Journey

Thanksgiving Lessons for Your Job Search

By Job Journey on Tuesday, November 21, 2017

Stuff your job search turkey with holiday cheer.

Thanksgiving is a wonderful time to get together and celebrate with friends and family. Juicy turkeys, delicious stuffing, piping hot pies, and wonderful conversation make the holiday memorable. There’s just something about thankfulness (and eating) that brings us all together.

After Thanksgiving is over, you’ll be refreshed and ready to hit the job search again. But before you do, think back on the holiday and apply what made it so wonderful to your search.

Get the Party Started

Thanksgiving involves plenty of planning. You need to call Aunt Susie to make sure she’s bringing the mashed potatoes, email Uncle Fred about the discount turkey, and text your siblings to make sure nobody bakes the same pie. It’s a struggle, but at the end of the day all of that scuttling around results in a holiday everyone can be proud of.

You can apply the same hustle to your job search. Cultivate relationships with friends and colleagues, and then leverage those relationships to hear about new job opportunities. Just make sure to keep in touch, and avoid asking someone for a job connection out of the blue. After all, you wouldn’t randomly ask weird cousin Harold (who you haven’t spoken to in the 10 years since he stole the turkey) to bring the cranberry jam, would you?

Give Thanks

That’s the whole point of Thanksgiving, after all. Being grateful for what we have, and for all of the incredible people who have helped us get to where we are today. You need to be thankful in your job search as well. After an interview, always send a handwritten note (or at least an email) to your interviewer thanking them for their consideration. If any of your contacts help you attain an interview, thank them for their time, either via LinkedIn.com, email, or by phone. The more personal you can make the connection (a handwritten note, a kind phone call, an in-person meeting) the better off you’ll be.

Don’t Be a Turkey

Thanksgiving is a bad time to be a turkey. Whether your turkey is stuffed or topped with cranberry jam, you probably wouldn’t want to swap places with him. A turkey can also be defined as, according to Merriam-Webster, a “stupid, foolish, or inept person.” So it goes without saying that you don’t want to be a turkey in your job search either.

To avoid looking like a turkey, make sure to prepare. Join professional or trade groups to learn the ins and outs of the industry. Research a company online before you step foot into an interview, and have some idea of what the company culture and dress code are. You don’t want to stand out as a gobbling, semi-flightless bird. Try to soar like an eagle instead.

Have any other ideas about how Thanksgiving can apply to your job search? Let us know in the comments below!

The Job Search

Holiday Job Tips

By Job Journey on Thursday, November 16, 2017

Sleigh bells are ringing—what are you waiting for?

Whether you’re unemployed and looking for work or employed but looking for a change, the holidays can be a great time to jump start your job search.

Seasonal jobs, for instance, can be both a way to pay the bills and stepping stones on the way to full-time employment. And with Black Friday looming on the horizon, businesses are rushing to fill their job openings. Although many holiday jobs were filled in October, there are still plenty of opportunities for work out there. The challenge is finding those opportunities and getting an interview.

The following are a few ways to enhance your holiday job search and get one step ahead of the competition.

Apply Everywhere

If what you need is a job, any job, don’t narrow your job search to one type of business. Although retail is hiring in spades, other businesses are just as busy. More people shopping means more people stopping by coffee shops for a latte or the gas station to refill their tank. Warehouses also need more employees to keep up with the huge amount of gifts being shipped back and forth. After a long day of deal-hunting, shoppers will flock to restaurants in droves, which means a need for more wait staff.

Drive around your area and see which restaurants or stores are hiring. Then go online and use job search websites like Indeed.com or Monster.com to find openings in your area. You can go to the specific business website as well.

You can also send your resume to local staffing companies (like Express Employment Professionals) so they can connect you with opportunities you wouldn’t hear of otherwise. With you and the staffing agency both job searching, you get two times the job search power without paying a dime.

Network

The holiday season is a time of celebration and coming together. Networking events and volunteer projects are plentiful. Use these events to connect with others in your industry. Just make sure to be tactful. For instance, don’t beg for a job at a Christmas party or desperately follow someone to every one of their volunteer projects. Be yourself and show that you’re a person worth knowing.

Once you’ve made these contacts, search on LinkedIn and connect with them. After that, feel free to send a positive letter thanking them for connecting with you and let them know that you’re looking for work. Also, be sure to mention how you’ve been productive during time without work. These connections could lead to seasonal work or even a full-time job in the future!

Make a List—and Check It Twice

What do you really want in a job? It’s fine if you’re just looking for something to pay the bills right now, but do you have a long-term career strategy? What do you enjoy? What do you hate? What kind of boss and business culture do you need to thrive? Answering questions like these can make your job search much clearer, paving the way for the New Year.

Looking for more holiday job search tips? Ask us your questions in the comments below!

The Job Search

How to Stay Relevant in Your Job Search

By Job Journey on Thursday, November 9, 2017

Get out there and make yourself memorable.

Finding a job can take a long time—time spent at home scouring the web for job opportunities, using search engines to research companies, or finding commonly asked interview questions.

Being unemployed for months or even years can result in an unwanted gap on your resume. The best way to avoid this gap is to fit in other activities along with your job search.

In other words, find a way to stay relevant. Attend professional events, network, and try to find gig work on the side if you can. Make community involvement and professional development your new priorities. Here are some ideas.

Keep Up To Date on Your Industry

What industry is your dream job in? Once you figure that out, subscribe to as many relevant blogs and newsletters as you can. If you want to be at the same level as other job seekers, you need to know as much about the industry and major players as possible. Become an expert. Attend professional industry events, listen to speakers, join professional groups, and know what’s happening on a daily basis.

Professional groups have the added benefit of networking. You’ll meet people in your industry that can refer you to job opportunities in the future. If you can’t find any local professional groups in your industry, look into career fairs or industry-specific events on your own. You never know who you might meet.

If your dream job isn’t a professional position, there are still groups you can join. For any given position, there’s a group of people working together to further their understanding of the industry in their area. A few Google searches should get you in touch with the information you need.

Once you have a general idea of what is going on in your industry, research individual companies. Even if you don’t plan on applying to a certain company, make it your business to know what their branding and strategy look like. Knowledge of competitors will always impress in an interview.

After all of that is done, you can better target your job search. You should have a good idea of how your personality and soft skills fit the companies you researched. You can also put professional groups on your resume. Events you attended with those groups can become bullet points.

Find the Recruiters

Sending your resume off into the unknown is a nerve-wracking experience. Mostly because you can never be quite sure that somebody reads it. Finding company recruiters in your area and getting in touch with them can alleviate a bit of that stress. They’ll be more likely to read your resume if they’ve already met you.

But how are you supposed to get in touch with them in the first place? LinkedIn can tell you which mutual contacts you share with a recruiter. You can ask one of them for an introduction, or just reach out to the recruiter yourself. So long as you are polite and well-spoken, the interaction can’t do anything but help. Even if they are unable to meet with you, you will still have that point of contact.

Start a Blog or Portfolio

No matter what you do, you’re liable to have some sort of expertise. Try using WordPress or some other platform to start a blog. If you’re unemployed, use this as a place to showcase the events you’ve attended and achievements that don’t quite fit on a resume.

You can also blog about recent events, your reaction to a major industry change, or whatever else you find interesting. If you’re not much of a writer, that’s fine! Keep it to the facts and you won’t have any problems. Just be careful not to turn it into a personal diary—this is a professional tool, not a journal. You can also use your blog as a networking tool to connect with other bloggers you have met at professional groups or industry events.

If blogging isn’t for you, look into setting up an online portfolio instead. Although portfolios aren’t suitable for every industry, they can be great if you have projects or work to show. If you pick up any side jobs, a portfolio is a perfect place to put examples of your work. Put everything up there and show potential employers why you would be a perfect match for the job they’re looking to fill.

Looking for other ways to stay relevant in the job search? Let us know your questions in the comments below!

The Job Search

Poll Results: What’s Your Go-To Social Network for Finding a Job

By Job Journey on Tuesday, November 7, 2017

A few months ago, we polled readers, asking them what their go-to social network was for finding a job.

The results leaned toward LinkedIn with 51% of the vote. “Other” followed in second with 29%, with Facebook close behind at 20%. Twitter, surprisingly (given the popularity of the platform), received 0% of the vote.

“Other” responses included readers using Indeed.com or Cragislist.com as their social media platform of choice. However, although these are incredibly helpful job search websites, they are not social networks.

What does all of this mean? It means that different people choose to network in different ways whether they’re online or off. In the real world, some prefer professional groups while others prefer charity groups. Online networking is similarly split, with people choosing one platform or another due to personal tastes.

However, the heavy tilt towards LinkedIn does show that you should have LinkedIn for networking. Fifty percent of our voters are on LinkedIn, and you can’t connect with them if you aren’t there too!

Have anything to share about your preferred social media platform for finding a job? Let us know in the comments below!

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.”

Uncategorized

Resume Tips to Impress Your Interviewer

By Job Journey on Tuesday, October 31, 2017

As the weather gets colder, heat up your resume

Interviewers and HR professionals go through hundreds of resumes a day. And that’s after computers have already gone through thousands more. If you really want to stand out, you need to add something extra to your resume. After all, you can’t make an impression without an interview.

We’ve previously provided you with the best words to use in your resume, and we’ve helped out with ways to maintain your resume over time. In this blog, we’ll focus on the little things you can do with your resume to truly stand out.

Get Past the Filter

In order for your resume to even be seen by a human being, you first have to get past the robots. No, this isn’t a science fiction story—we’re talking about the programs companies use to filter resumes.

These programs look for certain keywords and phrases that show how you match the job qualifications. A lot of that is industry jargon—words and phrases only those “in the know” would use. And guess where a lot of those words show up! Right in the job description. Find anything usable in the job description and pop it right back into your resume. Google is an invaluable resource for finding out more industry-specific words to use.

However, be careful of using too many keywords. If your keywords aren’t organically placed into the resume, they will look out of place once the resume makes it into human hands. Instead of trying to pack your resume with as many keywords as possible, just make sure to choose the right keywords in the right places.

Cater Your Resume to the Job Description

Don’t stop at just customizing your resume for the industry. Make sure it answers each and every concern brought up by the job description. Make sure each bullet shows exactly how your individual work advanced the company as a whole.

You can accomplish this even if your prior work has not been in the same industry. Just re-frame your experiences with industry specific terms, and show how that experience would really help in this new job.

The only difficult part of all of this is answering requirements with bullet points. You obviously can’t just write out your answers like in grade school. You have to adapt them to the resume format. Look at a few different resume formats online, and choose the one that best matches your current needs.

Your Accomplishments

Companies want to know more than what you did. They want to know how what you did benefited the company as a whole. In other words, they want to know your accomplishments.

Quantify each accomplishment, noting how it led to an X% increase in efficiency or saved X amount of time on project. Use action verbs like oversaw, managed, led, etc.

Looking for more resume help? Let us know your questions in the comments below!

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