Keppie Careers

Social media speaker, social media consultant, job search coach

Great Place Jobs – Online Job Posting Site for Great Employers

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I am happy to announce that I am the designated career advice expert for an online job posting site, GreatPlaceJobs.com. (Take a look at my blog at GreatPlaceJobs, where I will be sharing exclusive content.) Asher Adelman, the founder and CEO of eBossWatch and greatplacejobs.com calls the site, “the world’s first exclusive ‘great workplace’ job site to help people find jobs at award-winning employers.”

Asher notes, “For most people nowadays, it’s not enough for a company to pay you well but treat you poorly.  GreatPlaceJobs was designed for job-seekers who aspire to work at companies that care about their people as much as the people care about the company.”

What is special about GreatPlaceJobs? They only post jobs from specifically certified employers designated as “excellent” based on criteria such as having a culture based on trust, fairness, respect, open communications, recognition and camaraderie. When you search their database, you know that every organization represented has been scrutinized and/or has won awards as a high-quality place to work.

This is what the site says about itself:

  • Over 150,000 new jobs each month.
  • Only jobs at certified excellent employers are featured on GreatPlaceJobs.
  • More than 1,300 companies approved as great employers.
  • All companies are individually qualified and approved before being added to GreatPlaceJobs.

GreatPlaceJobs posts positions free for eligible companies. Job seekers pay a $20 membership fee for a 3-month subscription. Asher anticipates exploring many avenues to connect great employers with job seekers. Members will be the first to learn about potential opportunities. Learn more by clicking here.

So, looking to add an online site to your job search plans? Consider a site that screens the employers for you! Use your time wisely online: www.greatplacejobs.com.

If you want to receive free up-to-date tips to help with your job hunt, Click here to subscribe to receive future blogs sent directly to you via email! Prefer to subscribe in a reader? Click here for a link to receive Keppie Careers’ feed sent to the reader of your choice.

Need help with your hunt? Did you know we offer a resume consulting service? We advise, you write! Or, hire us to write your resume for you. Visit Keppie Careers online for information about our services: www.keppiecareers.com.

Lost At Sea? Career Search Strategies and Tips for Today's Job Market

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Can you believe it is already August? Before you know it, you’ll blink and it’ll be Labor Day, and the summer will really be over.

Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of good news in the employment sector. Rough waters continue to prevail, and many may be feeling lost at sea in a turbulent economy. Careerbuilder.com summarized the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which released its monthly summary of job data for July 2008:

  • Unemployment rose from 5.5% in June to 5.7% in July.
  • There were 51,000 fewer jobs in July. Total job loss for 2008 so far is 463,000. That is an average of 66,000 jobs lost per month.
  • The most notable losses were in construction, manufacturing and employment services. The drop for employment services indicates far fewer companies are using temporary help.
  • The report also mentioned that teenagers and young adults who usually take on part-time jobs during the summer have had challenges in finding a job this year.

What does all of this mean to you?

It depends. If you work in one of the harder-hit sectors, it could very well mean that your job is in jeopardy, and you need to start thinking about what you will do if you are out of work.

I’ve written a lot about job seeking in a recession. Some links that might be useful:

You are still feeling lost in a tailspin of negative jobs data? You can’t focus on what to do next? Here is some advice from my friend and colleague, Walter Akana, Certified Personal Branding Strategist at Threshold Consulting:

Stop everything! Evaluate where you have been, what you most want to do and think about where you can do it. Walter suggests answering the following questions from the book Zen and the Art of Making a Living:

  • What work best reflects who I am?
  • Whom do I want to serve/work with?
  • What will I most enjoy doing?
  • To what will I be willing to devote myself?

To help evaluate alternatives and focus, Walter recommends creating a personal career alternatives matrix. List your ideal job criteria, interests and capabilities in the first column, and then three or four alternatives in successive columns. This exercise is designed to help you focus on getting on a track that suits you, which might be a very different track from the one you’ve been on most recently!

Take the plunge and look for a job! Still need a great resume? Some help to write the perfect cover letter? I’m here to help! Write to me.

If you want to receive free up-to-date tips to help with your job hunt, Click here to subscribe to receive future blogs sent directly to you!

Photo by Irish Sheep

New Job – Longer-Term Strategies

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This week’s posts have offered tips for starting a new job. From first-day jitters to adjusting to company culture – how you manage your transition will shape your impact at your new job.

To top off the week, here are a few more tips to focus on for the longer term.

These are things to consider to help ensure your success in a new company down the road:

Start trying to figure out who is in charge. You may be surprised where the real power is in your new workplace. Maybe the receptionist holds a lot of authority. Who seems to make the decisions? The quicker you learn, the better off you’ll be.

Ask questions, but keep your opinions to yourself. No one expects you to reinvent the wheel in your first week (or month!)

Volunteer to help. Be a hero – offer to do a job no one else wants to do. There’s no better way to win friends and influence people than by stepping up to the plate. An added benefit? If you wind up solving a big problem, your ability to influence the workplace goes way up!

Rome wasn’t built in a day. Even if there are a lot of expectations riding on you, don’t start a new job expecting to make a lot of changes right away. Learn how things are done and why before you start implementing new policies. Demonstrate that you value what has been done before you got there, even if you plan to change everything! You’ll win a lot more friends with honey than with vinegar!

What tips have worked for you in starting a new job successfully?

Wish you were facing new job jitters? Take the plunge and look for a job! Still need a great resume? Some help to write the perfect cover letter? I’m here to help! Write to me.

If you want to receive free up-to-date tips to help with your job hunt, Click here to subscribe to receive future blogs sent directly to you!

photo by decor8

Don't Wait Until All the Berries Are Picked!

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Picking Strawberries Again

photo by captpiper

Have you ever wanted to do
something but waited too
long and it was too late?

This happened to me this week. I had planned (by planned, I really mean thought about it and decided it would be fun) to go strawberry picking with my boys. Although it would be hot (really hot), the idea of having a productive day in the sun, resulting in lots of juicy, not-overly expensive strawberries seemed like a great idea.

To make a long story short, I waited too long. The strawberries are all picked over. It’s not even worth going now. But, blueberries are in season soon! You can bet that I’m not going to miss out this time. I’ve already penciled in a blueberry picking time – right as the season starts.

Blueberry picking
photo by eltjoport

Even the best intended plans sometimes go astray. My problem? I didn’t focus on my goal (mmm…strawberry shortcake, strawberry shakes, strawberries and cream…) and my idea never actually became a plan. When a job hunt is at stake, the results are more important than a lack of strawberry treats. A new job isn’t going to come knocking on your door any more than a bale of berries was going to start growing in my yard.

You need to plant the seeds –
make a plan to get things moving
in the right direction for your career.

Are you someone who planned for a “new career for a new year” back when the ball dropped and 2007 turned to 2008? If you are, I hope you aren’t letting someone else pick all of your berries! It’s hard to believe, but 2008 is almost 1/2 over.

If you haven’t focused on your hunt, you’ll be right where you started when 2008 becomes 2009.

What is holding you back from making a positive change in your life? Even if the strawberries are all gone, you still owe it to yourself to make sure you have a fruitful career! Keppie Careers can help by walking you through every step of your job hunt, from writing your resume to negotiating the offer: www.keppiecareers.com

Don’t Waste Time and Talent – Give Your Career A Jump Start

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I want to tell you a story about someone I know.

She is a stay-at-home mom who decided that, after years of living on one salary, it was time to make some money. She knew she had a very marketable skill, but hesitated to try to start her own business because there were so many things that she didn’t know how to do:  build a website, advertise, etc.

She discovered secret shopping.  (For the unaware, there are companies that will pay you to go to stores and restaurants, evaluate the service and fill out an evaluation.)  Sounded like easy money.  She threw herself into secret shopping and went after opportunities with wild abandon.  She would even drive for miles at the prospect of earning $5 or $7 on a “job.”

Although her hourly rate was practically nothing, she did manage to bring in a quick several hundred dollars with persistence and hard work. Despite her little windfall, my friend realized that she was wasting herself on secret shopping and that her time and talents would be better spent developing something with longer-term prospects (and a higher hourly wage).

She realized that she was letting fear prevent her from pursuing dreams that offered a better use of her skills.  Instead of running around checking numbers on the bottom of hairspray at drug stores for 20 cents a number (really!), she should invest the time, effort, energy and solid work ethic in something with real value.

So, after much soul searching and concerted effort to overcome her fear, she is now going after her own dreams with the same zeal that she used to earn several hundred dollars by secret shopping.  And, guess what?  She’s already reaping the benefits in spades!

Are you wasting your time at work?  Maybe you’re not running all over town after a few dollars, but maybe you  realize that you are similarly “spinning your wheels” in your own way.  Don’t let fear prevent you from taking a new path.  Time is wasting! You are the only one who can put one foot in front of the other.