Top Posts for April 2007

Top Posts for April 2007 2 These were the most-read articles posted on JobMob over the month of April 2007 according to FeedBurner’s Site Statistics: 514 Reads â€" Top 10 Funniest Job Horror Stories Passover is the celebration of the Israelites' deliverance from the hands of their ancient Egyptian taskmasters. Although Jacob Richman's 2007 Salary Survey Results showed that 92% of Israeli hitech workers are satisfied with their jobs, many people elsewhere feel that they too could use an exodus of their own and if not that, perhaps a plague or ten for their bosses and cohorts. In the spirit of the holiday, here are the Top 10 Funniest Job Horror Stories. 160 Reads â€" Web2.0 Job Search: Evolution or Revolution? Lacking an official definition, the Web2.0 label means different things to different people regardless of whether they have Israeli startups in mind. At its simplest, we can say that Web2.0 refers to the state of the Internet today as opposed to during the late '90s Internet Bubble. With that in mind, what has changed when it comes to job hunting?eval 124 Reads â€" 40 Tips for Job Seekers Over 40 It used to be that students worried about finding jobs because they had no professional experience. Then the Internet Bubble happened, and youth became attractive because we would stay up all night and work weekends while other employees went home to their families. Companies often emphasize hard work over experience this way, when instead they should put smart work ahead of hard work. Ever felt that kind of disdain? Then this list is for you. 67 Reads â€" Is JobMob the Best New Blog? You Decideeval The first round voting of the 2007 JIB Awards has opened and will continue until Sunday, April 29th. 58 Reads â€" Death of the Employee Stock Option? A practice made popular by Microsoft and Amazon, many companies use ESOPs (Employee Stock Option Plans) to lure new talent. However as the first major vesting date appears on the horizon for the members of its ESOP, Google is anxious about a brain drain of the newly-rich. Together with backdating scandals that have hit companies like Apple and Monster, could this be the end of the employee stock option?

Resume Writing Services: The Hottest Tips

Resume Writing Services: The Hottest TipsResume writing services can help you to be more marketable to the prospective employer. Although it may seem like you have a lot of work to do in terms of preparing a great and effective resume, the truth is that most people don't realize how important it is to make their resume stand out. They get bogged down in researching and gathering information in order to create a compelling resume that speaks to the prospective employer, but they often overlook the simple fact that they need to build their resume using a strategy.Using resume writing services is a great way to begin building your resume from the ground up. These services can provide you with clear direction, together with the latest ideas, while helping you to create an effective resume for your job search. Here are a few examples of resume writing services:Pros: Non-compete agreements may be difficult to dismiss as something minor, so there is definitely a need to highlight them. A pr ofessional resume writer can help you through this process so that you don't have to worry about learning about non-compete agreements. Once you have a list of non-compete agreements on your resume, a prospective employer will be able to see that you have worked in a certain field and be able to discard the agreement if they wish to hire you. This is a great thing to do, and the resume writer can show you how to handle the contract issue.Cons: Some resumes won't be able to be submitted online because of some restrictions or some sort of legal issues. A professional resume writer can find the right wording that will show your resume meets the requirements, without any errors or mistakes. They can help you understand what you need to do to meet the requirements and then send you the letters of approval that are required for submission.Pros: Writing services are able to offer the best quotes possible. These businesses are able to provide quotes based on the job market, and can find the best deal when it comes to cost and quality. This is often the biggest factor in choosing a service that has been recommended by friends or family.Cons: Most professional resume writing services are able to provide you with clients that have completed your job, but you may want to have them reach out to a few of the clients you have listed in your resume. You may want to make sure the potential employer has the chance to read your resume and review it before they make a decision. These companies have a better understanding of what prospective employers need, so they will have a better idea of how to present your resume so that it is able to stand out above all others.Pros: Once you have completed your resume, it is often worth your time to spend a little extra time with the content and the layout to ensure it is exceptional. The resume writing services that you choose will go through your document and make sure that it is accurate and doesn't leave anything out. These firms will al so make sure that you have all of the proper formatting in place in order to make sure that your resume looks its best.With these tips, you should be able to write a well-written resume. These are just a few of the main resume writing services that you may need. There are many more. Just make sure that you pick a service that you feel comfortable with, and that you are aware of all of the requirements before you sign any contracts.

What Makes a Good Recruitment Trainer

What Makes a Good Recruitment Trainer Ive been a recruiter for fourteen years and entered the industry fairly fresh from graduation; first taking on a temp desk, then contingent perm recruitment and team leadership and for the last six years headhunting on a retained basis. During this time Ive experienced a great deal of good and bad recruitment training provided by both in-house and external providers and this has led me to form the following opinion  on what three key ingredients make a great recruitment trainer. They are: Personality Expert Knowledge Credibility Im going to illustrate my points with stories on three particular trainers that have lodged in my memory for good and bad reasons (and for obvious reasons Im keeping the individuals anonymous). Trainer No. 1 This guy had personality! This training session happened when I was quite new to the industry and running a team of temp and perm consultants. When the trainer turned up, to be honest, we were all a bit sceptical because of first impressions. For a start he was old; not just the old that 20 somethings use to describe 30-40 somethings (I know Im now in that category) but actually granddad old. And second he was dressed in a cardigan, comfortable trousers and soft shoes. We were all thinking what was this guy going to be able to teach us shiny young recruitment tyros in our suits, tan shoes, big ties  and stylish hair? Well let me tell you when he started talking we started listening because of his personality. He began his piece with some biographical detail he was American, hed fought in the Vietnam War and on his return to civilian life he struggled to find a job to support his family until he fell into a sales job that was 100% commission based if he didnt sell, he didnt eat. Quite an opening statement and he had us hooked both with his style of delivery, which was full of gravitas and sincerity, and his content, which was unique and engaging what soft young office worker  is not going to hang on to every word of a Vietnam vet who became a major success at selling health insurance door-to-door!? Once we were hooked he could basically take us by the nose and walk us through his key message (the  one our boss wanted us to nail)   contingent/temp recruitment is all about high sales activity and handling rejection. Crank the handle on sales calls, meetings, jobs in, CVs out and revenue will follow. Now Im not sure if the story he fed us about his life was true or if he had indeed become one of Americas greatest ever insurance salesmen but we didnt care because wed suspended our disbelief. We left that room energised, invigorated and focused on applying what hed taught us so we could emulate his success. He did this because he had the X factor personality that got us to buy into his narrative. Trainer No. 2 This guy had expert knowledge! A little later in my career I considered myself to be a pretty well-rounded recruiter. Id done most things required of me by bosses, clients and candidates and not only survived but thrived. At this stage I felt I had little need for any training because I knew it all. How wrong I was. Enter, stage left, a recruitment trainer who had proven himself first as recruiter with a major international recruitment group, then had headed their in-house  training at an eye-wateringly young age and had then moved on to establish a training business that could count a number of high performing recruitment companies as clientele. Funnily enough it was me that had arranged for him to come and deliver a programme as Id felt some of the less experienced in the team could use some support but in the end it was me that ended up getting so much out of the process. Heres why he knew his stuff about the industry and used his time with the group to show us how much we all knew already,  how much we had forgotten, how much we were no longer doing because wed got lazy taking shortcuts  and how much more we had to learn. Now lets be honest No recruitment trainer is ever going to give you some magic secret to success that is somehow known only by the very best in the industry but can be available to you by payment via credit card or monthly direct debit. I have a rule of thumb that any sales pitch or promotional material that contains the word Secret and Success I shun as if it has the plague. But this chap had the right industry knowledge to able to hold up a mirror to  a room of fairly experienced recruiters and  show us what steps we could take to push up our already good success rates to an even higher level. I pity the trainer trying to deliver such a session if they really havent been there,  done that and come away with the gold lamé T-shirt. which leads us nicely on to our next trainer. Trainer No. 3 This guy lacked credibility! Our industry, unfortunately, is not known for being populated by caring and accommodating types. Typically the industry is full of driven, ambitious and hard-working individuals putting themselves and others under pressure to perform. In the main we dont have time to waste and if we sense a training session is going to be a chore and not a pleasure we will soon turn-off and tune-out (and if we  can drop-out without being noticed). Add to this the fact that our jobs actually involve passing judgement on the merit and credibility of peoples career narrative and you can see how tough an audience we can be. My third example trainer was, Im afraid to say, a victim of not appearing to have the credibility to lead a training session and failed because of this. First of all the introductory professional biography was underwhelming. Secondly the material was old-hat (i.e. pretty average cod-NLP motivational waffle). Thirdly the delivery was shaky as slides didnt match music (yes thats right there was music sigh),  diagrams and graphics were nonsensical, pages in the workbook were skipped and we endured numerous monologues of a personal nature that were homely, over familiar and not particularly inspiring. Readers, it was painful. Bottom line: The reason Im highlighting all this is because the most effective recruitment trainers are able to combine what the first two examples had, personality and expert knowledge, to achieve a level of credibility that the third sorely lacked. So if youre booking a recruitment trainer perhaps take on  board what Ive learnt through experience seek out the trainer who can inspire a room (sit in for 30 mins on one of their sessions), who has the expert knowledge to be able to really talk to your recruiting team about life at the coal face (check their career history and background) and find the one who will have no problem with immediately establishing and maintaining  their credibility with an often critical, fickle  and unforgiving audience. Who was your best recruitment trainer and why? RELATED:  The Most Overused Recruiter Clichés Ever.

How to Make the Most Out of an Autoresponder - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

How to Make the Most Out of an Autoresponder - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career A professional website is just the first step to building more leads for your personal brand. In order to be effective you need to have a system in place that allows you to nurture your prospects. A personalized auto response email that is tailored to their needs can help your brand to connect on a deeper level with your subscribers. After capturing names and email addresses you will want to create an effective email campaign that ensures these new subscribers are not lost after the first visit to your website. Here are several ways your personal brand can generate more interest in what you have to offer: Provide something of value Move past a generic response and offer something your subscribers can use such as a free report, video, a trial product or tips. After careful target market research your brand can better determine exactly what your community is looking for. Maintain communication Once you have captured subscribers it’s important to generate email campaigns such as special announcements, new product releases, special offers, and more. As you build trust with your community and provide information that they need you can increase your conversion rates.. Remove the clutter Avoid writing too much information with a lot of text this is especially important for mobile readers. Create a brand design that is appealing and simple, and includes an effective message broken up into paragraphs and bullet points. Measure your progress With the use of an email service you should be monitoring the click thru rates and opens in order to determine how successful your campaigns are. Tweaks can be as simple as changing your headlines or shortening the message with a direct special offer or freebie that will increase your response rates. Include the personal side of your brand Your community wants to know more about your company. In order for them to identify with you sharing personal events, holiday messages, and testimonials can help humanize your brand. Just a few of these a year can go a long way in building relationships with your subscribers. An autoresponder can help your personal brand maintain your current subscribers as well as grow your network. Test out a variety of campaigns with great offers for your leads and customers, and see how your conversions can increase.

Generic Resume Writing

Generic Resume WritingGeneric resume writing services will write your generic resume and letter as if it were you. They have a good understanding of the common descriptors and traits that employers are looking for when hiring. Some companies' resumes even come prepared by a generic writing service and are emailed to potential clients.When it comes to writing a generic resume, you should take a lot of things into consideration. First, you need to decide what kind of career you want to get into. This could be any kind of job - the right position that will satisfy you and gives you satisfaction. There are many opportunities in the marketplace, and many of them don't pay very well.In the job market today, there are many people who think they can come in, get hired, and immediately find themselves a second job. A job in today's economy is a rare thing. You must look at the trends to know where your career is headed. If you want to gain an edge over your competition, writing a resume or le tter is your best weapon.A resume is a very important document. There are plenty of things that may seem insignificant when it comes to writing a resume, but when all is said and done, it has a huge impact on how people see you. A generic resume is really just a bunch of information that might look similar, but when looked at as one big entity, it's a different story. The words need to be specific enough to be understood by the reader.A generic resume will be formatted and worded so that it is easy to read. It will be grammatically correct. It will not be overly long or contain any extraneous words. You will be able to spot the differences between your resume and that of your competition.One of the ways to get the job you want with a generic resume is to be as generic as possible. In order to be seen as an expert in your field, you need to convince people that you're an expert. You need to present yourself as someone who is well versed in what you're applying for. You need to persua de people that you've done this before, and that you know the tricks of the trade.A generic resume is just that - a generic resume. Don't think that it's going to be a sophisticated piece of writing that is going to blow people away. Your friends and family members don't get job offers like you do. You are your own boss. You are in charge of your future.Writing a generic resume takes time and is not something that can be done overnight. It takes a lot of research and analysis. But if you are committed to the job you're applying for, it can be done. It is a big decision and an important one, but after the research is completed, your job as a writer is done.

Starting Your Own Business Do You Have What It Takes

Starting Your Own Business Do You Have What It Takes Starting Your Own Business: Do You Have What It Takes? Starting your own business is both harder and easier than you think. With recent news reports indicating that joblessness and unemployment have returned to the top of most American’s concerns, and many experts saying that some jobs will simply never return, the prospect of never again finding employment in a specific career field has become a very real specter to many job seekers. So let’s throw in the wildcard: If you can’t find a job working for someone else, what’s stopping you from starting your own business and working for yourself? There are a billion things to consider. Personally, I went through this process myself before starting my own company. And yes, it is pretty darned scary because quite frankly, there are absolutely no guarantees that you’ll succeed. But what I can tell you is that starting your own business is both the hardest thing anyone can do, but also one of the most rewarding things at the same time. First, you need to decide what it is that you want to do. Tip #1: If you can provide a type of service, you cut yourself out of having to raise a whole lot of start-up capital to buy supplies and inventory. Then you need to decide where you want to do it. Tip #2: If you don’t need to have overhead, then don’t. Working from a home-based office eliminates the monthly expense of leased office space, and provides you with a percentage tax write-off for the area used for conducting business. But the type of business may indeed require having office space so you don’t have clients / customers coming to your house. Understand your work environment needs when making this decision. Now do it. Tip #3: Most businesses fail because either the owner loses momentum or doesn’t know what they are doing when it comes to running a business. Example: I used to work with a high school program that trained students to be chefs. Many started off with starry-eyed dreams of running their restaurant offering exotic and tasty menu offerings, but rolled their eyes when the business units came along and they were forced to try and understand the day-to-day operations of running a business. Nugget here: Pursue your dreams, but realize that the fun part only happens when you do the mind-numbing drudgery that constitutes the business operation side first to have the infrastructure to succeed. Stick with it. Tip #4: You will be tougher on yourself if you want to succeed than any other previous supervisor. My friends know I joke that I am the worst boss I’ve ever had. But it is true. I push myself relentlessly in running my business, and my husband can attest that I probably on the computer way too much. But when the actual client-facing part of a business is done, then there’s the administrative stuff to catch up on… which is absolutely necessary. And that means a lot of hours. A mantra that I use in my own business is this: “Working harder now will pave the way to making life easier later.” And I cannot tell you how true that has proven to be! Make yourself squeaky-clean financially. Tip #5: I never want to look over my shoulder worrying about any type of financial controls. So I immediately set up a bookkeeping service and established a business account for my company at the bank to keep personal and work finances completely separate. I am rigid about paying all bills on time, paying the full amount of quarterly taxes when due, and accounting for EVERYTHING. I also joke that if I sneeze, I get a receipt for it. Having peace of mind of a solid financial system that has complete, 100% integrity is worth its weight in gold. It also means that I know exactly where I am financially with the company, and empowers me to make timely and well-informed decisions. Dont grow to fast focus on what you do, do it well, then grow! Tip #6: I read business publications, and a common mistake that I see frequently is that businesses start getting very busy, then they launch their Lets expand and take over the world! initiative only to over-do it and then collapse. Your best bet is to not fall prey to the lure of a lot of money really fast, and focus on incremental growth. Thats what will get you across the finish line in the long run. Do it. Do it well. Then move into measured growth. Over the years, I’ve been approached by several people interested in starting their own companies, and I finally realized that having a checklist would have definitely helped me from the start. As it was, it was having a good gut instinct and a comprehensive previous career background that helped me understand the finer points of running a business. As a result, I developed that basic checklist, and would be happy to share it with you if you are considering starting your own business venture. If you would like to receive the “Starting Your Own Business Checklist,” drop me a note at [emailprotected]  and I’ll email it to you. And good luck!

Mistakes You Make Early In Life that Can Follow You Around

Mistakes You Make Early In Life that Can Follow You Around We have all been there. Late teens and early twenties when we think that we were invincible and now have to deal with the consequences for life. Whether you are a person who is at this stage in life or have teens you would like to protect from the impact of their bad decisions, you will need to be aware of some of the most dangerous things people do when they are not aware of the risks. Find a few below explained. Legal Issues Getting arrested early in life can have a huge impact on your future career and your earning potential. While juvenile records usually get deleted after a period of time, there are a few professions you will not be able to work in if you have a conviction. If you have teens, make sure that you get them to listen to other people’s records who have been there and who are now facing difficulties getting on with their lives. Driving Convictions Another thing you have to take care of is driving convictions. If you have a teenager, consider getting a young drivers insurance black box service so you can prove that they were responsible. Unfortunately, many drivers try to put the blame on the young and inexperienced driver, and without a black box you will have no chance of proving your point in front of the court, and you can end up with a driving ban or increased  insurance payments. Running Up Credit Young people don’t think about finances the same way those who have experienced hardship do. If you can stay away from credit and make sure that you are not allowing your finances spiral out of control, you will have a better chance of getting on a property ladder and getting the  financial stability later in life. Be prepared for emergencies and have a backup account in case you have to deal with money emergencies. Dropping Out of Education An increasing number of people enrolling in higher education courses drop out before getting a degree. They will waste time and money, and end up in a low paid job. It is important that you make the right decisions about your education. In your 20s you should focus on choosing and building your career. Getting transferred to a new course or finishing your studies online if you have to work is still better than being a college dropout. Getting the Wrong Job Before you get your first job, it is important that you figure out what your personal mission and vision is, so you can choose a career that is rewarding and a job you can enjoy. Whether you are thinking about long term or want to progress your career from your current position, consider internships and work experience to boost your prospects and land in a career you like. Decisions you make in your teens and your early 20s can have a huge impact on the rest of your life. Learn to make better decisions and improve your outlook in life.