pinch, you can take a close-up photo of the receipt with your cell-phone camera. Just be sure to transfer the file.

4. Further Your Education. Now may be a good time to take those classes you’ve been putting off, to upgrade your certification or even to pursue a master’s degree. Educational expenses are deductible if they further your skills and potential for advancement in your current field, and they do not qualify you for a new career field. For example, if you are a bookkeeper, you may be able to take classes in accounting and deduct the cost of tuition, books and fees. You cannot deduct the cost of attending flight school.

What’s more, you may even be able to take advantage of a tax credit for doing so. The Lifetime Learning Credit allows you to deduct up to 20 percent of the first $10,000 of qualified tuition expenses you incur. The credit is means tested, and begins to phase out if you earn over $47,000 per year (or $94,000 if you are married and file a joint return). For more information about the Lifetime Learning credit, see IRS Publication 970 – Tax Credits for Education.

5. Don’t Spend Your Whole Unemployment Check. Remember, in most cases, unemployment compensation is taxable income, just like your wages at work. You can have your state unemployment agency withhold 10 percent of your benefits for income tax by filing a form W-4V. When you do this, though, you are essentially providing the government an interest-free loan. If you don’t have the income withheld, however, you can expect to pay income taxes on everything you collect from unemployment insurance.

Wide spectrum of jobs is available at our CAREER section!
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The Thin Line between Work Ethics and Social Media

6 comments

Posted on 23rd May 2011 by Michael Gabriel in Articles

In Washington, a federal group of labor regulators alleged that the non-profit group Hispanics United of Buffalo had illegally terminated five of its employees after they were caught talking and complaining about their working conditions.

Talking about work is actually very common. If you’re in an office environment, it’s normal for you to see men and women hovering around, talking in whispers near water coolers or inside pantries. If not, you’ll see them drinking beers and taking dinners while discussing about their own jobs and companies.

But what makes this case different – and perhaps very interesting – is the root cause of the termination: Facebook. Further, this is not an isolated case. Before of this, there are already hundreds of similar cases being investigated by the team.

Crossing the Thin Line?
Facebook and other social media websites have been very reachable tools for thousands of people all over the world. They are mainly used for personal connection and reconnection. Posting pictures and videos, as well as updating status messages, allow you to tell your story to friends and family thousands of miles away.

Through the years, though, these social media websites have taken a new different role. They have become sounding boards not just by regular Joes and Janes but also by certified professionals and even high-powered executives. If you want to know how their day went or what they think about the recent policies of the organization, all you have to do is to check Facebook or Twitter, to name a few.

Somehow, social media has helped employees become more open and participative with regards to the growth and development of the organization. If they cannot express themselves face-to-face, they can just do so online and hope that someone firmer and bolder can dare deliver the message to the right person.

But this kind of development doesn’t sit very well to a number of companies and organizations such as Hispanics United of Buffalo. Though their main reason was that the discussion was a form of harassment to another co-worker, there’s also a huge possibility that they didn’t like the fact that such internal matters are taken into cyberspace for the whole world to see. They could be thinking that through social media, these five employees have treaded on thin ice and eventually crossed the thin line that separates proper and inappropriate work ethics.

What’s the Best Course of Action?
According to the federal labor regulators, Hispanics United of Buffalo shouldn’t have fired the workers because they are actually entitled to discuss among themselves their jobs and working conditions in whatever form, including social media.

This is right. Everyone should be entitled to express his or her own opinion in a method he or she deems best. But we may also say that the first step to grievance resolution is to bring the complaint directly to the management. After all, they are the ones who can do something about it, not your colleague.

Check out our CAREER section to find the right job for you!
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How to Use Social Media in Employment If You’re Not Tech-Savvy

4 comments

Posted on 12th May 2011 by Michael Gabriel in Articles

Career adivce, Job Search Tips, Social media, social networks

Times have definitely changed. A long time ago, for you to get a job, you need to spend days, if not weeks, searching, lining up, submitting resumes, and subjecting yourself to grueling interviews and time-consuming wait. Today, that’s not usually the case. Go online, and you will see thousands upon thousands of jobs you can apply with a mere press of a button. Furthermore, there are VoIP applications such as Skype, which could be used for an online interview.

Social media has indeed changed the job-hunting landscape. Unfortunately, it may not sit favorably with those who are not fond and in tune with technology.

If you are one of these people, then you need to know one thing: you have to learn how to be more receptive to the Internet, in general, and social media, in particular. Whether you like it or not, majority of the companies will be looking for candidates who, at the very least, show proficiency in using computer and the World Wide Web.

Of course, embracing what you do not like takes a lot of time and adjustment, but you can definitely do it, especially if you take note of these tips:

• Think of them as helpful tools.
Instead of going cynical about social media tools, consider them as your best friend. They can improve your employment search. You can use them to get a general idea of what companies these days are demanding from their employees. What’s more, you can use them to make better employment decisions, as you can read the company’s culture and business information online. Social media allows for a win-win situation for both the applicant and the boss.

• Increase your network.
There are many ways to increase your network. You can volunteer, attend seminars, enroll in crash courses, or join associations or professional organizations. Doing this satisfies one of the basic but integral components of a successful job search: person-to-person communication. You may ask, “What is the role of social media then?” You can use social media to enhance your professional relationships within your network.

• Choose websites well.
Not all social media sites are worth spending time simply because they don’t do much when it comes to your professional career. We would suggest you prioritize websites such as LinkedIn. This social networking portal is mainly for professionals. You do not need to give any of your intimate information, which you have to do in Facebook or MySpace.

LinkedIn also has plenty of great features that are truly helpful for candidates like you. You can search jobs, connect to companies and recruiters, upload your resume, or promote your blog and portfolio, among others.

• Assess your skills.
With the entry of the Internet, the list of qualifications of companies has also changed. You may need to take some time to assess and even update your skills if you truly want to compete and get the job you want. You can use social media to be more updated about what skills are now needed in your field.

Hourly updated employment opportunities in our Career section!
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The Ups and Downs of Employment in the US

10 comments

Posted on 29th April 2011 by Michael Gabriel in Articles

career advice, Employment News

Is the United States now in a much better place? If you’re going to believe the dip in the unemployment claims for the past months, we can say we are almost there.

Though not all states are bearers of the good news, majority of them are. Statistics revealed a significant drop of unemployment rate in several states, especially those that have been hit hard during the recession.

One of the biggest gainers is Texas, which is now experiencing massive growth in many industry sectors, including hospitality, logging and mining, and business and professional services. According to labor commissioner Ronny Congleton, the main cause of such dramatic increase is the diversity of its labor workforce. Nevertheless, he also believed that this is not enough to breathe a sigh of relief. After all, the ultimate goal is to have a job for anyone who wants one.

The State of Kentucky has posted an increase of close to 12,000 new jobs since March of last year, majority of which came from recreation, accommodation and food, arts and entertainment, and drinking places (yes, bars and clubs). Simply put, more tourists have found their way to the Bluegrass State. But it’s not only their hospitality industry that is starting to grow.

In March 2011, the transportation sector welcomed an additional 2,100 workers into its fold. The areas of retail, wholesale trade, construction, and warehousing also registered an increase in employment.

Though Minnesota falls short when compared to the 1 percent national rate — it only has a 0.8 percent growth over the previous year—it’s still a welcome change. One sector that is booming is hospitality and leisure. It might lift up other people’s spirits to know that the layoff rate is one of the lowest for the past 16 years, and consultancy and recruitment groups have experienced a considerable number of ad placements for the past few months.

Even if everyone is already in the dot-com bubble and thousands are willing to spend money on every new electronic in the market, Silicon Valley (the land of Google, eBay, Cisco, and Apple), wasn’t completely immune to the recession. Hundreds of software developers, webmasters, and web designers, among others, found themselves included in the list of laid-off employees.

Though growth is slow, it looks like almost all the sectors, especially the IT industry, are recovering in this part of San Francisco Bay Area.

The job growth rate, however, is just a part of the entire economic recovery process. It’s also essential that there should also be an increase in consumer spending. This is how everyone can help in the development of the economy.

Looking for a job? Check out our CAREER section!
You won’t leave empty-handed!
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You are not innovative, motivated, results-oriented, dynamic, a problem solver, entrepreneurial or a team player!

6 comments

Posted on 21st April 2011 by Karalyn Brown in Articles

career advice, job advice, LinkedIn profile

OK so you might be. But if you use these words on your LinkedIn summary, you’ll sound exactly like the 90 million other people on LinkedIn!

According to LinkedIn researchers, these are the most common words people use to describe themselves on their LinkedIn profiles.

So how do you avoid these words?

You avoid clichés by giving detail, and by trying to pinpoint exactly why you would describe something that way. Say, for example, you think you are “dynamic.” Why could you say that? Have you succeeded in a constantly changing environment? If so, what did you do and what was the result?

How do you know you are results-oriented? You could show this by listing achievements on your profile.

Like this Marketer:

• For a not-for-profit with minimal budget, I designed and developed new website to re-engage their community to increase their retention of subscription members from 50% to 80%.

In two lines this statement says something to her target audience – she’s worked on a minimal budget and delivered results. She’s demonstrated that she’s result-oriented without having to say it.

The challenge here is that not all jobs have numbers attached. If that’s the case you need to think about your impact. If you’re an Executive Assistant your impact is measured in the support you provide to the team.

Here’s an example of how an Executive Assistant could list his/her achievements:

• Re-configured paper based filing system to an easily accessible online system which reduced file retrieval time to minutes rather than hours;
• Researched and wrote a welcome manual covering office procedures, IT and telephone set-up and OH&S which reduced questions and improved team induction process.

You can show that you are a problem solver by the difference you make for your clients.

Problem solving is different from your skills and responsibilities – which you can list in detail in your “specialties” section. The problem you solve is how you help clients, whether they be internal or external.

This is a problem a PR person may solve:

“We develop public relations strategies with impact… “We genuinely want to make your business more successful. Ask us about our success with unknown brands.”

Here’s an Account Executive:

“With over 15 years in business development creating enduring client relationships, I thrive in roles where I can win business through my creativity and tenacity….I am seeking an Account Executive or Business Development role in an ethical company, with a respected brand, where I can grow a challenging territory.”

Your Linkedin summary section is your chance to tell people why they should hire you, connect with you or recruit you.

Please don’t sound like everyone else!

Wide spectrum of jobs is available at our CAREER section!
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Yes, There is Such a Thing as Over-Preparing for Interviews

3 comments

Posted on 14th April 2011 by Karalyn Brown in Articles

interview panic, interview tips, job advice, Job Interview

Most of the information you’ll read on the web about improving your interview skills tells you about how to prepare for an interview – but there is such a thing as over preparation. That can do you damage as well.

Over-preparation is an easy trap to fall into, particularly if you are keen on a job and want to give it your very best shot – or if you have under-prepared and been caught out in the past. However there are a few signs that your interviewer will pick up – if you’ve overcooked it on the over-prep a little.

If I am an interviewer, here’s how I know you’ve done too much work:

You talk at me, not with me. By this I mean you do not check to see I am listening by looking into my eyes or at my body language. The signs that I have disengaged will often be a quick flick of my eyes. If you’ve over prepared and determined to continue with what you want to say, you’ll miss that cue and continue on while I am quietly nodding off and trying not to show it.
You use words you wouldn’t normally use in everyday conversation.
You tend to paraphrase your actions with some with text-book descriptions of actions you should take. You sound like you have just read the text book on “perfect responses.”
Your answers do not quite hit the mark. The answers have some of the detail I have asked for in my question, but not all.
You sound scripted and nothing like the person who walked in with me and made casual conversation as we sat down. Your speech is too quick, or too mannered. You are in interview mode.

So how much preparation is too much preparation – and how can you slow yourself down?

Before the interview, by all means come up with examples that you’d like to present. Many questions have common themes and behaviours that you’ll be required to demonstrate. But instead of writing your answers out in full and learning your lines, just jot down some bullet points. Talk them out as you would in a conversation. That will stop you sounding scripted at least.

Remember your words are important, but text book sentences are not. We never speak in the same way that we write. And if we do, we sound a little odd. There really is no point learning your lines.

In interview focus on whether the other person understands you, not so much on the words that you are saying. This is a small but hugely significant thing to do. You can change your tone, example, pace and words that will help the other person get your message. If you focus on the other person, it helps make the interviewer think that they are the only person in the world that you want to talk with.

Remind yourself it’s OK to take your time answering a question.

In interview, I like to hear the sound of someone thinking. It means the interviewee is responding in a genuine way to me, and that their answer will be a better reflection of what they have done on a job, instead of something they have practiced.

For more interview tips, visit InterviewIQ.

Hourly updated employment opportunities in our Career section!
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Is U.S. Employment Picking Up?

Posted on 7th April 2011 by Michael Gabriel in Articles

Employment News

Let’s face the truth. Around two to three years ago, you found yourself too scared to even leave the house. You’re afraid you wouldn’t have enough money to pay for it. Every day your heart beat faster in the office, thinking that any minute you’d walk out with no job. In fact, you could already be thinking how you’d survive in welfare or food stamps.

Recession definitely brought a lot of horrors and trauma, but it seemed like in the past now–it looks like America is on the road to recovery.

In the recent non-farm payrolls report released last Friday, March 4, 2011, employment has increased to 192,000 while the unemployment rate was reduced to 0.9 percent point since November of last year. The manufacturing sector, which was terribly hit by the economic meltdown, is hiring thousands of people again. More jobs have also been offered in the areas of transportation, services (both professional and business), as well as health care.

Many states too have already shown positive signs of recovery. In Michigan, for example, the unemployment rate was down to 10.7 percent in January from 11.1 percent last December 2010. And the good news doesn’t stop there. This figure is the lowest unemployment rate for the past three years. Thanks to Health Business Solutions, Dialogue Marketing, and Benteler Automotive Corporation, over 40,000 jobs have also been added. Though economists do not want to rest on their laurels, the Michigan labor force may be able to look forward to more work in construction, manufacturing, trade, and utilities, among others, in the coming months.

California is also picking up, and it’s not just because of Snooki. Bay Area, for example, has just added more than 2,500 jobs last January, as well as South and East Bay. The jobless rate also slightly decreased from 12.5 percent to 12.4 percent during the months of December and January, respectively.

The charming town of Wyoming, on the other hand, added close to 4,000 jobs during 2010, a boost of close to 1.5 percent. A lot of these jobs are offered by companies in the mining and natural resources sector, such as oil and gas. In the month of January, the unemployment rate went down to 6.3 percent, a far cry from the 8.9 percent national unemployment rate posted in February.

But here’s the bad news: now is not the best time to apply in the government sector. It seems to be cutting back on payroll such as on non-farm jobs in state universities and colleges. Public school jobs were also decreased.

Moreover, if there are winners, there are, well, losers. Topping the list is the bustling commercial and economic city of New York. As of March 9, the unemployment rate has just increased. Know, though, that the increase is caused by more people who are looking for work. More jobs are being offered in the areas of business and professional services, hospitality, trade, utilities, and leisure. However, just like in Wyoming, fewer people have been hired by the government.

The unemployment rate of Atlanta, Georgia, has also increased to 10.4 percent from 10.1 percent in a span of one month (between December 2010 and January 2011).

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