Who's Firing – Layoffs for week ended 1-29-10

Who's Firing is a weekly survey of organizations announcing (or rumoring) layoffs for the week ended 1/29/10.

Not only is this valuable for job seekers, but for business analysts, corporate strategists, marketers, salespeople, investment analysts, financial advisers, and others who are interested in companies that are contracting.

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How Effective is your Resume? Here’s how to measure: Best of reCareered

When I’m asked for resume advice, I’ll often first ask…what's your resume’s hit ratio, or response rate?

Usually, this question is answered by the sound of crickets.

It surprises me, especially Finance and Technology professionals whose professional lives revolve around measuring and interpreting data, don’t think to measure the effectiveness of their resume.

Isn’t it natural to track how well your resume works for you?  Here's some easy ways to track this important metric - resume response rate.

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Why Are You Leaving Your Current Job? Question of the week

On Fridays, I'm posting a job search question from one of our readers. This was a question posted in response to my posting on Linkedin Answers “Candidates - What's your most difficult job search question?”

(FYI, this isn't a silly question ... I just liked the picture)

C.H. shared that her toughest job search question was:

“asking about why you are leaving, left or willing to leave your current position. If you are having a difficult time with your work, workload or personalities at work, that’s not always the best thing to admit or explore. Better to talk about the things you want to do that you aren’t doing now---“

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Use Twitter To Prepare For Your Job Interview

As companies and professionals are using Twitter for far more than lunch updates, Twitter has turned into a great place to get real time information.

Job seekers can use Twitter information to research companies and hiring managers prior to interviews.

Is your hiring manager on Linkedin? There’s a good chance the hiring manager, the HR representative, and the especially the recruiter are also on Twitter.

Now that over 50 million people use Twitter (close to surpassing Linkedin’s user base) you will find people from your target company on Twitter. With that large of a user base Twitter can help you with your Guerrilla Job Search Tactics - it's especially helpful to help you prepare for a job interview.

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Job Seekers - Just Step Away From The Crackberry (and iPhone)

The invention of the Blackberry and subsequently, the iPhone, were two of the worst recent inventions for job seekers.

I know all the “mobilly connected” out there are gasping in horror, at the thought of being, even just temporarily disconnected. But Blackberrys and iPhones are bad for your employability.

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How A Personal Branding Statement Can Help Job Seekers

Whether you get to a hiring manager by referral, through a recruiter or a job board, today’s candidate needs to make a distinctive impression quickly. The traditional resume form does a poor job of quickly, clearly, and succinctly telling the reader why they should spend more time on this resume.

Since the average time spent reviewing a resume is 15 seconds or less, a job seeker needs to quickly convince the reader to stick around. A well crafted personal branding statement tells the hiring manager 3 extremely important things in a well crafted, concise single line:

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Whos Hiring – Top employers week of 1-25-10

Who's Hiring is a weekly survey of companies showing the highest hiring activity for the week of 1/25/10.

Not only is this valuable for job seekers, but for business analysts, corporate strategists, marketers, salespeople, investment analysts, financial advisers, and others who are interested in companies experiencing growth. Despite the recession, these companies are all expanding.

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Whos Firing – Layoffs week ended 1-22-10

Who's Firing is a weekly survey of organizations announcing (or rumoring) layoffs for the week ended 1/22/10.

Not only is this valuable for job seekers, but for business analysts, corporate strategists, marketers, salespeople, investment analysts, financial advisers, and others who are interested in companies that are contracting.

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10 Ways to Jumpstart Your Job Search Using Facebook

Earlier this month, I was asked to guestblog about using Facebook in your job search.

While I've written extensively about this topic in the past, this was the first update I've done in a year. As Facebook users realize, the platform has gone through some significant changes in the past year, and this article serves as an update. This article was originally posted on CareerRocketeer.

Facebook has changed dramatically in the past year, and has added significant features to help the job seeker.

Please keep in mind, passive job seekers might want to limit some of the more public activities, so their search won’t be apparent to their current employer.

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Should I show more than 15-20 years job history? Job Search Question Of The Week

On Fridays, I'm posting a job search question from one of our readers. This was a question one of the readers of my Linkedin group, Career Change Central sent in.

Question: After reading all the comments on Career Change Central on your topic "Is your Cover Letter an Ineffective and Obsolete Tradition?" I am convinced that I won't use cover letters anymore. I would like your advice regarding my resume since currently I am searching for a full time job. I would also like to know:

“Should I show more than 15-20 years job history? “

- PF, Ventura CA

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Why Candidates Should Avoid The Ambush Informational Interview

When most candidates establish a contact at one of their target companies, their first goal tends to be coffee. The goal is to get the person out of their office, away from their phone, so that you have 100% of their attention.

This is a great goal, and can lead a job seeker towards gaining some important inroads into a target company.

It’s just that most candidates don’t pull this off often, and when they do they usually ask for the wrong things, minimizing the effectiveness of the meeting. Most of us just weren’t taught to network very well for a job.

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Recruiters And Hiring Managers Aren’t Telepathic

I’ve gotten many comments lately from frustrated candidates complaining about how they were never considered for jobs they felt they were “obviously” qualified for.

I’ve seen this as a candidate issue for years, at all levels – from rookies to executives. The frustration is almost universal that well qualified people aren’t getting the call.

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Why Employers Look For Candidates Who Have Failed

When I first heard this as a recruiter, I asked the hiring manager to please repeat themselves.

Later I learned that many savvy hiring managers often look to hire someone who has failed at a past job or project.

Ok, everybody out there that has hidden failures on their resume, raise your hand …

I was intrigued as I heard more and more hiring managers seek those who have failed at something, because it’s counter intuitive. And based on the number of people out there with their hands in the air, most candidates don’t realize just how valuable failure is.
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Who's Hiring – Top employers week of 1-18-10

Who's Hiring is a weekly survey of companies showing the highest hiring activity for the week of 1/18/10.

Not only is this valuable for job seekers, but for business analysts, corporate strategists, marketers, salespeople, investment analysts, financial advisers, and others who are interested in companies experiencing growth. Despite the recession, these companies are all expanding.
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Who's Firing – Layoffs week ended 1-15-10

Who's Firing is a weekly survey of organizations announcing (or rumoring) layoffs for the week ended 1/15/10.

Not only is this valuable for job seekers, but for business analysts, corporate strategists, marketers, salespeople, investment analysts, financial advisers, and others who are interested in companies that are contracting.

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Who needs Generalists Anymore? Best of reCareered

Seth Godin, one of the marketing geniuses of our time, had a brilliant post, “We Specialize in Everything”. Seth recognizes that when we can easily find the best, we want the best.

So what does this mean for job seekers? It means Subject Matter Experts Rule!

So why did this change?
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Introduction To A Target Company Contact – Should I Ask About Job Openings? Question of the week

Today, I'm posting a job search question from one of our readers.  I hear this general question often, or see comments in my Linkedin group, Career Change Central often addressing this topic.

There's much misunderstanding among candidates about this topic - How to approach a contact at one of your target companies, and what to ask for.

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Ending An Interview – How To Ask For The Job

What do you do at the end of an interview?

Many job seekers take a passive approach and just don’t ask. There are not many situations that this works well.

Everyone tells you to ask for the job … but few people will tell you how to ask for it.

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Which Email Should I Use To Send My Resume?

Does your email address matter?

Your email address is often the very first impression you make as you apply for a job, and the first establishment of your personal brand.

It’s often the first thing a hiring manager looks at when deciding whether to open an email.

A strong email address can also help employers and recruiters find you. If an HR staffer, recruiter, or hiring manager can’t find you easily, they are not likely to spend much time searching, when they have a huge universe of applicants. Instead, they will likely find another candidate.
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When Cover Letters Can Help

Most of the time, Cover Letters can hurt your job search more than help it.

But there are some cases when a well crafted, very succinct cover letter is just what you need.

To my regular readers, this article may come as a shock. Those who follow my articles know that I’m very outspoken that Cover Letters Are An Obsolete Tradition. Yet, here I am … now telling you how cover letters can work for you … in some very specific circumstances.
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Who’s hiring – Top employers week of 1-11-10

Who's Hiring is a weekly survey of companies showing the highest hiring activity for the week of 1/11/10. Not only is this valuable for job seekers, but for business analysts, corporate strategists, marketers, salespeople, investment analysts, financial advisers, and others who are interested in companies experiencing growth. Despite the recession, these companies are all expanding.

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Whos Firing – Layoffs weeks ended 12-25-09, 1-1-10, and 1-8-10

Who's Firing is a weekly survey of organizations announcing (or rumoring) layoffs for the weeks ended 12/25/09, 1/1/10, and 1/8/10.

Not only is this valuable for job seekers, but for business analysts, corporate strategists, marketers, salespeople, investment analysts, financial advisers, and others who are interested in companies that are contracting.

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Best of reCareered: 7 Ways to Discover - Who Do I Want to Be?

Who do I want to be?

Sometimes this is the most difficult question to answer in your career search.

The answer often involves much soul searching, personal introspection, commentary from friends, network, coaches. But in the end…the answer is inside you.

So what is the best way to figure it all out?
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A Review Of: Fake Postings And Your Job Board

I read this article by Jeff Dickey-Chasins, The Job Board Doctor, which was directed towards recruiters and owners of job boards. Jeff is a consultant to job boards themselves, and provides an eye opener to candidates who often complain about the number of “Fake” job postings on the major job boards.

Fake job postings definitely are out there, from my personal experience. Here's some ideas how to best deal with them.

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Indeed’s 2009 Top Trends In Jobs

Indeed.com publishes some great information when they slice and dice the huge database of jobs they maintain. And they’ve done it again, releasing Top Job Trends of 2009.

Indeed lists the top 4 hiring industries for 2009 as:

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Online Reputation Management – 4 steps to being your own PR department

This is a reprint of an article I recently wrote for Launchpad, a Job Search and Strategy guide published by Chris Perry of CareerRocketeer. Chris was kind enough to ask me to contribute to his book as one of 20 top career experts contributing to this book available on Amazon. It's a great way to sample what some of the most innovative minds in job search have to say...so job seekers can get a wide variety of opinions.

What’s your Online Reputation? Do you manage it? Or does someone else manage what internet searches say about you?
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11 Twitter Tips - Job Search in 140 Characters: guest post for ZDnet

Today's post is a republication of a guest blog I wrote for ZDnet, for Jennifer Leggio's blog on Social Media, originally posted 12/31/09. Jennifer asked me to write about some ways candidates can make use of Twitter in their job search, Personal Branding, and Online Reputation Management:

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Whos Hiring – Top Employers week of 1-4-10

Who's Hiring is a weekly survey of companies showing the highest hiring activity for the week of 1/4/10. Not only is this valuable for job seekers, but for business analysts, corporate strategists, marketers, salespeople, investment analysts, financial advisers, and others who are interested in companies experiencing growth. Despite the recession, these companies are all expanding.

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New Features For A New Year

Happy 2010 everyone!

Thanks for your continued and growing readership. We are thrilled to be part of your daily reading schedule, and strive to provide additional value to your job search.

As 2010 launches, I’m about to launch a new design and some major new features in this site.

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