Surviving Unemployment

Surviving unemployment seems to be at the forefront of everyone's minds these days. Take a look at the slideshare below and be sure to read my previous post also titled, "Surviving Unemployment."

Surviving Unemployment

View more presentations from Jessica Miller-merrell, sphr. (tags: unemployment job)

Jumpstart Your Jobsearch with B4J

Need to jumpstart your job search?

Receive a job tips pdf from Blogging4jobs. Leave a comment on any of my blog postings between now and April 1st and receive a free job tips pdf via email from me. Make sure you include your email address with the comment posting.

A good friend of mine hosted an event in Topeka, Kansas, earlier this week called "Resumes & Wine." Young professionals received my job tip sheet, a free resume critique, networking opportunities, and of course wine! Don't miss an opportunity to get a leg up on the job search!! This job tip sheet is a great start.

Leave me a comment. Request a topic or post your link/website address. A great deal of my blog traffic comes from other recruiters so this is a great opportunity for self promotion. Don't have a link? Use your linkedin profile address.

Cheers,

Jessica

**Don't forget to follow me on twitter @blogging4jobs

Babies & Your Career Development

Being a new mom and a recruiter who specializes in helping people find new jobs and careers, I couldn't pass up posting this slideshare. And for good measure, I'm throwing in a darling picture of my daughter, Ryleigh who is now 9 weeks and the absolute love of my life.

What I often see from job seekers that is keeping them from being successful in their job search is Number 2, "Where you are going and why". When speaking with a recruiter or hiring manager, you need to have a plan and a clear idea and understanding of how you plan to get to your end point and execute that plan. Don't just tell me you're looking for a career change. Tell me about the steps, preparation, and training you have taken after making the decision to make a change. It's like getting in the car and driving without knowing the address of where you are supposed to go.

I also want highlight Number 1 in the slideshare, "Sleep, Blissful Sleep." You and only you are in control of your destiny. Others that do nothing tend to have a self-fulfilling prophecy. Get out there. Know what your goal is. Plan and GO FOR IT!!

Enjoy! Please leave your comments below. I always love to hear your thoughts and insights.

5 Career Development Lessons From A Baby

View more presentations from Amir Saif . (tags: skills leadershp)

Increase Your Odds: Candidate Job Board Tricks

Major job boards like CareerBuilder and Monster are one of the most popular ways for companies to develop a candidate pool when looking to fill an open position. CareerBuilder alone boasts 2 million unique users per month according to a report by Cnet News last year. With unemployment at its highest since 1982 and candidate competition increasing, how does a candidate stand out from the virtual pack when posting a resume on a major job board?

1. Your Resume Title. First impressions are important and the title of your resume will determine whether your resume gets a first look. Include action words in the title that best describe your experience and are different from the norm. An example would be “Certified AMX Audio Visual Professional.”

2. Include an Objective in your online profile. An objective describes what career opportunity as well as industry you are interested in learning more about. Recruiters spend roughly 10 seconds or less per resume. Keep your objective simple, direct and to the point. For example, “Seasoned and Certified Human Resource Director interested in opportunity within the non-profit industry.” Limit your objective to 1-2 sentences.

3. Resume Format. Include bullets, open space, dates, and quantitative numbers on your resume. Avoid spelling errors, unprofessional email addresses, and a format that is not easily skimmed and no more than 2 pages.

4. Update Your Profile Weekly. Job boards list resumes by most recently updated and allow recruiters to use search by resumes updated daily, weekly, and monthly. Keep your resume at the top of the pack by updating it weekly. You can also take advantage of CareerBuilder’s advantage option which automatically provides you this service but at a fee.

5. Use Searchable Buzzwords & Keyword Terms. Recruiters resume mine for qualified candidates also by keyword search. Include terms relevant to the industry or job you are interested in. Include any specialized certifications and their abbreviations as well as other specific qualifications to increase your exposure.

6. Include Your Contact Information. Recruiters do not have the time or patience to contact a candidate that uses an anonymous resume on a job board. Increase your exposure odds by including your contact information, including email and phone numbers. Monster has a feature called, Privacy Plus that allows users to block up to 20 companies from viewing your resume.

Develop Online Brand with SlideShare

Slideshare is a great way to showcase your creative talents and build your online brand and presence. Take a look at the slideshare I created below based on my recent post titled, "7 Ways to Network on a Shoestring Budget."

With a little time and creativity, you can market yourself using your slideshare presentation on all social media sites including Facebook, LinkedIn, and even Twitter. What a great way to get a leg up on the competition.

7 Ways To Network On A Shoestring Budget

View more presentations from Jessica Miller-merrell, sphr. (tags: networking job)

Economic Stimulus Update Amist January Jobs Report

January's jobs report was just released this morning with 598,000 job lost and unemployment at 7.6%. Most consider the silver lining to be the progress regarding the new economic stimulus package. For the unemployed or recently unemployed, here are the details on how it will affect your unemployment and benefits:

• Weekly Unemployment. This stands to increase by roughly $25 per week federally. Some states are pushing to supplement and increase their own unemployment benefits separately as well in the form of a state separate stimulus package.
  
• Extended Unemployment Benefits. Unemployment typically lasts 26 weeks. The proposal seeks to extend the ability for individuals to receive an additional 20 weeks of unemployment for those who file until Dec. 31, 2009 instead of the original March 31, 2009. The extended unemployment benefits are available to those that reside in states with unemployment percentages greater than 6% which includes 34 states as of Dec. 2008.
• Access to Subsidized Health Insurance. The average cost of COBRA is $1,000 per month. The bill would allow subsidized premiums of 65% for a year. The benefit would apply to those who lose their jobs between September 2008 and the end of 2009. Those who income is 200% the federal poverty guidelines could be eligible for Medicaid. The benefit, paid for by the federal government, would apply to those who lose their jobs between September 2008 and the end of 2010. Interested in what the Federal poverty lines are? Click Here.
  

Want to know more. Visit www.cnnmoney.com for the entire article and more information.

Creative and Crazy Job Search Strategies: YouTube Video

Take a moment to view this interesting video resume and job search strategy from one of my twits off Twitter @coreyanderson. There has been some interesting discussion from job seekers and recruiters on Twitter about the Slideshare Your Resume blog post I recently posted. Take a look at this video as well as my post.

Do you think this video is appropriate and will land him a job? Leave your comments below. I for one couldn't stop laughing.

Survey for HR & Recruiting Professionals

HR & Recruiting Professionals: Please take a short 13 question survey to help those in the job search.

Click Here to take survey

Results will be discussed in future blog posts to come and shared with HR professionals and job seekers alike.

Happy Hunting!

Jessica

Slideshare Your Resume

Slideshare is another great site much like youtube to market your personal brand. Slideshare is a site that allows members to upload presentations to share with clients, friends, and even potential employers. Take a look below and consider the possiblities.

Anthony's PowerPoint Resume

View more presentations or upload your own. (tags: vitae curriculum)

7 Ways to Network on a Shoestring Budget

It seems everywhere these days we are reminded about the economic recession. Consumers and businesses are cutting costs and spending less. Hunting for a job is often times both costly and exhausting. Hiring a job coach, resume writer, and attending networking conferences can be expensive. Networking now more than ever is an important part of a successful job search whether you are in the job hunt or not. Networking and building meaningful relationships doesn't have to break the bank. With some creative, frugal thinking you can develop an expansive network on a shoestring budget.

• Chamber of Commerce Events. If you can swing your company to cover the cost of an annual Chamber membership, you and anyone at your place of employment can attend these events normally at no charge. Most chambers offer a variety of options to fit your schedule either before or after work hours.
  
• Join Your Local ToastMasters. This organization holds weekly meetings and has a number of different chapters to choose from in your local area. You can develop a network while improving your public speaking skills at the same time all for the cost of $45 per 6 months of membership.
  
• Children's Sporting & Social Events. Most parents attend baseball tournaments and dance recitals anyway. Why not make some personal networking connections in the process? Bring a handful of business cards and plan a play date for the kiddos.
  
• Online Social Networking. Sites like FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Ning Networking Sites, and Feedfriend are all FREE! Don't be afraid to reach out to someone you admire and develop a networking relationship with them. Using these sites has benefited me greatly all with little effort.
  
• Volunteering. Don't have any cash to fork out to attend a costly conference? Give your time to a charity of your choice and build relationships along the way. I regularly provide human resource training to non-profits by way of donation. This allows me to network while partaking in some career development that I can add to my resume.
  
• Professional Organizations. These might not be as costly as you might think. I recommend doing some research. For example, the Sooner Society of Human Resource Management (in Norman, OK) charges $25 a year to be a member and even provides HR Certification and Education Credits. Meetings are held once a month and are free. All you have to do is bring your own brown bag lunch to attend. If you are unemployed, consider negotiating with the Professional Organization to continue your membership free of charge. The National SHRM organization does this very thing. Current members can continue their membership while they are off work and have access to the members only website and publications to stay current on industry information.
  
• Host Your Own Event. Have a networking event or casual get-together with friends in your home or at a local coffee bar. For example, I am hosting a Twitter Networking Meeting (A.K.A. Tweetup) at the local Panera bread next month. The meeting room costs just $50 while the online event registration website I used (Event Brite) is free of charge. By hosting the event, it is a guarantee that I will network and engage all those that attend developing new and meaningful connections.

To learn more about the upcoming Tweetup in Oklahoma City on February 26, 2008, click below to learn more or email me at jmiller-merrell@sbcglobal.net.

Paying It Forward With Pink Slipped

It’s no secret that in 2009, networking will be the single most important job search strategy that job seekers will utilize. 2008 ended with 2.6 million jobs lost and experts predict a gloomier outlook for 2009. In some states with high unemployment, there are at least 50 unemployed qualified candidates for every job opening advertised in newspapers and internet job boards. Because of this, the hidden job market becomes even more important, and in Southern California, Pink Slip Mixers can help you expand your network, provide job search training, and at no charge.

Edwin Duterte, who created and manages the networking group and website, is a former commercial banker and an unwelcome recipient to the pink slip in early 2008. I first met Edwin two months ago on Twitter and was intrigued by his interest in helping others who are in the job market as a result of layoffs, restructuring, or those looking to make a career change. His concept of “paying it forward” in his own job search drove him to launch his website and mixers in July of 2008 based on the Silicon Valley Dotcom Pink Slip parties in 2001. Pink Slip provides job seekers the opportunity to network via the website as well as through mixers that average an impressive 150 networkers per event. Event attendees are seated with other job seekers who are also members of the same industry. The goal of every mixer is networking with the goal of finding a job not only for you but for others as well. Edwin calls this the Golden Rule of Job Seeking.

Pink Slip events also often provide free job search and resume writing training from professional recruiters and job coaches who also subscribe to the pay it forward frame of mind. The mixers seek to provide those in the job hunt networking opportunities, job search tools, and the chance to polish your pitch all on a shoestring budget.

Interested in learning more? Visit Pink Slip Mixers’ website or connect with them on Twitter @Pinkslipped.

LinkedIn Levels LION Networkers

Do a search on this blog and you will see that I am a huge fan of LinkedIn in using the tool as part of your job search, (LinkedIn Experiment. 10/08.). As of recent, LinkedIn has changed some of their policies and procedures possibly limiting the depth of network a LinkedIn member may have when they conduct a member search.

Previously, as a free member of LinkedIn, a person could conduct a member search for a keyword like Accountant and receive a list of those with the word Accountant in their profile but only within your network of connections. Those with a small network suffered since they had less connections resulting in a smaller number of results. And those with a large network, had more results without having to pay for the LinkedIn Gold and Platinum services that range from $50-500 a month. The paid services center around the ability to increase your search capabilities along with the ability to send a designated number of InMails each month outside of your network of contacts.

LION users, also know as Open Networkers build connections within their network of contacts without having any personal or professional relationship with their connections. A member does this to enable the user and those connected to him/her to access their large network without having to pay LinkedIn to use the service. I, myself am an Open Networker and have encouraged my readers to use this tactic to increase their connections and widen their search pool when in the job hunt.

LinkedIn is now limiting the number of connections a user to 30,000 which is roughly 1% of the total number of registered LinkedIn users (Wikipedia estimates LinkedIn users to be over 30 million). I'll explore more in later postings as further information is available.

Until then, feel free to add me to your network. Please reference blogging4jobs in your invite.

http://www.linkedin.com/in/jmillermerrell

To read more visit: http://www.cio.com

OKC Metro Tweetup

Click on the link below to register to attend the OKC Metro Tweetup on February 26, 2009
from 5:30-7:30pm at the Panera Meeting Room located at the intersection of 104th and S. Penn in South OKC.

The event is FREE!! We will have networking and a short presentation regarding getting the most out of Twitter. Feel free to bring your laptop as Panera has free WiFi.

Hope to see you there!

7 Habits of Ineffective People

The 7 Habits of Highly Ineffective People

From: grahamdbrown,
3 days ago

The 7 Habits of Highly Ineffective People

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: innovation marketing)

GrahamDBrown.com presents insight for business and marketing based on Stephen Covey's original 7 Habits

SlideShare Link

Friday's Jobless Report Confirms

The government said nonfarm payrolls fell by 524,000 and job losses in October and November were larger than originally reported. The 2.6 million jobs lost last year were the most since 1945, when the economy dropped 2.75 million jobs.

The national unemployment rate jumped to 7.2% from 6.8% in November and 5% in April. More than 11 million Americans are now unemployed.

Economists had expected a loss of 525,000 jobs last month, with some whispering numbers as high as 700,000. The economy shed an estimated 584,000 jobs in November, up from an original estimate of 533,000.

The last quarter was especially brutal, with 1.53 million jobs lost -- the largest job losses in any quarter since World War II. If you look at the quarter's job losses in percentage terms, it was the seventh-worst since 1945.

The last time the economy saw a 12-month stretch of job losses was the period from June 2001 to May 2002.


--To see the entire article, visit www.msn.com.

Laid Off & Looking

Check out an interesting interview of David Perry author of "Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters" in the Wall Street. Be sure to check out my comment on the article as well.

Landing a job often depends on who you know and making a good first impression is key. David Perry, a recruiter and co-author of “Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters” talks about what to keep in mind the first time you meet someone.

For more click on this link . . . Laid off & Looking

Be sure to check out all the comments as they are from many well-respected recruiters in the industry. I invite you to leave a comment as well and include your email address and website if you have one. Recruiters frequent these type of articles and use reader comments to find passive job seekers.

A word of caution, if you decide to leave a comment (and I recommend you do) make sure your comment is well-thought, insightful, and very, very professional. This comment is your marketing billboard to the world.

Differentiate Yourself with a Twitter Video

Just finsished reading a blog post Titled "Make a Tweet Plan to Get the Most From Twitter" at http://www.twitip.com/make-a-tweet-plan-to-get-the-most-from-twitter/. The post is great and provides Tweeters ideas to create some structure while providing content to their Tweets. What I loved the most about this blog is the idea of creating a Welcome Tweet Video to distribute to any of your new followers. This is a fantastic idea and can be easily created in a matter of minutes with a webcam providing your followers a short 30 second commercial selling yourself.

Job seekers can use this technique to differentiate themselves against the competition getting the attention of hiring managers and recruiters. A couple of items to consider:

1. Keep it short. I recommend 30-60 seconds no more. In this web 2.0 world, we are all multi-tasking and easily distracting.
2. Keep your message organized and scripted. When put on the spot, it is easy to get off track when speaking. Two minutes can easily become four. Stay organized and plan key points about yourself that you want to highlight or mention.
3. Outline your intentions. If you are using Twitter to find a job, make it known in your commercial. Don't beat around the bush. Be direct and to the point.
4. Include your contact information. Like in the video, find a way to display your contact information. You don't have to be fancy or technical to get the job done.
5. Have a little fun. Being creative and unique is what makes you, you. Include music, photos, art, or a short presentation that differentiates you from the rest.

Need some inspiration? Take a look at Nicole Nicolay's welcome Twitter video below.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! Best wishes to you and your family in 2009! Blogging4Jobs aims to help you find a career and not just a job in 2009. To stay up to date with the latest job tips and tricks, please follow me on Twitter at www.twitter/blogging4jobs.

Feel free to email me your comments and questions as well at jmiller-merrell@sbcglobal.net. This blog was created to provide the job seeker with information on the "unwritten" rules of the job search.

My resolution this year is to provide expanded content to my blog readers. This includes plans for an expanded website and blog syndication. Help me reach my resolution while I assist you in yours by passing along my website to those in need.

Kind Regards,

Jessica

ASK the Recruiter. . . Is BACK!

ASK the Recruiter

Ever had a job search or networking question that you were dying to ask the experts? Now's your chance. Send me your job search, networking, or human resource question and if your question is selected, I will post my response via the blog under the ASK the Recruiter heading.

Feel free to contact me at jmiller-merrell@sbcglobal.net with your question. Please reference Blogging4Jobs in the subject line.

Best Wishes in 2009 in Your Job Search!

Jessica

Poking Fun at Layoffs