Many people think December is a horrible time to start job hunting when in reality it is quite the contrary. Many businesses are getting ready to make employee changes, in fact many have already done their layoffs. How many people do you know who have been laid off two weeks before Christmas or the week before Christmas? This happens when companies start their new fiscal year on January 1st. If they get rid of people after January 1st, they have to carry their names on their records for the entire upcoming year. By letting them go before the end of the year they do not have to do that.
Many companies are not actually “downsizing” their companies, they are just getting rid of “dead wood”! So go ahead now and get your resumes and cover letters submitted so that they can be reviewed and possibly even have an offer of employment to begin on January 1st!
Good luck in your job hunting endeavors!
Showing posts with label head hunters creative job hunting ideas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label head hunters creative job hunting ideas. Show all posts
Monday, December 13, 2010
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
More new ways to job search
If you are looking for a job, you are more and more aware that the newspapers, especially on line, are now affiliating themselves with some of the larger on-line job websites, such as Jobs.com and Monster.com rather than listing jobs in the classified section. Businesses are being inundated with resumes and their own personnel departments are unable to handle the volume of screening efficiently.
It used to be, that if you went to a recruiter to assist you in locating a position, anyone in mid-management or above could count on the company picking up the fee from the agency. With 1 out of 4 people now unemployed, it is becoming more and more difficult to have the company pick up the entire cost. If you are lucky, you can get them to split the cost with you and then have a written agreement, that after you are employed with them for a year, they will reimburse the half that you paid upon your year review date.
One thing that you can do is begin using the white business pages of your telephone book. I suggest this rather than using the yellow pages, because not all companies take out a yellow page ad. Locate companies that either you know or think could use your skills. Make a list of these companies, along with their address and phone numbers. Now go to the internet and see if they have a website. If they do, search under careers or jobs to see what openings they have listed. Even if a position is not listed, but it is a company that would hire for your job description, send them a resume.
If you are thinking of moving away from the city where you now reside, go to the Internet and do a search on the cities you are thinking of moving to. Profiles of the cities are listed and the largest employers in the city are included. You can also go to their Chamber of Commerce listings and look under the membership column for even more companies. You can also go to the whitepages.com website, do a business listing search using a category name.
Granted, doing searches like this will take time, but it is well worth the effort. You can become better acquainted with different areas of the country that may or actually may not be a better location for you to consider moving to. The grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence once you begin doing the research.
I used to tell people, when I was doing personnel placement as a profession, that looking for a job is like having one. You have to put in the effort of looking for work, putting out the resumes, be creative in your job search. It is an 8 hr job 5 days a week to find a position. It was then back in the 1980’s and it is even more so nowadays.
In today’s job market, it is the blue-collar workers and the white-collar management sector as well. Even CEO’s, or as I like to call them “the gray flannel suits” are also out there looking. No one has been immune to this depression and many people are going to be unemployed for a long time. There is a lot of competition out there and you are going to have to do everything you can think of to make yourself stand out from the crowd.
One thing you will need to remember while you are out there on your search, is that not only the value of houses has decreased a good $20,000-$40,000 but so have the wages that are being offered to those looking for a job. Yes, you many have been making $125,000 at the job that you held for 10 years before you were laid off, but do not expect to come back into the workforce with a new company for that figure.
Check out payscale.com or homefair.com, both of them have excellent salary calculators and relocation cost of living calculators for you to use. Be prepared to be shocked! I know I was!
It used to be, that if you went to a recruiter to assist you in locating a position, anyone in mid-management or above could count on the company picking up the fee from the agency. With 1 out of 4 people now unemployed, it is becoming more and more difficult to have the company pick up the entire cost. If you are lucky, you can get them to split the cost with you and then have a written agreement, that after you are employed with them for a year, they will reimburse the half that you paid upon your year review date.
One thing that you can do is begin using the white business pages of your telephone book. I suggest this rather than using the yellow pages, because not all companies take out a yellow page ad. Locate companies that either you know or think could use your skills. Make a list of these companies, along with their address and phone numbers. Now go to the internet and see if they have a website. If they do, search under careers or jobs to see what openings they have listed. Even if a position is not listed, but it is a company that would hire for your job description, send them a resume.
If you are thinking of moving away from the city where you now reside, go to the Internet and do a search on the cities you are thinking of moving to. Profiles of the cities are listed and the largest employers in the city are included. You can also go to their Chamber of Commerce listings and look under the membership column for even more companies. You can also go to the whitepages.com website, do a business listing search using a category name.
Granted, doing searches like this will take time, but it is well worth the effort. You can become better acquainted with different areas of the country that may or actually may not be a better location for you to consider moving to. The grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence once you begin doing the research.
I used to tell people, when I was doing personnel placement as a profession, that looking for a job is like having one. You have to put in the effort of looking for work, putting out the resumes, be creative in your job search. It is an 8 hr job 5 days a week to find a position. It was then back in the 1980’s and it is even more so nowadays.
In today’s job market, it is the blue-collar workers and the white-collar management sector as well. Even CEO’s, or as I like to call them “the gray flannel suits” are also out there looking. No one has been immune to this depression and many people are going to be unemployed for a long time. There is a lot of competition out there and you are going to have to do everything you can think of to make yourself stand out from the crowd.
One thing you will need to remember while you are out there on your search, is that not only the value of houses has decreased a good $20,000-$40,000 but so have the wages that are being offered to those looking for a job. Yes, you many have been making $125,000 at the job that you held for 10 years before you were laid off, but do not expect to come back into the workforce with a new company for that figure.
Check out payscale.com or homefair.com, both of them have excellent salary calculators and relocation cost of living calculators for you to use. Be prepared to be shocked! I know I was!
Friday, October 1, 2010
Wild Wacky Ways To Promote Yourself
Unemployment continues to climb and with each passing week that you are out of work, it becomes harder and harder to find a new job. It is expected that an additional 12,000 people will soon be joining you on the streets as the stimulus money that was used to create jobs in the private sector runs out. Employers will no longer want to continue keeping those workers on their payroll if the government is no longer picking up the tab for their salaries.
So now you have even more people, out there competing and you have not had a single bite on your applications and each passing week you are becoming more frantic about finding a position. So what are you going to do now? Have you posted your resume on every job board on the internet that you can think of? If not, get busy and do so. Are you using your social media sites to their full capacity? If you have a Face Book account but don't have a My Space or Linkedin account be sure to set one up. Post your resumes on your My Space and on your Linkedin account.
You can also create a blog and post your resume, set up several at different blogging websites. There are also places where you can create a free website, go ahead and take advantage of those locations.
Are you using your networking resources? Old classmates that you have stayed in touch with or have reconnected with through Face Book, My Space or Linkedin? Have you thought of asking other professionals that you know who might possibly know someone else that could create a lead? This would include ex-coworkers, others at competitor companies that you know in the same industry that you were in before being laid off, your minister, your dentist, your doctor, your insurance man and your neighbors. Spread the word to everyone you know that you are searching for a new job.
If you were in any type of management or executive position prior to being laid off, contact a "head hunter" personnel agency. Let them know right up front that you will not pay their fee to find you a job, that a company worth working for will be willing to pick up the tab to get someone with your skills. Oh believe me, they will try to get you to agree to pay either all or part of the fee, but tell them absolutely not. Stroke their ego, tell them if they are good at their job, then they know the company will pay!
If you attended or graduated from college, go see their alumni department for some assistance and leads. Ask someone to look over your resume and cover letter and make suggestions on how you might improve both for today's job market.
If you are just answering classified ads or sending out letters of inquiry for a position, you are losing out on the chance to be seen by a prospective employer. Get off the couch and go after that job you want!
Get dressed up in your interviewing clothes, grab your portfolio, fill your briefcase with resumes and put on your walking shoes. Make a list of companies in your city where you feel that your qualifications can be utilized. Map out your route and hit the trail! Start out early in the morning, say around 8:30AM and plan to keep going to different locations up until 11:30AM. Take a lunch break and then hit the trail again from 1:30PM to 3:30 or 4:00PM at the latest. Do this on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Mondays and Fridays are terrible to try and get anyone to speak with you! Don't just "drop off " your resume, ask to speak to someone in the Personnel Department. Let them know you are looking for work and ASK if they presently have or anticipate having any positions available that can use your background. Summarize your best skills to tell them about and ask them to accept your resume for consideration when they do have positions become available.
Get really inventive and creative like some of those on Wall Street when they got laid off. They made "sandwich boards" with a summarized resume written on it and stating that they were looking for work. At this point, you need to do whatever you can to get an interview!
So now you have even more people, out there competing and you have not had a single bite on your applications and each passing week you are becoming more frantic about finding a position. So what are you going to do now? Have you posted your resume on every job board on the internet that you can think of? If not, get busy and do so. Are you using your social media sites to their full capacity? If you have a Face Book account but don't have a My Space or Linkedin account be sure to set one up. Post your resumes on your My Space and on your Linkedin account.
You can also create a blog and post your resume, set up several at different blogging websites. There are also places where you can create a free website, go ahead and take advantage of those locations.
Are you using your networking resources? Old classmates that you have stayed in touch with or have reconnected with through Face Book, My Space or Linkedin? Have you thought of asking other professionals that you know who might possibly know someone else that could create a lead? This would include ex-coworkers, others at competitor companies that you know in the same industry that you were in before being laid off, your minister, your dentist, your doctor, your insurance man and your neighbors. Spread the word to everyone you know that you are searching for a new job.
If you were in any type of management or executive position prior to being laid off, contact a "head hunter" personnel agency. Let them know right up front that you will not pay their fee to find you a job, that a company worth working for will be willing to pick up the tab to get someone with your skills. Oh believe me, they will try to get you to agree to pay either all or part of the fee, but tell them absolutely not. Stroke their ego, tell them if they are good at their job, then they know the company will pay!
If you attended or graduated from college, go see their alumni department for some assistance and leads. Ask someone to look over your resume and cover letter and make suggestions on how you might improve both for today's job market.
If you are just answering classified ads or sending out letters of inquiry for a position, you are losing out on the chance to be seen by a prospective employer. Get off the couch and go after that job you want!
Get dressed up in your interviewing clothes, grab your portfolio, fill your briefcase with resumes and put on your walking shoes. Make a list of companies in your city where you feel that your qualifications can be utilized. Map out your route and hit the trail! Start out early in the morning, say around 8:30AM and plan to keep going to different locations up until 11:30AM. Take a lunch break and then hit the trail again from 1:30PM to 3:30 or 4:00PM at the latest. Do this on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Mondays and Fridays are terrible to try and get anyone to speak with you! Don't just "drop off " your resume, ask to speak to someone in the Personnel Department. Let them know you are looking for work and ASK if they presently have or anticipate having any positions available that can use your background. Summarize your best skills to tell them about and ask them to accept your resume for consideration when they do have positions become available.
Get really inventive and creative like some of those on Wall Street when they got laid off. They made "sandwich boards" with a summarized resume written on it and stating that they were looking for work. At this point, you need to do whatever you can to get an interview!
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