LinkedIn is growing by leaps and bounds. If you are not already signed up (free to use), I highly recommend doing so now. Employers are finding it easy to use and there are so many options such as interesting discussion groups. ways to search for jobs, ways to identify strong candidates.
I am so impressed with this service. Feel free to ask me to help you navigate the site.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Planning for the New Year
Unfortunately, I am hearing about too many friends and/or colleagues who have recently been downsized. Reasons vary from a facility being shut down to a larger company gaining control and pushing out the existing staff to one person being hired to (allegedly) do the work of 2 or 3 people who have been released. Companies are making some strange, knee jerk decisions.
The key is do not take it personally. Get yourself organized and into circulation as soon as possible. The next few weeks will be very quiet with not much happening until mid-January. That is actually a good thing as you have roughly a month to fine tune your presentation before hitting the market really hard. Let me know how I could help you.
The key is do not take it personally. Get yourself organized and into circulation as soon as possible. The next few weeks will be very quiet with not much happening until mid-January. That is actually a good thing as you have roughly a month to fine tune your presentation before hitting the market really hard. Let me know how I could help you.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Etc.
- Proofread your resumes now! I said, proofread your resumes now!!! More and more folks are competing for every job that becomes available. Do you really think anyone will hire a Chemcical Egineer, especially one who graduated for a universalty? I read at least five resumes today with absolutely horrible spelling errors.
- Old fashion networking is still a major part of job hunting. Make sure you have resumes and/or business cards with you at all times. You never know when a member of your house of worship, the coach of your child's soccer team or the person chat with on the train each day might have a job lead to share.
- Caroline Kennedy's attempt for nomination as Senator of NY makes me realize i have been around for a long time. I remember viewing her at her father's funeral on television as I was out of school that day and replaced kindergarten with watching one of the most solemn days in the history of our nation.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Quick Tip
Many people look at December as a dead month for job hunting. This is not necessarily correct! Though it may appear that every single decision maker is on vacation, some are actually working. take some shots at sending your resume out the next few things. Any hiring manager working will generally have time on their hands and might even review some resumes. As they say about the lottery, you have to play if you want to win!
Friday, December 12, 2008
The Fall Guy or the Culprit?
Sports of almost any type are among my favorite things to chat about but I refrain from using this blog as a forum. Once in a while, I am tempted to cross the line and chat sports here! My topic today is more about the business of sports, poor management and oversight, and holding onto your job.
Just in case you have been on a remote island without Internet, radio or television, you may not know that Bob Mulcahy was fired as the Athletic Director at Rutgers University this week. Mulcahy has been at RU for about 10 years during the twilight of a terrific sports management career. The big picture at RU looks great: stadium expansions, facilities upgrades, nationally ranked football and women's basketball teams, etc. A closer look reveals the deletion of sports like crew, fencing, and swimming; elimination of many other jobs across the university; lack of sufficient housing for students, etc. On top of that, very fishy deals were made under the table with coaches and Nelligan Sports was hired to manage the college's sports broadcasts. This is the same Nelligan that hired Mulcahy's son into an executive role and fired Bruce Johnson, the longtime voice of RU sports, in favor of younger announcers with a New York feel.
Mulcahy and his cronies say he is the fall guy for the RU President and Board of Governors who established the climate he worked within. My feeling is Mulcahy was totally at fault, did not care about the livelihoods and well beings of his staff, the students, and his colleagues and spared nothing to win in high profile sports. I would love to see performance appraisals during his tenure but I bet they do not exist!
Just in case you have been on a remote island without Internet, radio or television, you may not know that Bob Mulcahy was fired as the Athletic Director at Rutgers University this week. Mulcahy has been at RU for about 10 years during the twilight of a terrific sports management career. The big picture at RU looks great: stadium expansions, facilities upgrades, nationally ranked football and women's basketball teams, etc. A closer look reveals the deletion of sports like crew, fencing, and swimming; elimination of many other jobs across the university; lack of sufficient housing for students, etc. On top of that, very fishy deals were made under the table with coaches and Nelligan Sports was hired to manage the college's sports broadcasts. This is the same Nelligan that hired Mulcahy's son into an executive role and fired Bruce Johnson, the longtime voice of RU sports, in favor of younger announcers with a New York feel.
Mulcahy and his cronies say he is the fall guy for the RU President and Board of Governors who established the climate he worked within. My feeling is Mulcahy was totally at fault, did not care about the livelihoods and well beings of his staff, the students, and his colleagues and spared nothing to win in high profile sports. I would love to see performance appraisals during his tenure but I bet they do not exist!
Thursday, December 11, 2008
New Search Engine
I just happened across a website that focuses on the southern part of New Jersey's job market. Check out www.jerseydeviljobs.com . Feel free to let me know your reactions after giving it a try!
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Reference Checks
A recent situation caused me to start giving some new consideration to reference checks. I want to share some general thoughts aimed at employers first then will give some suggestions to candidates as well.
Employers beware! Most references listed on a job application are going to be positive since few people would be crazy enough to identify negative contacts (at least that is what you would suspect)! I once hired a young retail salesperson based on four glowing references. He arrived to work on the second day of training to tell me he had to go to court that afternoon as he was facing shoplifting charges against a former retail employer who was not listed on his resume. Even worse, he had a sealed juvenile record and had done time in a youth corrections center for shoplifting as well. I had gone so far as to call folks not listed as references and still did not get enough information.
Candidates beware! Many employers could give you a negative reference by simply refusing to answer questions. It is best to secure the name of a positive reference before giving it out to perspective employers. Ensure they are comfortable endorsing you and your work abilities with others. Also, all temporary and/or contract work should be verified by the company who signed your paycheck, in other words, the agency who assigned you, not the actually company where you did the work.
I hope this was useful to many of you!
Employers beware! Most references listed on a job application are going to be positive since few people would be crazy enough to identify negative contacts (at least that is what you would suspect)! I once hired a young retail salesperson based on four glowing references. He arrived to work on the second day of training to tell me he had to go to court that afternoon as he was facing shoplifting charges against a former retail employer who was not listed on his resume. Even worse, he had a sealed juvenile record and had done time in a youth corrections center for shoplifting as well. I had gone so far as to call folks not listed as references and still did not get enough information.
Candidates beware! Many employers could give you a negative reference by simply refusing to answer questions. It is best to secure the name of a positive reference before giving it out to perspective employers. Ensure they are comfortable endorsing you and your work abilities with others. Also, all temporary and/or contract work should be verified by the company who signed your paycheck, in other words, the agency who assigned you, not the actually company where you did the work.
I hope this was useful to many of you!
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Suggestion for CPA's
There seems to be a market for temporary CPA's and may firms specializing in tax preparation. My assumption is that more people are heading to professionals for assistance to ensure every penny is properly accounted for this year. While few firms will talk about employment past April 15 at this moment, worst case scenario is you will earn a paycheck through the first quarter of 2009. Best of luck to all who try this!!!
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