8 Actions to Become More Employable
You may be perfectly happy with your current career -- you may even be working your ideal job. But for most of us, that probably isn't the case. That being said, this post can offer some positive benefits to both parties: those who are perfectly happy, and those who would love to change careers, or who are in need of employment. Becoming a more employable prospect brings a lot of...
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3 Examples of Guerrilla Job Hunting
Thanks to massive online job databases and technological hurdles like applicant tracking systems, it is more important than ever for job seekers to find unique ways to market themselves to potential employers. Sometimes, you have to get creative. Enter "guerrilla job hunting." Guerrilla job hunting is exactly what it sounds like: much like guerilla marketing, it means taking action outside...
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How to Use Social Media in Your Job Search
In 2015, social media is a vital part of the job search process. Almost every employer will Google you and find your social media profiles, but you, too, can proactively use social media to your benefit: to land interviews, get contact info, and do much, much more. Of course, there is a right way and wrong way to use social media in the job search. First, Let's Talk About the Wrong Way to...
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4 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Saying 'Yes' to a Headhunter
Being headhunted is one of the highest forms of flattery in the working world. It's a clear indication in the job market of your quality and personal effectiveness. Of course, everything comes at a price, and the price of being hot professional property seems to be an almost constant stream of emails and phone calls from recruiters. Unsurprisingly, a recent study from Glassdoor shows that just...
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10 Ways to Make the Most of Your First Days on the Job [Ask Away]
This week's question:A new hire's first 90 days on the job can make or break their experience with their employer. Given this fact, what do you recommend all new hires do during their first 90 days in order to get off to the best possible start? What are the one or two most important things a new hire can do? "Every hire should hit the ground running as soon as he/she begins a new job. Ask for...
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Branded for Life: the Mark of a Highly Effective Professional
Hello, this is Laura Lee Rose – author of TimePeace: Making Peace With Time. Today, I want to emphasize the importance of personal and professional branding. Celebrities and corporations value the importance of clarifying their visions, missions, and purposes through branding messages. Unfortunately, busy professionals don't always take the time to do the same. If you agree that you are...
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How to Get Yourself Poached by a Headhunter
It's a great feeling to get that call or email from a headhunter who has contacted you about an opportunity -- particularly when it's a tailor-made opportunity designed to attract you. It's extremely flattering and a ringing endorsement of your performance and career to date. Being on a headhunter's radar can lead to a lifetime of almost effortless, continuous employment, punctuated by smooth...
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Gender's Role in the Job Search [Infographic]
Many of us are aware of the pay gap -- that is, the disparity between what women earn and what men earn both on average and within specific occupations. (See this excellent paper from Harvard University labor economist Claudia Goldin for more on the subject; or, if you're pressed for time, read The New York Times' recap of the paper.) But we may not be as aware of the gender disparities that...
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4 Tips on Prepping for a Video Interview
In 2012, OfficeTeam asked 500 HR managers about their use of video technology in the interviewing process. Fifty-three percent of respondents said they use video "very often" in the interviewing process, and a further 10 percent said they use video "somewhat often." As video interviewing becomes more and more prevalent, interviewees must learn to adapt to this new method of interviewing....
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12 Tips for College Grads on the Job Search
We all know that the job market coming out of college is tough. We also know someone who has had to move back in with their parents because they couldn't get a job after college, right? You've probably seen the statistic from the Associated Press that 53.6 percent of college graduates under 25 are underemployed or unemployed. But this doesn't have to be you! If roughly 47 percent of...
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Everything I Know About My Job Search I Learned in Kindergarten
Being an adult isn't all it's cracked up to be. Maybe we're bitter because tax season just ended, but sometimes it seems like kids have it all figured out. They play all day, make friends as easily as saying hello, and get to eat Lunchables instead of salads. That's the life, right? While we can never turn back the clock -- and honestly, most of us wouldn't want to --there are a few...
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How to Leverage the Power of Your Alumni Network
How do you get someone to like you immediately? That was the question I asked eminent psychologist Robert Cialdini in a blog interview. The secret? He says it's to find a commonality -- any commonality -- fast. It could be something as simple as the fact that you live in the same neighborhood, or you both like running. One particularly powerful bond is having an alumni connection, because your...
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Expecting a Bad Reference From Your Former Employer?
We often associate "bad references" with "being fired," but job seekers may fear bad references from former employers for a number of reasons: perhaps the job seeker had a poor relationship with their manager, or perhaps they left the company under less-than-ideal circumstances. There are two sides to every story, but references are categorically one-sided: a job seeker's potential new...
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Not Just For Millennials: 4 Reasons Why Baby Boomers Should Think About Telecommuting
The baby boomers are coming of age -- retirement age, that is: roughly 10,000 of them retire every day. But not every baby boomer hits 65 and decides it's time to bow out of the workforce. Some baby boomers -- 10 percent of them -- don't want to retire at all. They'd rather stay busy. Meanwhile, 21 percent of baby boomers simply plan to work "as long as possible." Other baby boomers simply...
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5 Tips to Ace the Job Interview Before Setting Foot in the Room
While it's important to give a good account of yourself during the interview, your chances of success will depend largely on actions you take before the actual interview. With the right preparation and political maneuvering, you can nail the interview long before you even set foot in the interview room. Of course, these tactics won't guarantee you a job -- but they will definitely give you a...
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Starting a New Job? 3 Ways to Make the Most of It
Job seekers, allow me to ask a question: how many of you think of the job hunt as a one-sided wooing process, one in which you need to convince a given company that you are in, fact, the best person for the job? My sympathies are with you: for a very long time, that's how I thought about the job hunt, too. But it's not entirely accurate. To a certain extent, yes, job seekers must do some...
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4 Fantastic Practices to Consider Before Your Next Interview
It's 2 A.M., and you've finally settled into a cozy dream world after hours of tossing and turning. It's the night before your big interview with a potential employer! "NOOOO!" Just a few hours later, you jolt awake in a cold sweat. You had a nightmare that you grabbed your interviewer's hand for a firm, business-like handshake and forgot your own name! Interviewing can be...
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The Importance of Personal Branding in Your Job Search
How can you make a name for yourself online and on paper? In honor of Name Yourself Day -- which will be observed on April 9 -- we're taking a look at five ways you can build your personal brand while searching for a job opportunity. 1. Anchor Statement According to branding strategist Karen Leland, a good place to start is your anchor statement, which Fast Company writer Chris...
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Why Tuesday Is a Job Seeker's Favorite Day
... or, at least, Tuesday should be a job seeker's favorite day, according to new research from SmartRecruiters. After analyzing data from more than 270,000 U.S. and Canadian jobs posted in its system, the company found that: Tuesday is the most popular day in the hiring world: more companies post jobs on Tuesdays, more job seekers apply to jobs on Tuesdays, and more people get hired on...
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The Cover Letter Is Dead
Recruiting is a fast-paced and ever-changing industry in which we have to constantly keep up with the latest hiring trends and anticipate future shifts in the job market that are effected by various complex factors. Especially in my field of recruiting for technology industry sales, marketing, and business development positions, we have to stay at the forefront of the latest innovations so we...
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4 Important Things to Do Before Your First Day at Your New Job
What should you do in that strange limbo period after you've accepted a job offer and before you have started your new job -- apart from congratulating yourself and indulging in a few celebratory drinks, of course? Should you be settling old scores with your boss or coworkers? Should you badmouth your employer on social media? Should you do absolutely nothing but wait? I probably wouldn't...
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5 Key Benefits to Negotiate in Addition to Your Pay Package
Many of you have probably heard that it's very important not to accept the first slary offer a potential employer makes; rather, you are supposed to negotiate the package. Generally, that's sound advice, as research from CareerBuilder found that 70 percent of firms will leave some wiggle room when making salary offers, and if you don't negotiate, you are literally leaving money on the...
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Applying for Roles in Niche-Market Companies
While aiming to work for big brands and recognizable names is commendably ambitious, you should be sure to keep your options open and explore the possibilities in the job market offered by smaller, independent outlets, too. Smaller companies can offer new graduates more responsibility and a wider range of experiences as they develop employees into long-lasting members of close-knit teams....
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Ask Away: What Do I Write in My Cover Letter?
Welcome to Ask Away! Every Monday, we pose an employment-related question to a group of experts and share their answers. Have a question you'd like to ask the experts? Leave it in the comments, and you might just see it in next week's Ask Away! This Week's Question: There's no way around it: cover letters are a pain. When applying for pretty much any job, you need to include one...
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7 Tips on Social Media for Job Seekers
We've all heard the horror stories: a careless tweet, a thoughtless photo, and suddenly your whole life comes crashing down. While we hope that you'll never face an online scandal of such epic proportions, the fact is that employers may check your online presence along with your references before they hire you. Social media has the potential to make or break your job search, so use it...
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How to Land a Job at the Startup of Your Dreams
Jeff Ball knows startups. In 2013, he founded Visio Financial Services, an online lending platform for residential real estate investors, and the company has grown quickly since then. (Ball currently serves as president and CEO of Visio). Ball is also the president and one of the founders of Econohomes, which buys and resells "distressed" investment properties, and which has earned Ball a spot...
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Ask Away: I Was Fired — Now How Do I Get Hired?
Welcome to Ask Away, Recruiter.com's new weekly column! Every Monday, we'll pose an employment-related question to a group of experts and share their answers. Have a question you'd like to ask the experts? Leave it in the comments, and you might just see it in next week's Ask Away! This Week's Question: When you're fired from a job, it leaves a black mark on your resume -- one...
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3 Steps to Ace a Lunch Interview
If count yourself a foodie, the idea of a lunch interview may seem like a dream come true. You know that the employer will be looking to make a good impression on you, so you can expect a lovely setting, haute cuisine, and fine wine. (I exaggerate only a little). Of course, there is no reason not to enjoy the interviewer's hospitality, but you should also remember this is, in fact, an...
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The 4 Worst Ways to Start a New Job
Caught up in the excitement of a new job, it's easy -- and somewhat foolhardy -- to take success in your new position for granted. Come back down to earth, and you'll find that success in a new role is far from guaranteed: studies show that 46 percent of new hires fail within the first 18 months. Statistics are hardly on your side. It's vital, then, that you handle this new-hire period...
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Does the State You Live in Affect the Kind of Job Seeker You Are? [Infographic]
Back in late January, we posted an infographic from personality assessment and career test providers Truity Psychometrics that explored how people's personalities may play a role in their career paths. Now, Truity offers another infographic, one that dives into how the state a person lives in may shape their personality. "Is there any truth to the stereotypes of the hospitable Southerner,...
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Basic Digital Skills Can Lead to a Middle Class Life
Odds are if you are reading this article, you have some digital skills. The real question is: do you have the right ones? A new report shows a growing divide between those who have certain digital skills and those who are falling behind. A study of job postings by Burning Glass Technologies and Capital One found that middle-skill jobs that require digital skills are outpacing those that do...
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Reduce Job-Seeking Anxiety, One Session at a Time
According to the Department of Numbers, 8,979,000 people were unemployed in January 2015. Everyone needs to make money in order to survive in society, so what is it that keeps some of the population from obtaining jobs? The answer varies from person to person. According to Demetrius Cheeks, writing for Forbes, some job seekers limit their opportunities because they have low self-esteem,...
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5 Screening Questions That Candidates Should Ask Before Applying for a Job
It takes a lot of time and effort to send out a job application, and for this reason, you need to make sure that every application you send out counts. You can do this by being highly selective in your job search and only applying to jobs for which you know you are a great fit. You should assess the suitability of any role by asking yourself a set of screening questions that will sort the good...
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6 Job Interview Warning Signs
You did everything right -- wrote a stellar cover letter, proofread your resume until it was 100 percent error free, and networked until your hands were sore from all of that handshaking -- and your efforts finally paid off. You've scored an interview. Press your best suit and get ready to describe your greatest strengths and weaknesses. You've got this. But make sure you want it. Remember...
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4 Tips for Feeling Powerful at Job Interviews
If you want to perform to your maximum at interview and leave the best impression, you'll need to deploy strategies that actively boost your confidence. Research shows that confident candidates have an advantage over less-confident candidates in interview settings. The study in question asked one group of participants to write about a previous experience in which they had a lot of power and...
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Ask Away: How Do I Get a Job Referral From a Friend or Peer?
Welcome to Ask Away, Recruiter.com's new weekly column! Every Monday, we'll pose an employment-related question to a group of experts and share their answers. Have a question on jobs data you'd like to ask the experts? Leave it in the comments, and you might just see it in next week's Ask Away! This Week's Question: We've all heard that employee referrals are a great source of...
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4 Constructive Ways to Deal With Job Rejection
When preparing for the job hunt, most of the advice and support you receive focuses on the positive process of finding a job opportunity -- but very few people will tell you how to deal with rejection. This may be for good reason: if you heard too much about rejection before you even started applying to jobs, you may find it hard to muster up the enthusiasm and energy that a job hunt...
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Can Admitting Weaknesses at Interview Be a Sign of Strength?
Most of us have learned to believe that revealing weaknesses in an interview is a cardinal sin, but I think this may be an unhelpful -- or even actively harmful -- way to view the situation. Now, let's be clear from the outset: I am not urging candidates to walk into the interview room and treat their interviewer like a therapist, revealing all of their personal and operational weaknesses in...
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How to Close Your Cover Letter
Love is in the air, but is it in your cover letter? After you've written a couple of paragraphs about your work experience, skills, and enthusiasm for the job and company, it's time to wrap things up. We've written about email sign-offs, but closing your cover letter comes with its own set of rules. Here are Grammarly's best tips for signing off a letter to a potential employer. Say...
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How to Limit the Damage of Arriving Late to an Interview
This article really should be kept in a bottle labelled "Break Glass Only in the Event of a Crisis," because the reality is that no interviewee should make such a basic error. When it comes to interviews, you are not trying to meet up with someone at some obscure coordinates in the middle of the Sahara: you are meeting up in a fully mapped out and perfectly navigable urban area. This doesn't...
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Ask Away: Why Should I Work for a Startup? [Part 2]
Welcome to Ask Away, Recruiter.com's new weekly column! Every Monday, we pose an employment-related question to a group of experts and share their answers. This week, we had an overwhelming number of responses, so we decided to add a second installment. Have a question you'd like to ask the experts? Leave it in the comments, and you might just see it in next week's Ask Away! This...
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Ask Away: Why Should I Work for a Startup? [Part 1]
Welcome to Ask Away, Recruiter.com's new weekly column! Every Monday, we'll pose an employment-related question to a group of experts and share their answers. Have a question you'd like to ask the experts? Leave it in the comments, and you might just see it in next week's Ask Away! This Week's Question: Why should anyone work for a startup instead of an established business or...
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Looking for Work in More Than One Language
It's no secret that speaking a second language is a good thing. Maria Konnikova, writing for The New Yorker, claims that "the words that we have at our disposal affect what we see -- and the more words there are, the better our perception. When we learn to speak a different language, we learn to see a bigger world." This bigger world includes increased opportunities for employment. In a...
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5 Interview Questions You Might Want to Practice
Do you practice potential questions before you sit down for a job interview? One author suggests you might want to -- and even details what the answers should be. Peter K. Studner is author of Super Job Search IV: The Complete Manual for Job Seekers Career Changers, which was published last month. Studner says, "I never saw a resume -- and only a resume --get a job. That's why you...
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How to Clean Up Your Social Media Footprint
As you all probably already know, social media profiling went mainstream a while ago. Everyone does it: recruiters, your friends, your enemies, and even your government. Most of this profiling and surveillance probably won't affect you too much, but the social media research performed by recruiters and hiring managers will probably have a material impact on your career. Figures...
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Could a Need to Tailor Your Resume Be a Sign of an Unsuitable Job?
I'd like to turn the resume-tailoring paradigm on its head a little. We all know that employers are turned off by generic resumes that don't appear to be specific to the company or post to which a candidate is applying. Employers see these resumes as signs that a candidate has put no thought into their application. This is why it has pretty much become required practice for job seekers...
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Why Limiting Your Options Can Make You a Better Worker
Removing ourselves from boring routines is among the biggest trends in the workforce. As the millennial workforce pushes to end the regular nine-to-five grind, companies are responding by becoming more and more open to the idea of breaking old work-world routines. The flex-schedule mindset is also growing: the number of companies offering customized work arrangements went from 11 percent in...
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Crafting a Must-See Social Media Profile
Ninety-two percent of companies peruse job seekers' social media profiles when recruiting. If you're looking for work in pretty much any field, you no longer have an excuse for avoiding Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Google+: if you want a job, you should be on social media. You need to do more than just show up on the Web, of course: you need to maintain your social media...
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