What could be more useful and what better way to get the word out?

via TwitterJobSearch.com – A Job Search Engine for Twitter..

Here’s what it looks like____ very simple and I’m betting, pretty effective:

Twitter your way into a job!  Yes, you can.

• Twitter alone offers jobshouts.com (job openings are “tweeted” to users)
• twitterjobsearch.com, a search engine that searches Twitter for jobs that match key words you enter
• JobAngels (twitter.com/jobangels), a kind of one-on-one online mentoring program.

Smart job strategies to avoid layoffs offers some suggestions and I’ve added some of my own thoughts in italics.

Strategy: Make sure higher-ups know you by solving problems and taking on high-profile projects.

Well this is an evergreen.  Don’t wait until a recession to practice this.  It should be your every day mantra.

Strategy: Share client leads or ideas to generate revenue even if that’s not part of your responsibilities.

No kidding, Watashi.  No one fires a money maker.

Strategy: Hang out with the people the boss respects most. The halo of their good reputation may extend to you.

Not too sure I’d waste my time hanging out with anyone when there’s work to be done.  But then I’m a recovering…but not much…workaholic.  And I’m not sure anyone fires a workaholic either, since they’re usually doing the work of 3 people.

Strategy. Keep on top of advances in your field and expand your expertise beyond your core area.

Another evergreen.  Don’t wait for a recession to do this.  Do it day in and day out, rain or shine.

Strategy. Look for problem spots that you can help fix. And pitch in whenever extra hands are needed.

No kidding.  Who wrote some of these?  The office slow poke?  ( No offense meant.  I know they gave some good examples which is worth a lot I guess.)

Strategy. Volunteering to take a pay cut during an industrywide downturn can make you look like a hero.

I am really not too sure of this one.  I’m not sure anyone should step up and devalue themselves.  If you’re the CEO or one of the top management of a company by all means, step up to the plate and ask for a pay cut.  You’re the responsible party.  But, for employees below that level, I think the better advice is to keep your salary the same and offer to take on more work.

These are my thoughts.  But if you want to compare them in detail, go to Smart job strategies to avoid layoffs and read the whole piece…lots of examples.

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Create An Interview Preparation List – AdvancingWomen.com Careers-Employment.

Here’s a quick way to compare your own job experience and qualifications with those that your prospective employer is looking for in a specific job position. Make an “Interview Preparation List”. When you prepare for a job interview, it’s good to have a quick reference of your past work experience that you can study ahead of time to help prepare you for the specific job you’re interviewing for.

Grab a sheet of paper and make three columns.

Column A will be “Position Requirements”;

Column B will be “Your Qualifications and Experience”; and

Column C will list “Your Stories”. For this exercise, you’ll be using the actual job description from the employer.

So, in Column A (Position Requirements) you’ll take one piece of the job description and write for example: “Ability to work well with others.” Ok. Now you’ll have to think about your own experiences while working well with others. What specific examples do you have that demonstrates this ability?

Great. You’ve thought of something. In this example, we’ll write under Column B (Your Qualifications and Experience) “Worked on the XYZ project team.”

Now you need to break it down even further and list a specific action-oriented example of “working well with others” on the XYZ project team.

In Column C (Your Stories) you write something like this: “Coordinated winning marketing campaign which resulted in a successful launch of new product.” See how successful that makes you look?

(And don’t forget personal branding: be sure to include those signature elements of your style, your talents and achievements which differentiate you from the crowd and make you stand out.)

Keep going until you’ve listed something for every part of the job description. Now, you’re ready for your close-up.

Author, Donna Monday of Get A Job Interview- Quick Tips

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Rita Ashley, technology recruiting veteran who has an insider’s view of how hiring gets done, believes LinkedIn is a powerful tool for job search and she has written an  ebook, LinkedIn for Job Search to make her point. Anne Fisher of Fortune Magazine wrote this about Ashley’s ebook”

“I use LinkedIn all the time but I learned things I didn’t know that are really useful.”
“My search isn’t in full swing but I sure wouldn’t say no if someone approached me.  Using the LinkedIn white paper, I know they can find me.”
“The screen shots helped me a lot because I haven’t used LinkedIn much.”
“I was blocked from getting new connections with people I don’t know.  The examples really helped me fix the problem.”
“Love the White Paper. Sure glad I didn’t have to sit through a whole class to get this information.  Keep them coming.”
“Do HR people really vet people before they decide to contact them?  I now know how to fix my profile.”

Download your free step by step guide for examples, screen shots and advice to use all the power of LinkedIn for your Job Search.

Click here to download your free guide to becoming a power user of Linkedin for your job seach.

Since this a time many people are looking for new jobs……assume you’ve aced your resume and gotten an interview set up…. now is the time to prepare.  Often we’re not completely aware of how we look and sound to others, so it might be a good idea to find out and see if there’s anything about your presentation that needs polishing up.

Liz Wolgemuth in A Great Interview Tip – The Inside Job (usnews.com) gives some practical and easy advice on one good way to prepare before you meet your next potential employer:

But one simple and often overlooked way to stand out is by where you post your resumes. Experts tell us that employers search out at least three different kinds of job boards and you should be represented in each:

• Big Boards

Monster – World’s largest commercial Job Board.

Career Builder – Owned by three of the nation’s largest newspaper chains, CareerBuilder is the nation’s second largest recruitment resource.
Yahoo Hot Jobs- Job seekers voted No.3 HotJobs.com the “Best General Purpose Job Board for Job Seekers” in a survey conducted by WEDDLE’s in Feb. 2002.

• Boards Targeted by Profession ( examples)

Legal Professionals Career Center Search the jobs posted by the nation’s leading law firms, corporate legal departments, and government agencies listing their full-time, part-time, contract, and temporary positions online.

DICE.com National job board tailored to independent contractors in the high tech industry. Searchable by state, area code, keywords, and type of employment – eg. Contract, Full Time, etc.

GreatTeacher.net Free job classified ads for teachers and speech therapists. Jobs are searchable by state and keywords.

Computerwork.com – Nationwide job listings targeted toward technical professionals in the IT field. Search by state, area code, keywords, and a number of other criteria.

Wall St. Journal Careers The Internet’s premier career site for executives, managers and professionals.

• Specialty Niche Boards ( example)

Advancing Women Careers Our own diversity job board targets and recruits professional women, Hispanics / Latinos, African Americans, the disabled, and other diverse, minority populations in the most sought-after
fields.
Also consider:

National

Job Central The JobCentral National Labor Exchange is provided by leading U.S. employers in alliance with the National Association of State Workforce Agencies (NASWA) as a public service for all employers and all job seekers regardless of ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, religion, age or national origin.

Local

Craigs List In most cities around the world, total traffic matches the leading job boards, and they excel in  job search effectiveness,

A new trend is the vertical  job search engines also called  job aggregators or job metasearch sites.  For a list of all these sites globally, go to InternetInc.com. This trend may be heading us in a direction where the same jobs are seen on all boards.

But for now, your goal is to stand out and get noticed.  Be sure you are on at least a big board, a board targeted by profession and a niche board.  Common sense tells you that if you can stand out on a niche board, you will be further down the funnel towards getting noticed, getting a job interview, then a job.  We hope you will consider a free posting of your resume on our board,  Advancing Women Careers, along with any others you may select.

Then write and tell us your experiences.  Share what works and what doesn’t,  We’d love to hear from you.

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We can guarantee you one thing: there is a job out there someplace for you.  It just may take a lot of work to find it. And you may have to go through a period of settling for less than you want or think you’re worth.  But out of those forced decisions can come unforeseen opportunity.

Quantify, quantify, quantify!.

The purpose of your resume is to build your own brand, “Brand Me” which will have the effect of differentiating yourself from the competition and conveying your value to any company.  The best way to offer proof of your value is to quantify the results  you’ve achieved at your present or previous companies.

“Provide four or five bulleted points under each employer in the experience section of your resume to show what you have achieved for each employer as far as measurable results,” says Terri Robinson, president of Recruit2Hire.com

If you can provide a graphic, so much the better. A chart or bar graph enables the reader, in this case the recruiter, to capture, at a glance, the results you’ve achieved which demonstrate your value to a company.

Roy Miller of Job Search Guidepost gives an example and tells how he views the process:

“Managed a team of five that selected and implemented a new customer service tracking system that reduced lost sales for the company by $1.5M in the first year.“

You’re hired! No, probably not just because of that, but that second statement does two critical things:

1. It tells enough of the story that an interviewer can ask you for more details about this significant accomplishment.
2. It stands out from all the other resumes containing statements like the first one, because it talks about what your employer really cares about – MONEY.

Employers aren’t mean old scrooges. Well, most aren’t. But without profit (or without breaking even for a non-profit), there’s no business, which means no jobs.

If you quantify your experience, you absolutely vault over your competition.

You see, non-quantified experience says you showed up, did some stuff, and drew a paycheck. Not exciting, and unlikely to get the job if somebody else quantifies his experience.”

Why?

Quantified experience says you didn’t just take, you GAVE, and in a significant way. …Quantify your experience whenever you can. It’s not as hard as you might think. Just remember that three things count as quantifiers:

• Dollars you added to the bottom line
• Time you saved the company
• Any other numbers that add to the “he uses numbers” impression

…If you initiated and spearheaded a project that increased corporate profits (or departmental profits, or office profits, or location profits – you get the idea), that’s great. Highlight it using real money numbers.

Ask yourself the worth of what you did, from your employer’s perspective. Did a particular action save money? That’s quantified! Did it bring in more revenue? That’s quantified! Did it produce an operational improvement, such as shorter turnaround on customer service requests? That’s not quite quantified (in terms of dollars), but it’s close! Don’t know a dollar amount, but know an improvement percentage? Use it!

Quantify whenever you can, and get as close to dollars on the bottom line as you can. That’ll get you rave reviews from your current boss (or a raise!), and will make it easier to get your next job.

( For professional customization and help with quantifying your experience in your resume, see AW Career Portfolios, Customized For You)

For more articles by  Roy Miller or his newsletter go to  Job Search Guidepost

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Write A Perfect CV – AdvancingWomen.com

Your CV is a gateway to getting an interview for that ideal job. It is your opportunity to provide a good first impression but you only have two sides of A4 paper in which to do it. It is not surprising then that most people have trouble getting started.

Firstly, you need to know what the employer is thinking.

The employer suddenly has a vacancy. Filling the vacancy is going to take up valuable time that he would rather spend doing his normal job.

He would love to find the perfect person immediately rather than plough through hundreds of CV’s. It is often a dull, thankless task.

The employer has a job description in front of him. It includes experience or qualifications that are essential for the job and some attributes that are desirable but not absolutely necessary.

He starts going through the pile of CV’s on his desk. He scans each one for about 30 seconds and makes a judgement.

He simply hasn’t got time to read the CV that is more than two pages and all the relevant information is hidden in long paragraphs. – He files it in the bin.

Fancy formatting, coloured text or multiple fonts do not impress him. Is this person trying to hide their lack of experience for the job behind an artistic CV. – He files it in the bin.

He notices spelling mistakes and poor punctuation. This person is just sloppy! – He files the CV in the bin.

He breaths a sigh of relief, the pile on his desk is smaller already. He makes another coffee and then starts reading……………………….

This should tell you a few things about writing your CV.

Keep it concise and to the point. The employer needs to see your work experience, skills and achievements in the first 30 seconds of scanning your CV.

He knows what he is looking for. You have what he is looking for. Don’t distract him from your relevant skills by adding in lots of unnecessary information.

Keep it simple…..

Finally: Make it easy for him!

Remember, the employer has very little time. He doesn’t know you yet and is only interested in what you can offer him and his company.

Make it easy for him to:

Scan your CV,

Identify that you have the skills he is looking for.

Pick up the phone to invite you in for an interview.

For more on this go to Write A Perfect CV – AdvancingWomen.com

Resume or Curriculum Vita Tips

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