TheJobBored.com

As I said, I’m guest blogging all week over at ResumeWriting.com to help them with their resume writing blog relaunch.

I’ve got another post up there today asking the question: why do jobseekers overlook Craigslist? Because it’s ugly. Boring. Sooo… 2004?

Seriously, I think Craigslist is still one of the best job search resources out there. And even if not a lot of people talk about it in this day of LinkedIn and Facebook, I think job seekers would be making a big mistake if they overlook it. And I’ve got five good reasons to back this assertion up. Hint: think local jobs and small business jobs.

Read the whole thing here:

Jobseekers Forget About Craigslist At Their Peril

Over at the newly relaunched ResumeWriting.com blog, I have a guest post about online dating, and what you as a job seeker can learn about not turning off a prospective employer.

Basically, a female friend of mine joined an online dating site and got inundated by messages from guys. How she dealt with the flood of “applicants” and how (and why) she ended up making the choices she did in terms of who got the “interview” reminded me so much of the predicament of the job seeker.

See what she (and I) took away from the experience that might be applicable to your job search.

Full post here:

The Top 4 Things That Job Seekers Can Learn From Online Dating Fiascos

Maybe you saw the headlines this morning. The latest jobs number was pretty terrible. Only 69,000 new jobs were created in May. That doesn’t even keep up with population growth. Even worse, previous months numbers were revised downward. Basically, the job market is stuck in the mud again.

So where ARE the jobs?

Well, any resume writer (like us) could tell you: for years now (at least since the last recession) there’s only one industry that always seems to be hiring. And this Business Insider headline says it all:

Nearly Half Of The New Jobs In America Were Created By One Industry

Key graph:

The economy added a net 69K new jobs in May, according to this morning’s Non-Farm Payrolls report. And nearly half can be attributed to one industry: Healthcare. Over 30K new jobs were created in this industry. What’s more, as you can see in the chart below (which measures the monthly change in the industry), there hasn’t been a single negative month in this industry all through the recession and recovery.

If you don’t believe me, look at this amazing chart they included in the post:

Yep. Pretty much a straight line up. In fact, Healthcare, as an industry, hasn’t had a negative month of job creation since the last recession.

Where are the jobs? Where are the hospitals?

Presented By: BachelorsDegreeOnline.com

Speaking of LinkedIn, I stumbled across this the other day:

How I Got 13 Interviews in 10 Weeks (Without Submitting a Single Application)

In short, you keep hearing how LinkedIn is THE modern tool to use to find a job via networking, right? But maybe you’ve wondered exactly how you’re supposed to go about it. Well, this guy takes you step by step through his method. And it works as well for others as it did for him, he’s really spelled out how to use LinkedIn the right way.

Amazing read.

Quick post because I’m busy. But the new LinkedIn iPad app is absolutely fantastic. In the iTunes app store here.

Image courtesy of TechCrunch.

When should you discuss salary in a job interview?

It’s an old and well known job search strategy to let the employer name the salary first… if you can possibly get them to do so. The idea is that if you suggest the dollar figure first, then you might inadvertently end up getting less than the employer was willing to pay. Obviously, if the employer asks for your salary requirements in the job ad itself, you should be prepared to name a figure in the interview… but try to stall as much as politely possible.

After all, in a sense, your past salary is irrelevant information. A company has a need for someone to fill a position. And the company knows it can afford to pay someone X number of dollars to fill that position. You’re either willing to work for that X dollar figure or you’re not. So the only figure that matters is what this employer is willing to pay. What you were paid in the past is neither here nor there.

In most cases. [Read more →]

By the time you reach the executive level, you have undoubtedly racked up a ton of skills and accomplishments. However, it’s not uncommon for your massive list to not translate well on the resume, leaving it too short. As an executive, you want to make sure that your resume fully represents what you’ve managed to accomplish over the years. So if yours isn’t long enough, here are some tips to help you stretch it out.

Tell Your Story

One way that you can stretch out your mini resume is to tell a story. While many resumes are typically thought of as dry documents (and cover letters are meant for storytelling), there are ways to sneak a story into yours. This is especially true for executive resumes for the same rules don’t apply as for career levels. There are a number of ways to tell your story, including defining who you are and what you want to accomplish in your executive profile, which replaces the objective/summary of qualifications. Also, you can tell 2-3 sentence stories as you define each one of your accomplishments with who, what, when, where, why and how information. [Read more →]

Regardless of how constructive criticism of another person is meant to be, most people, when criticized in any way, are put on the defensive the second they feel as though they have done something wrong. Combine this natural defensiveness with the constructive criticism being given in the context of one’s work, and the potential for the “criticized” person to be left feeling beaten up increases dramatically. To minimize this potential and maximize the effectiveness of any difficult communication, it is helpful to think about what is being said not as criticism, but rather full and complete communication! Full and complete communication leaves no room for reading between any proverbial lines, and it provides the space to speak what is on our minds in a respectful and constructive way. Constructive criticism, how it is received, and its overall effectiveness can hinge on that one single factor.

Keys to Giving Constructive Criticism: [Read more →]

Many professionals understand the importance of LinkedIn in your job search and how to start pursuing job opportunities using this professional networking platform. Once you have these basics under your belt, you are ready to move forward to more advanced LinkedIn job search strategies listed below.

Note: Even if you are not actively seeking an opportunity right now, following these tips for branding yourself and increasing your visibility and credibility across your network will only advance you further in your career and prepare you when it is time for a new opportunity or career change.

1. Brand Yourself: It is essential that you know your unique value and communicate it effectively. To do this, identify your top three to five overlapping strengths that you feel will support your desired career direction. Now create/find a word or phrase that can become your personal brand and that represents these strengths. Develop a short pitch that can follow your brand, describing your strengths in more detail. Most importantly, feature your personal brand in your Profile Header and both your brand and your supporting pitch in your Profile Summary.
2. Get Active in LinkedIn Groups: Start being active and contributing value from day one. Share interesting news with your groups, post links to intriguing articles and join in discussions to show your investment in your industry or area of interest. In addition to joining LinkedIn Groups, you may also choose to start your own group or become an active leader/moderator in an existing group. [Read more →]