-
How to Beat 8 Job-Search Time-Wasters
Tweet Share on Facebook November 30, 2010 Comment (8)If you’re looking for work, you’re likely wasting time in one way or another. After years of working in a structured environment, you’re now your own boss in the job-search world, which has few clear guidelines.
But if you learn to identify your biggest time-wasters, you can turn those minutes and hours into productivity. Here are eight common job-search time-wasters and how you can beat them:
1. Applying for everything.
You’re doing such a good job applying for jobs that you stop reading the job descriptions. If it’s within your function or industry, you let the application fly. It’s so inexpensive and so easy to shoot off a resume. Why wouldn’t you apply to one more?
-
The 6 Worst Ways to Pick a Career
Tweet Share on Facebook November 30, 2010 Comment (6)Ask any graduating senior and they will tell you that choosing a career, while an exciting prospect, is also terribly stressful. After all, once the safety of academia disappears, you’re on your own, often pursuing a job that matches your educational experience. We’re all told that we can be anything we want to be, and that’s true. But the part that’s often left out is the difficult road we must travel to get there.
When choosing a career path, keep in mind the acronym VISE:
- Values
- Interests
- Skills
- Environment
These four factors, considered in that order, can help you determine the best career path for you. But there are many traps along the way, ones that can lead you on the wrong career path.
Here are the six worst ways to pick a career and tips to avoid them:
-
Tips for Getting a Good Start in a New Job
Tweet Share on Facebook November 26, 2010 Comment (3)As the job market improves and more companies start to hire, we’ll likely see more people changing jobs. Many will join companies not as full-time employees, but as contractors, temporaries, and consultants.
Being able to assimilate quickly and successfully into a new job at a new company can be a real differentiator for success, especially in today’s employment market. The first 30 days of a new job is a window of opportunity, one that can make the difference between long-term success and failure.
During the early days, you have a chance to meet people and learn about your company, opportunities that may not be available once the “new guy” status wears off. Every door is open, and every question is accepted. After that first month, you’ll be expected to know who is who and what you’re supposed to do.
-
The Most Powerful Words to Use on Your Resume
Tweet Share on Facebook November 24, 2010 Comment (12)Last week we listed 50 buzzwords to avoid using on your resume. Some readers wrote to us asking, “What about a list of words I can use on my resume?”
Fair question. Unfortunately, there’s no list of best words to put alongside a list of worst words. Why? Because the “best” words, sometimes known in the biz as keywords, are different for every job and every resume.
Fortunately for the job seeker, you can use tools to figure out which words are optimal for your resume. You’ll have to be a bit of a detective. But, when you think about it, job hunting is a lot like detective work anyway.
Here are some clues to get you started:
-
How Communicating With Salespeople Can Help Your Career
Tweet Share on Facebook November 23, 2010 CommentCommunication skills are vital to our careers, yet we don’t often look for opportunities to improve them. While dealing with salespeople can be stressful—we often see them as a drain on our bank account—that interaction can also serve as a chance to sharpen our negotiation skills. And learning to negotiate is essential no matter what career we’re striving for.
Here are a few ways to improve your communication skills the next time you deal with a salesperson:
-
10 Tips For Submitting Your Resume
Tweet Share on Facebook November 22, 2010 Comment (7)Considering all of the effort you put into the content of your resume, make sure you don’t undercut yourself by failing to pay attention to how you submit it. The way you turn in this important document can affect your chances of landing the position just as much as what you include in it.
So when you’re ready to submit your resume, consider this checklist to increase your chances of getting the job:
1. Follow the instructions—precisely.
Make sure you follow any instructions to the letter. For instance, if the job posting says to put the position title in the subject line, do it—no matter what subject line you’d rather use instead. If you don’t, there’s a good chance your resume will go straight to the bottom of the pile, simply because you didn’t follow directions.
-
How to Make a Career Change That Seems Impossible
Tweet Share on Facebook November 18, 2010 Comment (3)Imagine standing at a crossroads, trying to decide which way to go. One road leads you directly to the destination where you’d originally intended to go, while others fork off in different directions. Some of those roads loop back around and join up with the original road, and some lead in unexpected and interesting directions.
But soon after arriving at the crossroads, you discover that the road straight ahead—the direct path to your destination—is blocked. The road has washed out, and you can’t go any farther. You heave a sigh of resignation, figuring it’s impossible to reach your destination, and turn around. You give up.
Given the multiple options still available to you, how much sense does that make? None. And yet, people do it all the time when it comes to their career pursuits (not to mention their lives in general). If you give up, you’ll never find or create a career that lights you up.
-
6 Ways to Boost Your Job Search on LinkedIn
Tweet Share on Facebook November 18, 2010 Comment (6)Networking and job hunting have come a long way in the last 20 years. New research tools and the immediacy of the Internet bring job seekers directly in contact with companies and employers, allowing us to build networks that our counterparts of the past would only envy.
LinkedIn continues to be the most direct and powerful online tool, one that’s certainly worth the energy if you’re job hunting. But be sure you don’t make one of the most common LinkedIn mistakes: being passive about your search. Setting up a profile and adding connections is a good start—but it’s just the beginning. To get the most benefit from LinkedIn, you have to become a proactive user, reaching out to others, participating in the community, and continuously working to build your network.
-
50 Buzzwords You Shouldn’t Use on Your Resume
Tweet Share on Facebook November 17, 2010 Comment (23)You’ve written your resume. You poured a lot of effort into the page that will represent you, and you can’t wait to distribute it far and wide.
Not so fast. Before you send that puppy out, check it for buzzwords. Like “team player.” Or “detail-oriented.” Or “accustomed to fast-paced environments.”
Here’s why you should avoid them: They’re vague. They make your resume look like everyone else’s. They’re probably not among the keywords employers search for. They take up space on your resume that could be used for strong, concrete, specific examples of what you’ve accomplished, the work you’ve produced, and how hiring you would benefit your potential employer. Buzzwords are tired and overused, clichés that have lost their meaning over time.
-
How to Fend Off Job-Search Addiction
Tweet Share on Facebook November 16, 2010 Comment (2)Do you find yourself searching for a job—even when you’re relatively happy with the one you have? Most of us keep our eyes out for jobs that would cause us less stress, but if you're constantly looking when you don't need to, you might have a problem.
Signs of job-search addiction include:
- Feeling like you must visit job boards daily or several times a day
- Failing in your attempts to stop visiting job boards
- Doing things you wouldn't normally do to access job boards (like hijacking Wi-Fi on your vacation)
- Feeling like job boards help you deal with even minor problems at work
- Focusing more and more time and energy searching for jobs
Sound familiar? Fear not! We're about to go Dr. Drew on you and get you into recovery. Here’s how to spot trouble and correct it:
