Q101 The Alternative
Q101 (formerly on Chicago radio @ 101.1 FM) The Alternative - Chicago's New Rock Alternative - Everything Alternative - Chicago's Alternative - Gen X - Generation X
They are watching you. Always watching. Every little thing you do. Every “i” you do not dot. Every “t” you do not cross. All the escapades, drinking, partying, gambling, and debauchery you post on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. And they DO pay attention to your grammar.
Who, you ask? The grammar police? Nope, job recruiters. If you are looking for a job, it’s best to clean up your act and demonstrate some self control.
A whopping 92% of U.S. companies say they are using social networks to find talent in 2012, according to a new survey.
In addition to checking your resume, nearly 3 out of 4 hiring managers and recruiters check candidates’ social profiles — 48% always do so, even if they are not provided.
LinkedIn still reigns supreme as the recruiting hot spot, but some serious recruiting also takes place on Facebook and Twitter, according to the poll by social recruiting platform Jobvite, which polled more than 1,000 human resources and recruitment professionals.
Sure, they say they aren’t judging you on your politics or religion — they really shouldn’t be by law anyway – but you better believe they’re raising eyebrows at how you express yourself. Posted profanity got a 61% negative reaction, plus grammar and spelling mistakes got a 54% negative reaction.
READ MORE
http://www.chicagotribune.com/classified/jobs/la-fi-social-recruiting-jobs-20120709,0,666978.story
You CAN turn your life around and make an honest living. Maybe going to prison to have time to figure it out is what it takes, and that’s exactly what Jeff Henderson did. Henderson became the first African-American chef at the Bellagio casino in Las Vegas before branding himself as “Chef Jeff” and starting The Henderson Group Inc., a catering, publishing, multimedia and consulting firm.
Jeff Henderson wasn’t just a crack cocaine dealer, he was the best crack cocaine dealer of his era. In 1980s San Diego, Henderson was known for his Mercedes convertible, his Rolex and his straight-from-Rodeo-Drive fashion, as well as for having the best product, the best connections and a money-back guarantee. He was making up to $35,000 a week.
“The same traits that a successful drug dealer has are the same traits any legitimate entrepreneur has,” Henderson said. “You have a product, you have a marketing plan, you have a vision, you build relationships. You outsmart, out-strategize the competition.”
In prison, it took Jeff a few years of positive people, yes, positive people in prison, getting in his ear until one day he just accepted responsibility and gave up the victim card. And then he started changing. One inmate told him, ”Jeff you’re a smart guy.” No one ever told him he was smart. The inmate said, “When you were on the street, you had all the traits of success and all the principles of a legitimate businessman. You just had a bad product.”
Henderson said, “Drug dealing is not a part of my life I’m proud of. But I use my story to convince at-risk people that they have the gift, traits, ability to create their own business. I tell kids I’m still a homeboy, I’m still a hustler — I just changed the products and the terminology.”
There IS hope for you to get on the straight and narrow. Clean up your act, follow Henderson’s example, and avoid prison. The food there isn’t all that great now that Jeff Henderson is out.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/06/jeff-henderson-what-drug-dealing-taught-me-about-business_n_1601526.html?ir=Small+Business
It’s been a while since the last paycheck, and the finances are not looking good. Right now, you’re more concerned about making ends meet than finding the perfect job, but does taking that good-for-now job hurt your career in the long run?
“If you take a temporary job after a year [of being unemployed], you can talk about it in subsequent job interviews and that says you’re not someone who just sits around, you’re someone who goes out and makes opportunities for yourself,” says Alisa Cohn, an executive and career coach.
“If you have some income coming in, you feel less desperate,” Cohn says. “If you know that your bills will get paid, you can be more comfortable and confident when you’re applying for a job that really matters.”
Cohn advises taking a part-time position in sales: telephone sales, retail or inside sales, even if you’ve never been attracted to sales before.
“You learn so much in the process of learning how to sell. You’ll learn about communication skills and people skills, which are immediately transferable to another job,” Cohn says. “You can even discover something you’re good at.”
Follow the Cub Scout motto: Always Do Your Best. No matter what job you are doing, even one you don’t like or find difficult, having a positive attitude can make it better, even empowering.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/classified/jobs/chi-strategies-for-taking-the-goodenough-job-offer-20120702,0,5975875.story
Employers get MILLIONS (I swear, I NEVER exaggerate) of resumes each year, so why should they look at yours? What makes YOU more employable than the next guy? Aside from printing your stellar resume on glittering lime green cardstock, author Jennifer Merritt–“The Wall Street Journal Guide to Building Your Career”–offers several career boosters to transform your run-of-the-mill résumé into a job-magnet jackpot.
Many young professionals underestimate the potential payoff of industry and professional associations. Some are convinced they’re outdated and redundant, while others are just afraid of the price tag. However, when used properly, these groups can be helpful in expanding your network, staying on top of industry trends and furthering your education.
You may have participated in some charity events through a high-school sports team or a bake sale your mother threw so you’d have volunteer work on your college résumé, but volunteering can benefit you in more ways than merely making you appear charitable.
Jennifer has many other suggestions for making YOU appear employable. None of them, however, compare to MY suggestion of printing your resume on DayGlo paper. Maybe that’s why Jennifer has a book out and I don’t.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/classified/jobs/chi-career-distinctions-20120621,0,1500577.story
Are you tired of working for “the man”? Do you think you can do better working for yourself? Do you think you need tons of money, a legal team, or even an original idea to start your own business? Yes. YES! and NO!
Chris Guillebeau, the author of “The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future” says not.
A lot of businesses in his book are actually zero-dollar start-ups. The vast majority were less than $1,000, and probably half of them were a $100 or less. Lots of them are online businesses, with the cost being a domain name. It’s the cost of stationery for some people. It’s the cost of a business license.
Brian Moore of the NY Post interviewed Chris Guillebeau. READ IT HERE.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/jobs/seconds_with_chris_guillebeau_pEGpUbwBpdLrvNMT2ekbBP
Does that describe you in a nutshell? Are you afraid if you put that as a qualification on your resume you will scare off employers by exposing the true depths of your talent?
So what gives? It seems that in the fierce competition for top-level programming talent, technology companies hope a fun job description will help give them the edge.
“It’s a way to stand out,” Eric Gaydos, Associate Marketing Manager at The Resumator, told NJ.com. “There is so much demand for the people who are good that this is more of a way to say ‘this is the best place to do that job.’”
Oddly, despite some tech jobs ranking among the best available, many companies say they can’t find the talent. Take IT professionals, or IT Pro Evangelists as they’re called at Microsoft. Those jobs are among those with the greatest talent shortages, according to a recent report by workforce solutions company ManpowerGroup.
Do be careful, however. Don’t over inflate your sense of greatness. If you put on your resume “Sex God”, you better be able to perform accordingly.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/13/creative-job-titles-jedis-ninjas-rock-stars-talent_n_1594539.html?utm_hp_ref=business
Most job seekers perceive landing an interview to be their biggest hurdle in the search process. Once that foot’s in the door, they think it’s all downhill as long as they wow the hiring manager with their charm and skills during the meeting.
Actually, you can murder your chance to get hired by not following a few basic steps after meeting your potential employer.
By all accounts, a thank-you note is expected from any candidate who’s serious about the position, and a well-written one will put you ahead of the pack.
Always promptly email a thank you. If you are working through a recruiter, they will appreciate it. These days, it’s critical that your note arrives promptly, and an email thank-you is quicker and less likely to get lost. An email is also easy for the recruiter or employer to save or circulate to other members of the team. And it’s much more eco-friendly to email if that’s highly valued at the company. If your recruiter or future employer seems like the type who will appreciate an old-fashioned paper thank-you, though, feel free to supplement with that.
Be concise. The purpose of a thank-you note is to actually thank people for their time and interest in you as a candidate, not to pitch yourself again or give a play-by-play of the interview.
Never stalk the employer. If you were told you’d hear something by a certain date and haven’t, wait a week and then contact the employer again via email. If you weren’t given a time frame, follow up with an email a week after the initial interview, Gilfeather says. “Don’t be paranoid if you don’t hear quickly,” she notes. “Remember that hiring may not be their top priority and they also may be out of town for business, or taking time off from work. A delay in response is not always a clear indicator of disinterest.”
http://www.chicagotribune.com/classified/jobs/chi-what-to-do-after-the-interview-20120607,0,1893636.story
Job search hurdle number ONE–Dazzle the computers, which these days are more likely than people to be frontline resume readers.
“Computers have a very specific way that they look at resumes,” said Jon Ciampi, founder of Preptel Corp. in Danville, Calif. For a subscription of $25 a month, Ciampi’s two-year-old company will help a candidate reconfigure a resume so a computer can better spot the qualifications that make that candidate a good match for the job.
With the recession and its lingering aftermath, the number of resumes generated for any job opening is so overwhelming that human resource staffs can’t handle them all. The Labor Department reported that in February there were 3.5 million job openings and 12.8 million people unemployed.
No wonder recruiters turn to software created by companies such as Kenexa Inc. in Wayne, Pa., a leader in the field.
All this talent management may be efficient, but it can be maddening for job seekers, who spend endless hours applying online, only to feel as if they’ve sent their resumes — and their hopes — into a realm impossible to divine.
Most counselors advise that the best way to get a job is networking, making connections through people you know. But there will remain some portion of the hunt that relies on online applications.
Ciampi said job seekers really need to prepare two categories of resumes — one for humans, the other for computers. For example, he said, a resume for humans might use the words “career successes” and “accomplishments,” but a computer scanner would rather see work experience.
Work history presented in a spreadsheet is unreadable for a computer, no matter how clear it is to a human. Computers, Weidner said, like to see company name, followed by title, dates and description of duties. Varying the format may confuse a computer.
Only the top 10% to 20% of resumes, those with the highest number of matches, make it through to a human for further consideration, Weidner said.
And all this assumes that the employers writing the job descriptions are actually capable of crafting postings that clearly reflect the skills and qualities needed for the jobs.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/classified/jobs/la-fi-resumes-20120530,0,1045142.story
Job offers come with many different types of compensation in addition to salary. In fact, some surveys show one benefit considered even more important than a salary offer when they’re considering whether to accept a job: opportunities for continuing education.
Whether you’re pursuing a higher degree or simply taking classes to enhance your skill set, tuition assistance is an important part of a benefits package in an employment environment that requires everyone to stay on top of the rapid changes in their industries. Career expert Julie Davern says that even in the midst of recessionary cutbacks, it’s one of the most important benefits a company can provide.
“I think smart companies have tried to retain tuition reimbursement as a means to help them evolve through the economic downturn and have a highly educated, current workforce,” Davern says. “I think we now have to accept that learning is a part of what we need to continue to do throughout our life, so most employers will have some program or another.”
Although most career experts will advise you not to bring up salary in the first interview, continuing education opportunities are a different story.
“I would see it as a positive on the part of a candidate, and I think it’s fine to ask right from the get-go,” Davern says. It shows you’re invested in your future with the company, and want to stay on top of changes in your industry.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/classified/jobs/chi-tuition-assistancecompensation-package-20120526,0,7244474.story
It’s loud, dangerous, and wonderful. The air smells and even tastes like petroleum lubricant and hot steel. I sneak a touch to the smooth, perfectly stamped hood.
With shiny hard hat and fashionable safety glasses, I stand mere feet from giant presses which make door panels.
If I close my eyes and go to my happy place, I can recall the thrill, excitement, and titillation of being in an automobile manufacturing plant.
Belvidere, IL, is not too far to travel in order to reacquaint myself to this scenario.
The first Dodge Darts to come out of the revitalized Chrysler plant in Belvidere, Illinois were shipped off to dealers this week, setting the stage for what chief executive Sergio Marchionne called the automaker’s “real battle” in the compact market.
The 2013 Dart five-seat sedan, made at the Belvidere assembly plant, has received good reviews from automotive analysts so far and will now be judged by consumers.
“Our future hangs on how well we do here,” Marchionne told reporters Thursday after meeting with the plant’s workers. “I’ve been public on this before. I can probably get one car wrong. Of all the cars I can get wrong, it ain’t this one. This one is too visible, it’s too large, it’s got too much embedded into it to go wrong.”
As for me, I’ll take one in Tungsten Metallic, black leather interior, and a 16-valve 2.4L (184 hp) Tigershark™ MultiAir® four-cylinder engine.
http://www.suntimes.com/business/12764614-420/first-dodge-darts-from-belvidere-plant-reach-showrooms.html
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