Keppie Careers

Social media speaker, social media consultant, job search coach

Work Making You Tired? Seek a Job With This Great Perk!

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Newsweek reports that about 37% of Americans nap during the day. (Presumably, this does not include the toddler set.) Apparently, workers regularly sleep in their cars, in storage rooms, at the gym or even in the bathroom! There is even a New York City store called Yelo with private rooms for quick, lunch time naps. For just under $1/minute, you have access to a private sleep pod. (Well worth the price, it seems, compared to sleeping in the bathroom!)

Some workplaces, believing that naps help “increase creativity, memory and alertness” are offering designated sleeping spots on site. A diverse array of employers, including shoe retailer Zappos.com,
Workman Publishing and Yarde Metals offer sleep areas, with Yarde Metals providing “a darkened room equipped with a reclining chair that vibrates to music as a TV screen plays video of a babbling brook, crackling fireplace, beach scene or fish tank.”

The ideal nap? 20 minutes, according to Sara Mednick, author of Take a Nap! Change Your Life. Much longer and you actually become more groggy.

So, if you are looking for a job, you may want to see if your potential employer offers “nap benefits.” I would venture a guess that many more offer “caffeine benefits,” research about productivity notwithstanding!

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Job hunt tiring you out? Keppie Careers is here to help! We will take all of the stress out of writing your resume and getting started with your job hunt. Contact us: [email protected].

photo by thepretenda

Another Reason Not to Spend A Lot of Time on Job Boards

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Have you been spending a lot of your job search time online, looking for job postings and applying for opportunities listed on large job boards? Do you ever believe that your application is going straight into a black hole?

I discourage my clients from spending very much time replying to online job boards. Some recruiters post jobs they may not be filling immediately (or ever), and applications actually may be going into resume limbo.

While there are people who land jobs from sending an online resume, the majority of successful job seekers find opportunities via networking.

Another important point to remember: Organizations like to hire people who AREN’T looking for a job! How ironic is that? Passive job seekers are desirable for the same reason that some people like to date a partner who is “hard to get.” Obviously, posting on a job board isn’t a great way to attract passive job hunters! I’ve written about how linkedin is filling this need for a passive job seeker database for many employers. Some expect it to replace big job boards such as “Monster.”

Yesterday, I read compelling information from Alison Doyle, who just celebrated 10 years of writing the Job Search blog for about.com. Alison reported that job posting online is declining. She points out that the Conference Board notes that is is the fourth consecutive month of year-over-year decline.

Alison says:

Monster’s job postings were down 18% in April and 21% in May. Overall, The Conference Board reported that online job postings dropped 13% in May.

Some of it is, of course, due to the difficult economy and less hiring in a soft job market.

That’s only part of what’s happening. There is also a trend towards actively recruiting candidates on professional networking sites like LinkedIn. Which is why it’s important to make sure employers can find you when you’re job searching.

(Regular readers know that I love to link to other experts who agree with my advice!)

Keep this in mind the next time you sit down to apply for 100 jobs online – employers are shifting their focus, and so should you! This is yet another reason to enhance your linkedin profile. You don’t want a typo or sub-par linkedin description to discourage potential employers from contacting you. Keywords are just as important to your linkedin summary as in your resume! Keppie Careers is happy to help enhance your profile for success….Just email your inquiry to: [email protected].

In a rapidly changing job seeking environment, it is hard to keep up with the latest trends to conduct a well-designed job hunt. Who has time? We do! Keppie Careers will write your resume and navigate you through the difficult waters that a job search may present. Contact us: [email protected].

photo by: jurvetson

Balance or Blend for Your Job Hunt – Which is Desirable?

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Subtitle: Separate but Not Equal?

In a post in her Shifting Careers column last week, Marci Alboher links to a blog by Venkatesh Rao, ribbonfarm.com. Rao illustrates work-life balance vs. work-life blending.

 

This is a topic that is top-of-mind for many job seekers, some of whom are actually considering leaving their current jobs because they don’t have enough of a personal life. It is certainly a big topic for the Gen-Y crowd, notorious for seeking balance at work and refusing to put in the long hours needed to climb the corporate ladder set up by previous generations.

This is also an issue for many full-time job seekers – where do you draw the lines between your job hunt and the rest of your life? Can you make a distinction between “time to job hunt” and “time to relax?” Should you?

The idea of a “blended life,” where work and personal life co-exist seamlessly and intertwine in a zen-like state is tough to achieve. The alternatives, totally separating work and personal time (as in balance) or having no personal time at all (as in workaholic) can be equally difficult!

When “work” is actually a job hunt, the lines are further blurred!

I advise my clients who are job hunting full time to focus on a balance – make specific time to job hunt and specific time to remove yourself from the job hunt to relax.

Does that mean that while checking personal emails, a job seeker should NEVER respond to a great lead that pops into his or her “in” box? No, but it does mean that the job seeker shouldn’t regularly allow scheduled “down” time be eaten up by job hunting duties. If it seems reasonable to respond during “job hunting” hours to an inquiry that is not urgent, that is the preferable choice.

I think any job seeker knows that, with online searches and forums and blogs, the amount of time a job hunt can take is exponential. There is always another path to follow. Everything seems urgent, and some job hunters act as if down time is “wasted time.” They think, “If time is money, every minute not job hunting is wasted money.”

In fact, blending job hunting time into “living” time seems a sure path to burn-out and frustration. While you may pursue a job that fits into a blended work/life situation, you should consider balancing your job hunt. (See the picture above – job hunting time on one side, personal time on the other side. I don’t know that they need to always be equal, but they should be separate!)

One of my clients makes a point to relax in front of old movies, just to get his mind off of things. He does this, even when he has several leads to follow-up. He realizes, to his benefit, that he will have time to pursue the leads when he is well-rested and relaxed. This knowledge keeps his batteries charged and helps prevent burnout.

So, if you are looking for permission to relax and re-charge – here it is! Take some time to take care of yourself. You (and your search) will be better for it!

Need help getting balance in your job search? Keppie Careers can take the stress out of your job hunt. We’ll write your resume and tell you exactly how to get your search off the ground. Want help every step of the way? We can do that! Contact Keppie Careers: [email protected].

Resume Key Words and a Great Visual Tool

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Well-informed job seekers know that companies typically screen resumes using software that searches for key words. That’s why your resume should be targeted/personalized for each job. Re-writing even a little of your resume can help scanning software mark your resume as one to review further!

College Recruiter had a link to a fun tool called Wordle. It describes itself as:

“A toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text.”

In other words, Wordle will create a visual representation of your resume, highlighting words that it senses as more important or prominent and downplaying the ones that don’t have much impact. If you are trying to highlight yourself as a highly technical team player and your visual representation doesn’t highlight those topics, you may want to consider re-working things! In any case, this looks like a fun tool to put some spice in your job search. Just think – you can make art out of your resume!

I will do more than just make art of your resume…I’ll write it to ideal specifications so you will get noticed! www.keppiecareers.com

Wordle resume by climbnh2003

Tips When Considering Jobs Beyond Your Qualifications

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.reach for the stars.

Job applicants who spend a lot of time looking at ads often have the same question: Do I apply for this job if it seems like a reach? Am I wasting my time if I don’t have all of the qualifications?

First, a personal story. The last time I conducted a national job hunt for myself, there were many jobs that appealed to me that were technically beyond my experience level. If I had a strong interest and willingness to write a great cover letter, I applied anyway and stressed the qualifications I DID have for the job. Inevitably, the positions I thought I had no chance at invited me for an interview. Why? Maybe it was because I invested extra time and effort in my materials. Maybe it was because I made a good case and they thought I was worth an interview.

In the end, I was offered and accepted a job that wasn’t exactly a “reach,” but had a lot of growth potential before I had closure on all of the other interviews.

Some things to consider when you apply for jobs that seem beyond your experience:

Job ads are “best case scenarios,” sometimes considered “pie in the sky” descriptions.

In the old days, employers who advertised paid by the word or square inch for a newspaper or magazine ad. Today, with online ads, the sky is the limit. Linking and unlimited space offer employers the opportunity to list EVERY possible skill desired. Do they really expect to find someone who meets every qualification? Probably not.

Case in point, I recently wrote a job description for a client hiring a key team member. Believe me, this ad left no stone unturned; the client wanted to list his dream candidate’s qualifications. He figured it was worth shooting for the moon with the expectation of landing in the stars! If a less qualified but enthusiastic, skilled applicant impressed him, I assure you specific skills would not have been the deciding factor.

If you only apply for jobs you actually qualify to do, your career will never accelerate.

Most employers hope to fill jobs with people who have already done exactly what they need someone to do! No learning curve means less training and less trouble for the new employer. However, if you only apply for jobs that list skills you’ve already accomplished ad naseum, how will you advance your career?

At the very least, you should be reading ads beyond your reach to learn what skills you might want to try your hand at developing in your current job.

Make a point to understand your skills and qualifications. Know your limitations and where you have potential to successfully stretch.

A little self-assessment can go a long way. You must know yourself to sell your skills. If you apply for an interview for a position that is a stretch, be prepared to sell yourself and defend your ability to get the job done. Know what transferable skills you possess that will make you successful. You can apply for “reach” jobs until you are blue in the face, but if you don’t know how to convince the employer that you CAN do the job, even if you haven’t ALREADY done it, you’re going to be looking for a long time.

Keppie Careers – we write your resume, teach you how to apply for the right jobs and encourage, enlighten and empower you for success!

photo by for the love of photography