Unemployment Support A Job Search Diary

Photo by michaeln3Looking for a job involves a wide range of responsibilities: preparing a resume, looking at ads, contacting employers, calling and visiting friends and acquaintances, follow ups, interviews. While none of us ever plan to be out of work for very long, it can be very useful to immediately start documenting your activities and your feelings to provide a road map of where you have been and where you want to go. It helps to have a central location for recording your daily actions so you don’t miss anything important or forget a critical deadline. It is also reassuring to have somewhere to go when you’re feeling blue and too lethargic to go anywhere or do anything you consider “productive.”

Start a job search diary right now. Even if you have been unemployed for some time, start one anyway because a late start is better than never doing it at all.

Take a plain old exercise book and title it: Job Search Diary. Find a spot to keep it where it will always be close at hand when you need it, probably several times a day.

If you are newly jobless, start out by recording your feelings. Writing out (keep it simple, it’s not the great American novel) what you are thinking, in black and white sentences, helps to sort out your jumbled emotions, clear your mind, and reach a better understanding of your inner self. Jot down your anger, your fears, what you expect, what you secretly dread. Pouring out your soul will release a lot of the inner tension you’re feeling and soothe your nerves.

This record is for you – no one else will ever see it – so you can be brutally honest. If you fear you are a loser who will never amount to anything, write it out. If you think you’re really a good, competent worker but your old boss was a jerk or the company sucked, put it down.

If you have been out of work for a while, make your initial entries a recap of what has been happening in your life since you lost your job. Trace the sequence of events and see if you can remember how you felt at different times. There were probably times when you were overwhelmed and stressed out: record when you felt that way and, if you can recall, what activities you were engaged in when those feelings appeared. There were also probably times when you felt hopeful or elated. Record that too and what events were connected with such emotions.

Use your diary as a place to plan what you want to do. List all activities that you are going to perform that will get you back to work. You might initially plan on updating your resume and reading the classifieds to gauge the state of the labor market. If you are further along in the job search, you might list some networking targets or identify some employers where follow up on earlier contacts might be beneficial. Frequently, throughout the day, record what you did, who you talked to, how you felt.

This is going to become your Special Place where you have a record of your journey from the badlands of unemployment to the green fields of regular work. Visit it often to keep updating your plans, record your smallest successes and failures, and unload your emotional baggage.

When you can’t bear the thought of one more telephone call leading to one more rejection; when you can’t find the energy to get dressed up to visit an agency or cold-call an employer; when you can’t stand the sight of another misleading ad or internet job site; then reach for the comfort of your journal. Read over what you have written and see the changing moods of your long pilgrimage. See if you can identify a pattern. What were you doing when you felt despondent and alone? What were you doing when you felt upbeat and positive about the future? Concentrate on your own specific actions, not merely your reaction to outside events. If you can find a thread relating what you do to how you feel, you have found a valuable key for managing your hunt for work. You now know what to do to feel pretty good and what not to do to avoid a recurrence of despair.

Maintain your diary throughout your job search and it will become an increasingly rich source of information about you and your inner self. It will challenge you to get active and it will comfort you when you just want to curl up into a ball and turn your back on life.

When your final exultant entry is made – I got a job! – find a quiet time to completely read through all the entries to give yourself a full appreciation of how far you have come and how hard you have worked for your eventual success. Give yourself a mental pat on the back for hanging in there and never accepting defeat.

Then close it up and lock it away in a safe place. If you ever find yourself jobless again (and it happens to many of us over and over), take it out. Reread it for the insights you will gain, and the mistakes you’ll be able to avoid, in your next (probably shorter) job search campaign.

About the Author
A Licensed Psychologist and Rehabilitation Counselor, Dr. Bola developed Unemployment Support A Job Search Diary

Unemployment Blues The Value of Temporary Work

Although the job market has improved over the past year, many employers are still reluctant to make a long term commitment to growing their employee rolls until it is clear that a solid economic expansion is underway. They need new staff to handle the increase in orders and customer demands but are loath to hire permanent workers who may have to be cut in a few months if business stagnates. Any reduction in force carries major headaches for a company: employee morale falls, lawsuits arise, precious time is eaten up in non-productive meetings, and severance packages cut into narrowing profit margins.

Their solution is often to rely on temporary agencies to provide needed manpower without any precipitous long term commitment. It is estimated, by a well-regarded labor research group, that fully 25% of the jobs created during the past year have been temporary positions!

How can this work to your advantage?

Working for a temporary agency has some drawbacks but also a number of positive aspects.

The primary negative is the lack of investment in your future. While the hourly wage may be similar, or even better, than a permanent employee would receive, you remain on the periphery of the company’s organization. Temps are often assigned the more routine tasks which require less intensive training. This makes it more difficult for your competence to be recognized. You are not seriously considered for promotional opportunities nor invited to advanced training or management classes.

It also has personal repercussions. You are uncertain how long you will be needed and tend to develop a strong sense of insecurity. After all, your contract could be terminated without warning through a quick telephone call to the agency. Because you want to minimize the emotional devastation of a sudden departure, you tend to avoid becoming too close to coworkers and perform your duties in something of a vacuum, one step removed from the camaraderie of the permanent work team.

All that being said, there are some pretty inviting advantages to exploring temporary assignments.

Within the framework of your long-term career goals, a temporary position nicely fills in that void on your resume caused by a lengthy period of unemployment. It demonstrates to a potential employer that you are an individual who is vested in being productive even under circumstances where your true talents are barely tapped.

Temporary agencies seldom require extensive background investigation so if there is a blip or two on your work or personal record, it will probably be overlooked. When a future permanent position presents itself, the more distant the blip, the less weight it will carry in the hiring decision.

Entering a workplace as a temp puts you in a very different framework than any mere applicant for work. You become privy to the company’s ethics and philosophy so you can better determine if this is somewhere you would be interested in for permanent work. If you find the atmosphere comfortable, you will perform well. Assuming that the company is growing, and the local economic expansion continues, you are in an excellent position to be considered for permanent retention.

Many employers see temporary workers as individuals undergoing a lengthy interview. After weeks or months of good productivity, timeliness, consistent attendance, and reliability, you no longer present the risks attached to the hiring of new employees after only an hour or two of interviewing. Many agencies will let you know in advance that this is a “Temp to Perm” assignment, meaning that if you cut the mustard, you will be offered a permanent position.

On the other hand, if you find that company goals and procedures are at odds with your personal values, you can get out before any commitment is made. Since your employer is actually the agency, you can cut and run from any assignment without it impacting your work history. You take a different position through the same agency and your resume is unflawed by your decision to make a change.

Assuming that you are working in an industry of interest, temporary work provides an invaluable opportunity for networking. Make the effort to get to know your new coworkers and it is highly likely that they either know of opportunities in similar companies or know someone who has such inside information.

Finally, there is the old saw of “Everyone wants to hire you when you’re working but no one is interested when you’re unemployed.” There is certainly a grain of truth in that rather cynical observation. No matter how bad the local economy may be, or how the effects of offshore job flight have affected your industry, there is always a little kernel of doubt in an interviewer’s mind: what did you do wrong to lose your job? Could you possibly have been fingered because you were the weak link? Was the choice of you, over someone else, related to interpersonal or disciplinary problems that made you an easy target?

When you are actively working, even if only on a temporary basis, such doubts don’t even enter an interviewer’s mind. They are more concerned about whether you will be willing to make a change – a point of speculation that bodes well for you in a potential hiring situation.

If you are offered alternative permanent work, you are sitting in the proverbial catbird’s seat. You can accept the position if you find it tempting. You can decline if you don’t think it’s a good fit, knowing that you still have your temp job to keep food on the table and allay that desperation of “I’ll take anything” that sets in after a few months out of work.

And, finally, you have the option of going back to your temp work and letting your present boss know that you have been offered a position elsewhere that you are seriously considering. If the company likes you, let them negotiate a counter-offer and then go with the best opportunity for you.

About the Author
A Licensed Psychologist and Rehabilitation Counselor, Dr. Bola developed Unemployment Blues The Value of Temporary Work

When Should You Pay for a Work at Home Job

Let’s face it… finding a work at home job is far from easy. There are so many opportunities out there that just look so appealing. All you have to do is send in a payment for $xx and you have a job. What’s the harm?

Time to get real. You don’t pay to get a job. You don’t pay to get an outside the home job, so why pay to work at home? It just doesn’t add up.

There is one exception, however. Some companies now charge you for the background check they do before hiring you. This happens at outside the home jobs too, so it’s legitimate, if barely, and to my mind a poor hiring practice. However, as some companies that do hire and, more importantly, pay their at home employees regularly do this, it is not strictly a warning sign. I would call for caution with any background check, however, and investigate thoroughly first, as there is also a scam out there where they have you fill out a form for a background check, then steal your identity.

Charging to apply is far from the only work at home scam out there. Some can get the police or FBI pounding on your door, and people have done jail time.

One form of this scam has you working placing eBay ads for someone in another country. You place the ad and collect the payment, forwarding it to the other country, where the item should be shipped from. It never is.

A variant is where they persuade you to give them your bank account information, then they steal directly from you.

Let’s make this perfectly clear. There are no jobs out there forwarding money to your employer. There are no jobs where your employer needs to know anything about your credit cards, banking information or any other personal financial information.

Many work at home job seekers are desperate to work at home, and as such are perfect targets for scammers. No matter how badly you need to start earning an income, you don’t need to lose money to a scam.

There are a few basic warning signs. Some scams are well-crafted and won’t have these signs, while a few legitimate opportunities may show one or two symptoms of being a scam, so still use your head.

* Free email account or website hosting – Most real companies will have websites that they are paying for, and email addresses assigned to employees. It doesn’t cost that much for them to do so.
* Lots of misspellings or other errors in email or website – Sloppy work is not promising for a real opportunity.
* You have to pay to work – As I said above, don’t.
* Envelope stuffing opportunities – Machines can stuff envelopes for very little cost. No one is going to pay you to do it, no matter how often you see their sign on the side of the road.
* Home assembly – If you’re good at crafts, you’re better off making your own and selling them on eBay, to local stores or at flea markets.

About the Author
Stephanie Foster is the owner of Home with the Kids, a resource that knows that there’s more to staying home with your family than just business. Get more tips on how to avoid work at home scams and subscribe to the free newsletter.

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When Should You Pay for a Work at Home Job

Screening Job Applicants – What Really Goes On Behind Closed Doors

The first goal of any hiring manager is not to find a candidate, but to ELIMINATE unqualified candidates. Most hiring managers reading your resume will take the pile of up to 500 letters they received and try to separate the definite “no’s’ (Don’t Call) into one pile and the interesting resumes into the second pile (Might Call). They then go back and eliminate again until what they have is a manageable pile (5-10 max) of pre-qualified candidates (To Call).

Getting into the second pile (Might Call) is your first goal. The first cut may take you from a stack of 500 resumes to a smaller yet still intimidating stack of 20.

At 20 resumes, the reader will spend 2-3 minutes on each resume versus just a few seconds the first time through. The objective here for the hiring manager is to take the stack of 20 down to a more manageable 5-10 resumes mentioned above.

At 5-10 resumes, the reader will be spending some quality time reading what you have written. They may be highlighting and making notes about the things that interest them the most or closely align with what they are looking for.

A few more resumes will be eliminated during this round, but not necessarily put back into the Don’t Call pile. These candidates go into the Might Call pile but will only be called only if the hiring manager cannot find enough qualified candidates from 4-8 resumes they have left. This is the To Call pile that you want to end up in.

The hiring manager begins to make some calls and do some initial phone interviews. From here a few more people may be eliminated for a variety of reasons. Some of the people may have already taken other positions or the hiring manager does not like the candidate enough to invite him or her in for a face-to-face interview.

The hiring manager will keep interviewing until they have invited 3-5 people in for a personal interview.

As the realistic numbers I’ve indicated above reveal, in order to be invited in for an interview, you’ll need to have a resume and cover letter better than 495 other candidates. Notice I did not say you needed more education, better experience or more years on the job than the other people applying for the same job. You just need to have better paperwork…”you just need a better story.” This will be the topic of a future article.

About the Author
Jason Adams is President of Street Smart Sales and Marketing and author of the highly acclaimed book The StreetSmart Job-Changing System. For more information visit www.StreetSmartSalesAndMarketing.com

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Screening Job Applicants – What Really Goes On Behind Closed Doors

9 Keys to Job Search & Career Success

In recent months, the job market has become increasingly competitive. But even as the economy slows, and there are increasing numbers of job seekers in the job market, there are many professionals who have been incredibly successful in conducting fast, effective job searches. What do they have in common? How are they doing it? Here are nine tips to speed your own job search and drive it to a fast, successful conclusion.

Know what you want and go after it. Starting a job search without knowing what you want will almost certainly end in frustration. Think about it: If you don’t know what you want and what your job target is, how will you know who to contact and how to conduct your search? If you are uncertain about your career goals, it is critical that you spend some time and energy now – before launching your search – on self-introspection and analysis. Knowing what YOU want, what YOU are passionate about, and what YOU bring to the table will provide you with a confidence that simply can’t and won’t be matched by many of your competitors in the job market. This is the crucial first step to any job search and is essential for long-term career success as well.

Know and sell your personal brand. When you think about your next career move, how would things be different for you if employers and recruiters actually sought you out? Personal branding (the process of clarifying and communicating what makes you and your unique value proposition different and special) allows you to make a name for yourself. It differentiates you from your peers and helps to position you as a leader in your field – as a specialist and an authority who knows how to do a job and fill a particular niche in the workplace better than anyone else. Once you are clear on your personal brand, you can use it to project a cohesive brand image and value proposition throughout all your job search activities, and do so in a way that addresses the specific concerns of your target audience. By knowing and promoting your brand, you achieve instant, precision-like focus that positions you as the ideal candidate for the specific type of opportunity that interests you. You gain immediate competitive advantage.

Be able to clearly articulate who you are and what you have to offer. While this may feel uncomfortable to you, the simple truth is that a job search is a sales and marketing campaign: a sales and marketing campaign in which YOU are the product. Through the process of personal branding, you must identify what differentiates you and paint a compelling portrait of your unique value proposition. But, don’t stop with just promoting this in your resume and then become tongue-tied when someone asks about you and your candidacy. You will hear the “what do you do?” or “tell me about yourself?” questions over and over, both during your job search and throughout your entire career. Don’t wing it! Preparation is the key to confidence and the key to making a lasting, positive, and memorable first impression. Be ready with a 30-60 second pitch that immediately and confidently conveys to the listener who you are as a professional and what it is that you offer.

Make their first impression your best impression. Take a hard look at your resume. Like it or not, your resume is your first introduction to most employers, and your only chance to make a good first impression. Effective resumes are highly focused marketing pieces that are strategically written and designed to sell YOU as THE best solution to a potential employer’s needs and problems. Your resume should be written to convey and illustrate your unique value proposition, with succinct “stories” that differentiate you from your competitors in the job market. Does your resume accomplish these goals? Is it focused effectively? Does it accurately present you in the way that you wish to be presented? If not, it is time to rewrite.

Network, network, network…and then network some more. At least 80% of all the jobs are found through the “hidden” job market, also known as the “unpublished” job market. These are jobs typically landed through word of mouth and referrals as opposed to answering ads, posting your resume to internet databases, or other techniques meant to target the remaining 20% of all jobs in the published market. It stands to reason that if the vast majority of the jobs are to be found in this hidden market, that you should spend the majority of your job search time working to crack it. There is no more effective job search technique than networking. So, even if it feels a little uncomfortable at first, just get out there and do it. Make networking a part of your daily routine and plan to spend the majority of your job search time on networking activities (approximately three-fourths of your time is a good estimate). The more you network, the faster your current job search will come to a successful conclusion and the faster and more successful any future job searches will be.

Plan and execute a multi-pronged job search campaign. Yes, networking is essential, but other job search techniques are also important. An effective job search campaign is a multi-pronged one that includes the strategic, planned, methodical use of a variety of job search approaches. Answering ads alone is almost never enough. Neither is working with headhunters, using internet job search sources, or researching and targeting specific employers. But, when you combine all these approaches with networking, carefully evaluate and prioritize the approaches based on relative effectiveness, and then launch an integrated, multi-pronged job search campaign, you will always come out ahead. The best job search is one in which the job seeker approaches it as if it was a job itself.

Build a support team. While your preparation will certainly ease the whole process, job searching can be a grueling and very stressful experience. So, I want to remind you that you don’t have to go through it alone. You should build a support team around you of people who can help you stay motivated and on track while giving you honest feedback and helping you stay accountable to the goals you set for yourself. Family and friends, past and present managers, your peers and colleagues, financial advisors, and professionals in the careers industry such as career counselors, coaches, and resume writers all make excellent people to add to your team. By assembling a good mix of people to support you, from a diversity of backgrounds and professions, you will receive a variety of different perspectives, ideas, and insights that can be very helpful. You should consider joining a job search support club or group – a local one if one is available or an online one. If you have been provided with outplacement services by your former employer, by all means take advantage of the office space and resources offered. The point is that you don’t have to and shouldn’t conduct your search in isolation. Surround yourself with a team that will help and support you. Above all, recognize when you need support and don’t be afraid to ask for assistance and guidance.

Always follow up. Following up on all of your contacts and your activities can do more to influence your success in achieving your job target than anything else. A hand-written thank you note or a more formal, typed thank you letter after speaking with a networking contact, attending an informational interview, or after attending an actual job interview can make a lasting positive impression that gives you a distinct competitive advantage. A follow-up phone call on every resume you send, whether it is a resume sent cold, in response to an ad, or based on a referral from one of your networking contacts can make all the difference in whether your resume is actually read and considered or not. A consistent method of follow up is key and you must make the time in your schedule to do so. Follow up will positively influence decision-makers, it will help key the process moving along, it will show your interest and your professionalism, and it will position you above the competition.

Adopt a “failure is not an option” attitude and make finding a job a job itself. Celebrate your accomplishments daily and weekly, but recognize that a successful job search requires persistence and consistent effort. The more “feelers” you put out, the more contacts you make, the more resumes you put into the hands of hiring authorities, and the more face-to-face interviews you go on, the faster you will achieve your job target. It can be difficult to remain motivated when you don’t immediately see results but remind yourself that job searching is a process and that it takes time. Reward yourself not just for the results, but for the effort.
About the Author:

Nationally certified resume writer and career marketing expert, Michelle Dumas is the director of Distinctive Career Services LLC. Through Distinctive Documents http://www.distinctiveweb.com and her Executive VIP Services http://www.100kcareermarketing.com Michelle has empowered thousands of professionals all across the U.S. and worldwide. Michelle is also the author of Secrets of a Successful Job Search http://www.job-search-secrets.com

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – 9 Keys to Job Search & Career Success

Finding Unposted Jobs

One thing you should keep in mind during your job search is that not every position will be posted publically. Not all companies list their available positions in the newspaper, job websites, or elsewhere.

Even if there are no public job offerings posted anywhere for a particular company, it never hurts to send in a resume. New positions become available all the time, especially in larger companies, so you never know when you might send in your resume at just the right moment.

I always make a list of some of the companies I most want to work for. Then I send a resume out to each of them immediately. I just send it straight to their human resources department, hoping they will have an appropriate position available. I can always apply for individual positions later if any open up.

The great thing about sending your resume in when there are no positions available is the fact that you have less competition. There will be many people applying for positions that are listed, but if you happen to send in a resume at a time when a position is available but not yet listed, you will have little to no competition.

Even better, if you happen to send your resume in when an integral employee has recently left the company, you could end up getting a job mroe easily simply because the company is desperate to replace the employee as quickly as possible.

I wouldn’t go too crazy sending in a resume every week, but once per month is probably fine. Some HR directors may not appreciate seeing resumes so often, but others will appreciate your tenacity. Think of Bud Fox in the movie Wall Street. While his tenacity didn’t pay off for a long time, once he eventually had the opportunity to meet Gordon Gekko, he was told just how much attention his tenacity had gotten him.

Don’t make yourself a pain in the butt for the company, but being persistent just might help you get your chosen position at the right time.

Using Employment Agencies

Employment agencies aren’t just for finding temporary positions. Many of them have a wide variety of permanent positions available, and even temp positions can turn into long-term employment. In fact, some companies hire almost all of their long-term employees through temp agencies, because they get a chance to try out employees without having to worry about the commitment of offering them a permanent position immediately.

If you’re having trouble finding employment through standard means, you should certainly put in applications with some of your local temp agencies. You may even be able to find employment agencies that specialize in headhunting in your chosen field. These companies would certainly be able to put you in touch with some important people!

Don’t treat interviews with employment agencies as any less important than you would if you were interviewing directly with the company you most want to work for. You never know when the interviewer at the agency might be able to put you into a position in that company, and even if they can’t now, that doesn’t mean they won’t be able to in the future.

You should put just as much effort and seriousness into an agency interview as you would any other interview. The impressions the agency interviewer gets from you may be passed on to companies who could hire you, so it’s vital to make a good impression.

Above all else, always remember that a temporary position is not always a bad thing that you should turn down. If you are offered a temp position in an excellent company, you might want to think about taking it. Not only will you get some valuable industry experience, but you could end up being hired on a permanent basis based on your performance. You would also have a better chance of being hired at that company later if they had a permanent position open up than if you had never worked there at all, so treat temp jobs just as seriously as you would a permanent position. If nothing else, you might be able to get a great industry reference from your time there!

Job Search Referrals

When you apply to a company for work and they don’t have any positions available for which you are qualified, you may be able to get them to refer you to other companies that may have positions available. When you apply for the job, if you are told there are no positions available or that the job you applied for was given to someone else, you can politely ask the individual if they know of any other companies that may have similar positions available.

Additionally, don’t overlook friends and family as potential sources of referrals. Someone you may know just might know someone who works in your chosen field. You may never know unless you ask, so if you’re having trouble finding a job, ask around. Your aunt, cousin, or old college roommate may not work in the field you do, but they may know someone who does. It never hurts to ask around.

Don’t forget about employment agencies. They don’t just hire for temporary positions! Some employment agencies may even specialize in recruiting for your chosen field, or they may specialize in finding long-term employment. So don’t overlook these companies as potential sources of jobs.

Finally, it never hurts to become friends with people in your industry. Attend trade shows and hang out where they congregate. The more people you meet and become friends with in your chosen field, the better your chances will be to find a position when you’re looking. If you have friends at most of the top companies in your field, you will always known when positions come available so you can be first in line to apply.

And you never know when one of these people will be promoted into a position where they could actually have some say in the hiring process. That guy you met who works in a mail room today might be promoted into human resources next month!

Online Job Searches

Searching for a job can be very daunting, especially if you are in a field with limited posisitons, or if you live in an area where jobs in your field are very rare.

In order to have the best possible chance of finding a job, you may need to perform a job search online. If jobs in your field are hard to find locally, you can search all over the country or the world if you use the internet.

In the past, it was quite difficult to look for jobs in other areas. You would usually have to go to your local library and hope that they had current newspapers for other areas where you could located potential positions.

These days, it is very simple to look for positions all over the world just by using some of the online job boards. You can find a job in any field, anywhere in the world, simply by performing a quick search online.

You can also send your resume electronically, so you don’t have to worry about it getting lost in the mail or having to have more copies printed if you run out.

Searching for a job online is also a huge time saver. Instead of dropping off resumes locally and having to drive all over town, you can just email resumes out to the companies you locate online.

The major problem you will have to deal with when searching for jobs online comes when you are selected for an interview by a company that isn’t in your local area. You can request a phone interview, but this won’t always be possible. Some companies may require you to be physically present for the interview, so you should be prepared to travel for job interviews if you’re going to be searching for a job outside of your local area. Remember, you may or may not get the job, so it’s up to you to evaluate your chances before you spend the time and money to travel out of town for an interview.