Month: June 2012

Bringing Life to a “Dead End” Internship

“I spent my first week working the hole punch,” said Nadya. “I’ve got you beat,” said Derek. “My first week I simply ‘observed.’ A hole punch would have been fun!” Nadya and Derek are two of the many college students and job seekers starting summer internships this month. And like many, they have already found their internships may not be all they were cracked up to be. Read More

Repairing and Building Your Online Reputation

“The End of Forgetting” is a perfect way to signify today’s new reality of how difficult it is to retract information about and photos of yourself from the web. Many articles have discussed in-depth the issues of reputation and privacy. For job seekers, this topic is extremely relevant as the vast majority of recruiters are now using online tools to research applicants and many report turning down applicants after the discovery of controversial information.
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Using Conversation Marketing When Networking

Today I’d like to share about an internet marketing strategy for businesses, called Conversation Marketing, and saw how it can also help job seekers with their job hunt.

I attended a talk by Ian Lurie, President of Portent Interactive, discussing SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for online content producers.  Portent Interactive is a Seattle-based Internet Marketing and SEO company, helping businesses practice intelligent internet marketing. Read More

Top 10 “Rookie Job Hunter” Realizations

Today our guest blogger is Matt Youngquist. Matt is the President of Career Horizons, serving Northwest individuals and organizations dealing with the unique challenges of job hunting and employment transition.  Matt is a recognized expert in the field of career coaching, job hunting, and professional employment counseling.  You can follow him on Twitter @mattyoungquist.

Having been in the career coaching field now for almost 20 years, I’ve ridden shotgun THOUSANDS of times on the job hunting process, helping people fire up their employment search and master the latest and greatest methods for tracking down new opportunities.

One paradox that I’ve consistently witnessed, over all these years?  Highly successful people usually make the crummiest job hunters.  At least initially, when they’re just starting their search out, since it’s usually been an inordinately long time since they last had to hustle for a new assignment.  What many folks don’t always realize, at first, is that 1) they’re older and more experienced (i.e. higher up the food chain where jobs are scarcer) and 2) that the whole market has changed around them, while they were safely ensconced in their last assignment. Read More

Resume Make-over: Returning to the Workforce

Karen had an amazing resume with a lot of significant professional experience. The problem is, all of her experience is from over 15 years ago.  Like many women, Karen had a robust and successful career before taking time off to raise kids.  With her children in her teens, she is ready to return to the professional workforce.

An initial look at her resume revealed these issues: Read More

LinkedIn: Better Late Than Never

LinkedIn is one of the best resources a job seeker can access.  Many reports have shown that recruiters are planning to scale back use of job boards and hunt for candidates on LinkedIn before posting a job opening.  Beyond networking with recruiters and colleagues, being on LinkedIn can also give you early or even exclusive access to job postings.  More importantly, not having a LinkedIn account may send a negative message to recruiters. Read More

What to Do When You Don’t Know What You Want to Do

My friend Sara went to school for graphic design and now has a job as a marketing designer. My friend Joe majored in computer science and just got a software development job earning six figures. My friend Michelle studied environmental science and just got into one of the nation’s top forestry science graduate programs.

They are a minority among my friends from college – they knew what they wanted to do going into school, and now they’re doing it.  Most of my friends who have graduated still have no idea what they want to do. Their diplomas are just a reminder of the thousands of dollars in student loans they owe, with no fulfilling job and no paycheck. Read More

Keywords: What They Are and How to Use Them

One of the biggest tricks to being “found” by recruiters is to make your resume and online profile keyword-rich. If you’re a bit baffled by the term, you’re not alone. Keywords can be a source of confusion to the point where they are sometimes just ignored by job seekers. Ignoring them may mean your resume never makes its way to an actual hiring manager.

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