The Benefits of a Cover Letter and How to Write One
If you’re looking for work, there are a few non-negotiable in job applications. Writing a cover letter is one of them. Wonder if you can get away with only submitting your resume? Let us answer that question once and for all. Your cover letter is absolutely essential in applying for jobs. Skip this important step and you’re jeopardizing your chance of landing an interview or a call back. A cover letter is an opportunity for potential employers to determine whether your skills and experience are appropriate for the job. Writing a cover letter gives you an opportunity to explain how the qualifications found on your resume apply to the particular job opening. Surprisingly, many job applications skip this important step. First impressions are often the lasting impression an employer will have of you. Don’t pass up an opportunity to show a potential employer why you are a strong candidate for
The Importance of Appearance in Landing a Job
First impressions matter. While your experience and talent may be what ultimately land you a job, your appearance is the first impression a employer will have of you, and could help you get that call back for a second interview. Research has shown that a first impression is recorded in the first ten seconds of meeting someone and that impression affects how we treat the individual we just met. It’s no different on job interviews. The person conducting your interview will size up your appearance — hair, clothes and accessories — in the first few seconds of meeting you. Professionalism in your appearance is most important, even more so than youth. When it comes to your appearance on a job interview, take time to consider the impression your hair, posture and style give. Don’t overdo it on your hair. Avoid a quick, cheap, boxed dye job before an interview. If
Job Search Tip: Stay Informed
When you’re in the market for a new job, one job search tip you can’t afford is to ignore industry news and current trends and events. In any job position, you would be expected to keep up with technology and business developments in your field. When you’re job seeking, it’s no different. Recruiting and hiring managers expect applicants and interviewees to know not only the ins and outs of that particular business, but to have an understanding of the impact current news and trends may have on their company. This includes knowing the competitive landscape, target markets and even having an understanding of consumer and social opinion and concerns. Knowing this information can even give you an advantage over other applicants in a job interview. The more prepared you are with knowledge of current industry news and events, the better your elevator pitch and value proposition will be. For example,
How to Ace Your Phone Interview
We have all been on the phone with a friend who is absentmindedly smacking their gum, eating potato chips or talking to everyone in the room except for you. Offended and annoyed, you spend the majority of the conversation repeating the phrases “What?” and “Hello?” over and over until you finally weigh the odds and hang up on them. If you wouldn’t hire your friend for a job at your company, don’t mimic their poor phone habits when someone is trying to hire you. Conducting a successful phone interview is the perfect way to show potential employers that you are professional, confident, poised and composed. And though the pressure of face-to-face communication is absent and you may be feeling less nervous, there are several DON’Ts that are crucial to avoid. Dress to impress. Put on a professional outfit you would wear for a face-to-face interview. You will be more
How to Market Yourself Using LinkedIn
LinkedIn’s 120 million members make it the largest professional network in the world. It allows for members to maintain and build their professional identities to their contacts, to stay in touch with colleagues and friends, share ideas and explore opportunities. Above all, LinkedIn gives you the tools to market you as you create and build your “brand”. Whether you are looking to promote yourself or your business, expand your client base, get leads, drive traffic or to find a job, here are some things to help you successfully market yourself using LinkedIn. Keep your LinkedIn profile professional. Display a professionally appropriate photo. Potential employers, not just friends and family, will be viewing your LinkedIn profile so keep that in mind when building your page. Create a bold headline for yourself and make sure your summary is full of keywords that will improve search engine results. Don’t be afraid to
10 Job Search Tips for 2012
In the New Year you may plan on losing 10 lbs. with hopes that new beginnings will bring on new love and relationships. Or perhaps you’ve made a personal vow to stop driving over the speed limit or start calling your grandmother more often. Whatever your resolutions may be for 2012, remaining jobless shouldn’t be one of them. You may be currently employed but ready to finally start the hunt for your dream job. Or maybe you’ve been sitting with your computer at your local coffee shop since the ball dropped in 2011, refreshing your Gmail without hope. Wherever you are in your life, you will forever be waiting, forever searching, if you don’t know how to find what you’re looking for. Here are some helpful tips on how to make 2012 your year for employment. 1. Know what you want to do before you begin. Before you start
5 New Year’s resolutions for job seekers
With the New Year just days away, it’s time for some serious resolutions. If you’re not employed – or under-employed – that means changing the way you are looking for a job. Here are our top five suggested resolutions for job hunters. And may these ideas kick-start your career in 2012! Get organized. The New Year is a great time to establish a new filing system. Typically, job hunters start out organized. Over time, however, they begin to neglect their job search filing systems. Before too long, you cannot remember which jobs you’ve applied for, which recruiters you’ve talked to, and with whom you should follow up. Invest some time organizing the information you already have. Then, set up a new system that will really work and can be easily maintained. That might be a notebook, an Excel spreadsheet – whatever works best for you. Fall in love with your
Hiring looking up for contingent workers
Buyers of contingent labor plan to increase their use of such workers by 26 percent over the next two years, according to a survey by Staffing Industry Analysts. Buyers in the restaurant/hospitality and finance/insurance industries are among those planning the biggest increases in their use of continent workers, according to the study. Those in the restaurant/hospitality/retail industries plan to increase their use of contingents by 42 percent over the next two years. Those in the finance/insurance industries plan to increase use by 40 percent. “Historically, the retail and hospitality industries have been under-penetrated by contingent labor,” said Robert Balicki, research associate at Staffing Industry Analysts. “However, our survey results indicate that these buyers may be finally coming around and embracing temporary workers. Of course, the degree to which these projections will be realized will likely also depend on the economy.” The findings are part 2011 Contingent Buyer Survey produced by
Is crowdsourcing the next big staffing trend?
What is Labor 3.0? You’ve probably already heard of crowdsourcing. A great example of this is Wikipedia, where individuals all over the globe each write individual entries for an online encyclopedia. Together, their work makes up an extraordinarily large reference source. In a similar vein, some companies are turning to a distributed, virtual pool of labor. These workers can be available on-demand and typically perform very small bits of work. Together, however, they perform large tasks. Consider Amazon Mechanical Turk, a marketplace for scalable, on-demand staffing. This service deploys multiple workers at once to complete tasks over the Internet. Platforms such as Amazon Mechanical Turk are changing the labor market similar to the ways outsourcing disrupted traditional business and employment models, giving companies access to dramatically lower-cost labor but also making them a one-stop shop for high-quality project task returns in near real-time. Unlike outsourcing, crowdsourcing brings together people of
Are independent workers headed for a majority?
By 2020, a majority of workers in the United States will be independent, according to a prediction by MBO Partners and its 2012 Independent Work Preview. Earlier this year, the inaugural MBO Partners Independent Workforce Index showed that there are 16 million career independent workers in the country today. By the year 2020, MBO Partners predicts that 70 million people, more than 50 percent of the private workforce, will be independent. This shift toward a new workforce will accelerate in 2012 as both individuals and organizations embrace new models of work, the company asserts. Flexibility and autonomy are two key drivers of this trend, with 74 percent of independents indicating that flexibility is more important than making the most money and 60 percent indicating they always wanted to be their own boss. In addition, the report said that the future independent workforce will largely be made up of experts and