Career Options

Bouncing Back from a Dream Job Rejection

You spent weeks job searching, and finally found a position that was perfect for you. You fit every single one of the job qualifications, and the company culture was right in line with your values. When you got a phone interview, all of the questions were a breeze. And then you nailed the in-person interview. But you never heard back.

Sometimes you can be a great fit for a job, and still not get the position. Maybe the company ended up hiring from within, or perhaps the job opening was cancelled. To be honest, there can be millions of reasons you didn’t end up getting the job that have nothing to do with your own qualifications. Which can be frustrating and awful. That’s why it’s best not to dwell on it. Here are a few ways to keep your spirits up after being rejected from your dream job. (more…)

Is a Longer Commute Worth it for a Great Job?

You’ve been job searching for a while, and finally get an offer for your dream job. The only problem? It’s more than a two-hour drive to get there. It might be tempting to accept the offer right away, but that’s at least four hours every day stuck in transit. If you need a bit of assistance in figuring out if a longer commute is worth it for you, we can help. Here are a few things to keep in mind. (more…)

What to Do When an Entry-Level Job Requires Three Years of Experience

How can you have experience when it’s your first job?

Applying to entry-level positions is strange. Some of them are less than great and don’t mention experience at all, and others are amazing, claim to be “great for recent grads!” and then ask for three years of experience. How can a recent graduate have three years of industry experience? The answer is complicated.

As noted by TalentWorks, after analyzing a random sample of 95,363 jobs, they “discovered that 61% of all full-time ‘entry-level’ jobs require three plus years of experience.”

And that’s not all; the study goes on to note that, “for entry-level jobs, the amount of work experience required to get a job has been steadily increasing at 2.8% per year.” That means in the next half-decade or so, recent grads will find entry-level jobs asking for around four years of experience.

So then, what is a recent grad supposed to do to get one of these mythical entry-level jobs? Let’s dig in. (more…)

3 Ways Contract Work Assignments Can Advance Your Career

Whether you’re between jobs, looking for a more flexible work arrangement, or just testing the waters of something different, short-term, contract work assignments are a great way to advance your career. Contract work comes in all shapes and sizes. And for those professionals who embrace the opportunity, the reward is often much more than a foot in the door for the job of their dreams. (more…)

Setting S.M.A.R.T Job Search Goals for the New Year

If you don’t have a plan to achieve them, New Year’s resolutions are just pretty words on a page. In fact, studies show 80% of people fail their New Year’s resolutions, with most losing steam by mid-February. It’s easy to say you’ll change, but actually putting those words into practice is incredibly difficult.

One way to succeed with resolutions for your job search is making sure all your goals are S.M.A.R.T. S.M.A.R.T is an acronym created by George Doran, Arthur Miller, and James Cunningham in a 1981 article titled “There’s a S.M.A.R.T. Way to Write Management Goals and objectives.” The letters stand for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based. Here’s how to make sure your resolutions fit the S.M.A.R.T. criteria. (more…)