Saturday, March 3, 2012

Help at the library

For a while I didn't have a PC available or even mobile web on a phone. This made it extremely difficult for me to apply for a job. It also made it very difficult to receive calls from employers when they wanted to call me for an interview. This is where the library came in to be very useful for my job search. Most (but not all) libraries have PC's set up with internet access so that you can apply to jobs. You can also get an email address though I think most people have one and you can check your email. They also have free classes at many libraries in Office, internet usage and many others. Also, if you need to de-stress a bit many also have yoga classes. Of course, there also are many books available on writing cover letters, resumes and many other aspects of the job hunt. This can help you a lot so that you can be successful in finding that new position.

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Friday, March 2, 2012

Relocation

There have been many studies over the last few years that demonstrate job seekers would be willing to relocate. I understand this, even looked into doing it myself the last few years. After conducting in depth research I came to some conclusions about doing this. If you're single it's easier than if you have a family as I've done it many times in the past. Those times I did it I was single every time so I was able to do it fairly cheaply. More than once I traveled far and wide until I managed to find a place that would hire me. This kind of a thing could still work pretty easily.
When you have a family it becomes much more difficult I think. You don't just have yourself to think about, you have multiple people to think about. This puts it in a different light. Regardless of having a family or not I recommend the unemployment stats for many different cities. Concentrate your efforts on the cities with the lowest unemployment. This will give you the greatest chance of standing out in the proverbial resume/application stack. You also need to do a bit of research on how much it will cost you to get started. While there still are some very nice people who will let you live on their sofa for short time there are less than there used to be.

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Thursday, March 1, 2012

Free on promo

I'm proud to announce that I've been able to offer free today and tomorrow in the Kindle store my newest book,"21 days to improve your job search". If you're hunting for a job, I really do want you to succeed. After the 2nd this book will be priced at $2.99 so don't wait on getting your free copy.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007D44QEW

Description: If you have decided to learn roofing don't you learn from someone that knows how to do roofing? That is the concept Brian has used for job hunting. It does make this book completely different than most, he has been there. Real world experience in getting jobs at call centers and retail is what this book is all about. You'll be able to take some of that experience and use it in ways that will decrease the time necessary for your next job.

If you do find the book to be useful I would appreciate your leaving a review on Amazon.


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Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Election promises

This is one of those nice Presidential election years that we have here in the US. You will hear many campaign promises from the candidates regarding employment. You may even hear from them that they feel your pain as I've heard from a few in the past. It's nice that they would make those kinds of statements but I'll state here that they can't actually do much about unemployment. I know you probably don't want to hear that but it's a fact, they can't do much about it. There are no large government programs to reduce unemployment like was in the 1930's. So, listen to them carefully to help that you make your choices in November. Get informed on the issues, politicians helped to make unemployment what it is today. Various laws and decisions over the last 20-30 has brought us to where we are today.

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Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Search engines

There are many out of which I have a favorite one, Indeed.com. Indeed pulls in help wanted listings from multiple sites include HireDiversity, Monster, CareerBuilder and many others. There are times I remember seeing postings from 20+ sites. There are even trending tools so that it is easier to tell who is hiring which can save a lot of aggravation. While Indeed is a great place to find openings there is one thing I will note. The openings won't be posted on Indeed first from personal experience. In some cases it will be 1-2 days after the openings posted on the original site. This unfortunately can cost you and reduce your success rate in finding a new position. What I will recommend is that you check the original site for the posting date of that opening. Still, that being said it will save you a lot of time using Indeed as a primary search engine to find openings. Happy hunting.

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Monday, February 27, 2012

A little quiet time

One of the helped me immensely when writing a resume was clearing my mind. Meditation is what I use to accomplish this clearing of the mind. You simply sit, close your eyes and let your mind clear. It's best if you totally empty your mind so that everything disappears. Focus on your breathing alone and nothing else. While I know it will be difficult at first it will be much easier later on the more that you do it. When you come out of your quick meditation everything will become clearer and solutions will come. In particular specific sentences in your resume will come together the right way.

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Sunday, February 26, 2012

Online interviewing

One thing that might become an integral part of the employment process is online interviewing. I've begun seeing some things about needing a web cam as part of your computer set up. If you're using a tablet computer it probably is already set up and is ready to use. A home computer, this probably won't be the case and you would then have to purchase one. On setting it up so that you can be ready it really depends on the position applied for. I would think that sales positions and some IT positions it might be a good idea.
I've personally been in a couple of chat room based interviews which I'll admit were rather confusing. It adds a level of difficulty when in one of these chat room interviews where 50 are involved in the interview. There was a big move to centralizing hiring processes at a lot of companies. The person that hired you might very well be in another state and was in a couple employers I worked for. With the recent increase in hiring that's beginning to change so I don't know if it will be the wave of the future. It just best to be prepared for any possible type of interview that could happen.

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