Here are the keys to successfully preparing and writing a resume. Follow these simple rules and you should achieve success in job-hunting for a new career.

Do consider a bulleted style to make your resume as reader-friendly as possible.
Don't go beyond two pages with your resume.
Do consider a resume design that doesn’t look like everyone else’s. Many jobseekers use Microsoft Word resume templates and wizards. There’s nothing wrong with them, per se, but your resume won’t look distinctive if you use one.
Don't use justified text blocks; they put odd little spaces between words. Instead, make your type flush left.
Don't ever lie on your resume.
Do include as much contact information as possible -- any information that would enable an employer to reach you during business hours.
Do give your resume as sharp a focus as possible. Given that employers screen resumes for between 2.5 and 20 seconds, you need a way to show the employer at a glance what you want to do and what you're good at.
Don't use personal pronouns (I, my, me) in a resume.
Don't leave out the locations of your past jobs (city and state). This information is expected, but many jobseekers unwittingly omit it.
Do list your jobs in reverse chronological order.
Don't mix noun and verb phrases when describing your jobs. Preferably, use concrete action verbs consistently.
Do avoid the verb, "Work" because it's a weak verb. Everyone works. Be more specific. "Collaborate" is often a good substitute.
Don't use expressions like "Duties included," "Responsibilities included," or "Responsible for." That's job-description language, not accomplishments-oriented resume language that sells.
Do emphasize transferable skills, especially if you don’t have much experience or seek to change careers.
Don't list too much experience on your resume. Don't emphasize skills and job activities you don’t want to do in the future, even if they represent great strengths for you.
Do remember that education also follows the principle about presenting information in the order of importance to the reader yet.
Don't include on your resume your height, weight, age, date of birth, place of birth, marital status, sex, ethnicity/race, health, social security number, reasons for leaving previous job(s), names of former supervisors, specific street addresses or phone numbers of former employers.
Don't include hobbies or other irrelevant information on a resume.
Don't list references right on your resume.
Do realize that the phrase "References available upon request" is highly optional because it is a given that you will provide references upon request.
Do proofread carefully. Misspellings and typos are deadly on a resume.

The Baltimore Employment Guide wishes you luck on your career search.

So today I came across this article that can be very helpful in today's job search. It is written by a former headhunter and executive recruiter, Deborah Walker. Here is her list of the top ten things a recruiter will never tell you:

1. Your cover letter put him off.

   You might have been thrilled to find just the right cover letter form in a book of cover letters or computer template. What you don’t realize is that a thousand other people have also found that cover letter—and the recruiter has seen them all. It makes your cover letter look like 150 other letters he has read that morning. And it makes you seem unoriginal, and not a good candidate.

   If your cover letter sounds like an exact repeat of your resume, or if it sounds pompous and self-absorbed, your cover letter and resume will be tossed or ignored. A professionally written cover letter can make the best of your accomplishments and give a fresh sound to recruiters, winning their interest.

2. Recruiters spend five to ten seconds looking at each resume.

   If your resume cannot get his attention in five to ten seconds, it will be passed over.

   In an extremely fast-paced environment, high-volume resume reading is required; recruiters are professionally trained to look for certain items. If your resume is not designed to contain what recruiters are looking for, you won’t get a second chance.

3. Your resume may be full of hidden or unsuspected red flags.

   You think you have a great resume, but there may be red flags you are not even aware of. Here are a few that cause concern for recruiters:

   • Too many jobs in a short time = Unstable candidate

   • Too many years at the same company/industry = Inflexible to change

   • Overqualified = Too expensive or won’t stay long

   • Underqualified = Long learning curve

   • Too many different types of jobs = Candidate doesn’t know what he wants

A professional resume and cover letter can avoid these misperceptions by guiding the recruiter toward your strongest accomplishments—and away from the red flags.

4. Your age is obvious from your resume.

   You may think you’ve fooled the recruiter by leaving out your college graduation date, but there are many resume cues that can betray your age. In today’s youth-oriented market, this can lead to a whole series of misconceptions:

   • Your industry knowledge is out of date

   • You don’t understand current technology

   • You won’t be able to work under younger managers

A well-written resume can prove your experience while downplaying your actual age.

5. Your resume indicates you are not a good "cultural fit" for his clients.

   Your resume reveals more about you than you know. Your personal information or extracurricular activities may actually make a negative impression on recruiters or potential employers. Even the way you phrase your job experience can prove that you don’t belong in his client’s workplace.

   This is one area where a strong resume, particularly one written by a professional with past recruiting expertise, can definitely win you the interview. A strong resume allows the recruiter to sell you to his clients with ease.

6. The recruiter’s first motivation is earning commissions.

   The recruiter’s loyalty is not to you; it is to the companies that pay his commission. Those employers are interested in the bottom line—and so is he. Don’t expect a recruiter to be personally interested in your career goals; he only wants to talk to you if you match the qualifications of the job openings he has to offer.

   It is up to YOU to make him understand what a great asset you would be to his clients—and therefore to him as well. A professionally written resume and cover letter will help display your quantifiable accomplishments and marketable skills to your best advantage.

7. He doesn’t care why the employer didn’t want you for a second interview.

   If the employer isn’t interested in you, then neither is the recruiter. Recruiters don’t feel any obligation to tell you why you didn’t make the cut; he has other jobs to fill and other candidates to fill them. As much as we’d like to think otherwise, recruiters have to focus on jobs that pay them, not on improving your interview techniques.

   It pays to work on your interviewing skills well before you get to that stage. A career coach can help you polish those skills. You can’t rely on the recruiter to do that for you.

8. He doesn’t care why the employer didn’t make you the offer.

   Recruiters don’t want to admit that they knew you were the second choice all along or that the employer was just interviewing you to go through the motions. Maybe the top candidate was even someone else he sent in.

   You have to be aware that you are in competition at all times—even with other job seekers your recruiter represents. As such, you have to be prepared to wow the recruiters and employers with a top-notch resume and cover letter, one that will win everyone’s attention, and hone the interview skills that will win you the offer.

9. He won’t tell you the real reason the position you want is on hold.

   Again, a recruiter’s first loyalty is to the companies that pay his commission. So he is not going to tell you that the employer just ordered a budget cut or that they are having a management crisis. And you will be left to wonder if the company put the job on hold to avoid hiring you.

   By honing your interview skills, you will be able to determine those hidden concerns and rely on your own judgment, not your recruiter’s.

10. He won’t tell you the true salary range for the position.

    For internal, corporate recruiters, it is in their best interest to keep the salary range low. It makes them look good if they can have a positive impact on the bottom line, and what better way to save thousands of dollars than by negotiating low?

    For third-party recruiters, their commission is often based on your salary, so they will try to inflate the salary range. This seems like it could work in your benefit—until you find yourself priced out of a job.

    You can avoid leaving dollars on the table and avoid pricing yourself out of a job only by learning negotiation skills that can earn you the salary you truly deserve.

So Portland, if found these tips to be helpful check out some more useful tips here. As always Portland you can always find other useful tips on the blog or at our home page. If anyone has anymore useful job searching tips please feel free to post them in the comment section below.

Weekly EG Publication
Check out this week's great career opportunites:
Professional Healthcare Resources
North American Trade Schools
Maryland Department of Public Safety
Canteen Correctional Services
Baltimore School of Massage
Quality Automotive Warehouse
Gallagher Services
AEX Group

With about 1,500 job seekers coming to our job fair at Mellon Arena on March 24th, the 45 companies and schools in attendance are reporting one of the best qualified groups of job seekers seen in years. We knew this was the largest attendance we have had since 2003. This also coincides with the last time Pittsburgh had seen year over year job losses that approach the levels reported for February. The Pittsburgh Metro unemployment rate rose to 6.9%, up from 6.5% in January. The last time Pittsburgh had a rate this high was 1994. The state unemployment rate was 7.5 % in February and the national rate was 8.1%.

With a diversified economy, the Pittsburgh region has been better off than in past decades when steel and manufacturing accounted for a much higher percentage of jobs. Healthcare and education in particular have helped mitigate the effects of this recession buffering our area from the brunt of job losses like those seen in southern and western states. Also contributing to the relative strength of our economy is a housing industry that, because it was never part of the national housing bubble, has not seen the kinds of declines in housing values seen elsewhere.

Pittsburgh area recruiters that we speak with, though not as pessimistic as over the past three to six months, are still showing extreme caution in their hiring plans going into spring. Until they see a sustained improvement in economic news, job losses in our area will continue to mount. On the plus side, we are starting to see a slight uptick in the search for sales people in various industries.

For more details on the February Pittsburgh job market see the Pittsburgh Tribune Review article here. For more insight into what the numbers mean visit Harold Miller's Pittsburgh's Future blog.

Click on the image below to view a copy of this week's edition of The Employment Guide in Portland.

In today’s job market, we know that job seekers are looking for ways to find employment. The Employment Guide is here to help the young, old and mature get on the right path to a new career.

The doors were opened from 10am until 2pm and this allowed the thousands job seekers to talk with employers and hand them their resumes.

There were about 2,000 + job seekers who attended the job fair at The Baltimore Convention center in hopes of finding a job. Nearly 50 companies in the Baltimore area were looking to hire candidates.

Many job seekers said they were looking for anything they could get. However, with the unemployment rate on the rise and the economy decline, this was the biggest turn out for the job fair yet. The employment Guide host several job fairs every year.

Our job fair at The Baltimore Convention was a complete success!!

The next job fair is scheduled for Tuesday July 21, 2009 from 10am-2pm at The Baltimore Convention center.

Please check out our video from the job fair at http://www.wbaltv.com/money/19012095/detail.html

I recently got a disheartening email from a job seeker we'll call "Ted in California."

Ted's tale of unemployment woe was a familiar one. Yet, if you dig below the surface, as I'll do in this article, you'll find opportunities to fix a failed job search.


Here's an excerpt from Ted's email: "My county is experiencing a 12.5% reported unemployment rate, which means the real unemployment rate is between 18% and 20%."

Kevin's comments: Computing the "real" unemployment rate is like computing the wind chill -- why look for more ways to make yourself miserable?

Here's another way to look at those numbers: 20% unemployment means 80% employment. Eight of 10 people who want a job, have a job.

What other money-paying endeavor offers an 80% success rate? Think of those 8-in-10 odds to boost your confidence level.


Ted: "Most companies are not hiring and attrition is being covered internally. I have investigated about 40 companies and none would even consider taking a paper application."

Kevin: What's stopping you from investigating another 40 companies? Nothing. And who said you had to submit a paper application? Nobody.

Do you see my point? Both of these roadblocks exist only in Ted's mind.

Meanwhile, Ted, how are you following up with the 40 companies you did survey?

Here's a startling fact. Since 1996, I've found that not one unsuccessful job seeker can tell you how they plan to follow up with employers after the first contact. They hear "No" once from a hiring manager and never call or write to them again (email doesn't count).

Put another way, failure to follow up with hiring managers means failure to get hired.

Understand this: "No" from an employer today does not mean "No" tomorrow, nor does it mean, "Never contact us again." If you leave your follow-up entirely to chance, as most unsuccessful job seekers do, you will be as unsuccessful as most job seekers are.

Moreover, there is no such thing as a hiring freeze. Positions open up every day as employees quit, die, retire, or get fired. So if you've contacted 40 employers this week and none have openings, it's statistically improbable that they will still have no openings next week or next month.

With web sites like JibberJobber.com offering free software to help manage your job leads, there is simply no excuse for not contacting hiring managers every few weeks and giving them another reason to hire you. How? Give employers another piece of information that shows you understand their business and can make a contribution. Just set up a Google Alert (www.Google.com/alerts) on a relevant topic and you'll have new tidbits to share every day.

While ordinary job seekers can claim to be diligent, self-motivated, and attentive to detail, when you follow up with employers, you'll prove it. And this makes you extraordinary.


Ted's email: "I heard so many horror stories about people like myself losing their jobs after 10 or 20 years, and there is absolutely nothing out there."

Kevin: Sorry, but you need to save the sob stories for your spouse. They won't make you more employable.

Every complaint you make about a failed job search labels you as damaged goods. Which prevents people from referring you to potential employers, because who wants to recommend damaged goods? This is the brutal reality.

So, go ahead and feel sorry for yourself. Punch a pillow. Yell at the wall. But do so in private. When you walk out the door or pick up the phone, you must project an air of confidence to the public.

How to feel confident? Remember that, unless you've been unemployed your entire life, you've solved this problem before. You've been hired once, and you're worth hiring again. There's a job out there with your name on it. It may not be advertised, or in the city or industry you have in mind, but it is out there.


Ted's email: "The reason I am writing is that I have done everything and more. I cannot find a company that could utilize my skills."

Kevin: You haven't done everything possible to find a job. Otherwise, you'd be working.

Seriously. Just Google "creative ways to find a job" or "guerrilla job hunting" and you'll find at least a dozen ways Ted could connect with employers, none of which he mentioned using.

Finally, I would suggest that Ted -- and you -- should stop trying to "find a company that could utilize my skills." That's what ordinary job seekers do. Instead, find companies with problems to solve. (Hint: There are many).

Then, research these companies to learn about their problems. Talk to people who work there, ask how you could help them do their jobs better, and offer your proposed solutions.

This is what successful networking boils down to, from the employer's viewpoint. They hire only those people who get on their radar and demonstrate that they can solve problems.

The more smart networking conversations you start having, the faster you can get on an employer's radar -- and get hired.


Kevin Donlin is Creator of TheSimpleJobSearch.com. Since 1996, he has provided job-search help to more than 20,000 people. Author of 3 books, Kevin has been interviewed by The New York Times, Fox News, CBS Radio and others. His free report, The Simple Job Search Manifesto, is found at www.TheSimpleJobSearch.com

Some positive news how a local company is helping out job seekers:

Amber Bollinger stood with her mouth open and smiling on Tuesday at the Employment Security Commission in Morganton. That's because Heels.com showed up there to give away lady's shoes. Heels.com is a North Carolina-based online shoe retailer.

The company has been in business for a year and a half, say company representatives. Company representatives arrived just after 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, surprising those who were there looking for jobs or filing for unemployment. The idea was to give away a new pair of shoes to women so they could wear them to job interviews.

"Being a bootstrapped startup, we know what it's like to work through adversity and against the odds," Heels.com spokesperson Linda McCoy said. "Our goal here is just to do what we can to help others work through their difficult period and hopefully bring smiles to a few faces in the process. During times like this, it is often the smallest things that make the biggest difference."

Read the full article By Sharon McBrayer from The News Herald in Morganton, NC.

We've already talked about job seeking being a full time job, and that is only 1 part of the problem. Today we are going to look at 5 quick, key reasons you are not getting the response from employers that you feel you should. If you are guilty of any of these offenses, today is a great day to take action.

1. You are not making your job hunt personal. What we mean here is that you are still sending generic resumes to "whom it may concern." Get personal. Find the names of the HR Directors, hiring managers or the person doing the hiring at the company. Then send them a personal note with a custom resume catered to their company and position that you wish to have.
2. You are looking where everyone else is looking. As a job board, we want you to look at apply to the jobs that we offer on our site. It's a great way to see a mass number of open positions at one time. However, do know that you are competing with a larger number of candidates. Do your homework and find open positions through networking, online searching and leveraging job boards and vertical search engines like Job-A-Lot to uncover hidden gems.
3. You believe every word coming out of the television. If you think everything is all doom and gloom, its time to snap out of it. Florida is a top 5 city for available internships and entry level positions - so you are in a great place to find opportunity. Take a few minutes out of your day to find positivity and you will find yourself having less stress and an open mind towards your job hunt.
4. Bad E-Mails. I say this every time that we have a job fair here in Orlando and it is still a major problem that I can assure you is hampering your job prospects. Read your emails, proof them and then look at them again. Start with the subject line and work your way down. Today alone I had emails with
• No subject
• Subject line that stated, "Look at my resum"
• Opening sentence that read, "You sayed send resume so I sended to you."
5. You are not as productive as you think you are. This is the full time job scenario. Sending out a few resumes in the morning and catching some daytime soaps is not showing determination, initiative or progress. Get into the habit of forming actions that produce successful reactions.

There you have it. I have called out your bluffs, your safety nets and your excuses. All that is left is the hard work that allows you to work hard. Don't forget to prep for the Orlando Job Fair on Thursday, April 16th at the Plaza Theatre, that should be part of your plan!

Happy hunting Orlando!

-Greg Rollett

In the last week, Portland received great news that it was going to land a new MLS expansion team. In 2011 the Portland Timbers will officially become Portland's second major sports franchise. The is great news for those who like sports and those who are looking to work in sports. Bringing a professional sports team to PGE Park will only increase the need for employment with concession stands and box office help. With the Timber's at PGE Park, the Portland Beaver's needed a new home and one of the deal makers on bringing the MLS to Portland was building a new stadium for the Beavers. This will also help with the unemployment issues with bringing in a construction crew to design and build a new stadium. It was also draw more businesses to the Rose Quarter area, which does not have nearly as many places to eat or drink like PGE Park.

In other good news, the FedEx Ground Plant near Troutdale is ahead of schedule in its developement which plans on being a hub for employment, commerical activity, and other spinoff developments. Being that it is the largest construction project in Multnomah County, it will provide lots of local jobs for local people. Also, C.E. John Co. Is ready to open their new riverfront office on the Columbia River. The building will only have one occupant and is looking for up to three more. This could be an ideal location for those looking to expand their business or start a new one. Even the Oregon Zoo is looking to hire for the summer. Those jobs maybe part time, but there are opportunities out there, even when times are tough.

With Seattle PI going web only last week, the Oregonian is gearing up for tough times. They are amidst an expense-reduction plan that will include pay cuts, furloughs, and lay offs for part time employees. This maybe a tough time to break into the journalism business with so many newspapers facing crisis. Even Intel, which is Oregon's largest employer is going through a challenging situation. They are trying to propose letting their employees trade their worthless stocks for fewer options at a lower price. If the shareholders approve, the company hopes to restore options incentive value at a time when it is freezing pay across the board, cutting jobs, and trimming other perks.

Want to see how Oregon spends federal stimulus dollars? Check this website out.

EG Weekly Publication

Check out this week's great career opportunitites:
Chimes
North American Trade Schools
Bed Bath & Beyond
All-State Career
Avon
Harbor Hospital
Cricket
Core-Mark
Lighting Express
The Fudgery

Don't forget to join us at the job fair on Wednesday, March 25th
Where: One West Pratt Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
Time: 10am-2pm

Hope to see you there!!

• Take a nap


• Go for a walk outside


• Turn up the music loud, sing and dance along


• Try a focused meditation


• Play a board game or do a puzzle


• Take a mini-vacation


• Go for a drive


• Try breathing exercises


• Take a yoga class or start a new exercise program


• Keep a journal and write about things that you are grateful for


• Call a friend to vent


• Volunteer or help someone else


• Read a book


• Get a massage


• Go out with friends


• Paint, take a photographs, draw or do something creative

There are plenty of other ideas you can come up with to help relieve stress. While money might be an issue, not all the items on the list require cash. Don't let the recession let you miss out on the fun in life. Having fun is a great stress reliever. Not only that but having a good attitude can actually help you in your job but also in your job search. Positive energy exudes confidence, and confidence is a great quality to show off in an interview.

Add your stress-relievers in the comments! What else helps you to relieve stress?

- Rosie Reilman

2009 Pittsburgh Diversity Employment and Career Education Expo at Mellon Arena
The Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh and EmploymentGuide.com® partner to sponsor “Putting America Back to Work” Job Fair Series in Pittsburgh, PA

This job fair is open to all job seekers and admission is free. Please enter Gate 10 at Mellon Arena from 10AM to 2PM.

Pittsburgh, PA, 3/23/2009– In response to the current economic crisis and a tightening labor market, The Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh and EmploymentGuide.com have combined efforts to bring together jobseekers with companies who seek their talents.

Click on the image below to view a copy of this week's edition of The Employment Guide in Portland.

Photo by Army.mil (top) and The National Guard (bottom)


Because of the economy it seems more people are turning towards alternate resources for their income. Some are starting their own businesses, while others are looking into the military.

“We are seeing more people who are approaching us than we did last spring,” said Lt. Gen. Benjamin Freakley, commander of the Army’s Accessions Command, which oversees recruiting and training.

While the Army’s pitch is geared toward service of country, it also offers up to $40,000 in bonuses to those who qualify for certain jobs. In addition, a soldier can get up to $81,756 to help pay for college through the Montgomery GI Bill and the Army College Fund.

While the Army and military services is a great option, especially with the mentioned benefits along with the experience and leadership skills that you can learn, it's still a pretty significant decision. One that shouldn't be taken lightly, or just for a means of employment.

Most of the years when unemployment went up were during peacetime, Freakley said. This time, the Army is fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

While there are the benefits of a job, bonuses and scholarships, “it’s still a very significant decision to join an Army while a country is at war,” Freakley said.
“It’s not about joining for employment. You’re joining for deployment.”

Although all of the services report meeting recruiting goals, the upsurge is helping the Army, which plans to add 30,000 more active-duty troops by Sept. 30, for a total of 547,000.

Read the full article from The State.

Guest Post by Len Montgomery and Photo by respres

In these days of gloomy of prognostics, I feel it is important to find and acknowledge as many positive aspects of our economy as possible. In doing so, we can offset the pessimism that seems to follow the mainstream media news. In this spirit I would like to share some of the facts that have been skimmed over, or totally overlooked, concerning North Carolina.

Let me begin with our state’s population. North Carolina saw more newcomers to our state versus loss of residents than any other state. For every 100 people who moved away, we saw 180 people move here according to Relocation.com, a moving services website. Now I do not have the exact numbers of the comings and goings, but it has been a significant enough change that the federal government has announced that North Carolina, along with South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, will each receive an additional seat in the House of Representatives.

A good number of those relocating are buying homes. Our office gets a fair number of client relocation referrals. The typical family relocating will finance their home. That means there will be inspections, repairs, insurance, appraisals and a plethora of other services that may be required in the process to approve a home mortgage. Real estate generates a tremendous cash flow into our local economy over and above the cost of property.

With a growing population, new housing will be a necessity. In fact, just this week, Washington reported that new home starts increased over 22% in February all across the nation, with the exception of the west coast. This is still below last years new home starts, but is a very positive step. New housing is typically followed by new shopping centers filled with grocers, banks, restaurants and merchants of all sorts peddling their wares. And who will work, manage or own these new businesses? Sure, some will be big corporations. But more will be folks right here in our own communities.

With a growing population, new jobs are created. Or is the population growing because of the new jobs? Either way, we acquire a larger tax base to draw from for our state and local governments. Spreading out the tax liability helps to hedge off tax increases.

Many of our local residents have been watching the housing market carefully, waiting for the market to hit bottom and so they can swoop in and take advantage of great opportunities. Well, I don’t have a crystal ball, but I feel confident in saying that the time to act is now. Are homes at the lowest prices we are going to see? I don’t know. But I can promise that by the time we’ve all figured out that we are at the very bottom, home prices will be going back up.

One last observation to share: the glass is half full. That’s right. I said it. Although there are many naysayers among us, every fiber of who I am sees the best for our state. I was at a meeting this week where the keynote speaker kindly informed the group that she has chosen not to participate in the recession. What a novel idea! I have adopted this philosophy myself. We have a choice, we can change our attitudes and we will see a change in our results!



Len Montgomery is a REALTOR for GMAC The REALTY Team in Greensboro/High Point/Winston Salem area. Website: www.LenMontgomery.com or call at 336-812-8128.

2009 Pittsburgh Diversity Employment and Career Education Expo at Mellon Arena
The Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh and EmploymentGuide.com® partner to sponsor “Putting America Back to Work” Job Fair Series in Pittsburgh, PA

Pittsburgh, PA, 3/20/2009– In response to the current economic crisis and a tightening labor market, The Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh and EmploymentGuide.com have combined efforts to bring together jobseekers with companies who seek their talents.

People love to tell stories. In fact, it is the most effective way for information to travel. Think of brands that you buy from. Most have a story. Think of a product recommendation from a friend, it usually comes attached with a story.

Looking for a job can be filled with those same stories. Through all the fluff and exxageration that fills resumes and cover letters, a story may be the glue that sticks in a recruiter's mind to grant you that call back, first interview or next step.

The most obvious place to insert a story is in your cover letter. Author Katharine Hansen, of "Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling to Get Jobs and Propel Your Career" cites that;

In a cover letter, you can engage the employer, make an emotional connection, show results, and become instantly memorable by including at least one paragraph in the form of a powerful story.

Some examples the book shares include:

• Stories of early interest in your career path and determination to reach your career goal.
• Stories that depict your motivation, enthusiasm, and passion for the job you seek.
• Stories describing specific projects you've led or collaborated on, including results.
• Stories detailing problems you've solved for your employers.
• Stories describing other accomplishments and successes.
• Stories that reveal your personality.
• Stories describing long-term interest in, knowledge of, and admiration for the organization you're targeting.
• Stories that describe how well you fit in with the organization's culture, values, and mission.
• Stories -- for new graduates -- of how your education has prepared you for the targeted job.
• Stories that touch the heartstrings.
• Stories to back up your claims about yourself.
• Stories that tell how you are uniquely qualified for the targeted job.
• Stories that capitalize on networking contacts.
• Stories to explain unusual or potentially negative situations.
• Stories to explain a career change.
• Future stories that address employer needs and challenges and tell how you would address those issues.

When structuring your story, conduct it like a story that you have told countless times. You should be able to fluidly chat, maintain integrity and timeliness of the story without fail. Go back to the classic interview question, tell me about yourself, and think of ways to insert compelling and inspiring stories that sell yourself as a viable candidate for the position at hand. Be sure that that story paints a picture into the readers imagination and also stays on topic for the job at hand. No need to have handyman stories in a marketing cover letter.

What's your story Orlando? And how can you apply it to your job search? Let us know in the comments.

-Greg Rollett

Read the story first…then watch the video

Rick Reilly for Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated Issue date: June 20, 2005, p. 88

I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay for their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots. But compared with Dick Hoyt, I’m lousy.

Eighty-five times he’s pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times he’s not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars — all in the same day.
Dick’s also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike. Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?
And what has Rick done for his father? Not much — except save his life.

This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.
“He’ll be a vegetable the rest of his life,” Dick says doctors told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. “Put him in an institution.”
But the Hoyts weren’t buying it. They noticed the way Rick’s eyes followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate. “No way,” Dick says he was told. “There’s nothing going on in his brain.”

“Tell him a joke,” Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a lot was going on in his brain.
Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? “Go Bruins!” And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, “Dad, I want to do that.” Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described “porker” who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he tried. “Then it was me who was handicapped,” Dick says. “I was sore for two weeks.”

That day changed Rick’s life. “Dad,” he typed, “when we were running, it felt like I wasn’t disabled anymore!” And that sentence changed Dick’s life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon. “No way,” Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren’t quite a single runner, and they weren’t quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then they found a way to get into the race officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the following year.
Then somebody said, “Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?” How’s a guy who never learned to swim and hadn’t ridden a bike since he was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick tried.

Now they’ve done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii. It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don’t you think? Hey, Dick, why not see how you’d do on your own? “No way,” he says. Dick does it purely for “the awesome feeling” he gets seeing Rick with a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.

This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best time? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992 — only 35 minutes off the world record, which, in case you don’t keep track of these things, happens to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time. “No question about it,” Rick types. “My dad is the Father of the Century.”

And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries was 95% clogged. “If you hadn’t been in such great shape,” one doctor told him, “you probably would’ve died 15 years ago.” So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other’s life.

Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass., always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father’s Day. That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy. “The thing I’d most like,” Rick types, “is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once.”

The though of writing a resume can be intimidating because it is difficult to know where to start and what to include. It’s important to take the time and make sure that all your experience is documented appropriately because your resume is a very important document that can make or break whether you receive a job interview.

Your resume is the only thing you have to make a good impression on the company that you are applying with, and could be the deciding factor between you and another candidate with same amount of experience. Take the extra time to make sure your resume outlines every single job responsibility in a concise manner.

Here are ten (10) tips in writing for good resume writing.
1.Use a headline that matches the job you want- Most employers receive hundreds of resumes and take a quick 5 second glance. Use job titles and skill headings that relate to the job you want.
2.Spell-check- Always click the spell check button. A recruiter or hiring manager may skip over your resume since they see you didn’t take the time to correct spelling errors.
3.Use proper English- When you are writing about a current job use present tense and when you are writing about a past job use past tense.
For example:
CDE Company 1/2005 Present responsibilities: Answering phones, scheduling appointments
QRS Company 2/2005-3/2008 Responsibilities: Answered phones, scheduled appointments.
4.Format your resume so that it is easy to read-A giant paragraph of one sentence after the other all jumbled together is difficult for an employer to read. Use bullets because the organize each job responsibility and makes it easier to read
5.Tweak and target your resume and cover letter-you will increase your chance of receiving an interview by tweaking your resume and cover letter so that address the specific skills each employer request.
6.Remember your resume is a business document-Avoid any pictures, and hobbies unless they directly relate to the job description.

Read the story first…then watch the video

Rick Reilly for Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated Issue date: June 20, 2005, p. 88

I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay for their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots. But compared with Dick Hoyt, I’m lousy.

Eighty-five times he’s pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times he’s not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars — all in the same day.
Dick’s also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike. Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?
And what has Rick done for his father? Not much — except save his life.

This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.
“He’ll be a vegetable the rest of his life,” Dick says doctors told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. “Put him in an institution.”
But the Hoyts weren’t buying it. They noticed the way Rick’s eyes followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate. “No way,” Dick says he was told. “There’s nothing going on in his brain.”

“Tell him a joke,” Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a lot was going on in his brain.
Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? “Go Bruins!” And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, “Dad, I want to do that.” Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described “porker” who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he tried. “Then it was me who was handicapped,” Dick says. “I was sore for two weeks.”

That day changed Rick’s life. “Dad,” he typed, “when we were running, it felt like I wasn’t disabled anymore!” And that sentence changed Dick’s life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon. “No way,” Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren’t quite a single runner, and they weren’t quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then they found a way to get into the race officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the following year.
Then somebody said, “Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?” How’s a guy who never learned to swim and hadn’t ridden a bike since he was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick tried.

Now they’ve done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii. It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don’t you think? Hey, Dick, why not see how you’d do on your own? “No way,” he says. Dick does it purely for “the awesome feeling” he gets seeing Rick with a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.

This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best time? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992 — only 35 minutes off the world record, which, in case you don’t keep track of these things, happens to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time. “No question about it,” Rick types. “My dad is the Father of the Century.”

And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries was 95% clogged. “If you hadn’t been in such great shape,” one doctor told him, “you probably would’ve died 15 years ago.” So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other’s life.

Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass., always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father’s Day. That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy. “The thing I’d most like,” Rick types, “is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once.”

Floating around the Internet today, I saw a glimpse of hope for job seekers that companies are through with the layoffs and they are going to need to bring on top talent once again. Standout Jobs has produced a report that features responses from 450+ HR executives and recruiters. In the report they asked about future vision for their company and how they would be looking to source for the talent.

Here are a few results:

• 41% of respondents believe hiring will increase from Q2-Q4 2009.
• Social networks dominate as the most important recruiting trend, but candidate relationship management is a close second.
• 27% of respondents believe that a lack of qualified applicants will be the biggest hurdle over the next 5 years.
• 43% of respondents are not actively implementing recruiting strategies for younger Gen Y and Gen X job seekers. This is extremely surprising.

The first stat is good news to job seekers here in Orlando, where we would love to see an increase in talent acquisition in our larger corporations.

The second point is equally as important. As more companies look to social media and online sourcing objectives, you are going to need to continue to develop your skills and your online brand. Being out of work is no excuse to stop learning, progressing and preparing to wow employers with your net worth.

Happy hunting Orlando and keep your head in the game!

-Greg Rollett

EG Weekly Publication March 16th-March 22nd

Check out this week's great career opportunities:
North American Trade Schools
Prestige Delivery Systems
Fleet Transit, Inc.
Lifetouch National Studios
BurgerKing
Genesis Healthcare
Oakcrest
Matthew's Media/NIDA
Allines
C&S Wholesale Grocers, Inc.

Today marks a sad but current trend that happening to a lot of newspapers in the United States. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is going web only and halting its printing presses completly. It had been printing newspapers for the last 146 years making it Seattle's oldest business when it started in December 1863. That is a long time ago and time have changed radically since then. Though the presses may be stopped, The Hearst Corp. which own the newspapers rights said that it would keep seattlepi.com and make it the nation's largest web only newspaper. The Seattle P-I might the largest newspaper to go web only, but it is not the only one in trouble. Here is list of the 10 most endangered newspapers in the country right now. Number 6 on that list is the San Francisco Chronicle, which is also own by Hearst. This might be the second major newspaper in the Northwest to go web only. Even some of the smaller Northwest papers like The News Tribune Tacoma, and The Olympian are cutting back staff and reducing payroll. I know that there are a lot of websites and other newspapers from which to get your news on a daily basis, but this is truly an odd and groundbreaking day in the Northwest.

Here in Oregon, more and more companies are feeling the weight of the recession such as Weyerhaeuser Lumber Mill and Lithia Motors. Weyerhaeuser is shutting down its lumber mill in Dallas, Oregon due the lack of demand for wood to build homes. This ties right into the housing market that is not recession proof either. Medford based, Lithia Motors on the other hand is reporting a loss of $252.6 million for 2008. Since the midyear announcement, Lithia has sold 17 of it stores and is looking to sell 12 more. That is bad news for those in the automotive industry.

The news does not get any better for the state of Oregon as it was announced on Monday that the unemployment rate is now 10.8% in Oregon. This is the first time that Oregon's unemployment has been in double digits since 1984. That is 25 years folks! Here is another article on the subject. However, the numbers that are reported might be off, but in the wrong direction. They might actually be higher than intially thought. That can not be exciting to hear, but at the Employment Guide, we are always here to help.

So in closing Portland, what are your thoughts on the Seattle P-I becoming the largest web only newspaper? And, what are your thoughts about the businesses that are hurting and directly effecting other markets? Let us know in the comments below.

Here is a shirt clip of Jeff Lebel on FOX News talking about job fairs, how the Employment Guide is helping "Put America Back to Work" and how to succeed at an event like this.



For those looking for more information on our next job fair here in Orlando, please visit the EmploymentGuide.com.

-Greg Rollett

Photo by slushpup

Economists say that when the economy takes a dive, it is common for people to turn to their inner entrepreneur to try to make their own work. But they say that it takes months for that mentality to sink in, and that this is about the time in the economic cycle when it really starts to happen — when the formerly employed realize that traditional job searches are not working, and that they are running out of time and money.

This is a guest post by Donna Ray Chmura, Esq. Sands Anderson Marks & Miller, P.C. Photo is by Andrew Feinberg.

Click on the image below to view a copy of this week's edition of The Employment Guide in Portland.

The North Carolina Employment Security Commission just released the January unemployment figures, and it’s not a pretty picture. The unemployment rate increased from 8.1% in December to 9.7% in January…..oh woe is me, the sky is falling! What will we do? What will we do?

Don’t let yourself fall for the blood and guts, doom and gloom reports that are constantly bombarding us from just about every media outlet we come across. The age of instant access, 24-hour news is both a blessing and a curse. Sure it’s great to be able to keep up with what’s happening right now, but as media outlets compete for viewers/listeners/readers they are always going to lead with the most sensational story they can produce; and usually that story is the poor economy and job losses. Don’t allow yourself to be drawn in.

A great example of all of the doom and gloom is the recent reporting on local job fairs in the Carolinas. Many of the local news outlets began their coverage with live reports about the large number of job seekers at these events, and continued with interviews of those same job seekers, but mainly the ones who have been out of work for a long time and were not successful at the job fair. The stories then evolved into, “Job Fairs. Are they worth your time?” So called “experts” suggested that it was a waste of time attending a job fair. Typical reporting of the worst part of the story!

Very few of the media outlets reported on the number of job seekers who actually found a job or had a follow up interview scheduled. Which story is the most sensational….”Thousands line up looking for a job!” or “Hundreds find jobs!”

Sure, the number of jobs available is less than in the past, and the types of jobs may not be exactly what we are looking for, but there are jobs out there. As a nation we can’t allow ourselves to be pulled down by all of the bad news. You have probably heard the saying, "Perception is reality." If we all believe that there is no end to the current recession, then that is going to be our reality. On the other hand, if we all believe that things will get better, then they will. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but they will. We’ve been here before and have always come back better and stronger than before.

No matter what your political philosophy is, or whether or not you are a supporter of our new President, one point we should all agree upon when it comes to an economic recovery is “Yes We Can!”

2009 Pittsburgh Diversity Employment and Career Education Expo at Mellon Arena
The Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh and EmploymentGuide.com® partner to sponsor “Putting America Back to Work” Job Fair Series in Pittsburgh, PA

Pittsburgh, PA, 3/12/2009– In response to the current economic crisis and a tightening labor market, The Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh and EmploymentGuide.com have combined efforts to bring together jobseekers with companies who seek their talents.

Sometimes it takes a change of scenery to create excitement, provoke action and create opportunity. That is the reason we moved our April job fair to Orlando's historic Plaza Theatre. We are bringing in new light to our job fairs, based on feedback from job seekers, companies and looking at other events and tactics that can help you find a new job, career or educational opportunity to improve the value of your life.

The event will take place on Thursday, April 16th from 10am - 2pm and will not only include some great local companies, but also high level speakers, presenters and workshops to enhance your job seeking experience far beyond this one day event. We all understand that looking for a job is like a full time job, and one day at an event is not the end all be all for most job seekers. With this in mind, we have been working with local leaders, government officials, financial institutions and community advocates to bring together a job fair EVENT.

The schedule is as follows:

• 10:15 - 11:00 'Looking for a Job in the Current Economic Climate'
  
• 11:00 - 1145 'Personal Branding and the Power of the Internet' by Mark Krupinski
  
• 11:45 - 12:30 'State of the City' (presented by a City or County Government Official)
  
• 12:30 - 1:15 'Navigating EmploymentGuide.com and its Suite of Web Sites by Patrick O'Brien'
  
• 1:15 - 2:00 'Advanced Tactics for Online Job Seekers' by Greg Rollett

Please come prepared to meet with companies, bring your resumes and also bring hard hitting questions, ideas and an open mind to learn new methods, tactics and hacks to find jobs, networking opportunities and career improvements.

For more information on the job fair, please send an email to greg.rollett@employmentguide.com and I will do my best to get it answered as quickly as possible.

More updates, companies and information can be found on the official job fair page here.

Happy hunting Orlando and we'll see you on Monday.

-Greg Rollett

Job fairs are typically fair-like environments, in that employees assemble in rows of booths to speak to you about their jobs. They take place on college campuses, hotels, arenas and auditoriums.

Employers at some of the larger job fairs buy sophisticated booths to show off their products and services. That’s to attract your attention and “sell’ you on the companies. The event producers provide giveaways, networking and knowledge events and other activities to make it more festive, a fair-like atmosphere. Candidates walk up and down the rows of booths essentially “shopping” for jobs.

Job fairs are excellent places to land employment, because employers are there to set up interviews for candidates. Some interview and hire on the spot. No employer is going to hand you a job on a silver platter, you have to sell yourself if you want you resume to go into the “maybe” stack.

Here are some helpful tips to take with you to our job fair on March 25th, 2009.
Before the Job Fair:
•Find out what businesses will be there. The more information you can gather beforehand, the more successful the job fair is going to be for you
•Develop some questions you'd like to ask employers. Narrow down your list of businesses to include those who have positions you are interested in, or are businesses you think you might like to work for
•Proofread your resume - at least twice. If you don't already have one, it is a good idea to put a resume together for a job fair and make sure you have updated contact information included on your resume

At the Job Fair:
•Dress the part. As with a job interview, first impressions at a job fair are important. How you represent yourself sends an immediate message to employers about how serious you are in your job search
•Take time to talk to employers. Don't just drop off a resume and move to the next booth
•Have a firm handshake and maintain eye contact. Let employers know how serious you are. Greet the employer with a firm handshake, and maintain eye contact throughout your conversation

After the Job Fair:
•Follow up with a thank you note. If you picked up a business card, or the name of the company's job fair representative, send a thank you note a day or two after the job fair

The Baltimore Employment Guide wishes you luck in your job search. Please feel free to leave any comments of your past job fair experience.

You hear a lot of talk these days about personal branding and how you should brand yourself in a job search.

But you hear very little about how you should sell yourself to employers.

Yet, I submit, that if you want to get hired as quickly as possible, you should be selling yourself as much as possible ? and let the branding take care of itself.

First, let's define branding and sales, as they apply to a job search. Then decide for yourself which to focus on.

In my view, your "brand" is simply your reputation -- it's what other people think about you when you're not in the room. The concept of personal branding was first popularized in "The Brand Called You," a 1997 magazine article by Tom Peters.

Now, branding is a fine way to get recruited by employers and headhunters who learn of your excellent reputation. You can build your brand through public speaking, publishing books and articles, writing a blog, networking with influential people, displaying emotional intelligence at work, etc.

Problem: You can?t build a brand called you (or anything else) overnight. So branding is not an effective strategy to find work fast.

Selling, on the other hand, can and does produce rapid results.

And by rapid, I mean overnight.

Clients of mine, and other job-search experts who know how to sell, have been called for interviews within 24 hours of submitting effective letters and resumes to employers -- even employers who have ignored prior applications.

Example: Debi C. from suburban Dallas, Texas and Robert B. from West Chester, Penn., found new jobs in the past 10 days after first targeting a list of ideal employers, submitting resumes that emphasized results and included testimonials, writing cover letters that emulated sales letters, and following up with employers by phone and/or mail.

These tactics -- emphasizing results, using testimonials, sending sales letters, and following up -- are Sales 101. Yet, how many are you using in your job search?

Let?s look at two more ways to sell yourself to employers.

1) Get read to get hired
What?s the one letter that always gets opened? FedEx. Smart marketers know this and send sales letters for big-ticket items via express delivery.

To make sure your cover letter gets read, send it FedEx 2-Day to the decision maker (never HR) at an employer. It costs less than $10-15 in most cases.

Can you do this for every job? No. Can you do this for your dream job? Yes, if your dream job is worth $15.

2) Sell to past customers
Any sales pro can tell you it?s easier to generate new business from existing customers than to convince new ones to buy.

Yet, how many of your past employers have you called about your job search?

Example: After being unemployed for six months, Eric H., a design engineer from Ohio, came to me for resume writing help.

I suggested he call past employers to request letters of recommendation, because those are valuable documents to bring to a job interview.

Four days later, he sent me an email: ?Thanks to you making me call old employers for recommendations, one of them just offered me a great job!?

It turns out that a prior employer needed someone with Eric?s skills. Because Eric had done good work before and was a fit for the corporate culture, he was immediately offered the new position.

Now. You may or may not get offered a new job by your old boss.

But you can call and discuss your search with past co-workers, managers, and clients, which can lead to new employment leads. Tip: Offer to help people you call with the work they?re doing now. That way, you?ll be seen as welcome guest and not a bothersome pest.

In the final analysis, personal branding is a future side-effect that you can?t control, while selling is a present action that you can control.

Selling yourself to employers can get you hired fast. I recommend it as your first course of action if you?re unemployed. Yet, branding has its place.

Example: If you write a white paper on your industry and mail it to an employer to prove your expertise, that?s selling. If you upload that white paper to your blog or your Facebook profile, where it can be found by employers next month or next year, that?s branding. And that?s smart.

If you strengthen your reputation -- online and off -- during your job search, you will build your personal brand as a happy accident. And your next job may find you, as more hiring authorities discover you.

That way, you can have your job and build your brand, too.

Kevin Donlin is Creator of TheSimpleJobSearch.com. Since 1996, he has provided job-search help to more than 20,000 people. Author of 3 books, Kevin has been interviewed by The New York Times, Fox News, CBS Radio and others. His free report, The Simple Job Search Manifesto, is found at www.TheSimpleJobSearch.com

What is a Pink Slip Party?

2009 Pittsburgh Diversity Employment and Career Education Expo at Mellon Arena
The Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh and EmploymentGuide.com® partner to sponsor “Putting America Back to Work” Job Fair Series in Pittsburgh, PA

Pittsburgh, PA, 3/11/2009– In response to the current economic crisis and a tightening labor market, The Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh and EmploymentGuide.com have combined efforts to bring together jobseekers with companies who seek their talents.

Click on the button below to listen now.

Listen in WINAMP or iTUNES

In today's job market it seems that the companies that are offering jobs, job seekers are not finding matches. A lot of people are settling for positions that they are over qualified for, just because the supply of jobs just is not there. According to Rebecca Morrison-Stoney, the CEO and President of Portland-based Advantage Staffing, "What we have is a lot of mismatches, with people working in the lower wage jobs just because they’re willing." “It’s a disaster. It’s bad for American industry. It’s bad for employees. It’s a lose-lose all around." That speaks volumes for were we are at with today's job market. Staffing agencies typically serve as the bellweathers for the economy and this is the situation we are faced with today.

However, for those not willing to settle on finding work through staffing agencies or first thing that comes around, there are other options. Take for example, this list from the magazine Fast Company. These companies might not be hiring up front, but this is great list on how to incorporate their products into recruiting needs, therefore generating more work. Here in the Portland area, KeyBank announced that they are starting construction on a Columbia Tech Center branch that will be open by 2010. It is a part of a three-year expanison that could bring up to 20 new offices to the area. This is great news for those looking to get into the banking business. Another example would be Kroger, who owns Fred Meyer. Kroger posted a fourth quarter profit for 2008, which could very well mean that they are hiring and not cutting jobs.

With the job market the way it is, and with new people looking for work in high volumes. A lot of people have started going back to school. Here in the Portland area, the enrollment at Portland State University jumped up 5.5% this year. That is double the amount from last year and Portland Community College is up 10.5%. This shows that not everyone is settling for work and trying to gain an edge on those searching for jobs.

So in closing Portland, what are you doing in hopes to find work? Are you taking the first thing that comes your way or are you holding out for something that you want? Is going back to school the best option right? We here at the Employment Guide are on your side and want to help! Let us know what is on your mind in the comments below.

EG Weekly Publication

Look at these Great Career Opportunities:
First Transit
Mercy Ridge
FutureCare Northpoint
Vantage House
North American Trade Schools
Oak Crest
All-State Career
Allines
Eyre Bus Service
Wackenhut Corporation
American Beauty Academy
CES Security

2009 Pittsburgh Diversity Employment and Career Education Expo at Mellon Arena
The Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh and EmploymentGuide.com® partner to sponsor “Putting America Back to Work” Job Fair Series in Pittsburgh, PA

Pittsburgh, PA, 3/06/2009– In response to the current economic crisis and a tightening labor market, The Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh and EmploymentGuide.com have combined efforts to bring together jobseekers with companies who seek their talents.

Click on the image below to view a copy of this week's edition of The Employment Guide in Portland.

Having put on job fairs in the Pittsburgh region for almost ten years now, we have seen the events evolve over time from both an employer and job seeker standpoint. With the maturation (and use) of the Internet as used for recruiting purposes more employers use job fairs today as a way to get face time with some of those resumes they get from their websites. Some employers consider a job fair to be informational as much as a direct interview-hire event. Many companies will actually interview at the event but still ask that you “apply online”.

Job seekers who have been to multiple job fairs over the years have a better understanding of this and therefore come better prepared. Quite often we hear job seekers complain that the particular employer they came to see was not actually interviewing at the event. Because of this they were disappointed and considered the event a waste of their time.

Although many employers do still interview at job fairs it is important for job seekers to understand what to expect from the company they most want to see. This can be done by researching the company website, looking for whether they accept applications on their website (look for a tab that says “Careers”). If you see a company is going to be at an event and want to know what to expect by going to speak with them CALL the company ahead of time and ask (do not rely on email as this has become too impersonal – you want to make an impression). Often representatives will be able to tell you what their policies are. If they will be interviewing at the event, you’ll be sure of this beforehand and can prepare accordingly. If they are there for informational purposes, that also is great! The people you speak with will usually be from the human resources department and will be a great source of information on work environment, benefits, pay structure and who an “ideal” candidate would be. This gives you an opportunity to customize your resume before you submit it on the company website and increase your chances of getting an interview. You also may find out the job isn’t really what you were looking for and allows you to focus your job searching efforts in a better direction.

Whether you are a job seeker or a recruiter those that get the most from any job fair are those who best sell themselves and either their skill-set or the company they represent. Company representatives should never just sit behind their tables frowning at job seekers as they walk by. Stand in front of your table and greet people. Job seekers should always smile and be prepared to ask lots of questions about the company and what it is like to work there.

Having a the best possible idea of what you will get at a job fair ahead of time, whether you are doing the hiring or looking for employment, will help make any job fair better and more productive for you.

2009 Pittsburgh Diversity Employment and Career Education Expo at Mellon Arena
The Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh and EmploymentGuide.com® partner to sponsor “Putting America Back to Work” Job Fair Series in Pittsburgh, PA

Pittsburgh, PA, 2/27/2009– In response to the current economic crisis and a tightening labor market, The Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh and EmploymentGuide.com have combined efforts to bring together jobseekers with companies who seek their talents.

FedEx Office (formerly FedEx Kinko's) is going to be helping out a lot of job seekers. Next Tuesday, March 10th they will be doing their part to get Orlando and the rest of the country working again. Anyone that comes into their stores during business hours can receive up to 25 copies of their resume printed - free of charge.

Read more from their press center here: FedEx Free Resume Printing

And for those of you in Central Florida, here is a list of locations to get your resume printed for free next Tuesday:

FedEx Kinko's Office & Print Center
47 E Robinson St, Suite 105
Orlando, FL 32801
(407) 839-5000
View details, directions & map

FedEx Kinko's Office & Print Center
350 W Fairbanks Ave
Winter Park, FL 32789
(407) 644-2971
View details, directions & map

FedEx Kinko's Office & Print Center
1084 Lee Rd, Suite 6
Orlando, FL 32810
(407) 298-5045
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FedEx Kinko's Office & Print Center
2145 Aloma Ave
Winter Park, FL 32792
(407) 677-9950
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FedEx Kinko's Office & Print Center
7200 S Orange Blossom Trail
Orlando, FL 32809
(407) 240-6610
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FedEx Kinko's Signs & Graphics Center
7200 S Orange Blossom Trail
Orlando, FL 32809
(407) 240-8466
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FedEx Kinko's Office & Print Center
3120 S Kirkman Rd
Orlando, FL 32811
(407) 298-7383
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FedEx Kinko's Office & Print Center
400 S Orlando Ave, Suite 102
Maitland, FL 32751
(407) 539-0502
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FedEx Kinko's Office & Print Center
6651 S Semoran Blvd, Suite 107
Orlando, FL 32822
(407) 856-1277
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FedEx Kinko's Office & Print Center
7828 W Colonial Dr
Orlando, FL 32818
(407) 523-0202
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FedEx Kinko's Office & Print Center
175 E Altamonte Dr, Suite 1050
Altamonte Springs, FL 32701
(407) 260-8371
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FedEx Kinko's Office & Print Center
150 S State Rd 434, Suite 1091
Altamonte Springs, FL 32714
(407) 682-4440
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FedEx Kinko's Office & Print Center
5264 Red Bug Lake Rd, Suite 7
Winter Springs, FL 32708
(407) 695-2496
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FedEx Kinko's Convention & Universities
4040 Central Florida Pkwy
Jw Marriott Grand La
Orlando, FL 32837
(407) 226-0305
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FedEx Kinko's Convention & Universities
9800 International Dr
Orlando Convention C
Orlando, FL 32819
(407) 363-2831
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FedEx Kinko's Office & Print Center
11325 University Blvd, Suite 200
Orlando, FL 32817
(407) 282-4260
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FedEx Kinko's Office & Print Center
899 N Alafaya Tr
Orlando, FL 32828
(407) 658-9518
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FedEx Kinko's Convention & Universities
6677 Sea Harbor Dr
Renaissance Hotel
Orlando, FL 32821
(407) 226-2113
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FedEx Kinko's Office & Print Center
12181 S Apopka Vineland Rd
Orlando, FL 32836
(407) 465-0085
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FedEx Kinko's Office & Print Center
3295 Greenwald Way N, Suite B
Kissimmee, FL 34741
(407) 933-6760
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For more locations, please visit FedEx Office.

Happy hunting Orlando!

Want to put an end to your job-search worries?

You can.

Or at least, you can channel worries into positive action that moves you closer to employment every day.

That's a message I got from the book, "100 Ways to Motivate Yourself," by Steve Chandler, who writes:

The next time you're worried about something, ask yourself, "What small thing can I do right now?" Then do it. Remember not to ask, "What could I possibly do to make this whole thing go away?" That question does not get you into action at all.

There are two important implications here:

1. One small action is more productive than any amount of worry, and
2. Trying to solve all your job search problems in one fell swoop can paralyze you with confusion.

Let's tackle the second one first.

No matter who you are, you'll almost never go from unemployed to hired in one day, just as you can't lose 50 lbs. in a week or master French in an afternoon.

Heck, even Barry Bonds has been out of work for over a year, despite his Hall-of-Fame resume.

So stop tearing your hair out. You probably won't get hired from one action, but many. It may take a week, or several months, but the job you seek is out there and you will get it after you've taken enough of the right actions.

With that said, here are three ways you can stop worrying about your job search by taking small, positive actions today, each of which requires only 15 minutes ...


1) Call one person
We all know someone well-connected to potential job leads, with whom we haven't spoken in months or years. Pick one person and call them today, just to say hello.

Be sure to do one thing: Ask, "What would help you do your job better these days?" Then write their reply down.

After you hang up, brainstorm ways to help your friend do his/her job. You can ask other people in your network or Google for ideas. Keep going until you find at least one promising idea. You will then have an excuse to call your friend back tomorrow.

This will do two things: jump-start a dormant relationship and put you top of mind with a well-connected friend, both of which will make them more likely to send you employment leads.


2) Research one ideal employer
Have you ever submitted a resume to a blind ad online or in the newspaper, one that told you nothing about the company? And how did that work out?

By contrast, the more you know about an employer, the clearer your path to employment will become. It could be that a manager there went to the same school as you, or you go to the same church as the CIO, or they sell to a client you used to work for.

There are literally thousands of ways to make a connection with your next boss and stand out from ordinary job seekers. But you'll never know until you research the 10-20 companies you want to work for.

Why not pick one employer today and spend 15 minutes learning all you can about their employees, corporate culture, clients, problems, and opportunities?

Then try to make a connection based on your experience, education, and network of contacts.


3) Write down five scary interview questions
What's the last question on earth you want to be asked in a job interview?

Is it, "Why did you leave your last position?" Or, "What are your salary requirements?" Or, the dreaded, "What's your biggest weakness?"

Whatever questions scare you, write them down.

Something magical happens when you write a problem on paper. It's like shining a light under the bed to check for monsters -- when you see things clearly, most of the fear factor vanishes.

Also, any interview question that scares you has been asked before. Which means there's an answer for it. And you can find that answer by searching online, reading a book, or asking a friend who works in HR.


Now. What if I haven't addressed your job-search worries in this article?

No problem. Simply write down whatever is bothering you, whether it's your age, lack of experience, the job market in your city, etc.

Then, spend just 5 minutes doing something about each worry today.

Will you solve all your job-search problems in 5 or 15 minutes? No. Will you be taking action toward solving those problems? Yes. And action dispels worry, just as sunlight dispels fog.

As Steve Chandler writes: "When you find yourself worrying about something, ask yourself the action question, 'What can I do about this right now?' And then do something. Anything. Any small thing."

Prove it for yourself and try it today.


Kevin Donlin is Creator of TheSimpleJobSearch.com. Since 1996, he has provided job-search help to more than 20,000 people. Author of 3 books, Kevin has been interviewed by The New York Times, Fox News, CBS Radio and others. His free report, The Simple Job Search Manifesto, is found at www.TheSimpleJobSearch.com.

The Baltimore Employment Guide is hosting their first job fair for 2009 at The Baltimore Convention Center on March 25th. There will be employers recruiting from Baltimore County and surrounding areas. The job fair will be a great opportunity to hand your resume to a recruiter and talk to them face to face. Please be sure to dress to impress the employers and bring plenty of resumes. Please check back for a complete list of companies that will be attending.

2009 Pittsburgh Diversity Employment and Career Education Expo at Mellon Arena
The Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh and EmploymentGuide.com® partner to sponsor “Putting Americans Back to Work” Job Fair Series in Pittsburgh, PA

Pittsburgh, PA, 2/27/2009– In response to the current economic crisis and a tightening labor market, The Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh and EmploymentGuide.com have combined efforts to bring together jobseekers with companies who seek their talents.

EG Weekly Publication

Check out this week's great career opportunities:
Tesst College of Technology
Corporate Express
North American Trade Schools
Allines
All-State Career
Gallagher Services
MV Transportation
National Aquarium
ColorTyme
The Arc of Central Chesapeake Region
Capital City Nurses
Oak Crest

Yesterday was a bad day for the stock market and today has not been any better, and many of us are still in the same situation that does not seem to be getting any better any faster. This is truly a scary time for a lot of people, and not just in Oregon. People are saving were they can and not trying to buy extravagant things. Take for example, Monaco the RV maker. They have had great success as one of the areas major employers. Now they are struggling to stay in business and had to let 2000 employees go. If the market is drying up for auto industry, RV's are definitely included in that discussion.

However, the job market and the economy are not suffering across the board and have some hope moving forward. Starbucks just announce that it would not be making anymore job cuts for the time being. They have also revamped their product by changing up the menu and now offering instant coffee. It is coffee on the go for under a dollar per serving which is nice because Starbucks can be a bit pricey. Another success story comes from Bend Factory Stores in Bend, Oregon. The outlet mall that caters to tourists and locals alike, has been fairly successful during the recession. Their 2008 sales were flat compared with 2007 sales. That is really good for retail with today's market being the way it is. In other news, a small Vancouver based website called Dotster Inc. bought two new web companies and sold a part of its own as a part of a new strategic focus on serving businesses. With the market for domain registering being so competitive, Dotster has decided to expand by offering entry-level rates for business web site design and associated business and marketing services.

All in all, there are jobs out there and they might not be plentiful or in a field of interest, but they do exist. So Portland, let us know about some success stories in today's market. And as always The Employment Guide is here to help. Feel free to leave your comments in the section below.

We received this notice from Facebook…

Do you know someone who is looking for a new, more rewarding career or is currently unemployed? Please help us pass on the information below!

On March 30, the Emmaus Community of Pittsburgh, in conjunction with CCAC and other providers, will be commencing the second session of it's FREE 8-week training program, the Direct Support Professional Education Program.

As unemployment in our region climbs, the need for direct support professionals who work with persons with intellectual disabilities (mental retardation) in community residential settings (i.e., group homes) remains high! If you or someone you know is interested in exploring a new career helping others, please contact us for more information or for an application by calling 412-381-0277.

The class runs 8 weeks and is held at the CCAC-Northside campus. Participants receive training on the history and current state of the MR system and the job responsibilities of a direct support professional, as well as a hands-on practicum with a local provider and all of the certifications required for hire in the field (including CPR/First Aid and medication administration).

This is a FANTASTIC opportunity to get involved in a highly rewarding line of work. The course is provided FREE of charge, thanks to a generous grant from FISA Foundation. All graduates receive a Certificate from CCAC and are qualified to work as direct support professionals with potential for advancement in the field.For more info, please call Emmaus at 412-381-0277.

Click on the image below to view a copy of this week's edition of The Employment Guide in Portland.