Halloween in the Workplace? It Depens...

Halloween Will Soon Be Upon Us — Are You Prepared?
In addition to personally getting ready for Trick or Treating or costume parties with friends, a Halloween-practices survey by vault.com found that employees at an increasing number of companies are getting into the holiday as well.

The type of celebrations will most likely depend on your working environment. Certain Halloween costumes may not be safe in a manufacturing environment, and it’s probably best to avoid dressing as the Grim Reaper if you work in an Emergency room. (Believe it or not, it’s been done. It didn’t go over well.) Here are some other helpful hints to go by when participating in a Halloween office party that long time employees are familiar with but they might seem foreign to recent college graduates. George Lenard does a good job at summing it up here in a posting to a helpful website: http://www.employmentblawg.com/.

What to Do: Employees
!Pitch in! Unless there is a good reason for not doing so. If your religion forbids you from wearing a costume (of if the idea of doing so causes you to break into a sweat of embarrassment), make sure to let your supervisor know. Be clear — diplomatically — about activities that are within, and outside of, your comfort zone.


Intoxication. This should go without saying, because it’s never a good idea to get drunk while at work. You might not remember what you did at the office party, but your boss and/or co-workers almost certainly will.

Excessive Exposure. You may have always dreamed of being an exotic dancer or a loincloth-wearing he-man, but the office is not the place to let loose your inner dreams with sexy costumes. Overly revealing costumes might give rise to sexual harassment claims; besides, this is a party, but it’s still a work party.

Politics. You may think that Barack Obama or John McCain Sarah Palin is the coolest thing to hit politics in years — or the opposite — but the office Halloween party is not the place to emulate your favorite political hero or lampoon your favorite political villain with a mask or costume. Politically-themed masks or costumes can make others uncomfortable, or worse, invite an outright argument.


Think About It. Our workplaces are increasingly matching our country as a whole as places where diverse people gather in close company. Therefore, as you’re picking out your costume and choosing your office activities, avoid anything that might give offense based on ethnicity, religion or race. This isn’t about being “politically correct” — it’s is about making sure your co-workers can also enjoy, and not feel uncomfortable or hurt about, this office activity that’s supposed to belong to all of you.

*Employment Blog

Alert: College Graduates Website

Check out this website for recent college graduates. With a plethora of resources located in their job center and their education center, this can easily become the #1 Entry Level Job Site as their slogan suggests. Click here: CollegeGrad.com and find everything that you need to know about job searching.


Top Entry Level Employers
Interview Prep
Resumes
Salary
Explore Careers
Cover Letters
Search Internships
Find the Job

Social Networking Websites: Clean Them Up!

Social networking websites can be tons of fun but are they really employer friendly? Do you want the prestigious firm to which you’re applying to know every detail of your Spring Break vacation? Don’t wake up wondering why you didn’t even get an interview. Remember privacy settings aren’t always so private. Clean up your Facebook or MySpace page.

College Graduate Trends

Recent College Graduates Job Trends

• This graph displays the percentage of jobs with your search terms anywhere in the job listing. Since February 2008, the following has occurred on the website simplyhired.com:
  Recent College Graduate Jobs increased 52%.

• Between 1997 and 2007 enrollment increased from 14.5 million to 18.2 million, a 26 percent increase, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

• Only around one-fifth of all college graduates that sent out resumes were hired, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers.

• Graduate degree enrollment increased 67 percent between 1985 and 2007.

• Enrollment in doctorate programs increased 18 percent from 1997 to 2007, still a healthy increase.

College grads have figured out that a Bachelor's Degree and an optimistic attitude doesn't necessarily get their foot in the door so these trends have emerged in a broken economy.

Public Safety Career Day

Job Fair Alert!

Date:November 3, 2009

Time:10:00 AM - 2:00 PM

Facility: Holiday Inn/Hollywood/Ft. Lauderdale Airport
2905 Sheridan St. Hollywood, FL 33020

What is this job fair all about and should you be interested? Well, if public saftey is your thing you'll get a chance to meet with representatives from Law Enforcement agencies that are experiencing a need for intelligent individuals with unquestionable integrity. Due to increasing turnover,(retirement of more experienced employees.) The truth is that people are not waiting around to see what the next decrease in retirements, pensions, and benefits will be. That's fine with receent college grads because it can lead to opportunities for inexperienced yet educated individuals to enter the public safety field. Law Enforcement agencies and agencies that provide public safety such as fire, police and homeland security, need to fill positions at every level to highly experienced. Be the first one there because as you already know, space is limited.

For more information call: 1-877-442-7774

Careers vs Jobs

College graduates are expected to broaden their views on what jobs they are willing to acept due to the economic downturn but this doesn't mean that they should settle for just any job either. Grads should really be concerned with finding a career in which they may have to start small and work their way up while being extremely careful not to fall in the capitalistic trappings of a regular 9am to 5pm job.

• A career is the pursuit of a lifelong ambition or the general course of progression towards lifelong goals.

• A job is an activity through which an individual can earn money. It is a regular activity in exchange of payment.

• A career usually requires special training and or education.

• A job may or may not require some basic level of training and or education.

• A career may not mean stability of work as it encourages one to take risks.

• A job is "safe" as stability of work and income is there.

• A career is long term.

• A job it short term.

The Best Of Jobs & The Worst Of Jobs

CareerCast.com, a new job site, released a study in which they evaluated 200 professions to determine the best and the worst jobs out there. They based their findings on five main criteria inherent to every job: environment, income, employment outlook, physical demands and stress. Here are the results:


The Best
1. Mathematician
2. Actuary
3. Statistician
4. Biologist
5. Software Engineer
6. Computer Systems Analyst
7. Historian
8. Sociologist
9. Industrial Designer
10. Accountant
11. Economist
12. Philosopher
13. Physicist
14. Parole Officer
15. Meteorologist
16. Medical Laboratory Technician
17. Paralegal Assistant
18. Computer Programmer

The Worst
200. Lumberjack
199. Dairy Farmer
198. Taxi Driver
197. Seaman
196. EMT
195. Roofer
194. Garbage Collector
193. Welder
192. Roustabout
191. Ironworker
190. Construction Worker
189. Mail Carrier
188. Sheet Metal Worker
187. Auto Mechanic
186. Butcher
185.Nuclear DecontaminationTech
184. Nurse (LN)
183. Painter

New Job Seeking Strategies

The current job climate is taking its toll mentally on college students. While technology and sciences fields have not been as effected by the economic downturn other professions have been hit pretty hard. Most students will be seeking higher education and broadening their job search as well to include jobs they they wouldn't have considered before.

Job Hunting Tips For Recent College Grads

Unconventional job seeking tips that may rattle college grads at first but are very effective when trying to get your foot in the door.

*Video in use for research purposes only.

Resume Writing Tips

Despite the overwhelming million to one applicants to every one job opening I still feel that there's hope for the young college graduate. Especially if they can do EVERYTHING right. Like a well written resume for one thing. There's a rule that every resume should take into consideration. The three second rule. If your resume does not catch the employers eye within three seconds you're out of luck! There are plenty of free resume writing sites out there.

MoneyInstructor.com is a great website that can help young college graduates start generating wealth at an early stage in the game. They also have some pretty informative and accurate views on resumes writing.

There are three primary types of resumes; the chronological resume, the functional resume, and the targeted resume. Each of these types also has variations.

Which type of resume you create depends on how much experience you have in the industry and in occupation you want to work in.

Chronological resumes: A chronological resume typically lists each job you have held in order, beginning with the most recent. This type works well for the person with several years of relevant experience, especially when the job titles you’ve held show an ever increasing amount of responsibility. The modified chronological resume allows for changing the order in which jobs are presented to highlight those most relevant to the position being sought.

Functional & Combination Resumes

Functional resumes are good for people with too little or too much experience. If you do not have years of experience in the hospitality industry, but you have abilities and skills you have learned as a student, volunteer, or through a hobby or sport, the functional resume lets you highlight these strengths and downplay your lack of industry experience.

If covering your years of experience in a chronological resume would require more than two pages, or if the description of your responsibility in several jobs would be repeating the same information, a functional resume gives you more latitude in how to organize information.

Combination resumes: Professional resume writers and career counselors often recommend combining the best qualities of the chronological and functional resume. Your work history is presented in chronological order, but it may come after a review of your functional skills and your achievements. Another combination variation lists your jobs in chronological order, but in place of a description of responsibilities and duties, you list achievements and demonstrated skills used or learned.

Targeted Resumes

A targeted resume may be any of the three types above, but it is written for a specific company or a specific position. You use a targeted resume when you know about a particular job opening either through someone in your network or through a formal posting of the position in a classified ad or on a job board.

A targeted resume can also be used when you are contacting a specific company for which you would like to work and where you know jobs for your occupation exist, but you are not responding to a specific announcement of an opening. If you have skills for more than one occupation, you need to create separate, targeted resumes for each occupation.

Interview Questions Worth Asking

If you are going for an interview as a prospective employee then you should do some research.　 Read the job description and requirements carefully. Browse the web site to see how the organization presents itself. Search for news items and comments about the company on news sites and blogs. For the interview itself you should dress smartly and appropriately. It is important to have some questions prepared and here are a few that could rally help:

1.　 What exactly would my day-to-day responsibilities be? It is essential that you clearly understand your role and the tasks that you would be expected to undertake.　 It is easy to make assumptions and get the wrong impression of what the work would be so it is vital for both sides that there is clarity in what is expected of you.　 If the interviewer cannot give a clear answer then this is a worrying sign, so politely follow up with more questions.　 Some people even ask to see exactly where they will sit.

2.　 What are the opportunities for training and career advancement? This question serves two purposes.　 It helps you to understand where the job might lead and what skills you might acquire.　 It also signals that you are ambitious and thinking ahead.

3.　 What is the biggest challenge facing the organization today? This sort of question takes the interview away from the detail and towards strategic issues.　 It allows to you see and discuss the bigger picture.　 It proves that you are interested in more than just the 9 to 5 aspects of the job.　 It can lead to interesting discussions that can show you in a good light – especially if you have done some intelligent preparation.　 If appropriate you can follow up this question with some questions about the objectives of the department and the manager who is interviewing you.

4.　 When did you join? After the interviewer has asked a number of questions about you it can make a good change to ask a gentle question about them.　 People often like talking about themselves and if you can get them talking about their progress in the company you can learn useful and interesting things.

5.　 What are the criteria that you are looking for in the successful candidate for this position? The job advertisement may have listed what was wanted in a candidate but it is very useful to hear the criteria directly from the interview. The more that you can discover about what they want and how they will make the decision the better placed you are to influence that decision.

6.　 How do you feel that I measure up to your requirements for this position? This follows on naturally from the previous questions.　 It may seem a little pushy but it is a perfectly fair thing to ask.　 In sales parlance this is a ‘trial close’.　 If they say that you are a good fit then you can ask whether there is any reason you might not be offered the job.　 If they say that you are lacking in some key skill or attribute then you can move into objection handling mode and point out some relevant experience or a countervailing strength.

7.　 Would you like to hear what I could do to really help your department? If you want the job then this is a great question to ask at the end of the interview.　 Most interviewers will reply, ‘Yes.’　 Drawing on what you have learnt in the conversation, you can give a short sales pitch on why you fit the criteria and why your strengths and ideas will siginficantly assist the boss to meet their objectives.　 Make it short, direct and clear with the emphasis on the benefits for them of having you in the team.　

At the end ask something like, ‘how does that sound?’ Many candidates take a passive role at the interview.　 They competently answer the questions that are put to them but they never take the initiative by asking intelligent questions that steer the interview in a helpful direction.　 If you are a proactive candidate who asks the sorts of questions given above then you will be seen as more dynamic and you will significantly increase your chances of being offered the job.

Online Resources Useful For Job Hunting

With the inventions of new technologies the world of job hunting has become an increasingly diversified one. Here are just few places online where one can job search(this is an advantage of being a younger job seeker, some older ones may not be technologically savy):

Best Jobs in the USA Today -- a comprehensive job resource site that includes jobs databases, corporate profiles, resume posting, and a career resources store.

BilingualCareer.com -- where bilingual job-seekers (English and at least one other language) can search job listings (by language, location, industry, keywords), post your resume, and find job interviewing and resume preparation advice. Free to job-seekers.

CareerBuilder -- claims to have the largest assortment of job listings on the Net -- a combination of help wanted ads of the nation's leading newspapers and job listings from the Web sites of leading employers. The site also includes many other resources. Free to job-seekers.

Career.com -- lots of job opportunities, searchable by company, location, and discipline. Also lists jobs for new college graduates. A great site. Free to job-seekers.
Career Exposure -- a collection of more than 80 career categories where job-seekers can view job postings directly from the site's client company's Human Resources Web pages. Also includes information on job search techniques and career advancement.

Careerjournal.com -- a fantastic resource that not only allows job-seekers to search for job opportunities, but also has a wonderful collection of articles and resources that job-seekers will find most useful. From The Wall Street Journal.

Career Magazine -- great information and career resources for job-seekers... a must-see, where job-seekers can also search for jobs and post your resume! Free to job-seekers.
CareerSurf.com -- where job-seekers from a wide variety of industries across the U.S. and Canada can search for jobs and post your resume. You can search for jobs by keywords, job category, and location. Free to job-seekers.

Job Club Activities

College grads looking for a place to start networking? Check out Job Clubs. They are a fun and interesting way to learn and test out essential job skills as well as braodening your job search capabilities.

 Members can bring resumes, both so you can critique each others' and so you can exchange them and distribute members' resumes when opportunities present themselves.
 You could mesh the job-club and book-club models. Each member could read a book about an aspect of job-hunting and share the best ideas from the book with the group. Members can also pass out helpful articles about job hunting.
 Members can conduct mock interviews with each other. See our Interview Question Collections for ideas on what to ask. Members can also brainstorm ideas for questions to ask the interviewer.
 Members could critique and help each other pick out interview attire.
 Part of the meeting could be spent conducting employer research, especially if laptops or other computers with Internet access are available.
 Members could take free or inexpensive online or paper-and-pencil career assessments to increase self-knowledge and get an idea whether they've chosen an appropriate career path. See our table comparing and reviewing online career assessments. Caution: It's best to review assessment results with a qualified career counselor.
 Members could nominate favorite career Web sites to share with the group.
 The job club can hold special parties and events during the holidays.
 Members could test their knowledge of job-hunting techniques by taking Tests and Quizzes for Job-Seekers.
 The club could develop a special ritual or ceremony for "graduating" members who've found a job.
 Guest speakers could be invited to job-club meetings. Career counselors, career coaches, resume writers, authors of career books, college professors, and other experts generally welcome the opportunity to speak on their area of expertise. Topics might include career assessments, resumes, cover letters, interviewing, job-search follow-up, salary negotiation, Internet job-hunting, and company research.
 Club members could take field trips to tour companies of mutual interest. Informational interviews in small groups may even be possible.

Toastmaster Official Website

Professional Networking Websites

Take A Look At These Networking Websites:
If it works for social bees, it should work for professionals? If college graduates could just shift gears from romance and fun to networking they could tap the hundful of social networking for professionals like LinkedIn, and Xing. Professional networking sites are useful tools , which offer access to customer leads, investors, business partners, job candidates, and employers. Sign up with these online professional networking communities as a company or as an individual to take advantage of recruiting opportunities, and cross-promotional events can be a very rewarding thing to do. 4 professional networking sites to help you out to carve a web presence.

LinkedIn

It's the first name that creeps into our mind when looking for a professional networking site. It a hub for all the professional - alumni, business associates, recent graduates and other professionals.

Xing

Simply this networking site open the door to get in touch with thousands of professionals and companies. With its professional contact manager you can organize your new friends and colleagues. One of the most valuable and valuable feature of Xing is the Business Accelerator application that allows you to find experts at the click of a button. There could no better platform to market yourself in a professional context and open up new avenues for growth.


Silicon India


It's the fastest growing professional networking site in India. Some even nickname it as Indian LinkedIn. Silicon India has an extensive network that includes professionals from diverse fields. Bloggers to job career


brijj.com

This is again a popular networking site spanning Indian professionals. It offers almost all the key features of LinkedIn from finding for connections, finding inside connection in a business, getting introduced by a common contact, hiring employees or getting hired by employers.

Tips For New Hires

When entering the job market, college graduates usually have a good sense of what type of work their getting themselves into. They know the basic essentials that are fundamental for doing their job correctly BUT does a newbie necessarily know how to keep their jobs? Well if they will when they’re done reading this!

We all know who is the first to go when it comes to layoffs in today’s job market… New hires… Listen up!

Office politics really do exist and like any real politician college graduates must learn how to L.I.E. (Loyalty, instincts, and effort)–yes, everything you’ve heard is true. Office politics DOES exist and it is NOT pretty.

Exercising LOYALTY to the right people can really help to stay in the race. When it comes to downsizing, employers turn into vicious members of the house and senate ready to impeach. Don’t be the quiet employees in the corner, abstaining from all the votes. Don’t be afraid to be classified as right winged or left winged just jump in and express your opinion. Surely someone will agree with you. Strike up a good friendship with someone high up the ladder. (Don’t look at this as something superficial, it’s highly likely that this is someone achieved in your field that you really do admire and would want to emulate)… It’s far easier to fire the loner than to fire one of the gang. That’s why you should learn how to interact with people. When it comes to promotion with competition, even your running mate could try to run over you to get that promotion. In fact this is almost always expected.

Don’t associate yourself with any lobbyist. INSTINCTIVELY, choose your words and representations of your ideals because any personal discrepancies between employee and manager can be ground for (in their minds) a dismissal of your services. Think about it, when everyone is pushing for a bill how often does the guy or girl in charge use vetoing power?

Even if you are the most charming employee ever, you should still make valiant EFFORTS to practice CYA (cover your----). Keep all emails. Back them up. Have everything in writing. If a potential problem or situation comes up, document it as fully as you can. Don’t trust your memory. If someone accuses you of something so bad that it could cost you your job (I’ve seen it happen), then you can calmly pull out all the information you saved and effectively CYA. Not to mention, the accuser will look like a total idiot (I’ve seen that happen too and it is SWEET!)