Career coaches can drone on about resumes, networking and interviewing techniques. But how do real people get real jobs in a tight job market?
We interviewed a half dozen job seekers who landed positions in the last few months, and they told us some surprising things. Most received offers within three weeks of reaching out to a new company. Others found their jobs on Craigslist or TweetMyJobs, which career coaches rarely mention. Job seekers called, blogged and tweeted their way into new roles, proving that in this job market, tenacity and creativity go a long way.
One thing we heard is that you need to actively reach out to companies you admire. Amanda, an admissions officer and teacher in New York City, was gainfully employed when she started sending out feelers earlier this year. She had asked for a raise and gotten less than she requested, so she was ready for a change.
As an admissions officer, she works with many schools. At one school, Amanda thought the person who had the equivalent of her job might retire. So she sent a letter and attached a copy of her rÔøΩsumÔøΩ. She wrote about how much she valued the programs and the students the school produced. The school invited her in for an interview, and she got an offer three weeks later.
“This might seem obvious, but if you feel an affinity toward an organization or company, reach out to them,” says Amanda. “Tell them what specifically interests you.”
Another nugget of advice: Focus on quality, not quantity. After Kym Lino graduated from college in May she blasted her rÔøΩsumÔøΩ across the Internet. “I would sit on my couch for eight hours at a time and apply for every job that I qualified for, on every job site, and I didn’t get any feedback,” says Lino, 24. She used Careerbuilder, Monster.com, her alma mater’s job search website and regional career blogs like DCjobs.blogspot.com.
Eventually Lino saw a temp-to-hire PR position on Craigslist, and submitted exactly what the employer requested: a cover letter, resume and three writing samples. Six days later she heard back from the company, and within three weeks she landed an offer. “I wish I had focused less on volume and more on specific jobs that interested me,” she says now. “I got to the point where I sent out 100 rÔøΩsumÔøΩ a day and just assumed that one of them had to come through. Then the one I paid a little more attention to actually worked out.”
Lino also suggests writing a blog to show off your expertise. When she applied to a public relations agency that maintains its own blog, one of her interviewers asked if she kept a blog and updated it at least several times a week. Lino produces three different blogs, and she says her side activity helped her to land an offer. “My blogs showed that I know how to self-edit,” she says. “I know the technology.”
Paul Gilmore found his job using a site few career coaches tout, Tweet MyJobs.com. After months searching job boards, making cold calls and even dropping off his rÔøΩsumÔøΩ in person, Gilmore used TweetMyJobs to land a recruiter position at the Fort Lauderdale branch of Synerfac Technical Staffing. Gilmore says he checked TweetMyJobs two or three times a week, searching for his ZIP code. When he saw the Synerfac posting, he followed up online and was contacted by a branch manager. After two weeks and three interviews, Gilmore got an offer.
Twitter can be a good way to identify and learn about prospective employers and take part in conversations related to your field. If you admire a particular company, follow it or its employees on Twitter to get a sense of its culture.
Archive for June, 2010
Job-hunting “STARTegies” and Tips
by admin, on Wed, Jun 30 2010 | No Comments
DiCaprio is on his way to Manila
by admin, on Wed, Jun 30 2010 | No CommentsLeonardo DiCaprio is coming for a visit early next month. This piece of good news was confirmed by DiCaprio himself through his Hollywood agents and publicists.
According to earlier reports, DiCaprio was arriving in early 2011.
“It turned out that he’s arriving earlier than expected,” said Joyce Ramirez, director for International Publicity at PR Asis Worldwide, who invited DiCaprio not to promote his new movie, Inception, but to spearhead an environmental-awareness project in cooperation with a huge conglomerate in Albay. “DiCaprio will be here for one week. He has chosen to stay at the Misibis Bay, an ultra-luxurious resort. It’s not yet sure if he will make a stopover in Manila or fly straight to Legazpi City on a private jet.”
It’s Joyce’s brainchild to bring DiCaprio to the Philippines to help boost our tourism industry especially in Albay, with Legazpi City as a world-class eco-tourism destination.
It’s not DiCaprio’s first trip to Asia. After starring in the all-time hit Titanic, DiCaprio went to Thailand to shoot The Beach, his follow-up starrer. The STAR did an exclusive interview with DiCaprio in L.A. for that movie in late 1999.
In Inception, a sci-fi action adventure distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures in IMAX, Digital 2D and regular format, DiCaprio plays Dom Cobb, a skilled thief who is an expert in the dangerous art of extraction, stealing valuable secrets from deep within the subconscious during the dream state when the mind is at its most vulnerable. Cobb’s rare ability has made him a coveted player in the treacherous new game of corporate espionage, but it has also made him an international fugitive and cost him everything he has ever loved.
Inception is showing nationwide soon.
Mariel, Robin is not sleeping in my condo
by admin, on Wed, Jun 30 2010 | 1 Comment
Rumors had been spreading that Robin Padilla is already sleeping in Mariel Rodriguez condominium unit. Mariel defended Robin and said he will not do such act because he is a gentle man during the press conference of her movie “Cinco”
“Sobrang gentleman ni Robin Padilla, sobra. Walang mali sa kanya. Sobra niyang gentleman so hindi siya ‚Äòyong type na [ganoon],” Rodriguez said.
She also denied that Robin would drive her to ABS-CBN in Quezon City from her house for her hosting job on “Wowowee.”
In the press question about her current relationship and his opinion about the issue she said,”I saw him in another birthday party, he’s really very nice. We‚Äôve never gone out on date na kaming dalawa lang.”
Robin and Mariel will work again in their upcoming ABS-CBN comedy program “Palibhasa Sikat,” This will be her first comedy program after her recently split from actor Zanjoe Marudo.
Government Includes Sex Ed in High School Lessons
by admin, on Wed, Jun 30 2010 | No Comments
Sex education has become part of regular high school lessons in the Philippines for the first time. The lessons on sex are included in regular science and health studies. The secretary of Education Mona Valisno said that officials would study whether such lessons were also appropriate for younger pupils.
“They should know these things, about the body and how to protect it instead of learning about it on the Internet,” Valisno said. Church leaders in the devoutly Catholic country immediately hit back at the plan, saying the state had no business to be talking to youngsters about sex. (more…)
Trivia and “firsts” about Noynoy Aquino
by admin, on Tue, Jun 29 2010 | No Comments
President-elect Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III may have made history as the first chief executive elected in an automated election. But do you know he holds more firsts?
In a document issued by historian and Aquino’s inauguration spokesman Manuel Quezon III, Aquino appears to hold many other firsts, including being the first never-been-married president in the country’s history.
Aquino is also the first president with no children.
Although two other former presidents Elpidio Quirino (widower) and Corazon Aquino (widow) were unmarried during their term, they had children unlike Noynoy.
Aquino is also the first president, since 1992, inaugurated into office without having been vice president. His predecessors Joseph Estrada and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo were both vice presidents before becoming Presidents.
He is also the first president to have a February birthday; first to use the suffix –III and first to have graduated from Ateneo.
Aquino also holds the record of being the youngest of the presidents who became chief executive in their 50s. His family’s adversary, former president Ferdinand Marcos came second by becoming president at age of 51.
At 50, Aquino is the 15th president. He is president at the same age at which his father, Benigno S. Aquino Jr. was assassinated.
Aquino ironically shares the Liberal Party with Arroyo’s father, Diosdado Macapagal. Aquino was the first president elected president from LP since Macapagal.
Amusingly, Aquino was also proclaimed president-elect on June 9, 2010, 9 months after his declaration of candidacy on 9/9/09.
A bullet is still embedded in Aquino’s neck, two decades after an attempt against his life during a military coup against his mother. Aquino suffered five bullet wounds while three of his bodyguards died.
