The Ten-Minute Job Search
By Lisa Correu, Principal/Job Search Advocate AfterSchool Career Workshops
Looking for a job doesn’t always have to be an all-day, um, job. There are things you can do in just a few minutes that will take the edge off the anxiety when you might not have time for a deeper commitment. Here are five things to choose from that you can do in ten minutes to keep your momentum going.
What If You Don’t Want a Job? (…Or Can’t Find a Job?) Consider Making Your Own.
By Kathryn Lorenzen, Principal/Career Development Coach
Not everyone is cut out to be an employee. Some people would rather gnaw off their own foot than sign on to someone else’s rules, mission, and payroll. They’d just feel too trapped or like they’d sold out.
And not everyone who wants a job upon graduation will be able to find one quickly. The unemployment rate for young adults age 20 to 24 is uncomfortably high (15.4%, by a recent government estimate, compared to 8.9% for the general population).
So, what’s the alternative? Since minimum-wage jobs will generally not allow you to be self-supporting, some new graduates make the decision to become entrepreneurs, providing a basic service to individuals or businesses. And some do quite well, thank you, as either a freelancer or a dedicated business.
What are the qualities that help you succeed if this is the road you choose, or that chooses you?
What Can You Build with Job Boards? Not Exactly What You’d Think
By Kathryn Lorenzen, Principal/Career Development Coach, AfterSchool Career Workshops
Here's something you might be interested in, especially if you're soon-to-graduate and spending lots of time on job boards. Did you know there are over 55,000 job boards online? And here's the kicker: the two largest, monster and careerbuilder, represent only 1.5% of the employers in the U.S. (Let that sink in for a minute.)
So... what are job boards good for? Probably two important things:
1. They're a very good source to research job titles and job descriptions so you can pinpoint the kind of job you're targeting, fully understand the basic accountabilities, and make sure your resume highlights the qualifications you have that are relevant.
2. They're also great for survey information on what categories of business or organizations are hiring, so that you can flesh out your own list of people and enterprises to target for connecting.
Here's an efficient method for getting what you need from job boards: Set it and forget it. Find on online aggregator tool that you like, such as www.indeed.com, or at www.mylandajob.com. Set it up to search for you. Then use your discretionary time to do personal contact work, which has a much higher likelihood of yielding a job opportunity for you.