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August 27, 2010
It’s 2010 and the unemployment rate, as you know, has sky rocketed. You need a job and so does the long line of other jobs seekers. Nowadays, finding work is harder than before the recession due to limited openings and a flood of qualified candidates eager to snag an open opportunity.
Competition is fierce in today’s market. And it doesn’t help that employers have become more selective in who they hire as a result of having more talent to choose from to fill open positions.
If you are seeking work, it’s important to present yourself in the best of light to prospective employers. It all starts with the application process. You need to stand out above the competition by having a well put together application, a resume highlighting professional and educational achievements and most importantly, a cover letter tailored to the position.
The objective to sending in an application is to grab the employers’ attention and to impress them enough to invite you in for an interview.
Employers have what you need the most, a job. But for every job opening, employers receive a ton of resumes of qualified candidates but not all applications received are equal.
A common complaint among hiring managers, is that they see resumes with grammatical errors and typos, something that will land your resume in the trash immediately. It is also known, that employers won’t even look at your resume if it doesn’t include a cover letter. Not including a cover letter tells the employer that a candidate is neither serious nor interested in the position.
If you are seeking work, it’s vital for you to spend time researching the company and the position before writing the cover letter. Try to find interesting facts and information about the company and comment on this in your cover letter. It shows you did your research which tells the reader, “I’m interested and interesting.”
The more specific and relevant your cover letter is to the position and the company, the more likely you will get called in for an interview. Sending out generic cover letters with your resume, as opposed to a refined and tailored one, tells prospective employers that you are looking for a job but just any job. Generic cover letters also are seen as lazy, boring to read and impersonal.
The key is to show effort during the application process. Employers prefer to hire candidates who show how much they want the job by putting in forth the effort during the hiring process. If it comes down to 3 qualified persons with great references, employers are more likely to hire the person who wants the job the most. Getting work, takes work.
One cover letter won’t do it either. Every time you apply for a position, it is important to rewrite the cover letter tailored to the exact position and company you are applying to. A strong, tailored letter speaks volumes about who you are, how you are different, and how much you want the job.
Cover letters also give you a chance to show off your personality, something resumes can‘t express.
Employers can also get a sense of your writing skills from your cover letter. If writing is not your strong point, seek out a friend or a writing service to help you put one together. It is well worth it.
Remember, it’s you and everyone else applying for the same positions. Show employers that you are hardworking and enthusiastic by writing researched, personalized and interesting cover letters.
By – Andrea Richard
July 22, 2010
The advances we’ve seen in technology have not only changed the business landscape but how job seekers find work.
If you have been recently laid off, or are a sudden career changer or perhaps a recent college graduate, it’s important to know what the latest job search trends are.
In the past, seekers responded to job ads found in the newspaper, nowadays, online job boards such as Craigslist, Indeed, and Monster have virtually replaced newspaper job ads. The Internet is a key player in the job hunting game and today’s job seekers need to use it to their advantage. However, navigating online job boards and company websites to look for openings is not the most reliable way for seekers to find work.
Many of the jobs posted online have already been filled but some companies are required to publicly post its openings, yet they are just not required to respond to your resume. So, by the time you’re reading the job posting online, there’s a happy person who just landed the position and is sitting at their new desk.
But how did that candidate land the position before it was listed on Monster? The person had the inside track on the opportunity through word of mouth or through referral. And unfortunately for job seekers, most job opportunities are never publicly advertised but rather tucked away in what is called: The Hidden Job Market.
In 2010, it’s important to get creative with the search and to tap into the hidden job market through people you know. Or through people who know people who you know.
The old adage, “It’s not what you know, but it’s who you know,” is timeless advice that is more than ever valuable to adhere today. Job seekers are more likely to find employment through their contacts versus filling out applications online or blindly sending out resumes.
It’s simple; employers prefer to hire people they know or people who have a connection within their networks. By doing so, employers save time by not having to fish through a pool of applications to find the talent they need.
Therefore, networking is vital for job seekers to survive. Networking has radically changed as a result of the creation of social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Forget about relying on handing out business cards as a means getting connected, if you haven’t done so already, join social networking sites, update your profile often and build your contact list.
LinkedIn is somewhat like Facebook but it’s for professionals to showcase their accomplishments and expertise, maintain communications with contacts, and get found by potential employers.
Once you’ve created your profile, get in touch with everyone you know via the site or by inviting them to join your network. Great sources of people who could help you discover opportunities include: your friends, friends of friends, former colleagues, classmates, school alumni, and family.
Inform your contacts that you are seeking opportunities and to keep a lookout for openings. If your immediate contacts do not know of any openings, ask them if they can refer you to someone else who may be able to help you. This is especially important, if none of your contacts work in the field that you desire to work in.
Additionally, social networking sites are not only used by job seekers, but also, recruiters and hiring managers scour the sites to research background information on potential candidates. These sites make it virtually easier for employers to find you and if they see that you have a contact in common, you are more likely to receive an invite for an interview.
Happy job hunting!
By-Andrea Richard
May 19, 2010
Unemployment Today
May 19, 2010
By: Wendi Lederman
Last month’s extension of February 2009’s Recovery and Reinvestment Act, not only bailed 400,000 Americans out of losing unemployment benefits, it subsidized health care to unemployed workers, postponed cuts to Medicare, secured funding for small business loans, and allotted enough money to the Transportation Department to retain 20,000 jobs. April saw 290,000 new jobs on the books, and the number of unemployment claims has gone down four weeks in a row. The unemployment rate for May is 9.5 percent, down from April’s 9.7, but still, notably higher than the 8.6 rate of one year prior. March reported over 1600 claims of mass layoffs for over 150,800 individuals. Today, 15,000,000 Americans are unemployed.
Unemployed Americans remain out of work for a record average span of thirty weeks. States are experimenting with new programs to help restrain the snowball effect that leads to financial ruin. The Georgia Works Program allows people to collect weekly benefits, plus child care and a stipend for travel to on-the-job training, which usually lasts six weeks. States most acutely impaired by unemployment are Michigan, Nevada, Rhode Island, California, Florida and South Carolina. While, Nebraska, Vermont, Kansas, and The Dakotas appear to bare the least of the burden.
Occupational sectors with the greatest losses to their workforce include: specialized maintenance and repair, transportation, legal, sciences and engineering, fishing, forestry, and agriculture, also art, design, media, entertainment, and sports. Most of these professions are of the highest paying, but employ the least amount of people. The employment sectors with the highest numbers for 2009 were in customer service, food preparation and service, retail, administration, as well as elementary school teachers. These sectors have held on to many workers, and they are all valuable, but low paying jobs. The Employee Services industry is made up mostly of temporary labor and services. Often placed laborers help with stock and material moving for warehouses and storage, warehouse clubs and supercenters, or grocery related wholesalers. The Employee Services industry now counts as the largest fraction of the American workforce, earning wages far below what was the national mean.
The Employee Services sector in the Gulf Regions will soon carry a much larger portion of America’s working class, as crews assemble in battling the tremendous oil spill. In removing existing oil, and efforts in preventing and preparing for more oil reaching the coasts, many hands are needed. Ecologists, biologists, analysts, researchers, chemical engineers, and student assistants are being called upon by companies who anticipate radical gains. BP picked PEC Premier to handle all training coordination for the entire Gulf Region. PEC is working with training providers in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. Agencies like the Louisiana Workforce Commission are taking applications and providing resources for all parties interested in clean-up work. Those certified in specialized safety such as HAZMAT and HAZWOPER can make $40 an hour.
Impacts on the summer’s coming tourist season are unforeseeable. A study done in 1979 on coastal parks in Texas after an oil spill indicated no drastic declines in visitation; curious spectators came to see an oil spill. Presently, as oil creeps onto Pensacola Beach, hotels face cancellations and ominous speculations over Memorial Weekend. On May 2, as a safety measure, fishing was banned in federal waters for 10 days between Pensacola Bay and the Mississippi River. As boats sit docked, and seafood restaurants serve chicken, Obama proposes the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Legislative Package. This would promise assistance if the spill gets worse, or if those liable are deficient to pay timely and fair claims. The bill also creates unemployment insurance for those unemployed resulting from the spill.
The Huffington Post recently equated that generations who have been working since the 1980’s, “Only experience long periods of prosperity punctuated by just two very brief downturns.” Noting, not only does prolonged unemployment erode skills and talent, but expectations for quality of life. Adapting to this new American standard, “…many people now just aiming for financial security as their American Dream.” Eight million jobs have been lost in less than two and a half years. The consumer-fed economy is growing thinner, leaving nothing for the government to tax, though still, the government must supplement much needed finance to the producers and consumers. When it takes massive devastation to provide hope, silver-lining rhetoric becomes white noise. Yet, pessimism solves nothing either. The numbers reported this quarter have risen and analysts predict, undoubtedly, this upward trend of new employment will steadily continue.
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The N.C.E. has created a completely
portable package of benefits.
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