Many people have been denied opportunities as a result of their poor credit score, and I was recently interviewed for a Wall Street Journal article on the subject.

One thing I discussed with the journalist: if you’re looking for a job, be sure to check your own credit, as you may be surprised to find something is not exactly right. Perhaps someone has stolen your identity and brought down your credit score; you want to have time to address it before an employer asks about it.

However, it’s possible the low score is accurate. You’ll want to be prepared to discuss this with the employer if you are asked to sign a waiver to allow your score to be checked.

How can you handle bad credit in the job search?

When it’s clear the employer will be checking credit before offering the job, consider explaining if there were extenuating circumstances leading to the poor credit score. Maybe a family emergency or a health expense led to the issue. Be sure to explain why the problem is in the past and wouldn’t lead to another concern on the employer’s part. For example, if you had to cover expenses for a family member’s medical issue, it would be best if that issue is now solved and not ongoing. Otherwise, the employer may worry about a candidate being distracted by an ongoing family issue. You can see why explaining this problem is really a case-by-case issue; you will need to decide what information will be most favorable to you and share it accordingly.

If the issue is years old

If your financial woes or mistakes are in the past, you may want to explain what you’ve learned from past financial mistakes and what steps you’ve taken  to correct them. Perhaps an employer would accept such an explanation, especially if the candidate can illustrate improvement.

Be sure to read the piece in the Wall Street Journal for more specifics.

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The program materials explain:

85% of what we communicate during an interview occurs as a result of a number of nonverbal signals that our body sends. Consequently, possessing the knowledge and ability to appropriately choose our interview attire and effectively manage any verbal and nonverbal signals that we may send is critical.

In this workshop Hiring for Hope’s Founder, Tegan Acree will cover how to dress appropriately and act the part of a professional. She will teach you how to “listen” and communicate during an interview with your eyes, ears and mouth in order to be able to respond appropriately and leave an interviewer with their desired impression.

When Tegan finishes her presentation, I will provide some details and information about how social media plays into your professional appearance. I’ll also be available after the presentation for questions and will have copies of my book, Social Networking for Career Success, for sale.

Following the Workshop, all job seekers will have an opportunity to connect for free with Hiring for Hope’s Career Angels to receive one-one-career coaching assistance, advice and job leads.

Time: October 11, 2011 from 6:30pm to 9pm
Location: Mt Pisgah United Methodist Church North Campus
2850 Old Alabama Rd, Johns Creek, GA 30022

Learn more and sign up to attend (it’s free).

photo by jenny downing

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Watch the video for additional ideas.

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We’ll be talking about my new book, Social Networking for Career Success, and I’ll be offering tips and advice for job seekers and entrepreneurs about the right social networks to join and use.

If you haven’t listened in to Maggie’s show, you are missing out! Her past guests include: Martha Stewart, Deepak Chopra, Stephen Covey, Sally Field, Patricia Heaton, Ty Pennington, Barbara Corcoran, Dilbert creator Scott Adams and Henry Winkler.

Get your career questions answered on the career hotline by calling 1-866-675-6675. Tune in with a FREE trial of SIRIUS!

Photo by CarbonNYC

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This is a real honor, as I have been using and recommending Quint Careers as a resource for my clients for just about that many years! I remember meeting Randall and Kathy several years ago at a conference — it was a “brush with career fame” for me, which makes this honor even more special.

Their announcement notes:

As part of the 15th anniversary of the founding of Quintessential Careers, we are honoring and celebrating some of our favorite career visionaries, gurus, and experts — people who truly want to help job-seekers understand and succeed in the job-search.

We’ve selected these 15 career experts, folks we are honoring with the title of Quintessential Careers Career Masterminds, because of their career and job-hunting know-how — and their passion for sharing that knowledge with job-seekers, career-changers, and the entire career community.

It’s especially nice to be recognized for sharing information and resources with the career community, so thank you very much!

Learn about everyone on the Quint Careers list and stay tuned for our involvement on the site in the coming months!

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Why is Hannah’s timing ironic? It was posted the same day that Monster.com announced “The Monster 11 for 2011: Career Experts Who Can Help Your Job Search.” I was thrilled and flattered to be named to the list, along with my good friends Hannah and Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter (@valueintowords) as well as  colleagues: Heather Huhman (@heatherhuhman) (all also of the Career Collective), Penelope Trunk (@brazencareerist), Eve Tahmincioglu (who tweets in rhyme @careerdiva), J.T. O’Donnell (@careerealism), Chris Perry (@careerrocketeer), Donna Svei (@avidcareerist), Abby Kohut (@absolutely_abby) and Louise Fletcher (@louise_fletcher).

As Monster notes, there are many, many other great career pros who write and tweet advice for job seekers. (Be sure to follow the #CareerCollective hashtag for some of them!) I am proud to have been named on this list with these terrific colleagues. I’ll use this post to help me track my accomplishment, as Hannah suggests. Have you considered creating a blog or website to help you track and share your milestone career moments? Contact me….I am creating a product to help you do just that – even if you don’t know anything about starting a blog or creating a site!

Monster suggests you follow them on Twitter: @HotJobs_editor or @MonsterCareers, where they often reference these and other career experts’ work! Also, be sure to check out Monster’s HR and Recruitment Bloggers top 11 for 2011 list. It was exciting to see so many of my Twitter friends and colleagues listed there.

photo by unfurl

http://monster.typepad.com/monsterblog/2010/12/monster-11-for-2011.html

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As a proponent of using social networking to enhance job seeking opportunities, I encourage people to jump in and take advantage of all the great tools, but it’s important to remember what NOT to do.

These are the mistakes Elizabeth highlights in her article. Be sure to READ THE FULL POST for specific advice and details.

1. Forgetting manners.

I was delighted to be quoted in this section! In short – “Assume your future boss is reading everything you share online.”

2. Overkill.

Signing up for too many networks and not making an effort to complete your profiles does not move your search forward.

3. Not getting the word out.

It’s important to let your networks know you are looking.

4. Quantity over quality.

Connect carefully and personalize your invitations.

5. Online exclusivity.

Don’t spend all of your time searching online; many jobs are not posted.

Don’t miss the expert advice from Sree Sreenivasan, dean of students at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, Krista Canfield, a LinkedIn spokesperson, author Emily Bennington and personal branding expert Dan Schawbel in the Wall Street Journal’s FULL POST.

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I have to admit that I had a “brush with fame” moment when I first spoke to Susan! Job-hunt.org is a site I have used and recommended for my entire career, so it was a special honor when she welcomed me on board.

When I say I am humbled to be joining an amazing team, I really mean it. The experts on board at Job-hunt.org represent a real brain trust of career advisors. I am pleased to count many of them as my friends. Be sure to visit Job-Hunt.org’s home page and review the list on the left – “help from job search experts” – to read their advice and to learn about a slew of career advice topics.

Read my first article here – about how LinkedIn allows you to follow companies, and why you might want to take them up on it!

photo uploaded by matthamm

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While I think of using Twitter as second nature, there are many “ins and outs,” and it really is not all that obvious to everyone. So, I was excited to receive The Twitter Book, by Tim O’Reilly and Sarah Milstein. As the authors note in Chapter 1, “Twitter lives a dual life. On one hand, it’s a simple service. Besides letting you share and read very short messages, it has few bells and whistles. On the other hand, it can be surprisingly hard to figure out. The screens aren’t particularly intuitive and the jargon and symbols are obscure.”

So, I read the book both as an expert user and as a coach looking for resources to help my clients become more frequent and successful Tweeps. I was not disappointed on either count!

For new users, the book offers a tutorial on how to get signed up and started and how to create a profile. I was surprised and delighted to find that Sarah and Tim actually quoted my Twitter profile as an example of a bio that tells a story (see page 23)!

The book covers all of the terminology that Twitter users need to know and provides pictures and examples throughout. Need to know how to find people? Done. How to tweeet from the road? Done. What’s a RT (retweet) and can you edit it if it is too long to send? (Yes, but consider using “via” if you change it substantially,” p. 115).

Power users – did YOU know that there is an opp called 140it that “uses common cutting conventions to whittle down” your posts if they are too long? (It doesn’t work for every post, but I had never heard about it, and I’ve been tweeting up a storm for a while now.)

Suffice to say that any detail you need to know is available in this handy, easy to use reference.

But, using Twitter successfully requires more than just a list of “how to,” practical concerns. There are many nuanced aspects, and Sarah and Tim don’t forget about them in this book. Included in the book: discussions about how many people to follow, how to have great conversations, how to @ reply so the user will know what you mean, how often to tweet and how to go beyond “what are you doing?” to be a contributing member of your Twitter community and more.

I’d recommend this book to anyone hesitant to try Twitter because it seems overwhelming and current “tweeps” who would like to pick up some tips from the pros. You can follow the authors at @timoreilly and @SarahM and you can follow the book’s hashtag (“demystified” on page 41) -  #twitterbook.

Need help getting started using Twitter for your job hunt? Your resume isn’t doing the job it needs to do? Click here for informtion about how I can help with your search.

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Chris Sweigart from Atlanta’s local NBC affiliate station, 11 Alive, interviewed me for a piece that aired on the 6:00 pm newscast about how job seekers can address the issue of being considered “overqualified” for the job.

I suggested that it is important for job seekers to realize why employers are concerned about hiring “overqualified” applicants.

Some reasons:

– They worry the candidate will be “too expensive.”

– Concern the overqualified applicant will leave at the first sign of a better opportunity.

– A desire to avoid hiring a potential “grumpy Gus” or “sad Sally” if the job does not meet the candidate’s needs.

So, how should job seekers address these concerns?

Take salary off the table. Explain that, at this stage of your career, you recognize there are more important things than a high salary. Identify positives, such as work-life balance (if appropriate), the opportunity to work for an organization with a good reputation and/or with a set of talented colleagues. Give good reasons for wanting the job that don’t make you sound desperate for a paycheck.

Make a time commitment. Offer to stay for one or two years – make it clear that this job is a destination, not a jumping off point for you.

Make a convincing case for why the job is a good match. The onus is on the candidate to point out what skills and tasks involved in the job resonate with him or her and explain why those are a good fit. The fact is, while job seekers might have been doing higher level, high powered jobs with a lot of responsibility, those tasks may not necessarily be the things they really enjoy doing. Make the case that this job, at this stage of your career, is what you know you’d like to do and convince the employer of that.

Watch the clip here:

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Unemployment in the state of Georgia is now at 10.7% and predicted to go even higher. If you are looking for a job, or thinking you should be, join me and Stephanie A. Lloyd of Radiant Veracity for a series of job search interventions. Save time, money and YOUR SANITY by learning optimum job hunting tips and tricks. Learn more about our program how you can be better at job seeking HERE.

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