Career Management Alliance Blog

New graduates and continuing students can approach a competitive job market with enthusiasm and confidence when equipped with job-search tools that translate academic achievement into marketable job skills highly applicable to a wide range of professions. A resume of this kind successfully uses powerful career-marketing language, industry keywords, and professional formatting to look, sound, and perform just like a resume. Career marketing professionals advise college students to conduct a thorough inventory and evaluation of academic accomplishments and work with campus career development counselors or professional resume writers to translate academic achievement, internships, and club or volunteer activities into compelling language that effectively frames skills and educational background and highlights achievement.

 

Guest article by Randy Block, Career Transition Coach In my coaching practice, I often hear complaints from job seekers over 50 regarding not being considered for a full-time position by a Gen Xer. “I was fully qualified and it makes no sense” is the most common complaint. “They simply don’t know how to hire” is Continue Reading »

 

Last April when I did the keynote at the Prophix User conference, I said this ...

Today, the trend is towards Operational CFOs who hold an MBA and bring a broader education & finance perspective, along with a strong ability to synthesize information. CEOs and Boards will demand their Chief Financial Officers possess broader-based skills as they seek business strategists and leaders in filling that role.

At the CFO Rising conference on Wednesday, the panel of finance recruiters had this to say ...

--At Fortune 1000 companies the number of controllers moving into CFO positions is down by about 33%. Conversely, those finance executives who have general management experience, strong operational contributions, and a record of leading strategic initiatives are the most sought after in filling Chief Financial Officer roles today.  Continue Reading »

 

Anonymous writes: I have been a stay-at-home mom for the past 10 years and am currently going through a divorce. At the moment I am driving a school bus because the hours are great. But now that my children are older, I want to get back into the job world. I have a resume and have applied for many jobs with no response. I have plenty of experience. How do I get employers to notice me? What am I doing wrong? I really need the income and am willing to start just about anywhere. Continue Reading »

 

According to Indeed’s February Industry Employment Trends Report, ten of the 12 major industries tracked had more openings this February than in February 2009. Hospitality experienced a 44% increase in open jobs over last year. Retail improved by 35% and real estate had a 33% jump. Other sectors trending upward are accounting, education, financial services and banking, information technology, manufacturing, media/newspapers and transportation. Not convinced that some companies are hiring? Here are some interesting stats on current advertised positions: Continue Reading »

 

We’ve just launched seven powerful career attracting videos that will cover every aspect of positioning yourself to find the best job, how to secure an interview and how to be offered your ideal pay! Continue Reading »

 

Today, I was at Target. This is nothing all that unusual, to tell the truth. This morning, I was looking for individually wrapped snack packages. Perusing the aisle, I stopped in front of a man and his boxes. It seemed that they were right where my targeted snacks would be. He was stocking the shelves and quickly moved his boxes so I could find what I wanted. No, it wasn’t there. So, I asked him if he knew where to find them. He explained that he was the “Frito-Lay guy,” and gestured to his array of chips and snacks on the shelf on the opposite side. “Hmmm…,” I said, looking at the chips – none individually wrapped. “Thanks, but I was really looking for something in small packages.” He stopped what he was doing, stood up and walked down the lane, noting that what I wanted was probably there. I was impressed that he was being so helpful, especially since I wasn’t looking for “his” stuff. Continue Reading »

 

I read it, and I get it, and I buy-in to the 20-second ‘resume scan’ rule. Yet, I don’t  FULLY buy in. What I mean is, I don’t accept the implication by some that  your resume only gets a 10-, 20-, 30-second sweeping glance by the hiring manager, recruiter, HR. .. AND THAT’S IT (the end of the road for your resume). I love how GL Hoffman discusses the lean resume concept by playfully experimenting with the idea of a  6-word resume over at his blog. I enjoy these thought-provoking experiments, and I believe Twitter and other social media vehicles are teaching us to write tighter and more thoughtfully. These exercises help us all do a better job of drilling down to our unique value statements for those quick quips and exchanges we ‘initially’ may have with someone in our networking group or during any aspect of job courting. Continue Reading »

 

Wind power in the state of Texas has set a new record for delivering power to the grid.  On the morning of March 5 nearly 19% of the energy supplied to the state's largest grid came from wind turbines.  Part of the reason for this record happened in 2008.   A  $4.93 billion wind turbine transmission project to get the energy from the panhandle to the large population areas in the southern part of the state was approved by state regulators.  Continue Reading »

 

St. Patrick’s Day is just around the corner. Our family looks forward to an annual town parade and festival. I turn my attention to recipes and decorations around Irish themes. Having a fair amount of Irish ancestry, I was also recently thinking about discussions I had as a teenager with my Dad about Irish history and trivia. A phrase we explored was the origin of “Luck of the Irish”. Our research showed that there is little agreement and wide speculation.