Career Management Alliance Blog

About once a week someone sends me a message saying they are not happy with the job search results in JibberJobber.  Here’s a message someone wrote when they deleted their JJ account:

“All the jobs I find here I’m seeing on other sites.”

They think JibberJobber is a job board. In reality, we tap into a job board service (Indeed.com) and just pull stuff from their site. Providing job board services is not a primary thing I want to offer.  There are already hundreds of job boards that you can go to, why in the heck would you come to JibberJobber for more job boards surfing? Continue Reading »

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With the proliferation of blogs and social networking, many job seekers have begun to wonder about whether to include relevant links to these sites in their resumes. These links could include LinkedIn Profiles, profiles on Facebook, MySpace, Plaxo, Ning, Zoominfo, or Ziggs, or even a link to a blog. Certainly the number of places where a person can be "found" online is multiplying daily! And we know employers are using these social networking profiles and blogs to search and "qualify" job search candidates (see Online Identity Management and Job Search). What prompted this post is a question from an employed job seeker in Information Technology who writes a "work-related" blog. He felt his blog link should be on his resume, but was confused about where to place it. The straight-forward answer is where it will most easily be seen: at the top of your resume with the rest of your contact information. Continue Reading »

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I’m going to go back to my old posts and share the ones that I love the most…. either because they got a lot of reaction and stimulated discussion (which means the readers back then loved it) or because I thought it was profound, even if no one commented on it :p December 12th, 2006. JibberJobber was barely 6 months old.  I talked about an idea that proved to be a turning point in my job search.  Even though I opted to end my job search, this one action provided the most results in my job search efforts, and it eventually led to my first couple of real job offers. Go check out the post Substantiate Yourself. How can you substantiate yourself?

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Catherine writes: I enjoy your blog. I don’t think I have ever seen either of my questions (or problem) in your blog postings. Both deal with background checks. Recently I was terminated from a position I had held for only a month. They claimed to have received information from a law-enforcement agency showing that I had committed a crime. After checking with the agency mentioned, I learned they had no such information. I suspect that a former employer or someone in his office where I worked previously made the false accusations. Can I take legal action? Continue Reading »

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John Zappe's Source of Hire article on ERE Wednesday (2/17), a day after my ERE webinar, offered a great snapshot of the information we look to share each year. We we finally published CareerXroads' 2010 Sources of Hire whitepaper Friday. It is our 9th. I almost remember why we began doing it in 2002- to document how the Internet was impacting recruiting (since the hype about "traffic" never seemed to lead anywhere). Earlier last week before finishing the report I dug out a 1998 SHRM/EMA study about 1997 SOH data and used it to start the discussion this year. The purpose, which I wrote about here was to contrast just how much has changed in the last dozen years. Continue Reading »

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Kats writes: Please help me…I’m dazed on how to get into medical school. You see, I really want to become a doctor, but unfortunately my parents do not have the means to send me to med school. Instead, I took up a science-related courses hoping that I can somehow catch up with the pre-med students. But I’m not happy with my current courses. I have heard some pre-med students in our school are dissuading other hopeful medical students to enter med school. Does a bachelor of science degree versus a bachelor of arts degree really matter when applying to med school? Would it be more advisable to take up the B.S instead of B.A? Please help me. I really do appreciate an expert’s opinion right now.

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The Career Doctor responds: I’m kind of confused because you say you want to go to medical school, but you don’t think you have the means to do so… you decided not to be pre-med in college and instead are following some other degree path, possibly ending with a bachelor of arts rather than science? I haven’t seen any statistics, but my guess is that most people who apply to medical school can’t afford it, but make it through fellowships, scholarships, and student loans. So, if money is the only thing stopping you from following your dream, don’t let it. If your passion is to become a doctor, then you need to find a way to do so… Majoring in a pre-med program makes the most sense, but you do not need to do so to get accepted into medical school. I had a student a few years ago who was a dual business and biochemistry major, but as soon as he was accepted into medical school, he dropped the science major and graduated with a business degree. The key was he had taken all the core science classes that medical schools required (and he had scored well on the MCAT). So, your goal should be to research exactly the requirements you need for medical — and then follow whatever degree path makes sense to you. By the way, the business degree was a great idea for my student because he planned to open his own practice and wanted the business skills to help him be successful with it.

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Our World Has Shrunk We may not realize it, but our world has shrunk. It doesn’t matter where we live, where we work, or where we work from, we have to be aware of what is going on worldwide and be sensitive to other people’s cultures. Whatever happens in other parts of the world today, whether economic or catastrophic, it affects us all. Our stock exchanges are all interrelated. When the others are not doing well, neither is ours and vice versa. One main difference, however, is that other governments have held the banks responsible for the debacle. In order to offset their deficits, they are making the banks repay the government a share of their loss. In one country, they must repay USD 4.5 billion over the next three years. So no big bonuses for their executives! Fiscal responsibility first. The earthquake in Haiti certainly had an impact on our lives. It mobilized some people into organizing fundraisers for food, clothes, and shoes among other categories, and others into actually going over to Haiti to provide medical and physical assistance. All these people’s lives were put on hold for a while. On a happier note, this February 14 is Valentine’s Day for us in the western world, but it is also the Chinese New Year. The Chinese observe a lunar calendar and on their zodiac, this is the year of the tiger. When the Chinese celebrate a new year, they do not just take one day off as we do. Businesses are going to be closed for an entire week. So anyone doing business with the Chinese can expect a one-week delay at the very least. Another observation about Valentine’s Day: it was forbidden to be observed from the 17th century through the beginning of the 20th century. Too many deaths and suicides caused the king to issue a decree. Today, Valentine’s Day is more of a celebration than anything else, but it used to be taken quite seriously in previous centuries. If Valentine’s Day were to fall on a weekday, people would be going to work in Western Europe. You can celebrate all you want afterward. Of course, dancing places and bars do not close at 2 a.m. either so you have plenty of time to party until 4 or even 6 a.m. Yet somehow, people make it to work on time the next day. It is stamina of a different nature. Myriam-Rose Kohn Your Passport to International Career Success

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This entry is one in a series by Deb Walker on avoiding the top three cover letter mistakes:

A cover letter that is poorly written may cause your resume to be ignored. But a well-crafted cover letter will invite and encourage the reader to take a closer look at your resume. You’ll make a positive first impression before your resume is even opened. Rather than making your cover letter an afterthought, take the time to really consider the type of presentation your cover letter will make. If your resume isn’t winning you job interviews, consider hiring a professional resume writer to help. It’s true what they say: You never get a second chance to make a good first impression.

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The winter Olympics are almost upon us in snow-challenged Vancouver. So what better time to introduce you to a blog on figure skating? If you want to get some expert analysis of the competition from a true fanatic and meticulous historian, check out State of the Skate. This week, blogger Kelli Lawrence has been running a series to help us "every four years" fans get up to speed. Continue Reading »

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