Take 20 Minutes on this Skills Profiler

If you are considering a Career Education or Vocational Training Program use the Skills Profiler to create a list of your skills and match them to job types that need those skills.

A job skills profile can help you:
- strengths
- areas of weaknesses
- occupations that can utilize your current skills
- find gaps you need to fill
- create a good vocational resume
(Skill Based Sample Vocational Training Resumes)

If you use the Skills Profiler from the Department of Labor, you have the choice to print, save or bookmark it in your browser.

Plan to spend about 20 minutes completing your job skills profile.

10 Things to do Before the Pink Slip Arrives

I read a great article at Career Solvers about what to do before the pink slip arrives.

Many of the career reentry professionals who read my blog are concerned about the pink slip possibility. Many have returned to work and are feeling some "last-in-first-out" anxiety.

Of course no one knows for certain, if a pink slip is in the future, but it pays to be prepared.

Tips mentioned in the article:
-audit your resume (sample career reentry resumes)
-gather testimonials
-reconnect
-do a favor for someone
-join a professional association
-volunteer
-get a flu shot
-manage your finances
-avoid toxic people
-spend time with family

Of course the author Barbara Safani, expands on each and so you want to read the entire article.

Other articles:

Stop Muddling Through Your Job Search; Get Focused!
Is it a Good or Bad Time to Look for Work?
More Job Losses on Wall Street - has some additional ideas about what to do if you fear job loss.

Nov 3 was Job Action Day

So even though I didn't blog on November 3, which was Job Action Day, I wanted to share, what I think is a really brilliant concept with you.

The idea is that on Job Action Day, career bloggers would encourage jobseekers, employees and workers to use the day to take stock of their career situation and make plans and/or take action steps to improve their careers.

Of course there is no time like the present to start getting focused on your career, especially since November is National Career Development Month. If you are not sure of what kind of actions to take to improve your career, take a look at my blog entries for November 2007 where we added one activity per day to celebrate career development month.

Here is the Job Action Day press release issued by QuintCareers.

Teen Workers Can be Sexually Harassed Too

A law firm in the state of Delaware runs a great blog on employment law. I found this information that I think is valuable for teens. The blog entry alerts employers to the fact that the number of teenagers filing sexual harassment lawsuits is on the rise.

Here’s a quote:

Employers should also take steps to address the special vulnerability of teen workers to sexual harassment. As an item on this blog noted a few weeks ago, an ABA Journal story reported that the number of teen-aged workers filing sexual harassment charges is on the rise. Teen workers are often part-time or seasonal, and may be in the workplace for the first time. They tend to fall between the cracks when it comes to training. Many restaurants, movie theaters and retail stores have teen-age supervisors and managers as well as workers. Teens tend not to realize that the standard of conduct at work is different from what’s permissible in a social setting.

If you are a teen who supervises other teens at work, be very careful about your actions. Knowledge is power so ask your managers for details about appropriate workplace behavior.

Interview Knockout Factors From Temple's Career Center

Temple University's Career Center offers a ton of online information for college students and graduates.

I found this list of Interview knockout factors in their online interview guide and thought I would share them with you. You may have seen them before, in some form or the other here on the BullsEye College blog, but I thought it would be a good reminder in this tough economy.

• Lateness
• Lack of knowledge or skills necessary to do the job… not qualified
• Poor personal appearance
• Not prepared for the interview… no research on the company
• No confidence or poise… fails to look the interviewer in the eye
• Unable to express ideas clearly
• Only interested in the best dollar offer… instead of interest in the job
• Makes excuses during the interview, evasiveness, hedges on answers
• Negative about past supervisors or other experiences.
• Poorly defined career goals
• Asks few or poor questions about the job.
• No real enthusiasm in the company/industry/field

30 Career Lessons from Barack Obama's Campaign

As a registered independent voter, I read news from multiple sources. I read an article a few months ago at the Weekly Standard and thought I would save my comments until after the election.

The article was titled - Would You Hire Barack Obama? The Resume of a Chronic Underachiever, by Dean Barnett.

Barnett, a former headhunter for law firms, was reviewing Barack Obama's career and resume. His ultimate conclusion was: "The net effect is this: His accomplishments haven't been commensurate with his talents."

I wondered what Barnett would say now? Having worked in the career management field for a while, I know that there are recruiters with stories of hires who performed well beyond expectations or those hires that were overlooked and underestimated.

Since hindsight is better than 20/20, I thought I would list some of the career lessons I think one could learn from Barack Obama's campaign for the job of United States President.

1. Set personal goals
2. Stay away from those who say “You Can’t”
3. Plan and prepare for the long haul
4. To land a meaningful job, prepare for a really tough interview
5. Keep improving through the job search and beyond
6. Develop a personal board of advisors for support
7. Surround yourself with a diverse group of people with diverse thoughts
8. Develop a backbone. Even successful careers can have disappointments
9. Think around, outside and under the box. The way forward may not necessarily be clear or straight ahead
10. Don't expect your career paths to be logical to everyone looking on
11. Don’t burn your bridges behind you. You may need a reference or two eventually
12. Be mindful of what your associations can say about who you are
13. You don’t need to have all the experience in the job description to apply
14. Job descriptions get rewritten all the time
15. Be open to the fact that you might be underestimated
16. Some people will like you for the job and some will not
17. Some will laugh behind your back when they find out you are applying for a certain job
18. The real work begins after you land the job
19. Know your competition and do not underestimate them
20. Think transferable skills. eg. What skills did I develop as a community organizer or PTA President that could be valuable when changing careers.
21. You may have to say things during an interview to impress your future boss
22. You have to build consensus to move ideas forward
23. Keep track of your accomplishments; no one else is obligated to do that for you
24. You may find people want to hang around you, just because you are successful – not because they care
25. Education and training mean something
26. Hard work and discipline pays off eventually
27. It is not a shame to strategically plan your career
28. Many people are not working in their college majors
29. The more people who support you and your ideas, the more successful you will be
30. You are always preparing for your next career opportunity, regardless of what you are doing.

Did I miss anything? I am sure I did!

Funding Education in a Tight Economy

I wrote about paying for college in a bad economy a few months ago and wanted to add a new resource from the Department of Education.

The guide is available in English and Spanish and can be downloaded in both PDF and HTML.

If you have questions or concerns about paying for school contact:
Federal Student Aid Information Center by calling 1-800-4-FED-AID (1-800-433-3243).

Career Assessment Help for Changing Careers

I discovered this career assessment, Rocket Career, for those who might want to switch careers.

Of course no career assessment or career test will guarantee what one should be or not, but the feedback can always reaffirm ideas you may have about your next step.

The assessment will take you only a few minutes and here is a portion of my results.

Innovative & Risk-Taking - Your percentile ranking is 90
"I wonder what would happen if..." is your mantra, and you need a career with an element of risk to get you out of bed in the morning. You're willing to experiment, to learn by acting and doing. Your continual questioning of the status quo reflects your need to find a better way to do what people do now or a new way to do what others don't even realize needs doing. Yours is an entrepreneurial, "start-up" personality. You like to test boundaries, and your innate confidence means you're well placed in careers where power is at issue--business, politics, sales. Since you're willing to take the risks that pay off in tangible rewards, you need a career where money--or its equivalent--is the measure of success.

Creative & Free Form - Your percentile ranking is 60
You need an artistic or imaginative element in your work in order to find the career that fits. Your powers of visualization are strong, as is your ability to see patterns and trends long before others do. Though you can be impatient with restriction, you need to master the conventions of your art in order to find the structure that gives you true freedom of expression. Express yourself you must, and if you find a career that lets you set your own schedule, so much the better. Your productivity and your enthusiasm go hand in hand, so while others may be content to work for money alone, you won't find the right job till you're in a career that gives you joy.

Why I Will Be in the Voting Booth on November 4th?

It is hard to know what specific issues people ponder when they enter the voting booth. Which specific issues put them over the top for one candidate or another? It differs for everyone I am sure and even at this last minute, some people are thinking about the future and earnestly trying to make the right decision.
If the predictions are right, the long lines today, will give us a lot of time to think about our vote.

Although I write a career blog, I couldn’t resist the urge to put my thoughts on paper to express why and for whom I am voting today! There are truly career lessons everywhere.

1. My vote today will be for all the women who have struggled for centuries to balance their need to work and to care for families. For women who have been overlooked in the workplace, whose voices are never heard, who do get equal pay for equal work and who were too tired or scared to fight for that. Say what you will about Sarah Palin or Hillary Clinton, these are women with a point of view who have put themselves out there for our scrutiny and sometimes even our ridicule. Whether or not you consider them intellectually equal or competent, they both have shown us it is possible what can happen if you are brave enough to say, “Yes”, when asked.

2. I vote for those who show up every day to perform, even in the face of stereotypes that would seek to diminish them personally. Be they men or women. Barack Obama’s candidacy reaffirms what many of us who are immigrants have always known - that to succeed you don’t just have to be good; you have to be two or three times as good. We know the bar against which we are measured is higher, as it should be. After all, we have to prove we are worthy of being called – “American”. Unfortunately, that same high bar has been used to measure those born here, but still considered different. I vote for those whose ideas were brilliant, but never acknowledged; those who worked hard, but were never applauded and for those who were passed over and overlooked because they were different. I vote today to reinforce, that stereotypes are just barriers to be broken.

3. My vote today is for those of us who are brave enough to reach “across the aisle”, so to speak, to develop and nurture strong relationships with those who might not look like us, but share our values. I vote for all who are willing to take a chance on the goodness of people, knowing that even after all the hard work and the crowds go home, we might still not be good enough, for reasons over which we have no control – be it race, ethnicity, gender, religion, age or sexual orientation.

4. My vote today is for all the 72 year olds, like John McCain, who know that there is still more to give and more to do to keep this country strong. For all those seniors who are still willing to answer the call for greatness, regardless of age. For all those seniors who never get weary or tire, because they feel their mission is a noble one. It is truly inspiring to me that John McCain traversed this great country, visiting up to seven states within 24 hours of the most significant election in US history.

5. My vote today is for all generations past – the uncles, the aunts, the grandparents, the parents who never even dared to dream the possibility, much less experience the reality of an African American or American Woman in the White House. For those who marched, who died and on whose shoulders we stand as we continue to explore this great experiment that is America.

6. My vote today is for my children, a young man of 17 and a young woman of 16, who are too young to vote, but so aware as are many at their age. Both are first generation Americans, Ja-mericans as we call them, meaning those of Jamaican parents born in the US, for whom the options have never been greater. I vote for them so they can continue to live in an America, where being American means something, both inside and outside this country. I vote so that they can see the greatness of America where power is transferred, without bloodshed and without violence as it should in all free societies. I vote to show them, that as Americans, they too will have a responsibility to support this great nation, participate in this democracy and protect the rights of it’s citizens to free expression. All our futures depend on it.

Go vote. The real work begins tomorrow!

With 760000 Job Losses in 2008, Job Fairs are Overcrowded!

Imagine wall to wall anxious job seekers, tired recruiters and thousands of resumes exchanging hands. CNN Money reports that we have already lost 760, 000 jobs in 2008 and so it is no surprise that job fair attendance is clearly up.

If you are looking for work, one immediate way to quickly improve your career and industry awareness is to attend a career fair. Job fairs generally have the same format and layout, cost you nothing but a few hours and give you a really great opportunity to meet hiring managers and network. Some companies may even be doing job interviews and making hiring decisions on the spot.

If you are searching online for job fairs nearby, use different keywords to find upcoming events since the names might vary slightly. Here are a few alternative ways to find a career fairs which could be of interest to you.

Search by:
- Location – eg Philadelphia Career Fair or Valley Forge Career Fair.
- Education or training – eg MBA Career Fair, Technical Job Fair
- Industry – eg. Sales Job Fair, Nonprofit Career Fair, Healthcare Job Fair
- Niche – eg Diversity Job Fair, Disability Job Fair, Veteran Job Fair, Skilled Trades Job Fair

*Don't forget to search for Virtual Job Fairs as well which are completely online events.

Make the most of these crowded events by:
- Registering ahead of time if possible. Many fairs allow you to register and upload a resume before the event. This way recruiters will get a chance to see you early.
- Identifying who you want to see and make those rounds first. Don't waste time in long lines, visit another employer of choice and come back!
- Planning that 30-second introduction. You don't have a lot of time to make a connection, so the better you handle that introduction, and speak of the position you want, the better it will be.
- Attending job fairs alone. Exploring the job fair is not a team sport. Leave your friends at the door and arrange a time to meet after making your rounds.
- Staying off your phone. Why are you there, if you plan to spend to all your time on your laptop or Blackberry?
- Talking to people. Do not just drop your resumes and run! You never know who you could meet at a job fair.

No Experience? What Employers Want on Your College Resume?

Having worked with and coached many college students and new college graduates to successful careers, I know that one of the big obstacles they face is - Where will I get the experience that employers seek?

Of course we encourage students to share information and experience from any of the following sources:

- volunteer work on and off campus
- classroom individual or group projects
- internships
- campus work study and non work study jobs
- campus clubs
- student chapter of professional organizations
- greek life leadership
- overseas experiences or study abroad
- working in a family business
- seasonal part-time jobs
- technical skills (self taught or otherwise)
- campus teams (eg. sports and music)

I have just discovered another great resource from QuintCareers. It is the College Experience Worksheet for Resume Development.

The worksheet goes well beyond just work experience but also helps college students identify their own positive skills or behaviors that employers are eager to see in new grads.