MyJobSearcher.com

In the dark? Billions of dollars were doled out under the economic stimulus umbrella. Yet the question remains. When do dollars translate to jobs?

Unemployment rates continue to rise with over 500,000 jobs lost in the month of May. Of those unemployed 21% have been out of work for at least 15 weeks. People need work, and a paycheck.

Approaching or continuing your job search leaves some questions to be answered. Where to look next? Do I start asking for less money? How can I standout as more and more people are looking for work?

Simply looking to whether the economic storm? Diversify. Working in industries that are new to you might offer more success in a bad economy. Find out what industries are doing best and look for work there.

Leisure and hospitality, education, and health services faired the best employment rates as unemployment climbed from 8.9% in April to 9.4% in May.

If you plan to fish it’s worth being sure there is something in the pond. Being an experienced professional and having a desire to continue along your established career path can make a layoff more difficult. It’s worth knowing what you’re up against. The most jobs lost in May: Manufacturing 156,000, construction 59,000, and professional and business services 51,000.

If your industry is fairing worse than others as you look for work preparation and informed tactics are a must have. With over 500,000 jobs lost in April one question job seekers are asking is, do I ask for less money? As an established professional you are already attune to salary levels and compensation structure in your industry. And if you are approaching a field of work new to you, be sure to do your research. Asking for less money can make a statement about your value as an employee that you would want to avoid I am less valuable.

Continue to treat inquiries for salary requirements as usual. This may not be the time to look for a raise but give an honest salary history and agreeable compensation can be settled after the position has been offered.

Increasing joblessness brings employers one blessing, an ever-increasing pool of candidates. Job seekers need strategy to rise to the top.

Resumes should constantly be reevaluated. We all reach a point where we feel our resume is complete. This is the ideal time to share your resume with friends, family and trusted colleagues. Ask this group to look for specific things, a critique on content for example. Verbiage choice, tone and voice can all be examined and constantly refined.

Your resumes aesthetics are just as important. Using Microsoft Word has limits. Template programs, no matter how expensive they are deliver one thing, a template resume.

Consider Adobe Illustrator as an alternative solution to creating a resume that stands out. The program consists of a series of tools allowing you to create a visual presence free from template. Use unique but subtle color. Find fonts that are not only different but extend your personality. Choose a layout that best features your credentials, rather than force fitting them into a template.

Your end goal should be to create a resume that is well written, visually pleasing, and stands out as an extension of your personality. Once taken care of a few other tactics can aid the job search.

Let people know that you are unemployed. Sounds strange? Letting friends, family and colleagues know that you have lost your job can work to your advantage.

Often, job openings are spread through social and professional circles well before they are ever publicized. Simply informing others of your employment situation may lead you to positions that have yet to be advertised, allowing you to enter the candidate pool early.

Consider further publicizing your unemployment. Blogs are becoming increasingly popular and using them to document your job search can be advantageous. A blog presents you with the opportunity to write relevant articles offering your knowledge of an industry, demonstrates to employers that you are constructively using the time your unemployment has afforded, while also presenting an opportunity to publicize your credentials. Visit Brittany Ward’s blog for an example of constructively blogging your unemployment.

Professional events are another venue you should plug yourself into when looking for work. Meetup.com and LinkedIn.com offer an endless number of groups and professional events in nearby areas. Professional events allow you to meet more people working in your field, increasing your professional network and potentially clue you into career opportunities.

With economic stimulus uncertainties, increasing unemployment and a growing need to find work it’s necessary to make every effort to win over employers. Tact and attitude can be your most valuable tools when approaching these difficult times. Periodically reevaluate your resume, confront unemployment with proactive networking and lend attention to what industries are fairing best.

Shape the look of MyJobSearcher. We’ve been thinking about a new looks for sometime. So help us make the call. Out with the old and in with the new? Have some thoughts you would like to share? Leave us your ideas below. Your input means the world to us, and for sharing it we say THANK YOU!

Help choose our next logo. Eleven logos to choose from, only one winner. Tell us what you think, review the logos, vote and share your thoughts. Click the image to have a closer look. What are you thinking? We would love to know…so tell us below, why you voted for which entry.

 Put your best face forward…good advice when engaging the job hunt, interviewing for a promotion or exuding plain old good demeanor. We don’t issue advice unless we practice it ourselves. With that said, MyJobSearcher is looking for the right logo to send forward as the face of the best place candidates and employers come to connect online. Your input means the world to us, and for sharing it we say THANK YOU!

As a successful approach to clearing congested city streets and improve public transportation, congestion-pricing is a panacea many big cities are considering to cure infrastructure ailments. Find out more about congestion-pricing and how it might affect you. 

Ticket to Ride

April 13, 2009 by: Morgan Clendaniel GOOD Magazine

How to appease the interest groups keeping congestion pricing from our cities.

In 2003, London enacted a congestion-pricing plan that charged motorists about $11 to drive into various zones in the city center. The successful implementation of congestion pricing in a major urban area only further emboldened supporters of the concept, who have long argued that congestion pricing is the simplest and most effective way to limit the number of cars in urban settings, thus reducing emissions, fuel use, and traffic.

In 2007, New York City’s mayor, Michael Bloomberg, announced that he wanted to implement congestion pricing in New York. It was to work like this: Drivers in Manhattan below 60th Street would have to pay $8; commercial drivers would pay $21; taxi passengers would pay $1. (Tolls from bridges or tunnels to and from the pricing zone would be subtracted from the fee.) The revenue would be used to improve the city’s public-transit infrastructure, and the decrease in traffic could contribute up to $13 billion in saved costs to businesses…read more at GoodIs 

Cross post to over 50 job boards from one online location. Of value?

I was tired of logging in and out. Tired of copy-pasting the same position again and again. Running short on time, I wasn’t able to post to all the job boards I wanted to. Maximum effort and moderate results were the case in hand.

Frustration fuels innovation. The idea for the newest efforts of My Job Searcher were just that. A teeth-grinding leap towards time savings and improved efficiency.

We developed a single online location that our staff uses to post to multiple job boards with just one click of a mouse. That’s right, log in once, copy-paste once, and post an available position on over fifty sought after job boards—time saved—efficiency proceed to 60MPH!

Connecting with popular free sites such as: Simply Hired, Indeed, Craig’s List (many cities are offered free), niche boards and employment offices around the country has improved our nation-wide reach. Linking Career Builder and Monster accounts has only further streamlined posting.

Could this be valuable to anyone else? Where should the latest innovation of My Job Searcher go next?

Faster, simpler, convenient and cost effective. Reaching thousands of qualified candidates, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week has its appeal. The Society for Human Resources Professionals (SHRM) says more than 90% of HR professionals are using the Internet for recruiting.

How about niche markets? I have spoken with recruiters hiring developers requiring specific training and software licensing. Cutting edge IT needs can bring a wave of resumes, but a need for candidates with specific training may leave recruiters scratching their heads in cyber space.

With time committed to job board posting: logging in and out over and over, repetitive copy-pasting, and hundreds and thousands of dollars needed to access popular boards like Monster and Career Builder, recruiters and staffers need to enter the online recruiting community aware of what works and what doesn’t.

What’s working for you?

Read the rest of this entry »

Walking down memory lane and watching Perry Mason may cause you to think that Della Reed was indispensable to Perry Mason.  That girl could work!  She was absolutely dependable, knew what her boss wanted before he knew, smiled at the right time, remained quiet when required, always brought just the right document to court at the very moment Perry needed it. Available all hours of the night or day.  She even traveled when required and she never let her personal life get in the way of her job!  Poor Della remained the dedicated spinster secretary to Perry all the way into the 80’s. Let’s face it, Perry would have been nothing without her!

Guess what:  she was still subject to dispensability!  And Perry would have carried on without her.  He’d have found himself a new Della, a gal with all the right moves at all the right times, who was just as much the super legal secretary that Della was.

So why didn’t he?  Because Della knew that she could be replaced.  She never put on airs, acted like the company would fall apart without her or put others in a position of thinking that if it weren’t for her, they would have no job. Not only was Della the perfect employee, she knew never to let her knowledge of her perfection go to her head and become apparent to her boss!  She never lost sight of the fact that no matter how good she was, she was dispensable.

Thus the secret to truly being “indispensable” lies in being able to recognize that you are not indispensable.

You want to keep your job, right?  Then operate from the viewpoint that your job matters, your boss matters, and your co-workers matter.

Never operate from the viewpoint that the place will fall apart without you, or that nobody else can do what you do, or that the whole office is in motion because of you.  There’s nothing a boss or co-worker hates more than that type of attitude!  Interestingly, it is the attitude like this one that also shows just how dispensable you are.

Never lose sight of the fact that the office was running before you arrived, it was running while you were there, and it will continue to run after you are gone.  Sure, there may be a few bumps in the road after you leave, and there may have been a few bumps in the road before you arrived, we are not trying to discredit the work you do or the value that you are to the company.

We just don’t want you making the mistake of letting it go to your head, thus causing your overall value and worth to the company to be jeopardized.  Never forget that your indispensability lies in knowing that you are not indispensable!

Terms:

indispensable – absolutely necessary, essential

dispensable – not necessary or essential

You are not indispensable – a phrase that employees will sometimes hear from a manager, co-worker or owner indicating that they are not essential to the company.

As stated in an earlier article, working from home can be very rewarding for many people. As America becomes more energy conscious and more family conscious, there are more and more employers offering this opportunity.

Not all work at home jobs are scams. Conversely, not all work at home jobs are legitimate. If you have decided that you have what it takes personality-wise and skill set-wise to be a candidate for working from home, then you will need to be aware that there are some jobs out there which are not legitimate.

The best way to avoid the potential scam job is to be more aware of the legitimate companies that offer this opportunity and to be aware of what they offer. Here are a few guidelines:

Is the company legitimate?

• Check with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) for your area

• Do some internet searches to see what others have said about them

• Check with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) website. You can do searches for press release or other information on any employer you are considering

• Visit Fraud.org – they should also be able to inform you of civil and criminal complaints – existence or non-existence of for your prospective employer.

Is the work legit?

• If you need to fork over a sizable amount of cash, it is not a legitimate job, but it may possibly still be a legitimate work opportunity. If you are looking for a job, then you shouldn’t have to pay to start.

• Ask a few questions, such as:

  • What tasks will you be performing?

    • The tasks should not include the use of your bank account, your credit card, or paypal account.

  • Is the pay a salary or commission?

    • Salary or commission is acceptable or a combination – as long as the commission structure is sound and does not have a long list of qualifiers before you finally get it!

    • In some scenarios operating as an independent is also acceptable, but keep in mind you will need to do your own tax accounting and set asides. (positions like professional writers, bookkeepers, etc. are often “1099 employees”.)

  • How often do you get paid and who pays you?

    • Pay should be routine (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or upon invoice submission if you are 1099) and it should be coming from the company that plans on hiring you.

  • How do you get paid?

    • At first, it had better be a paycheck that you can come to the office to pick up, or have mailed to you.

    • After time, and once you’ve satisfied yourself that you are working with a legitimate company, if they offer direct deposit, then you can sign up for that program.

    • You should not be paid in cash!

With a little research and common sense, you should be able to find a legitimate position with a legitimate company and enjoy the pleasure of working from your own home.

More and more Americans are setting up offices in their homes and joining the work force.

It is a solution to a number of family, environmental, and financial problems that arise when we go out to work each day. There are many excellent positions offered by legitimate companies that can be done from home. There are also many different types of professions that more and more are migrating to home working scenarios because there is cost savings for both the employer and the employee.

There are also numerous benefits to the person who works at home– including less commute time and less wear and tear on their vehicle, which means also less car insurance premiums as the amount of driving so greatly reduced. As well, there are fewer expenses for wardrobe, eating out, etc.

On the other hand, there are other expenses, such as buying your own office supplies, having your own office space, and maintaining your own office equipment, but this is not a complete list.

For those who enjoy working from home, it can be ideal, and conversely for those who require more interaction with others, it can be a form of torture. Thus, make sure you are the type that likes working at home before you pursue that opportunity.

Keep in mind, you have to be your own self-starter, task manager, and scheduler. You can’t allow work/home activities to encroach upon each other. You have to create and stick to a schedule. You have to be available during work hours and not available when the office is closed unless you’ve made special arrangements for a late meeting or a client to call upon a rare occasion.

For the working parent, working at home can be a real challenge as well. How do you juggle the client on the phone, with the child who wants his or her lunch? It can be done, but you will need to work through a few aspects of the time and home/work balance management to get it to work for you. Often home workers with small children will have an in-house nanny, or still take their children to daycare– at least part of the week.

It is important to keep in mind the professional environment that you need to maintain – especially if you are working the phones or minimally have clients who contact you. Don’t have dogs barking at the mailman in the background, or kids jumping on the furniture with you hollering over to them to stop.

Work at home is still work and the rules of professionalism still apply. Keep in mind that your clients need to know you are a professional, not some second-rate worker who can’t afford an office.

The main issue is to first determine if you have the personality to work at home. The second is to determine is if your profession can be done from home. Then once you start to look for a position, make sure you don’t get yourself into a “scam”, which we will cover in another article.

Working from home can be very rewarding for the right person. Explore the area to see if it is for you. Read the article in this serious that gives you guidelines to avoid scams before you start your job search as well.