MyJobHunt

Online Discussion Groups Can Be Effective Networking Tools: PART 1.

With the explosion of social networks (Facebook, MySpace, etc.), online Discussion Groups have become valuable resources for job seekers. But it can be a double-edged sword.

While Discussion Groups can be a great place to build job-search contacts, they can also be a place where a person can quickly fall out of favor, or even dumped from the list for improperly following the Group’s guidelines.

To best leverage an online Discussion Group for job networking purposes, here are some tips for interacting with in the groups:

-Take time before posting your first message. Do some “lurking” for a few weeks, scour the archives and  FAQ to “get a feel” for the group.

-Avoid a long, personal introduction unless the list guidelines suggest you to do so. As much as possible, keep your messages as concise and relevant to the group.

-Always use a signature (sig) file to identify yourself (NOTE: Signature files are the several lines of text your email software attaches to the end of all your email—usually containing your name, affiliation and promotional or personal message.

-Never post in ALL CAPS. Capitalization is used for emphasis in email discussion groups, and all caps are the equivalent to shouting.

-Be sure to carefully write all your emails to the group. Be cautious of alienating anyone in the group. Aim to build a spirit of good for yourself, and your good name. So don't be forceful in your early messages. Let your network build gradually.

-Avoid attaching files when sending email, or use fancy formatting (Italic, underlining, etc.). Remember, some mail readers can’t display this type of formatting.

-Be cautious about getting involved in contentious discussions (some discussions can become quite heated) until you’re an “accepted” member of the group.

We'll post Discussion Groups Part 2 early early next week. If you have any questions about Online Discussion Groups, please feel free to contact Tampa Bay WorkForce Alliance.

 

 

A By-The-Book Approach To Your Job Search.

Who can’t use a little help with their job search, right? There are a number of great books available to help with every step of the your job search, including how to: write a resume and cover letter; best market yourself; use social media; change careers; ace an interview; and target and streamline your job search. You name it, there’s a good book to help you. The following are a few of our favorites.

Cover Letters for Dummies – Having a well-written cover letter is a great opportunity to get a prospective employer's attention. Cover Letters for Dummies shares everything job seekers need to know to make an impression.

The Perfect Resume – Just like your cover letter, your resume needs to be perfecto. The Perfect Resume focuses on what you need to include in your electronic resume, and on key words and phrases to get your resume moved to the top of the pile.

 Resume Magic – Given the current job market, everyone's resume could use a little magic. Resume Magic will help work a bit of magic with your resume. The book is a easy-to-read, step-by-step guide through the resume-writing process, offering a lot of insider advice.

Job Interviews for Dummies – Anyone can ace an interview, regardless of how little or often they've gone on job interviews. Job Interviews for Dummies provides readers with new and timeless interviewing solutions. Special attention is given to new graduates, career changers, as well as job seekers over age 50.

Guerilla Marketing for Job Hunters – This book shares 1,001 tips for using social media, LinkedIn and other social networking sites. It’s all about trying something different in your job search—a must-read for anyone in the midst of job searching in this dog-eat-dog, competitive job market.

 

Create Your Own Personal Homepage Résumé.

With the exploding number of employment Web sites out there, it’s apparent Internet tools are effectively bringing together job seekers and potential employers. 

And job search engines are enabling job seekers to identify a better sample of relevant job openings, instead of rooting through countless newspaper advertisements.  

However, for most job seekers, his or her resume often times isn’t good enough, and benefit from creating a personal homepage to boost the chances of securing that all-important interview.  

Here are some tips for creating your own personal Web site homepage:

Your Story

Author a quick, 300-word overview statement giving prospective employers the highlights of your career, and the value you will bring to their company or organization. Remember to don’t overdo it, or get too wordy—let your resume do that. Keep your overview to only the high points. 

Your Personal References

It’s vital to encourage potential employers to directly email to your references. You can also create a simple online feedback form enabling employers to select the information needed, and send the request to your references. Also, it’s important to create an online profile of your references for added credibility.

Your Articles

It is important to write about 3-6 relevant articles demonstrating your expertise, and allowing visitors to download the articles as pdf files. Prospective employers may be impressed with your professionalism and willingness to share knowledge. For example, if you are seeking employment for a marketing position, include an original article about the advantages of Internet marketing, or social advertising. You’ll obviously want to include your up-to-date resume as a pdf file, as well.

Your Favorite Links

Prospective employers can learn a lot by the Web sites to which you link (it’s always a good idea to first do a thorough search all relevant sites and blogs in your industry. You can title this section of your homepage “Favorite” or “Recommended” Links.  Don’t forget to include blogs!

Your Guest Book

Use your guest book wisely. Employers may not be convinced about the credibility of non-corporate email postings to your guest book. You may consider encouraging visitors to send greetings using their corporate email. In return, you can allow them to use their signature file to provide a brief profile of their companies below their postings.

If you have any questions about personal homepage resumes, please contact Tampa Bay WorkForce Alliance. Good luck!

Become A Blogger. Find Your Next Job.

With such heavy competition for every open position these days, job seekers need any edge they can get. 

It can often make the difference between landing the job, or not. A smart tactic for gaining the advantage is to produce a blog about your profession or industry.

It’s pretty simple. Keep blog entries short, friendly and conversational. Anywhere from a few brief paragraphs to about 500 words commenting on industry news and trends. Aim to post at least three or four times a week.

Getting started is pretty easy. Just open an account with a free bogging service such as WordPress.com or Blogger.com. Or pay a little for Typepad.com; it looks a little more professional and starts at $4.95 a month. All three sites provide instructions that make it easy to begin.

Make the blog easily found. Search engines tend to list blogs high in search results, usually within the first few pages in a search of someone's name, because they tend to have links to other blogs or news stories ... and links influence search ranking. So link to other blogs!

Have a strategy for posting. Keep all posts strictly professional. Avoid comments about your family vacation, and stay away from religion, politics and sex, unless one of those is an industry in which you work.

You’ll need content. To ensure you have enough to write about, set up a Google news alert to receive e-mails about stories with keywords from your industry. That way, you'll get news about your field in your 'inbox' automatically. Link to those articles on your blog, and write about whether you agree with them, and why. Describe relevant professional experiences of your own, and predict how the matter at hand affects your industry in the future.

Keep your posts short.  Produce only short, conversational and informal posts. And never click "Publish" until you’ve done a thorough spell/grammar check. Blog riddled with errors hurts more than helps.

If you have any questions about blogging for jobs, contact Tampa Bay WorkForce Alliance.

Job Search Engines Provide Extra Punch To Job Seekers' Efforts.

When job searching, a lot of time is saved by using any of the various Job Search Engines to expedite.  In addition to visiting individual job boards, you can also use Job Search Engine to check multiple sources of jobs from all over the Internet.

Use Job Search Engine sites such as SimplyHired.com (was named one of PC Magazine's "Top 100 Websites for 2009"), and Indeed.com to search millions of jobs posted on company sites, job sites, and newspapers by keyword, location, and type of position.

Check out the Advanced Search options, too. You can narrow your criteria even more and search for jobs by company, work requirements, education level, and other options. The job search engines also have additional resources to help you job search, including salary information, widgets, and plugins for your browser.

As we pointed out in our previous MyJobHunt blog posting, if you're spending considerable time on Twitter be sure to utilize TwitterJobSearch.com, a job search engine just for Twitter users. It works like the other job search engines finding jobs posted across sites, but in this case, it finds jobs on Twitter.

Here’s a few top Job Search Engine recommended by TBWA:

Monster.com

One of the best job search engines out there. You can narrow your search by location, keywords, and employer; plus, Monster has plenty of job search extras: networking boards, job search alerts, and online resume posting.

LinkedIn.com

LinkedIn.com combines the best of two worlds:  The ability to scour the Internet for jobs with its job search engine, and the opportunity to network with like-minded friends and individuals to deepen your job search.

Indeed.com

Unlike Monster, you cannot submit your resume from Indeed.com, but the job search engine more than makes up for that by being a meta search engine of many of the major job search engines and job search boards out there. Indeed uncovers a lot of jobs that you wouldn't normally find on most job search sites, and they do a good job of making their job search features as easy to use as possible.

SimplyHired

SimplyHired also offers a very unique job search experience; the user "trains" the job search engine by rating jobs he or she is interested in. SimplyHired also gives you the ability to research salaries, add jobs to a job map, and view pretty detailed profiles of various companies. We highly recommend SimplyHired.

USA.gov

Think of USA.gov as your gateway into the huge world of US government jobs. Navigate to the USA.gov home page, click on the Jobs and Education section, then Government Jobs. You'll find a wealth of resources here to help you find jobs working for Uncle Sam.

CareerBuilder

CareerBuilder offers job searchers the ability to find a job, post a resume, create job alerts, get job advice and job resources, look up job fairs, and much more. This is a truly massive job search engine that offers a lot of good resources to the job searcher; we especially appreciate the list of job search communities. 

Dice

Dice.com is a job search engine dedicated to finding technology jobs—offering a targeted niche space for finding exactly the technology position for which you might be seeking.

Yahoo Hot Jobs

Yahoo Hot Jobs is still one of the largest and most well known job search engines on the Web.

We’ll keep you apprised of these and more new Job Search Engine as they launch.

 

TwitterJobSearch.com Can Help With Your Jobs Search.

Guess who’s successfully competing with online job boards. That’s what the appropriately named TwitterJobSearch.com is doing by searching Twitter and pulling out Tweets believed to be job listings.

As the first real social media job search engine, TwitterJobSearch uses semantic intelligence, link-crawling, and crowdsourcing to help track recruitment offers.

Similar to other online job boards you may be using, TwitterJobSearch allows users to browse for jobs in categories – such as accounting, sales, or IT – or simply search the company’s index. Remember, posting a tweet is free (yea!), whereas posting jobs on other sites like Monster and HotJobs costs money.

Keep in mind each job listing – which is really just a standard tweet – lets users view the job by linking to the posting (presuming it was linked from the tweet); save the job with a TwitterJobSearch account; and either retweet it or follow the user that posted it. 

This site appears to have several advanced features, making it even more competitive with traditional job sites – such as being able to filter jobs based on salary and drilling down to job type (full-time, part-time, or internship).

So if you’re a Twitter user (or planning to become one), we feel this is definitely worth adding to your current job-search strategy.

We'll be providing information later this week regarding other online job search engines.

Tips for Job Searching During Holiday Season: Part 2

The following is Part 2 of our TBWA tips for job searching during the holiday season. We hope you find them helpful!

-Understand that job loss, unemployment and job seeking are stressful situations. Acknowledge this fact and understand that you are not alone. Many people are experiencing this same situation or have gone through periods of job seeking. There is some truth to the statement that the hardest job of all is finding a good job. Avoid bad habits. Get yourself in shape, focus on your health and enjoy the extra time you have to do things for your family. Keep a positive attitude. Today’s new education and training opportunity can become tomorrow’s job.

-Get organized. Write and design a new resume. Customize a few resumes to highlight specific career tracks where you have solid skills. Be methodical about your job search. Tampa Bay WorkForce Alliance has excellent resume writing resources and can provide you with helpful tips and suggestions to make sure you are approaching your job search in a professional, effective and efficient manner. Post your resume online. Use our Resource Centers.

-Decrease tension at home. Money issues and employment problems rate highly on the stress scale. If you have a friend or family member who is unemployed, be supportive and helpful. Now is not the time to be argumentative or to blame someone or yourself for your situation. Kindness, sympathy and compassion for people who are going through a temporary period of unemployment will be rewarded when your significant other lands that good job. Sooner than you think people will be complaining about all the time you’re spending at work.

-Be positive and be patient. Bringing a positive attitude to your job search and interviews will help you be successful. Patience goes a long way too – understand that it takes time for your resume and cover letter to be routed to the appropriate person or department. Be courteous and understanding when you follow up with potential employers – your attitude on the phone may be the deciding factor in getting an interview or job offer. “Thank You’s” go a long way both before and after the interview.

-Use staffing agencies. Employers use “contingent workers,” especially during time of economic recovery and uncertainty. Employers often use temporary help agencies as recruitment and screening strategies. These jobs often turn into full time, regular employment and even if they don’t, the experience can yield another positive employer recommendation.

 

Tips for Job Searching During Holiday Season: Part 1.

The holiday season offers time for thoughts about family and future as we celebrate festive occasions or begin a new year. For those unemployed and concerned about company downsizing, the season can also be filled with great uncertainty.

Tampa Bay WorkForce Alliance can be a resource even in this tough economy.

It’s important to us that career candidates know Tampa Bay WorkForce Alliance is available to assist them in continuing their job search efforts year round.  Centers in Tampa, Brandon and Plant City provide a full range of career planning services for professional and entry level career candidates, including career guidance, job leads and training resources.

The following are some guidelines to help job candidates in their search activities.

- Some businesses hire part-time to fill positions created by holiday vacations or to meet year-end demand from customers. Part-time work is better than no work at all. Part-time work adds to your unemployment credits, or counts toward your unemployment benefits bank, and is an excellent way to show your talents to a prospective employer. Because of the complexity of hiring full-time personnel, some companies hire part-time employees to evaluate how a person fits in and meets their expectations.

- Don’t put off applying for full-time work during the holiday season. Companies operating on a calendar year budget will make decisions about personnel and there is always turnover – no matter what time of year. Make sure your application and resume are there for employers when they consider hiring new people.

- Take advantage of the season by attending parties or gatherings and networking yourself with people who might know of job openings. Many times your best source for job openings is friends and acquaintances with insider knowledge about good jobs currently open or those that companies will post in the future. While it may be difficult to admit being unemployed to friends and family, these people are essential to your personal marketing network. They will keep their eyes open for potential opportunities for you.

- Don’t complicate your situation by overspending during the holidays. Try to avoid debt and cut expenses. Renew your relationship with family and friends. Many wealthy, successful people look back to tight financial times, when they were forced to focus on friendship, as some of the best, most meaningful moments in their lives.

- Seek help from Tampa Bay WorkForce Alliance for job counseling and other resources. Use the programs that provide help to meet your basic needs while you explore the services available to you through job training to package or improve your skills to locate a new job. You have access to these services at no cost to you.

Look for part 2 later this week.

Don't Forget About Online Job Banks!

Internet and Web site advancements have provided us with job-search conduits such as online recruiters, headhunters, job sites and ... job banks, where job seekers can post resumes, search for a job or announce job openings.

Basically, there are two kinds of job banks—private sector and governmental. Job Banks function similarly to employment agencies, the major difference being that they provide services online and do not collect fees.

Job Banks match people with jobs according to skills, education, work experiences, geography and salary. A lot of companies today focus on niche markets, resulting in the emergence of industry-specific job banks. Here is a short list of job banks online:

JobBankUSA.com
SeniorJobBank.org
JobBankInfo.org

For more information about Job Banks and other strategies for your job search contact Tampa Bay WorkForce Alliance.

 

When Job Searching, Make Sure You're Linked In!

During economic times like these, it’s always smart to add a little extra horsepower to your job searching activities. 

Employers today are becoming more demanding, more discriminating ... and seeking prospective employees with something extra to offer. So, if you haven’t already, a great way to stand out and get noticed is through your LinkedIn involvement.

LinkedIn, an online professional networking site, is pretty much like MySpace or Facebook, except that all your contacts are professional contacts — not “friends”. If managed (and leveraged) properly, your LinkedIn contacts can help give you more access to part- and full-time jobs. And LinkedIn’s recommendation feature, you can receive recommendations from former employers who liked and appreciated your work.

Note, tho, it’s vital to have a good portfolio. Try to pick the best of your previous work and have them ready should anyone ask to see them. Employers interested in you will appreciate the extra references and samples you send them.

For more information and tips for using LinkedIn and other social networking sites, contact Tampa Bay WorkForce Alliance.