Employment News Minnesota offers
you the latest career opportunities, the
best employment search advice and
the most pickup locations of any other
employment publication in the
Twin Cities.
Online and all around town, Employment News Minnesota is working for you!
Online and all around town, Employment News Minnesota is working for you!
Job Seeker Advice
Helpful employment information and advice for job seekers. View our archive of advice articles here.
Helpful employment information and advice for job seekers. View our archive of advice articles here.
Job Seeker Advice
If you're looking for relevant articles with helpful resources, we've got you covered. With everything from career advice to interviewing tips to trends in the job market, these articles will help you effectively manage your job search.
About our contributors
Becky Cole
Becky Cole has been a contributing columnist for the Employment News since 2008, where she shares her experience and expertise on a variety of career and job-search issues.
A strong believer in volunteerism, Becky has worked with Job Corps students for over 18 years with job search and other employment-related services. Another strength of Becky’s is her work with non-profit organizations and how to help them succeed both operationally and in the obtaining of grants and other funding sources.
Becky Cole has worked as a technical writer, software testing within the IT field for 15 years. In addition, she has received a variety of local and national awards for her volunteer work.
Becky’s educational background includes:
- BS Counseling from Crossroads College in Rochester, MN
- MS Instructional Design from Purdue U, Hammond, IN
- Ed.S Instructional Design from Indiana U, Bloomington, IN
- Mini MBA in Faith-based management from the University of St. Thomas, Minneapolis, MN
- Community Leadership Institute, University of St. Thomas/City of Minneapolis
Julie Desmond
Julie Desmond leads Job Search Strategy training for Help Wanted! Workshop. Julie's approach to the job search has evolved over fifteen years of helping candidates at every career level find work in accounting, finance, engineering, administrative, medical device manufacturing and more. Julie knows there is work out there; her unique insights and strategies will help you find it.
- Recruiting and career consultation experience including temporary and permanent staffing with Pro Staff Personnel, Hunter Hamilton Executive Search and the Walstrom Group.
- Plan Your Career column appears weekly in Minneapolis newspaper Insight News, and online at www.insightnews.com
- Career planning advice also featured in Employment News Minnesota, EmploymentDigest.com and JobsForSeniors.net
- Guest on TV and radio programs, at MN Workforce Center, and with local networking groups, sharing innovative techniques for finding employment during challenging times.
- Resume Reviewer for Career Transitions Connections networking group in Woodbury, MN.
Help Wanted! Workshop offers the updated career planning and job search information hiring managers want you to know about now. If your job search is stalled – or never got going in the first place – attend a Help Wanted! Workshop in Minneapolis, St Paul or Edina, MN. In one half-day session participants learn to streamline the job search, update their resumes, regroup on networking and capitalize on interview time.
To view workshops offered or to register for one, visit: www.helpwantedworkshop.com
Finding a job is challenging enough, but if you have mastered the art of
“winging it”, you are probably creating additional obstacles for yourself.
“winging it”, you are probably creating additional obstacles for yourself.
Reliability, experience and a broad view are assets to any organization, and experienced workers have it all.
Job seekers tend to forget that the biggest obstacle between any one person and success is often a few miles and a few inches of snow.
Kim met with a recruiter the other day and was told me to make her resume shorter. Writes Kim, “She said that the first part should summarize where I can add value. Can you help me think about language around that?”
It’s that time of year again. Americans are spending millions, even this year, on the pursuit of holiday happiness. I know, right?
You saw something in this position that you wanted. You applied. You interviewed. You got the offer. And then you got cold feet.
I once heard a job seeker talk about how frustrating it is to have to “wait until the new year to start job searching again.”
Job Seeker Cyndi asks, “I have heard that it's important to have something about your resume that stands out from the rest. Should I put my picture on my resume?” The short answer is, No.
Do you hear that? Sounds like cheering to me. Assuming those shouts of joy are not aimed at any of our local professional sports teams, there must be something else to cheer about. And so there is. People are getting hired.
There is as much advice out there on writing a resume, as there are people willing to offer it. Everyone has something different on format, content, and even font size and margins. What they all have in common, though, is that the resume should be specific to the job for which you are applying.
People returning to work after a year or more off, brace yourselves. The only thing certain in the workplace today is change, and yesterday’s work environment has seen a lot of it.
The best way to get hired is to talk to people who are hiring, right? So how do you get dozens of employers together so you can meet them all at once?
If you have been job hunting lately, chances are you have run into these situations...
Resumes are here to stay. Most job postings instruct applicants to send a resume and cover letter as a first step in the hiring process. What most people don’t realize, however, is that a resume is a marketing tool, an advertisement for what you can do, not a procedural manual on how you will do it.
Does anyone whistle while they work anymore? Probably not, but tuning into who you are at work and in your career can help you prepare more effectively for interviews and maybe get you performing (or, hired) sooner.
A single comment or errant connection on a social networking site can have an effect on a hiring manager.
Interested in learning some new skills or updating your current ones? Following are some free websites that can help you do that.
With fierce competition for every open job, being called for an interview feels like winning the lottery. Unfortunately, getting into an interview does not guarantee anyone a job offer.
The optimists among us view a layoff as an opportunity to transition into a new career or different industry, and for many years, they were right on.
Have you tried to make sense of the process of finding a job lately, but felt like the more you tried to do it, the dizzier you got? You are not alone.
Quick! Why did you leave? Every interviewer wants to know, and if the answer to this question is longer than 8-10 seconds, it is too long.
With increasing competition for every opening that comes available, it is important to have your resume stand out – in a good way.
Skills, experience, initiative. You have everything an employer wants. Why is it so hard to get hired? Stop blaming the economy and take a realistic look at what you are doing to block your own path. Are you easy to hire? Or are you a tough customer?
According to the Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA), with few exceptions, private employers are not allowed to use lie detector tests either for pre-employment screening or on current employees, and employers are not allowed to discriminate against employees and applicants who refuse a lie detector test.
A great resource, especially good for people who have been out of work for a while, or have a spotty work history, but will help enhance any resume, regardless of your work history or educational background.
Some hiring practices may seem bizarre, but don’t take it personally. Here are a few things you can do to help make sure your resume is seen as well as the best way to move forward after rejection.
If you are applying for positions and getting called for interviews, your resume is doing exactly what you want it to. On the other hand, if you send resumes regularly, on positions that make sense for you, and you never hear back from employers, your resume is either slacking off or completely out to lunch.
As the economy starts to rebuild itself, companies are moving from tentative temporary hiring to bringing on the upper level professionals who can take them back to profitability.
When the economy finally turns around, more people than ever will have finished some level of education. Be one of them.
Finding a job can be a tough thing when you have a criminal history, but it is not impossible to do. With persistence, you can make it happen.
You who have survived the working world for ten years or more already know you are capable, talented, and flexible.
What if, on your resume, you told the employer the answers to many of the questions you would be asked during the interview?
There is lots of advice out there for writing a resume. Some of it is better than others, but they all agree on a few of the same points.
The next wave that is to come is the way you will apply for jobs. More and more employers are going toward online applications.
While reading through classified ads is a good thing to do, it should not be used as your only strategy for finding a job.
With employment assistance, women without college degrees can close wage gap and get jobs, even in this tough economy.
According to labor statistics, there are about seven people available for each job opening. As challenging as that is, you want to make the best of every chance you get for an interview.
The economy has flipped everything upside down for both job seekers and employers.
Tips for reworking your resume when relocating to another state.
The down turn of the economy has made job hunting even more challenging lately, especially for those who are over 50 years old.
Have you ever been told, "you have excellent skills, but we hired someone else?" The Work Opportunity Tax Credit is a great way to leverage yourself as being the one who gets hired.
Why Not become a Published Author?
Larger numbers of qualified and experience people are looking for work in a new, unfamiliar field.
What do you do when you have a lot of work experience, but it is in another state?
Have you ever been in a situation where you hear somebody talking about a job opening you’d really be interested in, but didn’t have your resume with you?
According to the latest figures released by the U.S. Labor Department, the unemployment rate is at its highest level since 1983. In May 2009 alone, American employers slashed 345,000 jobs...
After trying for a while to find a job on your own, you might be considering working with a recruiter or a headhunter...
What Is A Plan For Achieving Self-Support (PASS)? A plan lets you use your income or other things you own to help you reach your work goals.
Whether you want a temporary job or a permanent position, working for a staffing company is a great career move...
The down turn of the economy has made job hunting even more challenging lately, especially for those who are over 50 years old...
Regardless of the type of work you have done or want to do, a work portfolio will help you to show you are the right person for your next job...
The Senior Community Service Employment Program is a program that benefits both the job-seeker and community organizations...
Going to job fairs is a good thing to do, if you are unemployed or are looking for a new job...
To be successful in finding a job in the current economy, take a second look at your resume, and learn to re-think what you are saying in it...
With competition for jobs becoming greater, it is a good idea to join a networking group or a job club...
If you happen to find yourself filing for unemployment, here’s a few things you should do...
With all of the twists and turns in the job market lately, chances are good that your next job won’t be like your last job...
Whether you have 20 years of job experience or are looking for your first job, it’s the question employers are asking every time the post an ad for a job opening. If you had only 60 seconds to answer that question, what would you say?
