TheJobBored

You’ve heard the phrase about falling in love, “It happens when you’re not looking for it.”

An important thing to understand about job search networking is, you don’t just network when you need a job.

A lot of you who read this blog are in the middle of the job search, or are at least thinking about a job search in the near future. But if you’re reading this blog and you’re not exactly looking for a job this very moment, I’ve got news for you:

NOW is the time that you should have your antenna up.

The reason being is this: the quickest job search you’ll ever have is when you’ve already got birds in hand… opportunities lined up for the day to come when you need to explore other options. And those opportunities present themselves every day. If you’re not remembering them, keeping track of them and cultivating them, then you’re letting your best job leads pass you by. [Read more →]

A resume is a marketing document… a personal advertisement… it’s not a “form” or list of things you’ve done.

There. I’ve told you everything you need to know. You don’t need to read the rest of this post.

Unless you want to.

Cause here’s the thing. This is what people don’t get about writing a resume. This is why there are professional resume writers out there who charge money to craft your resume:

It’s not just a form or a list of duties. It’s a SALES JOB. A resume needs to sell you.

When companies want to sell their products, they try to find a compelling angle, a hook. (And more often then not, they hire outside professionals to help them, but that’s for another post, another time.) Very rarely do you see advertisements that just list the details of the product. You wouldn’t really want to sell soap by listing the ingredients, chemical by chemical.

I hate it when I see resumes that are just lists of duties. “My next job was at company XYZ. My title was such-and-such. I answered the phones, interacted with customers, filed reports, blah, blah, blah.” [Read more →]

According to the Divine Caroline, the simple excuse of “I’m not feeling well” is not getting as much traction as a valid missed-work excuse anymore.

She thinks that the issue is that the notion of work and workplace is “becoming abstracted, allowing for the possibility of video-conferencing and telecommuting, there is often nothing wrong with working from home, or putting in a few hours after work one day and arriving late the next.”

I once had a friend who lost a job because he told s boss he “forgot he had a job.” Which was probably literally true. During the last recession he was out of work so long, he had gotten used to a completely different lifestyle and sleep schedule. Oh, and also, he had resorted to contracting, so he wasn’t used to specific hours and assignments. It wasn’t until about 1pm on the day in question that he realized someone had expected him to show up for work at 9am that morning.

I don’t recommend using that excuse. Or hiring my friend!

Caroline has better excuses than that. 5 of them are good ones and 5 of them have holes:

Ten Excuses For Missing Work

Apparently, people are taking to sites like craigslist and eBay not just to find original Voltron toys from the 80s… but simply to make ends meet (h/t SavvySugar).

Americans unload prized belongings to make ends meet

At Craigslist, which has become a kind of online flea market for the world, the number of for-sale listings has soared 70 percent since last July. In March, the number of listings more than doubled to almost 15 million from the year-ago period.

Craigslist CEO Jeff Buckmaster acknowledged the increasing popularity of selling all sort of items on the Web, but said the rate of growth is “moving above the usual trend line.” He said he was amazed at the desperate tone in some ads.

I’ve mentioned before that I think ResumeWriters.com sees anecdotal evidence of the health of the economy before anyone else does. Our business saw a surge in client volume beginning last August/September, and hasn’t slackened yet.

Here’s some more anecdotal evidence, at least from our front lines: [Read more →]

There’s a series of things “they” always tell us to do: payoff your debt, never carry a credit card balance, fully fund your 401k and IRA every year…

One of the things “they” also mention is a rainy day emergency fund. How many of us out there are disciplined enough to have one of these? And I mean a real one… money set aside that you won’t breakdown and use as a down payment on a new car? Money you won’t touch unless you absolutely need it.

If you feel your job is in danger, this discussion is not completely academic. Depending on the data you look at, the average job search is 6-weeks to 3 months. Can your family go that long without your income? What if you need to purchase health insurance for the interrum?

Heck, even in the best of all possible world’s, any jobs search has the potential to break your bank. If you suddenly have to take a new job halfway across the country, do you have enough money to move your household over there?

There are plenty of different philosophies about an emergency fund. [Read more →]

This is not an Ask Brian question, exactly, but a reader sharing his experience:

I’ve been reading your blog for a couple of months now, and you have made the fair point that the best way to get hired is to find a way to solve the employer’s problems. Don’t just fill their need; suggest that hiring you might fill ALL their needs in a way. I thought you might like this story because I applied that sort of thinking recently, and it got me hired.

I heard through a friend of a friend that a local place was thinking of doing a Vista upgrade on their whole office. But they had no one to do it. Too small for a tech team. Now, this is a place I’ve been dying to work. As I say, I know some people who work there, but they’ve never been able get me an in.

But my friend told me they had this need. So I told him to offer to his boss that I’d come in and do their upgrade. They said they couldn’t afford it. So I said I’d do it for a small stipend.

It took me the better part of a day, but it was a great experience. I got to know most of the people around the office, sitting at their desks and working on their computers and all, and I got them all up and running. I even got to go back a couple of times to answer some questions and fix a few things. But it was a great thing. I basically got to show my face to the whole office. [Read more →]

Man, was I busy last week! That’s why I grabbed the quick 4-day vacation last month when the opportunity came up. I knew this week was coming.

Even though I’ve turned over the day to day operations at ResumeWriters.com to professional management, in the end, I’m still the bossman, and occasionally that means I have to work as hard as I used to.

The past four months have been the busiest four month period in ResumeWriters history. Extrapolate any evidence this may provide as to the health of the job market on your own…

Anyway, we desperately needed an organizational re-organization in order to better manager the flood of business. That’s all sorted out now. Be back to posting normally on Monday.

As opposed to last week’s

The latest weekly data show first-time claims for state unemployment benefits jumping 10% to return to the 380,000 level.  That’s an uncomfortably high number. Tomorrow is the monthly report. Expected to be down around 75k jobs.

“Networking” is sort of a nebulous word for some people. What does networking mean, exactly? What does it entail? How does one go about doing it?

Of course, networking is just knowing people. And more importantly, it’s about knowing more people… and hopefully knowing more people that might be able to help you in a professional way. After all, if your current friends could help you find a job, well… why haven’t you asked them already? You want to meet new people from all over. You never know who might be able to open a door for you.

Here’s a quick way to network effectively: start volunteering.

Volunteering is a great way to interact with people from all walks of life in an interactive and pseudo-professional environment. You’re working together to get something done, and you’re demonstrating a certain level of the skill sets you possess as a professional.

The best part is, the people you meet getting out there and volunteering might be from entirely new backgrounds and industries you haven’t brushed shoulders with before. This is key. The lawyer you meet tomorrow might be married to an accountant who knows of an opening in her office that would be a perfect fit for you.

I used the picture of the youth soccer coach for a reason. [Read more →]

The invention of the cell phone gave job seekers one of their most powerful tools. You might do your search and application process over computers and emails, but the cell phone is your primary weapon when it comes to the interviewing stage.

Wielding this weapon in the right way can be very important to your overall job search success.

Here are a few key points to keep in mind when job searching via cell phone:

• I like the cell phone for the simple reason that it gives you immediacy. Immediate feedback and immediate response. You know right away when interview offers come in. And you can follow up right away… even while you’re in the middle of running a marathon, according to the picture (not recommended). If you use your home phone, at best you have to call in to your voicemail. At worst you have to go home, get the message, and at that point it’s probably past business hours, so you can’t respond in a timely manner.
• You NEVER want to job search on your work cell. Personal cell only.
• One cell phone. One number. One number for them to call and reach you reliably, and one number that will show up on their caller id when you respond. No confusion that way. And all of your job-search related voicemails are in one place.
• My favorite thing about the cell phone: you can follow up right away, but you don’t have to take every call blindly. Some people might not agree with this, but I say, let the call go to voicemail. This way you can see who called and what their business is. Is your schedule open for the interview time they offered? What are they offering? Is it worth it? Going to voicemail gives you a quick chance to think things over. And then there’s this… WHO is that that called again? If you’re managing a big job search, you have time to do a quick google search or re-read the original job post you applied to. Bone up a bit before you call back so you know what you’re talking about. [Read more →]