Are you prepared for your 2010 job search?
SAN DIEGO, CA -- So it's the new year and you're now thinking about a new job. Maybe you're currently unemployed or you'd like to find a new job, but the current state of the economy has undermined your efforts. You don't have to wait out the storm. Take new steps to prepare for your 2010 job search. By laying the groundwork now, you'll be well-positioned once the job market recovers, giving you a valuable edge.
Here are a couple of key steps to get you started: Update your resume! The most essential element of any job search is an up-to-date resume. If you haven't touched your resume in awhile, dust it off and make sure it highlights your most recent skills, areas of responsibility and accomplishments. Taking a little time over several weeks to work on this document is better than rushing to complete your resume all at once.
Also be sure to keep your online professional profiles current. If you don't have one yet, go to LinkedIn.com and create one. Your professional profile serves as an informal resume for recruiters, who are frequently using these sites to locate talented candidates. Make sure to put your best digital foot forward. In a competitive job market, a polished professional reputation can make or break your chances of landing a new position in 2010.
Free resume critique and price quote!
LOS ANGELES, CA -- You've got terrific experience. Your work ethic is superb. You're even willing to be flexible on salary. But after sending your resume to countless, perfectly matched career opportunities, you're just not getting the interviews. Why? It may be hard to believe, but there's a good chance your resume is the culprit. With the average employer spending less than 30 seconds scanning each resume they receive, your resume needs "The Right Stuff" to grab attention and get the interview.
What is the Right Stuff? To find out, The Career Digest has arranged for its subscribers to receive a complimentary resume critique and price quote from a certified professional resume writer. You'll not only find out what's right with your resume -- but more importantly, if it is actually preventing you from getting interviews.
While the critique is free and valuable, you'll also learn how a professional writer might successfully re-vamp your resume and refine your job search strategies -- and exactly what that would cost. This may just start making you money quicker than you think. To receive your free price quote and resume critique today, follow this link.
New job strategies for the New Year
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Happy New Year! For those who are still unemployed, it may be a time for some new job-hunting strategies. Here are a few job search tips to help you avoid the mistakes of yester-year and get off to a running start in 2010.
Get back to basics. If you haven't been getting interviews, it's time to revamp your resume and cover letter. Seek help from a professional resume writer or career transition expert. "There are jobs out there. You have to make sure you're presenting yourself in best possible way. Tweak your resume, writing it for the job you want, not the jobs you've done," says Mason Jackson, chief executive of Workforce One. Adjust your attitude. Job seekers often are stuck in the old paradigm that "I'm embarrassed to be out of work," Don't be: Workers stay in jobs an average of only four years in today's market. Another mistake is the "woe is me" talk. This approach is not going to make companies hire you.
Do a few self-assessment tests and identify your strengths and then target six employers where you feel you may be a good fit. Consider yourself a free agent. Take the attitude of "you're going to work for yourself and you're going to lease yourself to a company." Develop your personal brand. Keep going to professional organizations and industry conventions. By continually developing your brand, you'll be able to offer solutions to employers looking for specific skills.
Why should you use niche job boards?
SCOTTSDALE, AZ -- The first thing most people think of when they think of an online job search are big job boards like Monster, craigslist, HotJobs, Careerbuilder and Job.com. But there are other options out there: the niche or specialty job boards. The advantage of these sites is that they focus on a specific industry or career field.
Increasing evidence shows that niche job boards are the most effective way for companies to find the strongest job candidates. That was among the major findings recently at the Third Annual Conference of Nicheboards.com. In an improved job market, niche boards are posting more open positions and drawing a greater share of targeted, high-quality job seekers -- those with appropriate skills and background. The result: companies are using these industry-focused websites to fill their most important positions.
For a lot of job searchers, it's easier to find timely, serious job openings on the niche boards. There are literally hundreds and hundreds of niche job boards out there. Some may only have a handful of jobs, while others are updated more often with new job opportunities.
Niche boards & career sites your resume should be on!
LOS ANGELES, CA -- There are hundreds of sites where you can post your resume online. Some sites, like CareerBuilder, let you upload an existing resume with the click of a button. On other sites you can cut and paste or use a resume building wizard. Start with the top job sites like Job.com, CareerBuilder, and Dice as well as the mid-size and niche job boards. Then keep track of where you've posted your resume and make a list of your login names and passwords.
Or if you are interested in saving time, use a service that will post your resume for you to all of them. Resume Rabbit, for example, instantly posts your resume to over 85 of the top job boards and career sites, including the ones listed above.
You'll get a personal online posting report with log-in information for each site so you can update your resume and apply directly to job postings. They also provide confidentiality and spam protection services. Visit Resume Rabbit today and instantly make your resume visible to 1.5 million employers & recruiters!
How are job seekers spending their time?
LOS ANGELES, CA -- The average unemployed person spends 18 minutes a day hunting for a job. Eighteen minutes! Think about this: You are unemployed, sitting at home, frustrated maybe, angry for sure, and worried about the cable bill. Dr. Phil is on reruns and so is Oprah. But wait, Judge Judy starts in 20 minutes. It's job-searching time. Head for your computer, send out twenty resumes with the new format. Hurry, hurry ...here comes the Judge.
Here are some questions about this to ponder: Why is this? Is it laziness of the job seeker? Did the government make it easier to stay home by extending unemployment benefits? Do job seekers lack the knowledge to do a better job at searching? How long should a job search take each day?
The truth is, most of the unemployed do not know what to do. As you ponder your own questions and answers to the above, throw this in the mix. There are jobs available in every company. They just might not be advertised. Every company has a job or task that needs doing. Companies went through cutbacks, and chances are they did not lessen the workload. There are lots of jobs not getting done. It takes extra work--way beyond those 18 minutes--to dig those jobs out and to find those managers who are overworked and understaffed.
Job search engine saves you time and effort!
LOS ANGELES, CA -- With a new service called MyJobHunter, you can search all top career sites at once & apply to all matching jobs with one click. Just enter what you're looking for, review the matching jobs and 'check mark' the ones you want. Then, click a single button and you'll instantly be applied to all of them at once (whether 1 or 1000) with your resume and cover letter.
Click another button and you can automate the whole process. MyJobHunter actually remembers your search criteria, looks for new job matches every day, and automatically applies to them for you when it finds a match. Then you'll get an email each day listing each job applied to with links so you can review the descriptions.
Did you know that most employers find qualified applicants within the first group of resumes they receive? That's why MyJobHunter really works! It gets your resume in the hands of interested employers immediately after their jobs are advertised - and long before your competition. This gets your resume there faster and increases your job opportunities. To learn more follow this link.
How to land a job of the future
NEW YORK, NY -- If you're gearing up for a job search now, there are several bright spots where new jobs and promising career paths are expected to emerge in the next few years. Technology, health care and education will continue to be hot job sectors, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' outlook for job growth between 2009 and 2018.
Those and other fields will yield new opportunities, and even some tried-and-true fields will bring some new jobs that will combine a variety of skill sets. The degrees employers say they'll most look for include finance, engineering and computer science. But to land the jobs that will see some of the most growth, job seekers will need to branch out and pick up secondary skills or combine hard science study with softer skills.
Career experts say the key to securing jobs in growing fields will be coupling an in-demand degree with expertise in emerging trends. For example, communications pros will have to master social media and the analytics that come with it; nursing students will have to learn about risk management and electronic records; and techies will need to keep up with the latest in Web marketing, user-experience design and other Web-related skills.
Online universities offer convenience and higher pay
NEW YORK, NY -- According to the U.S. Census Bureau the difference in lifetime earnings between a high school diploma and bachelor's degree is a million dollars. Add on a master's degree and you can expect to earn an additional half a million dollars in earnings. Those with professional degrees earn much more - about 4.4 million dollars during their working life.
Jennifer Day, Chief of the Education and Social Stratification Branch at the U.S. Census Bureau says, "In 1999, average annual earnings ranged from $19,000 for high school dropouts, to $26,000 for high school graduates, and $45,000 for college graduates and $99,000 for the holders of professional degrees. That includes medical doctors, dentists, veterinarians and lawyers.
If you think that the only way to earn a degree is to spend gobs of money and traverse across a complicated college campus, taking anywhere from two to eight years to get your Associate's, Bachelor's or Master's or even doctorate degree...think again. With advances in technology, you can now get your degree online, from an accredited university in your spare time and from the comfort of your own home. To learn more about available schools & programs, and instantly request complimentary course catalogs of the schools you like, follow this link.
Career Tools Highlighted in This Issue:
- Complimentary resume critique Get a critique and price quote from a resume professional
- Resume Rabbit Get your resume on over 85 job sites - Takes only 5 Minutes.
- MyJobHunter - Job Search Engine Tool Search all top job sites at once & apply to jobs with 1-click.
- Find the right school Earn a degree online and increase your marketability!
