Staying Focused On Your Job Search

We all know people who consider themselves multi tasked.  People who flit about seemingly never to stay in one place but rush to get as much done as possible.  But how much do these multitasking individuals actually get done?  It may interest you to know that often you misjudge how well you do when performing multiple tasks.   Keeping this in mind, when we job search, we tend to do many tasks at once.  Every time we interrupt our focused thoughts it sometimes can take a little bit of time to get back on track.  It happens in everyday living and it also has an effect on your job search.

Manage your time wisely.  Have a set time each day dedicated to job searching but also set aside time to lay low.  This means have time and space set aside where you know there will be no interruptions.  Turn off your phone, television or radio, and get away from the computer to get rid of distractions.  This allows you to focus on what you need to get done during that time period.  Understand that while emails are great instant communication they do not need to be answered as soon as you receive them.  Try checking emails only two or three times a day.

Make a plan of action for the day and adhere to that plan.  This will sometimes require that you make a list of what needs to be accomplished for that particular day.  Priority should focus on the most urgent items to be done first thing and without distraction.  Most work gets done during extremely focused times.  By listing what needs to be done you are consciously raising awareness by allotting times to certain tasks you need done that day.  This allows you to remain focused on that task before switching over to a new one.

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Why Updating Your Resume Is Important

Changes can happen very quickly and you may not be prepared for them when they come.  This also applies to jobs.  It is not unheard of for a company to be in business one day and then locking the doors for good the next day.  If you have found yourself in this situation then you know how unprepared you feel when that happens.  That is why it’s always a good idea to keep your resume updated.  You never know when a job opportunity will present itself to you or in what form.  It is always best to be prepared for the worst or even if you feel like you need a change.

There are many reasons why you would need an updated resume.  If you wait too long to update you resume you will likely forget key dates.  You want to remember important dates that would identify a role change, an accomplishment or a promotion.  These are dates a potential employer will want to see.  Another reason for updating your resume would be you are always ready to meet with potential employers, even on short notice.  If you hear about a new job that you really want to apply for and do not have you resume ready, you could lose that job to a more prepared candidate.  A hastily put together resume will look thrown together and you leave yourself wide open to errors on the resume.

A general rule of thumb is to update your resume at least once a year.  But you should update whenever something changes in your work status, duties change, any educational change is made, any work related awards you may have won, and especially if there is a change of personal information.   An out of date resume makes you look like you don not really want the job and that you have poor attention to details.  Carry a resume with you everywhere and you will be prepared.

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Find Jobs That Stand the Test of Time

With our current stagnant economy, many professionals who thought they made a wise career choice are unemployed or making very little money.
Those in the real-estate field have found the jobs few and the commissions light. Real-estate tends to by cyclical anyway, but a stagnant economy has forced many of these professionals to throw in the towel on this field.
If you are a young person just on the verge of deciding what to do for the rest of your life, it’s probably a good idea to give this more thought that you would what movie you’re seeing on Saturday. Making a wise career choice will ensure you never lose your job, and you are always making money even in tough times.
1. The field of medicine is a great choice – People are always going to get sick and need medical attention. Even if it’s not a doctor, many nurses are highly paid and have highly gratifying jobs they enjoy throughout their working career. For those that attend a four-year Nursing school, job security should be solid.
2. Avoid fields like newspapers – Good writers are always in demand, but jobs in newspapers are hard to come by. With other social media leading the way, newspapers may someday be the dinosaur that once brought the news to America.
3. Business degrees will always be solid – Whether it’s an accountant, a tax specialist or just someone that has a business degree, your educational foundation is solid. Business degrees often give young people a great understanding of financial markets and give a broad-based education that allows them to work in numerous jobs.
For young people on the verge of deciding the career of their choice, it might be wise to gain special skills along the way. Good communicators and those well-versed in computer technology will always be in high demand.

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Beef up your Resume for Future Employment Success

Hiring executives look at your resume between two and 25 seconds the first time through. If your resume is messy, hard to read or has one spelling error it’s likely to be put in the pile of death.
Your resume is the key to your employment opportunity, and ultimately the deciding facts on the types of jobs you can get.
Here are some tips and suggestions to clean up your resume and help you get past the 25 second window.
•\tConsider putting bullets on your resume! Bullets create definite breaks in your qualities and are easy to read for potential employers.
•\tDo not go beyond two pages with your resume, but don’t get caught up in making it fit on one page. Employers like to know you have job experience. They don’t like to know that you’ve had 12 jobs in the past four years. Keep it simple!
•\tTell the truth – If you get to the hiring phase of a potential job interview, those little lies and untruths on your pretty little resume are going to haunt you. Saying you speak Spanish when you don’t is an automatic employment denial when it gets down to the interview
•\tHave someone else proof your resume – A fresh set of eyes can find ‘little’ mistakes that can crucify you in the selection process.
•\tList your former jobs in order of importance – The prospective employer wants to see your Title/position, name of employer, city/state of employer, dates of employment.

Including a summary of qualifications helps the employer boil your application down to something short and concise. Including a section that shows what software you have experience with is a great way to show the employer you are computer savvy in this ever-changing job market.
If you’ve had trouble getting past the ‘Gatekeeper’, it’s time to improve your resume and get access to the jobs that matter.

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Gaps in You’re Employment History Look bad to Hiring Executives

MIAMI - NOVEMBER 20: Ivette Tarrago (C), who ...
Image by Getty Images via @daylife

If you’ve gone an entire year without working, hiring executives are going to start asking questions. Your employment history is nearly as important as your credit history when you try to get the jobs or cars in life that you want.
• Be prepared to answer questions – Having your employer ask questions doesn’t have to be a bad thing if you’ve been busy and active. If you’ve been sitting around doing nothing for 12 months, a prospective employer will be wary to invest time and money into their and your future.
If youâ’ve had a gap in your employment history be honest in your explanation of what happened. If you were financially secure enough to take time off, an employer will respect that. If your aging parents needed help, your employer will respect that. If you lived on the couch for 12 months and lived on unemployment benefits, your employer will be suspicious of your work ethic.
If you’re going through one of those employment gaps, find ways to improve yourself and your position to employers.
• Working at a temporary agency can be a great way to earn some extra cash and keep yourself from having an unhealthy gap in your employment history.
• Improve your skills through education – Going back to school or taking some classes can be a great way to show employers you weren’t just sitting around. Additional schooling shows the employer that you have initiative and that you are looking to improve yourself.
• Volunteer work – At the very least doing some volunteer work at a hospital or homeless shelter shows commitment to others, and the ability to stay busy during a down time during your career.
Long gaps in employment history never look good, but an explanation that is truthful will go a long way towards establishing a rapport with the hiring exec.

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Idle Time Is Going To Look Very Bad On Your Resume. Stay Busy Until You Get A Job

You have just completed his studies and find that the job market is completely depressed. Does this mean that you should go back home and sit idle until the conditions improve? Well, you will find it very difficult to get a job even when conditions improve. This is because the gap between your education and your first job will sit jarringly on your resume.

You should find ways to keep yourself occupied. You cannot just tell the potential employer that you sat idle at home because you did not get a job. That would be tantamount to accepting that you are a failure and that you cannot change things. Rather, you will portray yourself as a person who waits for things to happen rather than making them happen.

You have the option of pursuing higher studies. It doesn’t matter which degree you offer. You should have the capacity to inform your potential employer that you decided to opt for higher studies rather than just joining the employment market. Or, you should find innovative ways to keep yourself occupied. You can approach potential employers and offered to work for them for free.

Why would you want to work for free? Well, this will help you gain valuable experience that you may not enjoy if you insist on a salary. Secondly, this review the freedom to check out alternative sources of earning money. From offering your technical expertise is a freelance on the internet to writing blogs on topics that you like-there are many ways to any despite being unemployed.

By adopting such an approach, you will have the experience of working in an organization on resume despite the recession. Even if you admit that you opted to work without money, you would still get a lot of praise because it shows an innovative and dynamic attitude. You can always move to better jobs after the recession ends and conditions improve.

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Looking for Better Jobs While You’re Employed

Most of us don’t have the luxury of having the perfect job. Some of us are lucky to have a job that we enjoy, and others are stuck in jobs that simply pay the bills.
Whatever your current job situations is, keeping an eye on current job openings and applying for them on occasion could be a great way to an improvement in jobs and an improvement in quality of life.
Some hints to keep you up to date and ready to pounce on the perfect job opportunity.
1. Keep an updated resume and cover-letter available – Nothing is worse than finding the perfect job and not being ready to apply for it. Make sure you have a current resume or multiple copies of a resume with different skill sets for different jobs. Several sample cover-letters saved on your hard-drive is a great way to be ready when the perfect jobs come calling.
2. Do not look for work while you are on site at your current job location – Nothing could be worse for your current employment situation than your supervisor finding your resume on the copy machine or searching your computer history and finding you’ve been spending half the day looking for a new job. Do this type of work at home.
3. Look through job-posting on social networks on a regular basis – Looking online at monster.com or Craigslist every week can be a solid way to keep track of job openings in your area. Both sites update jobs daily and a quick response is usually requested by employers. If you apply for two jobs per week, your information will reach the eyes and ears of over 100 employment specialists in a given year.
With a challenging job market, it’s never a good idea to quit a current jog before you have secured long-term employment with another organization.

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Use The Web And Distance Education To Get Better Jobs Despite Recession

CHENGDU, CHINA - JANUARY 12: Job seekers line...
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How can the internet help you improve job prospects? Searching for jobs on the internet is the most obvious option. However, you must the keep in mind that hundreds and thousands of unemployed individuals are doing the same thing even as we speak. Hence, you should not just focus on finding better opportunities but should also focus on improving your skill set to exploit these opportunities better.

How can the internet help you in this task? Well, distance education is a fantastic way to improve your job prospects. Why did your employer ask you to leave? The ostensible reason may be the recession. However, you must admit that the employer did not ask each and every employee to leave.

In the list of priorities, you were ranked pretty low and that is the reason why you were deemed expendable. If you convince your employer that you possess so many skills that are firing you would be a mistake, it is obvious that you would still be at work.

You should analyze those who were retained and find out what they offered that you could not. Chances are high that you will find a professional education and training behind their high demand.

If you have a Masters in business administration, it may not only help you retain your job but also help you search for better prospects even during a recession. Of course, simply having a degree against a name is not going to work unless you offer real benefits.

You can use the internet for distance education. You can study at home after you come back from work. You can phase your education is such a manner that your practical experience is used to the fullest. What is more, you can operate from the perils of your house and conceal the fact that you are silently boosting up your professional qualification. This will help you avoid unnecessary competition within the organization.

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Find Jobs That Stand the Test of Time

With our current stagnant economy, many professionals who thought they made a wise career choice are unemployed or making very little money.
Those in the real-estate field have found the jobs few and the commissions light. Real-estate tends to by cyclical anyway, but a stagnant economy has forced many of these professionals to throw in the towel on this field.
If you are a young person just on the verge of deciding what to do for the rest of your life, it’s probably a good idea to give this more thought that you would what movie you’re seeing on Saturday. Making a wise career choice will ensure you never lose your job, and you are always making money even in tough times.
1. The field of medicine is a great choice – People are always going to get sick and need medical attention. Even if it’s not a doctor, many nurses are highly paid and have highly gratifying jobs they enjoy throughout their working career. For those that attend a four-year Nursing school, job security should be solid.
2. Avoid fields like newspapers – Good writers are always in demand, but jobs in newspapers are hard to come by. With other social media leading the way, newspapers may someday be the dinosaur that once brought the news to America.
3. Business degrees will always be solid – Whether it’s an accountant, a tax specialist or just someone that has a business degree, your educational foundation is solid. Business degrees often give young people a great understanding of financial markets and give a broad-based education that allows them to work in numerous jobs.
For young people on the verge of deciding the career of their choice, it might be wise to gain special skills along the way. Good communicators and those well-versed in computer technology will always be in high demand.

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Employment Fields That Stand the Test of Time

In these challenging economic times, finding a job that will be in high-demand twenty or thirty years from now can be a high-stakes gamble.
Choose the wrong career, and you’ve spent 10 years in jobs that have no merit. Choose the right career, and even in the toughest of times, you will find yourself in high demand.
In recent years, construction, retail, transportation and real-estate fields have all suffered. Many of these fields are cyclical and in the near future, all are likely to take off and become relevant again.
1. Healthcare professionals will always be in demand. Getting a degree in nursing or becoming a doctor almost guarantees employment for the next 30 years.
2. There is always going to be a high demand for education specialists. Typically an elementary or high-school teacher only needs to go to college for four years. Complete your degree, start teaching and your employment future looks bright.
3. Computer technology – No career is absolutely safe, but computers aren’t going away any time soon. Having specialized skills in the field of computers will ensure a solid employment history. Even if you’re not programming, many people make a fine living repairing computers for business and individuals.
When choosing a career or a field to study keep the following in mind.
• Consider a job that will always be in high demand.
• Acquire special skills during your educational career.
• Consider jobs that provide necessary goods and services
• Find jobs that are offered by stable and reputable companies.
For those that do go to college, take your education seriously. Not all jobs require a great Grade Point Average, but most do. Hiring executives like to see a well-rounded individual at their company. During your education, get involved in community projects, acquire additional skills and become an asset that an employment specialist can’t turn down.

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