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Guest Post by Natalie Joan
In my last post I discussed what experience to include in your resumé, and stressed not to leave jobs out, as you don’t want to leave gaps in your work history.
What is the issue with gaps in a resumé, and what do you do if you have gaps in your work history?
The real issue is a potential employer has no way of knowing why there is a three and a half year gap in your experience (for example), and is left to their own assumptions, which may not be positive. Perhaps you deleted a job where you did not perform well or left on bad terms. Did you skip over a job because it doesn’t meet your career objective? Or, they may assume that you didn’t work at all during this unaccounted time.
To avoid this, any gaps in your work history need to be explained in writing.
There are a few general rules about resumé gaps:
Continue reading "Beware the Gaping Resume" »
So you’ve been applying for jobs—perhaps hundreds of them—with no response. Not even the courtesy of an automated email to let you know your resume has been received, right? What do you do? Chalk it up to yet another dead-end? Or act like a squeaky wheel and get noticed?
You’ve probably heard the saying “the squeaky wheel gets the grease.” Do you believe that squeaky wheels get the grease? If so, are you being squeaky…or passively waiting for the phone to ring??
What do you have to lose by assertively following up on your applications? Nothing. In fact, it’s not what you have to lose, but what you can potentially gain…such as an interview and a job!
The Fun Times Guide has an interesting take on job searching:
Don’t just send a blind resume. As recently mentioned on The Today Show, you should use a technique called sandwiching. This means to call and inform the recipient that you are sending your resume. Then send the resume. And a day or two later, follow up with another phone call. While this tactic works best if you have some sort of previous relationship with the employer, keep in mind that the squeaky wheel gets the grease (…as long as you don’t get too annoying).
Are you applying for sales positions, or perhaps jobs in HR? If so, call the sales manager or HR manager and let him or her know you’ve submitted a resume…but only if you have your elevator pitch ready! Use the opportunity to make this person aware of your interest—and how you are qualified and ready to be interviewed!!
Continue reading "Be a Squeaky Wheel (Updated)" »
 “Come my little friends, As we all sing a happy little working song” – Amy Adams
Imagine you (finally) have an interview for your dream job. You’ve been out of work for awhile, but have been working 8+ hours a day in your job hunt. You’ve had other interviews and leads, but none have led to a job.
Today is the day, you are ready for your interview, and off you go. You arrive at Big Company for your interview and are led into the interview room. The first 15 minutes of the interview are great. You are giving the right answers and asking the right questions.
Then, Mr. Interviewer asks a strange question:
“I see Mr. Unemployed, that you’ve been out of work for several months now, what have you been doing?”
You think to yourself: What have I been doing? I’ve been spending every waking hour looking for a job, what do you think I’ve been doing? This is not funny, nor is it meant to be. This has happened to many people I’ve spoken with. Typically, it is when you hit that magic “3 months unemployed” mark, but not always.
Today is Laborless Day in the US (well, not technically “Laborless” Day, but it feels like it for some), Labor Day would be the politically correct name. For many (9.7% to be exact for the US), today is laborless day (and not just in the US). Even if you are out of work, there are other things you can and should do while you are looking for work.
The longer you are out of work, the more difficult it is to explain what you’ve been doing. Of course, “looking for a job” is the right answer, but there is an expectation that you’ve done more than that. Sounds crazy, but it’s true. So what else can you do while looking for a job? Staying “current” and staying productively busy are a few of the things you should be doing.
So how do you stay current and productive while you are looking for a job (as if looking for a job is not productive)? I’ve listed a few ideas below, which are supported by my usual list of links.
Continue reading "Laborless Day, Where Have All The Good Jobs Gone?" »
From the New York Times
The reason I am posting excerpts from this article is that I hope you will be as inspired as I was. If you feel stalled in your job search and feel like your options are dwindling, please give this article a read. As the saying goes, “Necessity is the mother of invention.”
At the Ballard Farmers’ Market in Seattle on a recent weekend, passers-by could be forgiven for thinking John Morefield was running for political office. Smiling, waving and calling out hellos to everyone who walked by his stand, he was the picture of friendliness. All he needed was campaign buttons and fliers. He was seated at a homemade wooden stand under a sign reading “Architecture 5¢,” with a tin can nearby awaiting spare change. For a nickel, he would answer any architectural question. He received so many commissions — to build a two-story addition, a deck, a master bedroom — that he realized he could make plenty of money working for himself.
Mr. Morefield’s website is here.
When Natasha Case, 26, lost her job as a designer at Walt Disney Imagineering about a year ago, she and her friend Freya Estreller, 27, a real estate developer, started a business selling Ms. Case’s homemade ice cream sandwiches in Los Angeles. Named for architects like Frank Gehry (the strawberry ice cream and sugar cookie Frank Behry) and Mies van der Rohe (the vanilla bean ice cream and chocolate chip cookie Mies Vanilla Rohe), they were an immediate hit.
Readers, what are your favorite concoctions?? Perhaps you can become an ice cream entrepreneur too!
…When Debi van Zyl, 33, was laid off by a small residential design firm in Los Angeles in May, she decided to do freelance design work for as long as she could, and she picked up jobs doing exhibition design for the Getty and Huntington museums. In her spare time, to relax, she started knitting what she describes as “kooky” stuffed animals like octopuses and jellyfish. Then, at the urging of the readers of her blog, she began selling them on Etsy. Les Petites Bêtes Sauvages, as she calls them, have helped her pay the rent and other bills for the last few months.
Continue reading "A Good Time To Try New Things" »
In large part, the state of today’s economy is due to the financial crisis created by numerous bank failures and subsequent bailouts.
These failures have also played a large role in our professional lives. Whether you are unemployed, underemployed, or just plain ticked off, you can thank the “too-big-to-fail” banks for the part they played in our current financial and professional meltdowns.
If you feel powerless and unable to change things, think again.
Arianna Huffington has been “talking about the huge, growing chasm between the fortunes of Wall Street banks and Main Street banks.”
She says:
The idea is simple: If enough people who have money in one of the Big Six banks…move it into smaller, more local, more traditional community banks, then collectively we, the people, will have taken a big step toward re-rigging the financial system so it becomes again the productive, stable engine for growth it’s meant to be.
And her idea is going viral and known as the Move Your Money movement. In fact, according to MSNBC.com, more than 16,000 zip code searches have been conducted by folks looking to move their money out of the big banks. Those searches account for nearly half of all the zip codes in the US!
So take a moment and visit www.moveyourmoney.info to learn more about how to move your money AND and get the economy — and jobs — rolling again.
Continue reading "Move Your Money" »
At any given time, the Federal Business Opportunities website has tens of thousands of Requests for Proposals (RFPs) that allow vendors to bid on the opportunity to provide goods and services. By law, the government is required to conduct an open and competitive bidding process for any purchases meeting certain criteria. (The federal regulations for government contracts are known as the FAR: Federal Acquisition Regulations.)
A provider that has registered at fbo.gov can bid on any opportunity. Also, subcontractors (which include small and minority-owned businesses), can add themselves as an Interested Vendor for any posted opportunity. Go to any new opportunity and you’ll see the Interested Vendors List tab. Click here for an example.
NOTE – it will take some time to become familiar with this site. Learning how to search among the plethora of Federal agencies and their respective opportunities takes practice. For now, start with keyword searches, such as accounting, audit, etc. From there, you’ll learn how to refine your searches to yield better results.
The Interested Vendors may not necessarily be bidding. Rather, they hope to subcontract with the winning vendor. Many of these small businesses are small shops that, otherwise, you may never hear about. No matter their size or level of fame, they do team up with some of the world’s largest companies for government work. In some cases, these could be small or minority-owned businesses to which a winning vendor will sub out a percentage of the win in order to comply with the government’s set-aside requirements.
Continue reading "Uncover Hidden Jobs Through Federal Business Opportunities" »
As promised, here is the second part of Tuesday’s post, A New Year Requires New Job Search Techniques.
How many of you applied for dozens, if not hundreds, of jobs last year? If you’re like most people, chances are pretty good that your resume went into the stratosphere, never to be seen by the overworked eyes of our nation’s hardworking recruiters.
What if some of the jobs you applied for are still open? It’s possible when the company originally posted the job, there was a reasonable expectation they would fill it. However, keep in mind that the last quarter of the year is typically when department heads submit their budgets for the following year.
It’s entirely possible that hiring for certain positions was put on hold until the budget was finalized.
With this assumption, review your list of resume submissions from the last quarter. Visit each companies’ web site to see if the same—or a similar position—is still open. If you don’t see the opening at the web site, don’t despair. See if you can contact the hiring manager or someone else in the company to inquire about it. This gives you a perfect opening in your call or email.
As with all planned contacts, prepare your elevator pitch so that you offer a compelling and well-spoken introduction. You will need to conduct research on the company in order to do this well. Check out their press releases, the Wall Street Journal, Google them, etc., so that you know of any pertinent changes in the company that you can relate to yourself.
Consider this opening line:
Hi Mark, this is Jane Smith. A while back you were recruiting for a [fill in the blank: job title] in your group, and I was wondering if you were able to fill that position. One of your recruiters had called me back then to discuss it, so I’m following up to see what the status is.
Mark responds in one of two ways:
1. Yes. We did fill it. Thanks for calling.
2. No, we did not fill it. Please submit your resume to HR.
Here is where the second part of your elevator pitch comes in. If Mark says the job is filled, how would you reply?
Continue reading "How to Find Hidden Jobs From Last Year’s Job Applications" »
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