new year | Journey

Resumes and Cover Letters The Job Search

New Year, New Resume

By Job Journey on Thursday, January 13, 2022

We’re a few weeks into the new year, and if you haven’t set goals yet, it’s time to hunker down and get started. A great first goal? Updating your resume! Whether you’re looking for a new job or just want to tune things up, we’re here to help. Here are a few things to adjust in your resume this year.

Get rid of old jobs

If you’ve been in the workforce for a while, you’re likely to have plenty of jobs on your resume. But when it comes to the job search, you need to tailor your resume for newer jobs. That means taking out anything that isn’t up to date. If you’re looking for an office job for example, you’ll just want two to three of your most recent jobs and not anything too far beyond that. But you can still keep those older jobs on LinkedIn if you think they could be relevant in the future! (more…)

At Work Leadership

Leaders: Four Things to Do Today to Ensure a Successful New Year

By Job Journey on Tuesday, December 28, 2021

The new year is just around the corner, and with it comes newly realized optimism and strong goal-oriented determination. But to ensure your team is successful in the new year, it’s imperative to focus on the right things that will have positive impacts on your workplace objectives. Check out these four things to do today to ensure a successful new year!

Create Realistic Goals

When creating plans for the new year, one of the best things you can do is create ambitious, but realistic goals. According to a study from the University of Scranton, 92% of people fail to achieve their goals for the new year. That doesn’t create good odds for success. However, there’s a simple way to beat the odds: follow the S.M.A.R.T. goal-making plan. Make sure your goals are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time sensitive. (more…)

Job Interviews The Job Search

Ace Your Interviews in 2020

By Job Journey on Friday, January 3, 2020

Get that dream job this year with these top tips

Here at Job Journey, we want you to ace your interviews and get the job that’s perfect for you. That’s why we write blog after blog chock full of interview tips, job search hacks, and other great expert advice.

To get your interview skills revved up and running this year, we’re collecting a few of our top articles all in one place. Ready. Set. Go!

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At Work New Job Tips The Job Search

New Year’s Job Resolutions and Sticking to Them

By Job Journey on Thursday, January 10, 2019

Start off strong and don’t let your foot off the gas.

It’s 2019 folks. The new year is a time to celebrate everything that happened in the previous year and to then turn to a whole new year of goals.

That’s when we start making New Year’s Resolutions. This year, I’ll live a healthier lifestyle. This year, I’ll be a better person. This year, I’ll read more books.

Making resolutions is easy to do, but it’s much harder to keep them. Especially when it applies to your job search.

We’re here to help. Here are tips on setting job resolutions you can keep.

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At Work Career Advancement

The Home Stretch: Six Quick Tips to Finish Strong in 2017

By Job Journey on Friday, December 8, 2017

With three-quarters of the year behind us, we’ve officially entered the final stretch of 2017. With 2018 just around the corner, many are feeling the pressure to finish strong. So, whether you’re a jobseeker or a busy employee, it’s important to take an assessment of where you are and what you need to do to meet—and exceed—your end-of-the-year goals.

Whether you’re right on track or falling short of your performance expectations, these six quick tips may help ensure you head into the new year with some positive momentum.

Fine Tune Your Action Plan
Although it’s likely too late to overhaul your annual plan altogether, there are small adjustments that can be made to give an extra boost toward meeting your end of the year goals. Taking a moment to review and revise your strategies before making a final push toward 2018 will help focus your efforts on the activities that will get you there.

Clear the Path
Sometimes the best thing you can do to shed all the clutter that has accumulated throughout the year is to clear a path toward the finish line. From extra projects and conflicts with colleagues or family members to actual files and paper piling up on every available surface around the workplace or home, ridding yourself of distractions lets you think more clearly about reaching and exceeding your goals.

Up the Ante
If you’re lagging behind—or just barely meeting performance goals—sometimes upping the ante is necessary to get a final burst of productivity to finish the year. Whether it’s changing your goal structure or setting “reward milestones” (where you treat yourself to something after a certain goal is achieved), giving yourself an exciting new reward to aim for may be exactly what’s needed.

Take a Breather
If you’ve had a long and challenging year up to this point, it’s likely becoming more difficult to summon the energy needed to stay on track. Before you start the countdown to the final days of 2017, take an opportunity to catch your breath. Whether it’s taking a full vacation or just a long weekend, a little time to recharge the batteries is essential to staying focused and energized for closing out the fourth quarter.

Throw a Hail Mary
If you’ve had a difficult year and it’s clear you are going to fall short of your goals, at this point in the game what do you have to lose by tossing a Hail Mary? Think way outside the box and take a risk on a creative strategy or job application that, if successful, could completely change the momentum and put yourself back on track to squeak out a win.

No matter what your end of the year situation may be, the most important thing is to stay focused. And, even if you fall short of meeting your goals, don’t dwell on it. Instead, use it as an opportunity to learn what didn’t work so you will be better prepared to position yourself for success in the new year.

At Work

2017 Hiring Trends Show Signs of Optimism—and Challenges—Ahead of the New Year

By Job Journey on Friday, November 3, 2017

Express Employment Professionals recently conducted a Job Insights Survey to track quarterly hiring trends for businesses across a wide range of industries to see what the hiring landscape looks like as we head into 2018. Good news: the results were optimistic! Here are a few major takeaways:

Businesses are optimistic about the economy
The majority of respondents reported that they expect to see an upward trend in hiring, or at least maintain current hiring levels. Only 11% of businesses expect their employment activity to decrease in the fourth quarter of 2017.

Up slightly since the beginning of 2017, 45% of respondents say they expect business to trend up, followed by 44% who believe their hiring activity will stay in line with current levels. In fact, these statistics have remained relatively consistent throughout 2017, which bodes well for the economy heading into the new year.

The heaviest hiring activity this year has been in the “general labor” segment, followed by skilled labor (industrial), and administrative/office clerical. And 92% of respondents do not plan to eliminate positions in the fourth quarter—which is up from 86% in fourth quarter 2016.

Despite optimism about the economy, qualified candidate pools continue to dry
Across most industries, there are jobs to be found. However, candidates with the skills to fill in-demand positions are becoming fewer and far between. Attracting and retaining top performers continues to be one of the highest priorities for businesses. As a result, employers have begun to rethink their hiring mindset, focusing on transferable soft skills and increased training.

According to Bob Funk, CEO of Express Employment Professionals, “Good economic news doesn’t come without its challenges. Finding new workers is today’s challenge—and one that employers and policymakers will need to tackle as long as the economy continues to grow.”

The Job Insights Survey revealed that more than 70% of businesses say it is “somewhat” or “very” difficult to recruit for and fill positions, with the top three reasons jobs go unfilled including lack of applicants with experience, lack of applicants in general, and lack of applicants with hard skills.

Wage growth will remain stable, but largely unchanged
Wage growth is often a barometer for the health of the overall economy. If wages are increasing, then employment activity is likely on the uptick as businesses compete for top talent to fill open positions, as well as retain their current workforce. For the fourth quarter of 2017, survey results indicate wage growth will remain mostly stable, with some growth expected.

When asked how wages would fluctuate over the next three months, the majority of respondents said wages would remain the same in the near future. A little more than one-third expect to see an increase, while only 1% of businesses surveyed believe wages in their companies will decrease.

“Although, there’s certainly good news for some workers, most will likely see unchanged wages in the fourth quarter of 2017,” said Funk. “However, as the labor market continues to tighten, we would expect to see higher rates of wage increases in the coming quarters.”

At Work Career Advancement

How To Use Your Influence to Achieve Success

By Job Journey on Wednesday, January 25, 2017

As the new year begins, many people will reassess their goals for success. To do that, most will lean toward using their influence to achieve success and realize their dreams and goals.

One powerful way to build success in life, both professionally and personally, is through influence. Influence is power, and gaining more influence in the workplace is critical in moving your career forward.

But how can you achieve quantifiable influence? Several strategies can be used to harness this skill and use influence to create success.

Create Trust

Trust creates and carries influence, and gaining the trust of co-workers is one of the fastest ways to use that impact to help cultivate success. Regardless of your position in the company or the position of your co-workers, being open and honest, no matter what the situation, builds a sense of trust.

Leaders who share their concerns, don’t keep secrets, give credit where credit is due, and admit mistakes build influence by being regarded as trustworthy workers.

Learn to Be Assertive

Being assertive enough to speak up during meetings or sharing ideas is another way to build influence and achieve success. However, being assertive and being aggressive are two different things.

To be assertive, present your thoughts and ideas with conviction and confidence. When you go too far with confidence, however, it can be taken as arrogance. When speaking with an unfamiliar group or on areas outside your expertise, be careful to temper your assertiveness with some humility.

Don’t be afraid to apply assertiveness to all areas of life, not just work. As long as conviction and knowledge are present, being assertive can create a reputation of authority, which builds your influence with peers, employees, and customers.

Consistency is Key

Those with influence generally also have the reputation of being consistent as well. Consistency translates to being reliable, and inconsistency is a sure way to ruin a reputation. This means you are known for executing tasks effectively and on time, every day, developing a reputation of reliability.

Consistency is invaluable when it comes to building influence. People flock to those who are known for a good work ethic, while unpredictability can scare and worry those in decision-making positions.

Stay Flexible

Although being assertive is vital to using influence to achieve success, have an open mind to other people’s ideas and be willing to change your opinion when presented with new or different evidence.

Being too stringent or stubborn can create a reputation of being immovable or hard to work with. Others want their opinions and ideas heard as well, and those who are not flexible or open to others’ thoughts lose their overall influence and the respect of co-workers.

Show flexibility while still holding on to core beliefs through calm negotiation or compromise. Work with others to find a mutually acceptable solution. This increases influence because if others perceive someone as being open and flexible to new ideas, they, too, become more open and flexible.

Get a Little Personal

For those in a leadership role, being perceived as easy to get along with and personable goes a long way. Those who isolate themselves or who do not share personal ideas can be perceived as stand-offish or as unapproachable.

Influence, at its heart, is based on others’ reactions and opinions. Influence based on fear or loathing creates a toxic atmosphere, but influence based on likeability and trust is conducive to a successful and collaborative environment.

Personal exchanges with employees and coworkers will help them relate better and feel more comfortable when discussing a new idea. This does not mean building lifelong friendships or betraying secrets, but if other people see an influencer as an approachable person on the team with a real personality, they are likely to be more receptive to constructive criticism.

To be successful this year—whether it’s raising capital, convincing others to support a cause or having more responsibility—influence will be at the center to achieving success. Influence based on trust, consistency, assertiveness, flexibility, and personality will positively steer relationships, careers or resources in the right direction.

Gain influence, and people will follow.

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