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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!

Resumes and Cover Letters The Job Search

Sizzling Hot Resume Tips

By Caleb Yen on Thursday, July 20, 2017

Take a break from the heat and update your resume.

If you’re not enjoying the sand and surf, why not take a few minutes to see if there are any changes you should make to your resume? A good cleaning every now and then (we recommend constant resume upkeep) is good for even the most storied of resumes. A look at our top resume advice couldn’t hurt either. So then, what can you do to spruce it up?

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Job Interviews Networking Resumes and Cover Letters The Job Search

Kick-Start Your Resume with Community Service

By Caleb Yen on Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Serve others and boost your resume at the same time

On Saturday, June 10, Express Employment Professionals offices across North America will gather together for Brand It Blue Day to help fill community food banks and pantries. The event is a day of service aimed to help in the fight against hunger, and you’re invited to join in.

Wondering why you might want to participate in something like this? Apart from the obvious reason of helping those who really need it, there are professional advantages as well.

1. Help Others

As noted by Feeding America®, 43.1 million people (13.5% of the U.S. population) were in poverty in 2015. About 42.2 million lived in food-insecure households. That means over 13 million children went to bed hungry at some point that year.

Summer is the worst time for child hunger, as the school meal program ends for most kids. In 2013, more than 21.5 million children received free or reduced-price meals through their school programs and only 2.5 million of those children took part in summer food service programs. Volunteering allows you to make a real difference and help those kids get three meals a day.

2. Enhance Your Resume

Being involved in the community also shows potential employers that you have interests and goals outside of work. In other words, volunteering could help you land your next job.

As noted by Fortune, a 2016 Deloitte study of 2,506 U.S. hiring managers found that 82% of interviewers held a preference for applicants with volunteer experience. 92% said such activities built leadership skills. This was in sharp contrast to the mere 32% of applicants that mentioned unpaid volunteer work on their resumes. So, at the very least, add volunteer experience to your resume to help make you stand out above other applicants.

But why do employers find volunteer work so attractive? 85% of the interviewers found that skills-based activities, including those used during volunteer work, increased candidate communication skills, while 88% felt it built “strong character.” For those whose volunteer work didn’t use their professional skills, those numbers decreased slightly to 77% and 84%, respectively.

What else can volunteer work do for your resume? It provides an opportunity to master more skills. Take lessons learned in the workplace or college and develop those skills in rea-life situations. Maybe you’ve written mock strategic plans for a promotions management class, but never had a chance to put them into action. Or perhaps you film weddings for a living, but want to expand to other events.

3. Network

Networking can be challenging, especially when you’re at an event where everybody else is there to network as well. These events can be helpful, but they can be tiring.

Community service allows you to network in a much more organic way. Everyone is serving the same cause—nobody expects the newbie to walk in with a killer smile and an even more killer resume. If you work hard and make a good impression on others, they may pass on future job opportunities or serve as reference contacts.

In addition, continued nonprofit work for a particular cause lets you build a reputation in that area, allowing for future networking opportunities further down the road. You can also see how an organization functions and interact with people from all levels of the organization. If you’re interested in a nonprofit career, even better—these could be future co-workers after all.

Brand It Blue Day

If you’re looking for a cause to work with, consider Express’ Brand it Blue Day on Saturday, June 10! Check out the nearest participating Express office today.

In 2016, more than 235 Express offices and 1,000 volunteers from California to North Carolina to Canada came together at local food banks and pantries across North America to help fight hunger. Over the past four years, Express offices donated 300,000 meals to nonprofit organizations across North America through their efforts on Brand It Blue Day.

Has community service helped your career? Let us know how in the comments below!

Resume Boot Camp Resumes and Cover Letters The Job Search

Take the Luck Out of Resume-building

By Job Journey on Wednesday, March 15, 2017

The path toward a new career takes time and hard work

Luck doesn’t have anything to do with it. Which is why you need to leverage every possible strength. Think outside of the box and find the qualities that make you the best candidate for the job.

If you’re looking to expand your job search, Express Employment Professionals is a leading staffing provider in the U.S. and Canada. We employed a record 510,000 people in 2016. If you have any questions about your job search, contact a local Express office or fill out our online contact form.

Have any resume-building tips to share? Let us know in the comments section below.

The Job Search

EXCLUSIVE INSIDER INFORMATION: HOW TO SCORE AN INTERVIEW AND GET YOUR RESUME NOTICED!

By Job Journey on Friday, October 21, 2016

If you’re looking for a job, you’re well aware that the competition is fierce. With so many applicants competing for a single job, standing out from the crowd is a daunting task. You may be the most qualified, best educated, highly trained, hardest working people-person to ever apply for the position. But if you don’t catch the eye of the hiring manager, he or she may never know what a fantastic employee you would be.

“Sometimes it can seem like there’s no rhyme or reason for why an applicant does not get an interview, but there are a few things you can do to improve your chances. And clearly, the most important thing to do is to submit a formal application in the first place,” said Bob Funk, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Express Employment Professionals. “As our survey also shows, cleverness can pay off. Be careful though, as not every hiring manager wants a resume in a gift box. But in a crowded field, creativity can make the difference.”

Express surveyed nearly 400 businesses to help you learn how applicants secure job interviews, some of the cleverest ways job seekers submit applications, and why some applicants do not get interviews. Read on for insider information that just may give you the winning edge in your job search.

Getting the Interview
Hiring decision makers in our survey were asked, “What are the best ways for an applicant to get a job interview with your company?” Overwhelmingly, the top response was simply, “applying and submitting a resume” offered by 23% of respondents. Another 12% said a referral was the top way to secure an interview. “Apply online” was the third most popular method recommended by our experts with 10%. Finally, 8% of respondents recommend making a phone call.

Get Creative
In past articles, we’ve shared tips on how to make your resume stand out from the crowd. But some job applicants take things a step further. We asked our business leaders to describe a clever way in which someone submitted a resume. Here’s a list of the most memorable and creative.

A binder with a portfolio of projects
A PowerPoint presentation with audio and video
A YouTube video
A resume folded into a paper airplane
A gift package containing the resume

Other respondents mentioned an applicant walking in as a customer before revealing their interest in a job. Another manager received a call recommending someone for the job—only to find out the caller was recommending herself.

Interview Deal Breakers
On the flip side, survey respondents were asked, “What are the main reasons an applicant does not get a job interview with your company?” “Lack of experience” topped the list at 16%, followed closely by “lack of skills/qualifications” at 15%.

If your sights are set on a particular job or career path, explore ways to get the training necessary to be considered a qualified applicant. Do some research to find out what it will take to get where you want to be and investigate entry level jobs that are good stepping stones on your career path. You may not be where you’d like to be today, but with effort and determination, you will get there!

Have you ever tried a unique way to get an interview or get your resume noticed? How did it go?

Share your experience in the comments section!

score_an_interview

Movin’ On Up is brought to you by Express Employment Professionals.

Resumes and Cover Letters

Outperform With These 5 Resume Tips

By Job Journey on Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Everyone knows that your resume is an important part of landing an interview, and ultimately, a job. But, with so many qualified candidates going after the same jobs, how do you stand out? Take a look at these five resume tips to help you outperform the competition.

1. Customize
When you apply for a job, tailoring your resume to the specific qualifications can help you stand out and position yourself as an ideal candidate for the job. In order to tailor your resume, start by creating a master resume you can easily alter. Include all experience, skills, volunteer opportunities, and education you’ve obtained. When you apply to specific jobs, read the descriptions carefully and adapt your master resume accordingly. If the job you’re applying for requires customer service experience, highlight any experience you have and consider removing skills that don’t apply. According to the Huffington Post, “Focus all your information on what they want to see, not what you want them to see.”

2. Spell It Out
When possible, add details to the experience you list on your resume. For example, if you increased customer satisfaction by 35% in a previous job, state it on your resume. “I was responsible for customer interaction and increased satisfaction by 35%” speaks louder than simply mentioning that you worked with customers. According to Dan Ogden, principal of Omnibus Consulting, an executive search firm, “The resumes that stand out are the ones that show what the candidate did with the responsibilities they were given. Not just what they were responsible for, but what they achieved.”

3. Keep It Simple
According to Tony Beshara, author of Unbeatable Resumes, the average resume gets read in 10 seconds. In order to stand out, you must keep your resume simple and short. Avoid making your resume span more than two pages, and keep the content easy to read and understand. Beshara also suggests avoiding fancy layouts or special effects, and recommends using Microsoft Word for formatting.

4. Proofread
It may seem obvious, but don’t forget to proofread your resume before sending it to a recruiter or heading to an interview. Your resume needs to be free from grammatical errors and spelling mistakes, or you may be counted out before you even have a chance. According to Monster.com, having a less-than-perfect resume may lead recruiters to draw the conclusion that you don’t care or don’t have the skills necessary to fill their position.

5. Let Social Media Help
While a traditional resume is printed on paper, today’s social media advancements are making it easier than ever before to get noticed. When you update your traditional resume, you should also make sure your social profile is up to date. Joshua Janicek, director of talent acquisition for the advertising agency Arnold Worldwide, says job seekers need to build a personal brand to compete for the jobs they want. According to Joshua, LinkedIn is the place to start. “LinkedIn is the standard and the core platform for recruiters looking for talent,” he said. Include your volunteer experience, interests, and educational background to give recruiters a better picture of who you are and what you can bring to their company.

How does your resume outperform the competition? Share your tips in the comments section below.

Movin’ On Up is brought to you by Express Employment Professionals.

Resumes and Cover Letters

How Many Resumes Does it Take to Make a Hire?

By Job Journey on Monday, August 15, 2016

Express Employment Professionals recently asked 390 businesses in the United States and Canada how many resumes and interviews does it take for employers to fill one job. The results may surprise you as businesses spend more time than you think to make one hire.

Depending on the industry, business leaders report that candidate searches can involve reviewing as many as 16 resumes and up to five interviews. Finding the right person for the job is an important task, and businesses say they go through an intensive search process.

Even for general labor jobs, businesses say they review up to 15 resumes and conduct four interviews. This increases for administrative and professional roles, and does not include drafting and placing advertisements for job openings, recruiting, conducting reference checks, and any required testing or other screening.

Stand Out As a Candidate
The job search is competitive, and there are several ways you can stand out from the competition. Movin’ On Up has numerous articles that can help you with your resume. One of the most popular resume articles takes a look at the chronological resume versus the functional resume. You have roughly 10 seconds to grab the attention of a hiring manager and knowing the advantages of these types of resumes can go a long way in helping you land an interview.

Dress for the Job You Want
You’ve passed up some of the competition and made it to the next step. However, when you’re in the interview process, make sure you dress the part for the job you want and ask thought-provoking questions. Plus, remember to follow up by writing your interviewer a thank-you note.

Soft Skills Vitally Important
Employers often struggle with finding the right person for the job and culture. There are soft skills that hiring managers often look for such as communication, teamwork, and time management. Soft skills are vital to helping you fit in with the company culture and working with others. Here are 10 actions you can take to help develop your soft skills as you enter the workforce.
If you’ve recently made it to the top of a hiring manager’s list, tell us how you approached your job search that helped you stand out from the competition in the comments section below.