Need Resume Help? Come Out Tomorrow

Chespeake Public Library is hosting a Resume-A-Thon on Tuesday, April 10, 2012 at Indian River Library. Come out between 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. to get help creating a resume for the first time, or to get feedback and suggestions on your current resume.

Library staff recommend that you register ahead of time. Call (757) 410-7001 to request a time.

Bring along your current resume or a listing of your work history, contact information, and job ads that are of interest to you.

Indian River Library is located at 2320 Old Greenbrier Road, Chesapeake, VA 23325.

Resolutions for Job Seekers

The beginning of a new year is a time when we often make resolutions—those goals that we plan to accomplish this year. As we enter 2012 here are three resolutions that can benefit any job seeker. Adopt these as your own and implement them in your job search this year.

I will stay positive. Searching for a job is not easy and continuous rejection can be difficult to endure. However, a positive attitude can help. Schedule some time to do something fun or visit with friends. Even a short movie or television break can help break up a long week of filling out applications and sending out resumes. Be sure you are getting out of the house and keeping a regular schedule. Adding some exercise into your day can also boost your mood. Negative thoughts will spill over into your job interviews and other interactions with employers, so work hard at staying positive!

I will make new contacts every week. In this new year, determine the number of new contacts you plan to make each week. I suggest the number be between three and five. Networking is an integral part of finding a new job and you must approach it with purpose. Commit to making new contacts each week as you continue your job search. For more tips on networking check out “The Art of Networking.”

I will try a new approach. What have you not tried yet? Cold calling, visiting businesses in person, attending networking events, joining a job club, looking into a temp agency? The new year is a great time to try a new approach. What can it hurt? Mix things up a little in the next few weeks and see what happens.

Most of all just keep on keeping on! The right job is out there waiting on you. May you be blessed in 2012 as you seek to find it!

Don’t Stop Your Job Search for the Holidays

Many job seekers stop their search from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day because they mistakenly believe companies don’t hire people during this time. The end of the year is actually a great time to ramp up your job search for a couple reasons.

Since many job seekers take a break from job searching during the holidays, you will find less competition for open jobs. This makes it easier for you to stand out from the crowd. In addition, a lot of employers use the end of the year to examine their budgets and decide how many new hires they would like to add in the new year. Employers often want new hires to start in January meaning they will take time in December to recruit and interview potential candidates.

Take advantage of this and get a jump on job seekers who will wait until Jan. 2 to continue their job search. One key to making the most of the holiday season is to focus on networking. Here are four ideas you can implement right away.

Attend parties and networking events. December is always filled with holiday parties and community events. Go to as many as you can to meet new people. As you have the opportunity, let people know what type of work you are seeking. You never know who you will meet or what connections they may have with employers. 

Send some holiday cards. The holidays are a great time to reach out to your contacts. Send cards to hiring managers you have previously met, employers that haven’t yet responded to your inquiries, former co-workers, professors, or contacts you’ve lost touch with, or new contacts you have made since beginning your job search. Don’t make your card just about looking for a job, but do include a personal note or business card reminding the person how you know them and letting them know you are looking for work.

Volunteer. Numerous charities and nonprofits are looking for volunteers at this time of the year. In addition to lifting your spirits by giving back to the community, volunteering is a great way to meet new people and put your skills to good use. If an organization finds that it could benefit from your skills on a regular basis, it could lead to a job opportunity. Even if doesn’t, you will have new contacts who can recommend you and your work to others.

Look into temp jobs, retail, or other part-time holiday positions. While positions like these may not be your dream job, they could provide you with a modest amount of income, a new skill for your resume, and a way to meet new people. The right opportunity could even lead to a full-time position.

The bottom line: Don’t put your job search on hold until the new year. You will miss a wealth of opportunities that are open to you right now!

Stay Motivated During Your Job Search

One of the most difficult aspects of job searching can be staying motivated when you don’t see immediate results. Perhaps you have been out of work for several months, one year, or even longer. It is easy to become depressed and lose the motivation to continue in your job search. Try these tips to help you stay motivated.

Keep a to-do list. Most of us are more productive when we have a plan of what we want to accomplish. Whether it is the number of new contacts you will make today, the number of jobs you will apply for, or remembering to follow up with employers you contacted last week, keep a list of tasks you need to finish and mark them off as they are completed. You won’t spend time daydreaming about what to do next, and you will feel good as you check things off your list.

Exercise. Even if exercise has never been a regular part of your routine, it should become a priority while you are unemployed. In addition to keeping you healthy and lowering stress levels, exercise produces endorphins—those feel-good hormones that can boost your mood. The most common excuse people give for not exercising is that they don’t have time, especially if they work 40 or more hours a week. While you are unemployed take advantage of the extra time you have available and commit to working out for 30 minutes to an hour each day—even if it is just taking a brisk walk around your neighborhood.

Maybe now is a good time to dedicate yourself to dropping those 10 or 15 pounds you’ve been wanting to lose. It will not only make you healthier, but a daily exercise session can be a welcome respite from hours of job searching.

Make time for fun. If you have a hobby that you enjoy, don’t forsake it because you feel you need to be looking for work 24-7. While you should approach your job search as a daily job that you commit hours to each day, it doesn’t have to consume the whole day. You may never again have large blocks of open time like you do while you aren’t working. Use some of that time to work on projects you enjoy. When I reflect back on the months that I spent out of work, I wish I would have used my down time to pursue new writing projects rather than just crashing in front of the television. Maybe I could have written a bestseller in that amount of time! Don’t waste the opportunities you have now to pursue your passion in the midst of your job search. It will recharge your emotional batteries and help you feel more productive.  

Get out of the house. Often a change of scenery can help your mood. If you have a laptop, try working on your job search from a coffee shop or bookstore. If you don’t have a laptop, visit a local library and use the computers there. While it may be more comfortable to look for jobs in your pajamas from home, getting up and making yourself presentable to go out can help you feel better about yourself.

It is also easier to network if put yourself in places where you will run into new people. Look for free workshops or seminars offered around town. Many of them only last an hour or two and you could learn a new skill in addition to meeting new people.

Surround yourself with a strong support network. This could be family and friends, former co-workers, or a job club. You want to gather people around you who believe in you and help you feel good about yourself. Don’t hang around negative people as negativity tends to be contagious. Surround yourself with positive people who will help you keep an upbeat attitude.

It is difficult to press on in your job search when you aren’t seeing results as quickly as you would like, but hang in there! Your diligence will be well worth it.

Goal Setting For An Effective Job Search

Perhaps you have heard the old adage, “If you aim at nothing, you will hit it.” It is a statement that is quite applicable to your job search. Setting goals will help keep your job search on track. Here are a few areas where you may want to set some job-search related goals.

Clarify your expectations regarding your future job. Starting with this step will help you narrow the field of which jobs you will or will not pursue. What salary are you willing to accept? How far are you willing to commute? What hours are you willing to work? Are you willing to take a lower position than your last one to “get a foot in the door” at a new company?

If you are having trouble finding work in your field, or if you were with a company for a long time and had worked your way up to a high salary, you may not be able to find something comparable right away. You may need to examine your expectations in this area and decide what types of positions are acceptable to you and which ones are not. You may even need to take a job outside of your field to pay the bills until something better becomes available.

Stay diligent with networking. Set a weekly number, perhaps five, as the number of new contacts you will make each week. If you follow through with this, you will be amazed at how quickly your list of contacts will grow. For more tips on developing your professional network, check out The Art of Networking.

Plan out each day. To stay productive, you should start each day with a concrete plan. Take a moment each morning and write out a few things you want to accomplish that day. If there are any tasks you are dreading, do those first. Then you can move on to easier ones.

Keep a record of your job applications and follow up after you’ve applied. For all employers that you sent resumes or job applications to last week, you should be following up this week (or early next week at the latest). Add it to your goals for the week and note any responses that you receive.

Share your goals with someone. It helps to have someone who will hold you accountable. This could be a friend, a mentor, or a significant other. You don’t have to check in daily, but ask this person to contact you at least once a week and ask if you accomplished your goals for the week. Knowing someone is going to ask you about it will make you more likely to follow through.

Include some personal goals as well. Do you exercise regularly? Aim to walk or work out three times a week. Are you taking any time away from your job search to do something fun? If not, include it in your goals and do it! You need to keep some balance in your life.

Also, don’t forget to reward yourself as you reach your goals. Think of something you enjoy and give yourself time to do it once you have accomplished your job-search tasks for that day.

Could Facebook Cost You The Job?

More employers are using social networking sites, especially Facebook, as part of their screening process when looking for people to hire. Recent research has shown that some of them have eliminated candidates because of the content of their Facebook pages. Follow these tips to be sure this doesn’t happen to you.

Check your profile. How much personal information do you give? Sites like Facebook can provide employers with information such as your age, race, religious beliefs and marital status—questions they usually are prohibited by law from asking during an actual interview.  Also, if you provide any information about your current job or past job titles, be sure it matches what you have provided in other places like your LinkedIn profile. Discrepancies can raise red flags for employers.

Think about your privacy settings. Do you want anyone who finds your page online to be able to see all of your information? If not, be careful how you set your privacy settings. Once you set them, have someone test out your page to see if they can get to anything you wouldn’t want them to see if they were a potential employer.

Choose your “friends” carefully. Though social networking sites are a good place to connect with old friends, remember that posts from friends can be displayed on your page for all to see, depending on your account settings. If your friends often make inappropriate comments or use obscene language, their bad behavior can be a reflection on you in the eyes of an employer. Just like you wouldn’t want to be associated with co-workers who are obnoxious (because your boss could start to identify you as having the same attitude as them), you want to be mindful of these relationships on Facebook as well.

Be selective about what photos you display on your page. That photo of you from college when you drank too much at a party may be funny to you and your friends, but it shows bad judgment to an employer—even if it is from several years ago. You should also decide which photos from friends you want to allow. If a “tagged” photo from a friend shows up on your page, you may not know it is there until a lot of people (including potential employers) have already seen it.

Be responsible with your comments. We’ve all been tempted to vent on Facebook when we are having a bad day or someone makes us angry. These comments may be fine among friends, but if potential employers can see all of your comments, you may want to think twice about what you post. The best rule of thumb is to never post negative comments about your current or previous boss or job. If your current boss finds rude comments you made about your job, it could affect how he or she views you. To other employers, it sends the message that you are not a team player and will speak poorly about them as well if they hire you.

The bottom line: If employers can gain access to your Facebook page, what they see there will be considered an extension of your personality. What image does your current page portray to them? When it comes to your job search you want to make the best impression possible!

4 Myths About Unemployment Benefits

With so many people out of work, many may be looking into unemployment benefits for the first time. I’ve found that there is a lot of confusion about how to file a claim and how the benefits work. Here are some of the most common myths about receiving unemployment benefits.

Myth 1: I have to wait a week to file for unemployment benefits.

This myth comes from the fact that in Virginia there is a required “waiting week” when you file for unemployment. This means that once you file your claim and get approved (meaning the Virginia Employment Commission verifies your eligibility to receive benefits), you will not get paid that first week. Your benefits will begin the next week. You should file your initial claim as soon as you become unemployed.

Myth 2: If I am receiving severance pay, I should wait until it runs out to apply for benefits.

Many people are afraid that receiving severance pay will mean they won’t receive benefits. This is not always the case. It depends on how your employer decides to designate things on the company’s end. Employers can designate your severance pay as being tied to your last day of wages. This means that even though you may continue to receive checks from them for several weeks, they have reported to the VEC that all of your income is tied to your last paid day. If this is the case, you could receive both unemployment benefits and your severance pay at the same time.

However, you do still have to report the severance pay that you are receiving when you file your weekly claim with VEC each week.

Myth 3: If I make any income while on unemployment, it will cancel out my benefits for that week.

Sometimes people seeking full-time work will have the opportunity to work part-time or freelance jobs while they are receiving unemployment. Many people think this will negatively affect their benefits, but it really doesn’t. You have to report any income for the week when you file your weekly claim. It’s important to note that you must report it when it is earned (the week you worked) rather than when it is paid to you.

It’s true that your benefit amount will be reduced by the amount you made (less $50), but this is not a bad thing like most people think it is. The reason for this is that when you are approved for benefits, you are given a certain number of weeks (typically 12 to 26) and a certain amount of money that you will receive as benefits unless you return to full-time work. When you aren’t paid the entire weekly amount (because of income you earned that week) this extends the length of time you are allowed to claim benefits. The same amount of benefit money is still set aside for you should you need it.

Myth 4: If I decide to return to school, my benefits will be canceled.

Not necessarily. This is true unless you are enrolling in an approved training program and you get approval through the VEC ahead of time. In many cases, if learning a new trade or going back to school to change careers will improve your ability to get a job, then you can get your training approved and continue to receive benefits while in school. If approved, your weekly job search contacts will likely be waived, but you will have to submit documentation of class attendance from your school on a regular basis.

Obviously, everyone's situation is different, and you should consult a representative of the Virginia Employment Commission for details regarding your unique situation. For a complete explanation of unemployment benefits, visit the VEC website.

Checklist for the Unemployed

Newly unemployed? Here are seven things you should do right away.

1. File for Unemployment Benefits through the Virginia Employment Commission (VEC). You could always visit their office, but the VEC’s website has a wealth of helpful information online. They also make it easy to file a claim online and submit your weekly job contacts without ever having to visit their office or call them. Find detailed information at VEC's website.

Note: There are a lot of myths about unemployment benefits and how they work. I’ll address some of those in my next blog post.

2. Start to Network. Tell everyone you know (and everyone you meet) that you are looking for a job. You should also request letters of recommendation from previous employers, or at least ask if they would be willing to be listed as a reference on applications.

3. Develop a “master” version of your resume that you will tweak as you apply for jobs. For tips on developing your resume, check out 5 Common Resume Mistakes and Choosing the Best Resume Format.

4. Start your job search through websites, job ads and job fairs. Keep in mind that if you are tracking your job applications as a part of receiving unemployment, you can only count those ads that list a contact person. You must make contact with someone either in person, by phone, or by email for that contact to qualify when you submit your weekly job contacts to VEC. Answering “blind” online ads does not count.

5. Access your finances. If you are not already adhering to a budget, develop one and stick with it. Are there any areas of spending that you can reduce? Often landlords, credit card companies, and companies that manage student loans will work with you to reduce your payments while you are out of work.

6. Take some time for yourself. Looking for work should be your new full-time job until you find something, but take a break and do something fun periodically. Meet a friend to walk, jog, or just chat. Or allow yourself an hour or two to enjoy a favorite TV show or movie at home. You need a little break from job searching every now and then.

7. Take some time to help others. A great way to get out of the house for a couple hours, and to get your mind off of yourself and your job search, is to volunteer. It can even lead to a job with the organization, or it could lead to meeting new people who could point you in the direction of a company that is hiring. Find an organization that can use your skills, or just choose one that interests you. Spending time helping others will do wonders for your outlook—and a positive outlook can only help your job search!

Resumes: Don’t Forget Your Accomplishments

Many jobseekers forget a crucial aspect of their resumes—their professional accomplishments. Your resume should not only include your past job responsibilities, skills, and credentials, but you also need quantifiable accomplishments. These prove your worth to an employer.

In previous positions did you manage people, administer budgets, increase revenue, or design new policies or procedures that helped the company operate more efficiently? These are accomplishments you want to emphasize on your resume.

The goal is to impress potential employers so they will want to know more about you and will contact you for an interview. (Also, be prepared to talk about the accomplishments you list on your resume during the interview, as the employer will most likely want to hear more about them.) While some people choose to list these in a separate section, it is not necessary. It works well to list them under each job title as appropriate or to include them in a section that highlights your qualifications.

When crafting your accomplishment statements it is important to tell what you achieved as well as how you achieved it. Also, use strong verbs with statistics, percentages, or other concrete figures to explain what you accomplished. One method for writing effective accomplishment statements is the “Challenge-Action-Result” (CAR) formula.

To determine what your accomplishment statements will be, think about what challenge you needed to overcome, what actions you took to solve the problem, and what the results were. When you write it out, it is often more effective to begin your statement with the result.

Here are a couple examples:

• Increased sales by 25 percent by implementing comprehensive training for sales staff and introducing new marketing techniques.
• Grew customer base by 15 percent through new in-store promotions and active involvement in the local community.

To determine what accomplishments to include, it can be helpful to create a list before you write your resume. Write down any achievements you can think of even if you aren’t sure you will use them.

Ask yourself a few questions:

• Have received praise from your boss or co-workers for something you did?
• Have customers commented on your work?
• Have you received any awards or promotions?
• Were you selected to manage any projects?
• Were you chosen to lead any teams? If so what did the team accomplish under your leadership?

When you are finished select the ones that you think will be most important to an employer for the position to which you are applying. By showing employers your past successes you are telling them what an asset you will be to their company. Why wouldn’t they want to hire you?

Unlock The Mystery of Cover Letters

Many job seekers stress out when it comes to writing cover letters, but they really are not that difficult. Hopefully, these tips will help you unlock the mystery.

Cover letters serve as an introduction of yourself and your skills to an employer. While not all employers require them, it never hurts to submit a well written cover letter along with your resume. Many online job application sites allow you to upload a cover letter with your resume, or if you are emailing your resume to an employer, you can use the body of the email as your brief cover letter.

Cover letters need not be long. Approximately three brief paragraphs is usually sufficient, but the content is very important. You want to use the letter to quickly capture the employer’s attention and set yourself apart as the best candidate for the job.

Begin your letter with a strong opening that shows you understand the employer’s business, the position, and how you fit perfectly with it.

For example, this is a strong opening:

I have always been impressed by the high level of customer service I receive at Company XYZ, and I was very excited to learn of the office manager position that your company has available. As an experienced administrative assistant, I know firsthand how challenging it can be to ensure each customer who visits your office receives quick and friendly service, even in the midst of juggling multiple phone lines and other office responsibilities. My 10 years of administrative and customer service experience will enable me to provide outstanding service to your customers while helping your office to operate efficiently.

The following is not:  

I am interested in the office manager position that I saw advertised on Craiglist. I have 10 years of experience and know how to provide excellent customer service.

Once you have a strong opening, further explain how your experience and skills fit with the position, but be careful not to merely repeat your resume. Use your cover letter to provide details about your specific accomplishments or achievements that show your suitability for the job.

Wrap up your letter by giving the employer a timeline of when you plan to follow up with him or her (and you should always follow up). Thank the employer for taking the time to consider you for the position. Also, be sure to include your contact information.

A few other key things to keep in mind:

- Always try to find out the name of the hiring manager and address the letter to that person. Never use “To Whom it May Concern.”

- Carefully proof your letter and, if possible, have someone else proof it to catch any errors you may have missed.

- Don’t use the same cover letter for every job. Each one should be customized for the advertised position.

- Keep the letter brief. Three short paragraphs is a good rule to follow, but never go more than one page.