Smart guys have a strategy and a back-up plan and know how to double check their execution to ensure that they land the job. Check the collection of common job seeker mistakes to avoid missing out. Read more
It is not just recently that experts and career consultants have been consistently talking about networking. It almost seems like it is the No. 1 topic in LinkedIn, Plaxo and other forums.
I guess it’s fair to say that they all can’t be wrong about the fact that networking is the No. 1 tool for Job Seekers and career changers, not to mention Sales Professionals who want to land their next big deal.
I think it’s time for the business world to get new spectacles so they can adjust or correct their view on the fast paced and ever changing world of job seekers. Don’t worry! I’m not talking about teaching an old dog new tricks.
I am talking about the ‘job hopper’ stigma. Read more
Guest Editor Melony dos Remedios writes:
As a Personal Trainer and Lifestyle Coach, I’ve worked with so many clients over the years whose goals vary from weight loss to stress management to six packs and everywhere in between.
Once they made a decision to commit to exercise, they found there was an added benefit: achieving goals in the gym or working out with a team or trainer helped them to achieve goals outside the gym: in their relationships; while job seeking and in their career. They quickly learned the importance of exercise as a tool to help them achieve physical, mental and emotional confidence and strength. Read more
When you search for information on a product or a person online do you find what you want? I’m guessing that you often don’t, at least not easily. What often happens is that you end up spending a lot of time searching until you really find what you were looking for.
That’s because you get to see what Google and Facebook (and increasingly many other companies and search engines and solutions) think you want to find. And here is the real bad part of the news. It can also be because you have likely left a lot of personal online garbage out there on the internet. So, don’t be too surprised if you get hit with some embarrassing content from the past. With this in mind, I strongly suggest that you clean up your ‘online shrapnel’ before you kick off your networking for a career change or before you embark on your job seeking mission. Read more
G’day Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott and all of the rest of the smart politicians in Australia. Here is a recipe to guarantee your party new and everlasting votes at the upcoming election in September 2013.
It is a very simple, low cost concept, super easy to promote and makes lots of sense even if it is promoted by guys like Bob Katter or Warren Truss. Here it is …
“Smart people hire the unemployed”
(or at least they should)
It doesn’t matter if you are currently employed and seeking to move to greener pastures, or if you’re an unemployed job seeker who wants to get back in the game, a proper resume is the best start for a successful job search.
I know…. bla bla …. yes we’ve all heard it hundreds of times before, so what else is there to do to secure more interviews?
Well, for starters, recognise that different job seekers require different tools. A Blue Collar Professional who is seeking a new position over $40k a year may benefit greatly by including 1 or 2 more documents in their job search whilst the professionals seeking a position over $75k a year may need to get more creative with their documentation attachments. Read more
Yeah, the phone rings and it is an enthusiastic recruiter. Brilliant! I am enthused too and I am keen to hear what the caller has to offer, but as it turns out, my new contact has lots of question and no genuine job opportunity. And to make things worse, I realise pretty soon that my new recruiter is also a “rookie” because she asked some bizarre questions to prove that she knows her “people” stuff. I am not kidding – these two questions gave it away:
Hi there. I’m Ulrich, but most people call me Uli. I’ve got a little favour to ask of you. Google the word dyslexia. Go ahead . . . did you notice 99% of the search results refer to dyslexia as a learning disability that impairs a person’s fluency or comprehension accuracy in being able to read or write?
Can we stop using “Learning Disabled” to describe people with Dyslexia?
I was told that “To have a disability is to be unable to do something”, but with dyslexia there is nothing preventing me from ‘learning’. Instead, dyslexia makes it difficult for me to tie a phoneme (sound) to a glyph (letter). Most everything else is hunky dory. So why is it then, for my whole life, I have been classified as unable to learn?
Can we just let that idea sink in for a moment? Unable to learn. Seriously? Let’s not tell other people what they can’t do.
Even with dyslexia I can speak, create, dance (albeit badly), work a computer, write a complex business plan, read, debate, present, and sell almost anything. Why has the fact that I am a poor speller been translated to an inability to learn? The rich and rewarding worlds of education and careers are not suddenly cut off from me because I am dyslexic? Yet for most of my life, that’s what I thought:
I am unable to learn.
I have taught, mentored, coached, guided and managed many people, and I’ve only met people who Learn Differently.
LD no longer means ‘Learning Disabled’. We know better. I think I speak for all of us when I say we aren’t ‘Learning Disabled’, we have a ‘Learning Difference’.
I am still slightly dyslexic. I have learned to overcome most of my dyslexia and I am not planning to tell you about my amazing recovery process in this blog. This blog focuses on Job Seeker content. This section of the blog will be used as a resource for useful tools and as a platform to share and ask questions on the subject of dyslexia. So if you have some form of dyslexia, or if you are just interested in the subject, read on.
Thousands of dyslexic co-workers and friends are out there as well as thousands of successful personalities with dyslexia earning millions of dollars every year. James and Kerry Packer, Juern Utzon, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are dyslexic. I decided to use the title for my blog to address the subject of dyslexia in the context of a Job Seeker and help both sides of the table to deal with it better.
So again, welcome to my blog!
Hit the keyboard and ask away … I am a creative curator and writer and I can send you useful answers or share some of my own wisdom and tools.
Hunt wisely, Uli
Don’t worry – I am not here to sell you something. We live in a world of apps and online solutions and I am sure you can work out one for yourself. There is one solution, however, which truly works for me. It is affordable, easy to install, and most importantly easy to use. I highly recommend Ghot.it to improve your writing results via an assistive technology that understands you. Go and try it out. I am using it every day.
I’m as confused as you are when it comes to all the “generation” labels. What exactly do they mean and why would they matter in my job seeking pursuit?
Let me tell you. It pays to know your X from your Y from your Z. You should try to find out who you are dealing with before you interview. This is easily done by looking up their LinkedIn or Facebook profile. Once done, prepare yourself and you can aim and market yourself more effective in your upcoming interview.
Before we can market ourselves effectively, we have to learn our XYZs. As a Job Seeker, you are a marketer and have to communicate to these very different groups. One style, message or medium will rarely cover them all. Here is a brief summary of these generations and their communication styles, collated from my own experiences or from content written by wise guys like Ray Beatty, a very witty Fairfax Journo.
But let’s start with a general generational overview first:
In the press or on TV, experts blithely talk about “Gen X”, “Gen Y”, and “Gen Z” as if we automatically know what they mean. In fact, no one has an exact definition but this comes close.
Let’s start with the “Builders”, the “Silent Generation” or the “War Babies”. They came from the Depression and World War II and grew up at a time when unemployment meant hunger and working in any job was essentially a job for life. In marketing terms they are seen as conservative and security-conscious. Their numbers are dwindling. Read more
