8 Reasons to Job Search During the Holidays

The majority of job seekers believe companies stop hiring during the holiday season. Most job seekers will begin moving into a hibernation mode, and plan to wait until after the holidays have passed to relaunch their job search. This can be a serious mistake as this holiday season is actually one of the best times to search for a new career opportunity.

Here are eight reasons why you should continue to move forward in your job search during the latter days of November and December.

1. Since most job seekers put their job search on hold, that’s good news for you! This means your competition is drastically lowered and your chances of landing interviews skyrockets. There will never be another time of the year when competition is so low.

2. At this time of the year, people feel less stressed in their jobs and are in a festive spirit. Busy professionals and executives are more available for exploratory meetings with job candidates and more eager to find time in their schedules for business meetings, networking, and interviews. Moreover, executives are typically in the office more so than other times of the year.

3. This time of the year equals greater opportunities for socializing and networking. Take advantage of all event gatherings. Establish new relationships, get reacquainted with family members, touch base up with former colleagues, etc. Briefly discuss your career with people during these networking opportunities, and be sure to follow up with each person you meet. Remember briefly discuss your career and/or job search – do not spend more than two or three minutes on this subject. After all, no one attends a party or event to listen to the details of someone’s job search.

4. You may find opportunities to volunteer during this time of the year. Volunteering is an excellent way to meet new people. In concert, this is an outstanding time of the year to donate your time and resources to worthy organizations and the people they help.

5. Plant seeds for the future. The relationships you build during this time period may be critical to the job search success in 2007.

6. Professionals will continue to change jobs, earn promotions, retire, and more during November and December. Managers will still look for an ideal candidate to replace poorly performing professionals. Hiring needs never end, they may taper, but the need for professionals never stops, not matter the date on the calendar.

7. Hiring managers and recruiters have a sense of urgency related to staffing at this time of the year. They do not want to begin the new year with a staffing deficit. The want to be ramped up to meet new business opportunities January 2.

8. Be available and flexible during the holidays. Would you be willing to interview for a job in the last few days of December? I know several people who have been available for interviews at Christmas time and even flew across the country for interviews – and they received a job offer!

source: agreatresume.typepad.com

How to get a job paying more than $100,000 a year

How do people get themselves into a position of earning good incomes at young ages? Why do some people work hard for minimum wage while others have cushy jobs that are well-paid? Most importantly, how can you become one of the latter?

In this article, I’ll attempt to provide a definitive answer for the last question. I’ll lay out a system you can use and clear steps you can follow towards moving into a job paying more than $100,000 a year. I’ll also give you ways to make sure that such a job comes with good conditions.

Who am I to be making these sorts of claims?
Before I begin, you may be asking yourself how I know that this strategy works. That’s simple. I got my first job paying in excess of $100,000 at the age of 27 and have been working in such jobs ever since (I'm now 34). I've spent a number of years earning in excess of $200,000 per annum from my day-job, although I’ve recently fallen below that level chiefly because I moved from London to Sydney and the pay-levels aren’t as high here. I still earn far in excess of the $100,000 mark though.

This earning ability isn’t tied to any one particular employer or geographic location. I’ve worked in Europe and Australia on this sort of money, and been offered a job in the US which I didn’t end up taking. I’ve also switched employers a few times, usually increasing my pay, and often finding a new job within a matter of days.

As well as earning good money, I’m also treated very well when I work. I generally work 40 hours a week, with overtime rare. I take breaks when I choose, work at my own pace, and get a number of other good benefits.

Of course, there are many people out there who are paid much better than me. I’m still on a multiple of the average income, however, so you can trust that I know what I’m talking about. I’m not saying this to boast, but to establish credibility.

Okay, enough about me, let’s move on to the strategy.

Step 1: Choose the right profession
Some professions are simply paid much better than others. This is such an obvious statement that it seems silly to even bother typing it, yet most people wilfully ignore this truth.

Choosing the right occupation has a huge impact on the likelihood of you being well-paid. What you want to look for is a vocation in which a significant proportion of those practicing it are well-paid.

Many people look at what Tom Cruise, Stephen King, and Tiger Woods get paid and decide that the professions they work in are good ways to get rich. If only I could get some success in acting/writing/professional sports then I could be as rich as Tom/Stephen/Tiger, goes the thinking.

But there's a flaw in this logic. Highly-paid entertainment and sports stars are so rare that they're exceptional. The celebrities you read about in magazines who are earning millions of dollars are the best paid from that profession in the world. Out of the millions of people trying to work as actors, 99% are lucky if they make a living wage during any single year. Tom Cruise is a freak, that's why he gets so much attention.

Your chances of becoming among the biggest-earners globally in any profession are extremely small, and this is not something you should realistically rely on.

In fact, considering that they are among the best-paid people on the planet in their respective careers, Tom, Stephen and Tiger are actually poorly remunerated. Consider what people in other professions who are the best-paid in the world earn and you can see this truth. Stephen King isn’t going to be begging on the street any time soon, but compared to Bill Gates or Warren Buffett, he’s a relative pauper.

You are much more likely to be well-paid in professions such as medicine, law, or finance than in graphic-design, journalism, or teaching. But don't think you are restricted just to these three choices; professions in which the average pay is high are widespread.

Look up salary-surveys for one that’s suited to you.

If you can’t find anything that’s of interest, and decide to choose a low-paid profession instead, that’s fine. If what you get paid is less important than being able to do exaclty what you want to, that's a noble thing. But this is a conscious choice and you have to accept that your preference is to have a high probability of being badly-paid.

Once you've chosen a vocation, find out what kind of skills, qualifications and experience you need to work in that field. This is fairly easy to do by looking at job ads, and speaking to recruitment agents, employers, and those already in the industry.

Step 2: Get an education and qualifications in your chosen profession
The next step is to learn as much as you can about your chosen profession by studying up on the theory of it. Usually, this involves some kind of formal study, but it can also sometimes be self-taught. Look for the qualifications and skills that are being asked for in job ads. Your aim is to become the person they are asking for in those ads.

Getting qualified and educated can seem like a daunting task. Entry-level qualifications in many well-paid occupations can take years to earn. However, if you consider that most people will work for about forty years, an investment of four or five years isn’t that big a deal.

If you need to keep working, consider studying part-time. I'm doing a part-time post-graduate degree at the moment as well as holding down a full-time job and running a few websites. It's difficult, but not impossible.

This is probably the step that requires the biggest time commitment, but if you consider that it may lead to doubling or tripling your yearly income, the long-run payoff will almost certainly be worth it. Of course, a good education provides many other benefits other than just monetary ones, and you will also be gaining those along the way.

Educating yourself to have useful skills is a life-long process, and this step will never fully be completed. However, once you are qualified to move into your chosen vocation, move on to step 3.

Step 3: Choose the right geographic location
Where you choose to live can be just as important as what you choose to do in gaining a well-paid job. If you’re aiming at moving into the finance industry, then New York City obviously offers far more opportunity than rural Kansas. If you’re looking at being a mine engineer, then Chicago probably isn’t the right city for you.

Step 4: Polish up your resume
A good resume is one of the best tools you can have in getting a highly-paid job. While it usually won’t land you a role on its own, it is a foot in the door. Having a poor resume can mean being denied access to the best jobs as your opportunities are dropped in the paper-recycle bin before you even get started.

Spend a lot of time writing and rewriting your resume. Read books on the subject and ask people you know for advice. Always be thinking about how you can improve your resume. What qualifications can you get to put on there? What experience can you add that would beef it up?

Time spent on your resume is boring. Nobody wants to do this task. But the payoff can be enormous. If your resume helps you get a better paid job, the time spent on it can add up to tens of thousands of dollars per hour.

Step 5: Improve your job interviewing technique
The other bridge you have to cross on your way to a well-paid job is usually an interview. Once again, read books and advice articles on interview techniques. Get lots of practice by going to actual interviews. You can find more on this topic in my Do job interviews like a pro article.

Step 5: Get an entry-level position in your new profession
While Step 2 is probably the most time-consuming, this step is the most disheartening. Breaking into a new profession can be very difficult. It’s the old - you can’t get a job without experience and you can’t get experience without a job - problem.

The strategy to use here is the numbers technique. Send your resume to every possible place that could lead to an eventual job. Send it to agencies, employers, contacts in the industry, and anyone else you can think of that might be able to help you get a foot in the door. Apply for every single job you can see listed. Send out a hundred resumes, then send out a hundred more and a hundred more. Opportunities can come from unexpected sources, so err on the side of sending it to too many people.

Needless to say, you are likely to get a large number of rejections. Expect this, and try not to let it get you down. If you get a “thanks but no thanks” email, delete it without a second thought. All you need is one person to say “yes” and if that means putting up with a thousand “no”es, then be prepared to make that sacrifice.

You will likely be invited to a few interviews, but usually won’t get the job. Some of these interviews may be quite humiliating. Interviewers can often see themselves as gatekeepers for their profession, and many do their best to try and discourage newcomers.

Try not to let a bad interview get you down, just keep plugging away. Put them down to a learning experience. Many tough interviews have similar characteristics, and with practice you’ll get better at dealing with them.

Your main aim during this step is to get some experience, so don’t be too ambitious with your pay goals. If a job offers reasonably low pay, but good experience that will add a lot to your resume, jump at it.

Step 6: Change jobs and employer
Once you've been working in your entry-level position for a year, you’ll have likely learnt a lot. The first few months on any new job and particularly in a new occupation, can be a very stressful learning experience.

You'll almost certainly learn much more during your first year in a job than in subsequent years. By the end of your first year, you'll probably be starting to get comfortable in your job, but you probably also won't be growing much. This is the time to change jobs, aiming to move up the ladder a little.

When you change jobs, do so with an eye to getting a significant increase in pay and responsibilities. Keep your current job while you search for a change, and take your time. You have the luxury of being a lot more choosy than you were in Step 5 by this stage, so look for something good.

I also recommend changing employer during this stage. There are a few reasons for this.

The first is that you are more likely to get a big pay increase somewhere else. It’s human nature not to want to pay more for something you’ve already got, and that’s how your employer will generally view the situation. Even if you move into a new job at the same place, your employer is going to have a lot of resistance to increasing your pay significantly.

The second reason is that every workplace is different. By moving to a new organization, you'll be forced to learn a new way of doing things. Even in similar jobs, the composition of the tasks required is usually very different from organization to organization. A new employer will add an experience entry on your resume, and a list of new projects and tasks.

The third reason is that it’s risky to become too tied to any one organization during your career. As well as good pay and conditions, you want a relative level of autonomy. You need the ability to get yourself a good job independently of any particular organization.

Spending too long with one employer reduces the likelihood of this occurring. It gives your resume little in the way of depth. A resume with only one employer on it rarely looks as good as one with more.

You also risk becoming institutionalized. Every organization has their own way of doing things. The longer you spend in one place, the more you'll come to see their way as the only way. You'll become too comfortable and reduce your chances of growing.

Step 7: Change jobs and employer again, and again
By this stage you should be getting pretty close to, or will have passed, the magic $100,000 a year mark. If you’re not there yet, change jobs and employer at least every couple of years until you get there.

If you've reached the magic pay mark, have good working conditions, and have a level of autonomy in being able to find a new job easily if you so wish, then you can ignore this step and do pretty much what you like. You’re at the same level as me, and I probably don’t have much more to teach you on this subject.

So there they are, my seven steps to a job paying more than $100,000 a year. Put them into practice today, and you’ll be well on your way to becoming a good earner.

source: www.paulstips.com

Networking to Find a Job

A few years ago, Kathy met Henry in a social setting. At the time, Henry had a small business that sounded relatively intriguing to Kathy. Out of habit, Kathy made a point of getting Henry's contact information at the end of the evening even though she was content in her job. The next day she sent him a resume and a letter recapping their conversation. Henry filed the correspondence for future reference.

A year and a half later, Henry was starting a different business that needed someone with a particular set of skills. Henry recalled meeting Kathy, who had those skills. He pulled her resume out of his file, contacted her, and pitched the new idea. The opportunity and the timing were perfect. Kathy now works for this successful, growing business, adding value as a key part of its operations.

Networking in professional, social, and other settings has become an increasingly important aspect of a job search as people now tend to move from one company to another more frequently.

Network everyday, everywhere
Follow the demand for your talent by continuous networking, making it second nature. Make your own connections and be your own agent.

There are networking opportunities every day. It's done at parties, dinners, events, small gatherings, birthdays, volunteer activities, and ceremonies. It happens at the gym, the grocery store, and the garage. Talk to anyone and everyone including those new to an industry and old pros, those in school and those overseas. They all matter.

Try this mental game at a networking function. First, bring a stack of business cards at least a quarter inch thick. See if you can find three people who refuse to take one. Chances are, you'll run out of business cards before you find even one person who says no.

Keep an active and pleasant communication open with past employers, being careful not to burn bridges when you leave a company. If you leave the workforce for a few years to raise children, network with other stay-at-home parents and attend your partner's company events at the holidays.

Use resumes like personal flyers
Resumes can serve as detailed business cards, reminding contacts of you and your accomplishments. Create a version of your resume for networking alone, one that can be pulled out on short notice.

Use informational interviews
Exploit another networking staple with an informational interview - a formal chat in which you ask someone to talk about his or her work without trying to squeeze a job out of the experience. It can be a particularly useful way to get a detailed picture of the industry since you are free to ask absolutely anything and can more often expect a frank response than in a regular interview.

Ask how your contact got into the industry, and why. Ask what skills are most in demand, where the industry is headed, and where the jobs will be. Ask the best way to advance. Ask whether he or she has any regrets. Ask for the best way to find a job in the industry. Get further contacts.

Network toward a job
When you actively start to look for work, contact everyone you know. Go to your immediate and extended family, friends of the family, religious community, volunteer connections, old college buddies or clubs, past employers, and anyone you deal with including your accountant, real estate agent, or dentist. Reciprocate when they call you.

Network for your company too
Even if you are happily employed, you can network for your company and help your personal pursuits at the same time. If your company gets invited to an event, go. If someone in a salon or at a grocery store wants to talk about your company, engage them.

Put your network to use
References can have a significant impact on the final hiring decision. Be ready to provide potential employers with at least three solid ones from your network of professional contacts.

- Leslie Tebbe, Salary.com contributor

Source: http://www.careersandcolleges.com

Tips for Job Fairs

If you are a job seeker looking for a new position, or are a college graduate taking that initial step in light of that snappy new college degree to work, you should become a big proponent of job fairs that are held throughout the nation. Job fairs have now become so prevalent that unless you inhale from a rural area, you should have no problem finding many plenty of them.

The job fairs usually has a theme to them based on different professions and careers, but most offer the job seeker the opportunity to speak with representatives and recruiters from different companies that are recruiting talented new employees to come and work for them. Many times the actual interview is conducted right there on the spot and they will have you fill out a job application as well, which really speeds up the process of landing gainful employment.

It actually works both ways in that job fairs also allow the job seeker to interview in question the perspective employer. Here the employee and waiting can actually learn more about the company in the position that is being offered while comparing them alongside of the other participants at the job fair. So basically, everyone here is trying out in some form or fashion.

Job fairs are held for many industries such as the health care industry, especially for nurses, nurse practitioners, physicians, physicians’ assistants, and other supportive technical personnel. You would be amazed that the number of shortages and staff that the health-care industry is dealing with. The health care industry is growing with the increased demand for patient services directly related to the huge baby boomer population, the first of which are now entering into retirement.

Job fairs for health-care workers are some of the most popular ones that are held because that is where the need is truly great. Job fairs for health care professionals seeking new opportunities the chance to browse around at the different health care delivery systems, how they are different and yet the same. You could have the same job title in one place, yet be much happier doing that same job in another. Of course this isn't just the health-care industry or that rule applies.

Because the United States is on the dawn of what some are calling a health-care crisis, new graduates such as nursing students stand a real good chance of being hired rather quickly and they're usually snapped up at job fairs. Job fairs are a great place to compare benefits, sign on bonuses, and relocation and travel packages offered by competing agencies and health care delivery systems. Nurses can also complete continuing education units (CEUs) toward license renewal at health professional job fairs by completing a class or lecture. Many times you can even negotiate your own terms as far as starting pay and benefits. That is how badly nurses are needed right now.

Of course you will be inundated with various informational packs like brochures and recruiting literature that you picked up from the job fair. These health-care companies are selling themselves, and you are the target. Be sure to pick up a free tote bag that is available by various vendors at the job fair to carry your materials because believe me, you'll need it.

John Kirsch usually also offer tips on how to spice up your résumé and improve on your interview skills. This is usually done by the company that puts the job fair together as an added enticement to get people to turn out. It's a pretty good idea actually. I recommend that you Attend as many different job fairs as you can because different companies may be sponsored at each. Don't jump at the first often that you get, do yourself a favor and take a good look around. This will give you the opportunity to connect with more potential employers at these job fairs, which will greatly increase your chances of getting a position that you truly can be proud of.

Morgan Hamilton offers expert advice and great tips regarding all aspects concerning careers and jobs. Get the information you are seeking now by visiting Job Fairs

How To Get Hired -- What CS Students Need to Know

I've hired dozens of C/C++ programmers (mostly at the entry level). To do that, I had to interview hundreds of candidates. Many of them were woefully poorly prepared for the interview. This page is my attempt to help budding software engineers get and pass programming interviews.

Contents

• What Interviewers are Tired Of
• What Interviewers Look For
• What This Means For You
• But How Can I Get Experience Without a Job?
• Quick Reality Check
• Good luck!
• Shameless Plug
• Links

What Interviewers are Tired Of

A surprisingly large fraction of applicants, even those with masters' degrees and PhDs in computer science, fail during interviews when asked to carry out basic programming tasks. For example, I've personally interviewed graduates who can't answer "Write a loop that counts from 1 to 10" or "What's the number after F in hexadecimal?" Less trivially, I've interviewed many candidates who can't use recursion to solve a real problem. These are basic skills; anyone who lacks them probably hasn't done much programming.

Speaking on behalf of software engineers who have to interview prospective new hires, I can safely say that we're tired of talking to candidates who can't program their way out of a paper bag. If you can successfully write a loop that goes from 1 to 10 in every language on your resume, can do simple arithmetic without a calculator, and can use recursion to solve a real problem, you're already ahead of the pack!

What Interviewers Look For

As Joel Spolsky wrote in his excellent essay The Guerrilla Guide to Interviewing:

1. Employers look for people who are Smart and Get Things Done

How can employers tell who gets things done? They go on your past record. Hence:

2. Employers look for people who Have Already Done Things

Or, as I was told once when I failed an interview:

3. You can't get a job doing something you haven't done before

(I was interviewing at HAL Computers for a hardware design job, and they asked me to implement a four-bit adder. I'd designed lots of things using discrete logic, but I'd always let the CPU do the math, so I didn't know offhand. Then they asked me how to simulate a digital circuit quickly. I'd been using Verilog, so I talked about event simulation. The interviewer reminded me about RTL simulation, and then gently said the line I quoted above. I'll never forget it.)

Finally, you may even find that

4. Employers Google your name to see what you've said and done

What This Means For You

What the above boil down to is: if you want to get a job programming, you have to do some real programming on your own first, and you have to get a public reputation, however minor, as a programmer. Don't wait for your school to teach you how to design and program; they might never get around to it. College courses in programming are fine, probably even necessary, but most programming courses don't provide the kind of experience that real programming gives, and real employers look for real programming experience.

But How Can I Get Experience Without a Job?

If you're in college, and your school offers programming lab courses where you work on something seriously difficult for an entire term, take those courses. Good examples of this kind of course are

• USC: CS402 (main page, faber 1999, danzig 1996)
• UCLA: CS111 is good, maybe also CS130, CS131
• PSU: CS 410
• Harvey Mudd: CS Clinic

Take several of this kind of course if you can; each big project you design and implement will be good experience.

Whether or not you're in college, nothing is stopping you from contributing to an existing Open Source project. One good way to start is to add unit or regression tests; nearly all projects need them, but few projects have a good set of them, so your efforts will be greatly appreciated.

I suggest starting by adding a conformance test to the Wine project. That's great because it gives you exposure to programming both in Linux and in Windows. Also, it's something that can be done without a huge investment of time; roughly 40 work hours should be enough for you to come up to speed, write a simple test, post it, address the feedback from the Wine developers, and repeat the last two steps until your code is accepted.

One nice benefit of getting code into an Open Source project is that when prospective employers Google you, they'll see your code, and they'll see that it is in use by thousands of people, which is always good for your reputation.

Quick Reality Check

If you want a quick reality check as to whether you can Get Things Done, I recommend the practice rooms at topcoder.com. If you can complete one of their tasks in C++ or Java within an hour, and your solution actually passes all the system tests, you can definitely program your way out of paper bag!

Good luck!

Please let me know whether this essay was helpful. You can email me at dank at kegel.com.

Shameless Plug

I'm looking for a few good interns. If you live in Los Angeles, and you are looking for a C/C++ internship, please have a look at my internship page.

Links

• Similar pages
  • The Virtual Internship: Take Control of Your Future by Becoming an Open Source Developer
• On getting a job
  • Vince's So you want to make games?
  • Cliff Bleszinski's How To Get A Job In The Gaming Biz
• On education
  • The Perils of Java Schools by Joel Spolsky, joelonsoftware.com
  • My earlier essay The Undergrad CS Program, Linux, and Open Source
  • Craig VanLengen's CIS Curriculum Development Post-Dot-Com
• On the art of interviewing (from the employer's point of view)
  • The Guerrilla Guide to Interviewing by Joel Spolsky, joelonsoftware.com
  • Tom Van Vleck's Interviewing and Hiring (at multicians.org)
  • Bill Venners' How to Interview a Programmer
• On adding to Wine's conformance test suite
  • winehq.org's doc
  • my own detailed howto

(C) Dan Kegel