Hard to believe that here we are on the last day of August.  Suitably, it’s in the sixties here in Seattle, and raining.  Brr.

What’s been going on?  Well, in late June WG was part of this nice Houston Chronicle piece on “Job Success Could Depend on Managing Your Manager.”  It’s true, you absolutely need to know how to manage your boss.

In July this humble site was named one of OnlineDegrees.org’s “Top 100 Career Advice Blogs.”  

More recently, U.S. News & World Report produced a pretty cool slide show amalgamating many of WG’s past posts, entitling it “21 Secrets to Getting the Job.”  21!  That’s a lot.  Maybe one of them would work for you. 

And then just last week Working Girl did a radio interview with Ed Wenck at WIBC in Indianapolis, all about “How Do You Survive the Worst Day at Work?”  (You have to go down to Ed’s section and scroll to August 25th.)

Finally, of course, WG has still been pumping out the weekly posts for U.S. News: 

1. Looking for a job?  Think a job club might help out?  Here are some tips for telling if your group is a good one. 
2. If work is stressing you out more and more, check out these “50 Tips for Surviving Your Worst Work Days (it led to the radio interview).” 
3. And this one for job hunters again: You know how interviewers always ask you if you have any questions?  You need to have some.  Here are 10 good ideas.

Not bad for summertime.  See you in September!

 Okay, a bit behindish on posting links to U.S. News & World Report articles.

This week:  A short treatise on the wonders of listening.  Yes, listening.  It’s a very handy skill to have in the workplace (everywhere, really), and we could all probably stand to do a better job at it.  Hop here for some useful tips.

And, because it went unmentioned on this blog, last week was all about vacations.  Namely, how to take a real one.  You know, the kind where you don’t work.  With a goodly amount of preparation, it can be done.  How?  Go here.

You can hire a career coach but they can be pricey.  And, truly, most of they time they don’t tell you anything you didn’t already know yourself or couldn’t find out by cracking open a good book.

To get started, here’s a useful post from Online Degrees: 101 Tips for Becoming Your Own Career Coach. 

Each item is a link to a full article about that topic.  Lots of info here.

Long time no see.  Working Girl doesn’t want to do one of those lame sorry-I-haven’t-posted-in-so-long posts, so she won’t.

Instead, here’s a link to a fairly useful piece on good jobs for college students.  Nothing new here, really, but it’s a good list.

Don’t need to work while studying?  Good for you!  However, many college students do need to supplement their income and here are the most common ways they do so.

Sidenote:  Of the 20 jobs listed, WG has done 11.  Sounds about right.

A long but worthwhile post from Career Alley.  Lots of good stuff here. 

Today’s post covers a variety of topics to help you in your job search.

Before getting started, though, a word of hope. We know you keep hearing about all the jobs lost and the high unemployment rate. What you don’t hear about is that businesses of all kinds are still hiring.

Even in the slowest of times, some are growing, while others need to replace employees lost for a host of reasons, including discharge, resignation, retirement, promotion, and even death. When you hear there are six employees for every position? Tell yourself one-in-six aren’t bad odds.

Awkward Interview Question: “So, What Have You Been Doing Since You Graduated?”

You’re at yet another interview. It’s early October. Summer is but a fond memory (and school an even fonder and more distant one). You’ve gone through the usual questions without any problems and think you have a pretty good chance at landing this job.

And then the trouble starts:“I see you graduated in May, what have you been doing with yourself?”

“What have I been doing?” you think. “I’ve been looking for job,” you say.

“Looking for a job since May? Don’t you think you could have been putting your time to use?” the interviewer asks.

You think, “What are my options, what should I have been doing with my time besides looking for a job all the time?”

The Volunteering Option Can End Up Helping Your Job Search

The interviewer continues to dig it in: “Have you thought about volunteering?”

“Volunteering? Doesn’t seem to be much of a career in that,” you say defensively.

Wrong answer!

After months have passed, many potential employers are going to wonder what you’ve been doing in your spare time since you graduated from school last May. “Looking for a job” sounds like a logical answer, but you know what? It’s not going to fly five months after you graduated.

Volunteering allows you to gain some valuable experience, while giving back to the community. But it also tells potential employers that you are ambitious and not just sitting on your hands. Yes, you should still be looking for a job almost every waking hour, but you also need to get yourself out there. After all, who knows whom you will meet?

Volunteering for College Grads

Here’s where you can find some great information on volunteer opportunities to make productive use of your unemployed time:

Volunteer work for college grads benefits from Serve America Act — A short article from the National Student News Service about some of the benefits (some of them financial) of volunteering. Take a look. (Pssst — Serve America is not 100% unpaid volunteering: an education award of around $5,000 given to those who complete their service can be used to pay off student loans, or be put toward further degrees).

Volunteering Up Among College Grads— Another short article, this one from Jobmonkey.com, supports the premise that volunteering is becoming more popular for college grads. Also take a look at Jobmonkey’s Volunteering Abroad link.

Volunteer Match — This site provides resources for finding volunteer jobs.

The center top of the page has the main search engine where you can search by location and keywords. At the top of the site are a few tabs for volunteers, non-profits, and more.

Career Fairs

The old standby of career fairs may not be your best bet in these times of high unemployment, but are always worth considering. Here’s some helpful information for making the best use of them:

The Ten Keys to Success at Job and Career Fairs–- This article, by QuintCareers.com, provides excellent advice on preparing for career fairs. It will help both college students preparing for college career fairs, as well as experienced hires preparing for professional career fairs.

CareerFairs.com –- This site allows job seekers, universities, and employers to coordinate the job fair process, and makes it more efficient for all, via a searchable database. You can search for upcoming job fairs and employers can pre-screen students.

Mosaic Career Fairs–- The website for this series of career fairs, organized by the American Advertising Federation (AAF), says the purpose is “to connect talented minority students with leading advertising/marketing and communications companies that are seeking to hire entry-level candidates.” The site provides the dates of upcoming fairs as well as registration forms. There is also a link to the AAF Job Bank. This is but one example of many specifically targeted career fairs.

Job Fair Directory & Employment Resources – This directory, provided by www.carouselexpo.com, allows you to search for job fairs by State. Click a State, and scroll down to see when there will be a career fair near you.

Job Search Sites

If I had a nickle for every job search site or job board . . . So hard to choose, but here are a few less well known ones to consider:

CampusCareerCenter.com–- “Jobs, Guidance, Networking . . . Options” is the tag line for this site. It leads with who’s hiring, with several employers listed on the main page. There are a wealth of resource links on the first page as well, on topics including internships, cover letters, preparing for your interview, and more. There are also tools and resources down the left-hand side of the page, including research companies and job search. Click the “Post Resume” tab at the top to register, post your resume, and get started. Looks like you must register to use the job search.

CollegeJobBoard.com— The main page of this site lists featured employers, with job categories on the right hand side of the page. There are related article links as well as a resource center (which is a little light on content). The job seeker home link is restricted to registered users only.

Center for Career Opportunities-– This is a Purdue University site and is designed to provide additional sources of information and job leads. The right-hand side of the page lists a number of databases to help in your job search. This is primarily a list of resources, so you will need to explore from here for it to help in your search.

Groovejob.com–- This is a pretty neat site. It focuses on teen, student, and summer jobs. The site lists featured employers in the main section of the screen. There are a number of resources as well -– on resumes, career assessment, interview tips, student resources, and more. Most of the jobs appear to be part time, but I did not register on the site to see the full functionality.

Good luck in your search!

Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.

Practically everyone is afraid of getting up in front of groups.  Including yours truly.

But it’s nice to know how.  In fact, it may be more than nice.  Being able to effectively address groups, to express yourself in a coherent and engaging manner, is an essential career (and life) skill. 

Doesn’t make it any easier, though, so that’s why today’s U.S. News & World Report post includes “Ten Consoling Truths of Public Speaking.”  Check it out.

It’s practically a law of the land.  You’re supposed to love love love your job.  If you don’t, then something is Very Wrong. 

With your job, and maybe even with you.

But maybe sometimes it’s okay to just like your job.  Maybe sometimes it’s okay to feed your life’s passions in some ways other than through paid work. 

At least it’s something to think about.  That’s what this post tries to do over at the U.S. News & World Report site.

 Just saw this WSJ piece on the new economic numbers from February: For the first time since October 2008 more workers voluntarily quit their jobs than were fired or laid off.

Perhaps another mini-sign that the job market is getting less dire.

Since folks are considering more risk-taking, that means it’s time to explore the finer points of how to do so intelligently. 

(However, risk-taking may still not be that popular, as this post has been up since Wednesday and garnered no comments.  People still probably want to talk about how to get a job, or hold on to the job they’ve got…..)

Now truer words were never spoken: The best way to get a job is to hunt it down before a company advertises it.  Here are some super tips on just how to do that from Mario Schulzke of CareerSparx.  Check out Mario’s bio; it’s inspiring.  CareerSparx is aimed at new college grads but good career advice is good career advice.  Works for all sorts of job hunters.  Thanks, Mario, for the guest post.

According to the Wall Street Journal, 80 percent of all available jobs are never advertised.  This is because companies do not need to make the position public; they already know who is going to take the job before it ever becomes available.  This hidden job market—far larger than the public job market—is easy to tap into if you know how to set yourself up as a potential candidate for future availabilities and recommendations.   So, what can you do to find the hidden job market and make the position come to you?

Here are some tips:

Make your network aware of your job search.  It’s important to let your network know what industry you’re entering and the type of work you would like to be doing, so they can let you know when they hear of any potential leads or availabilities.  After all, they cannot help you if you do not let them know how.  Most people are willing to recommend you, too. (Given they like you, of course!)

Find companies you want to work for.  Take the time to identify companies where you would like to hold a full-time position and conduct research on the type of skills, backgrounds and personalities that are valuable to the company.  Use websites like www.glassdoor.com to find corporate and recruitment process reviews by actual employees. (The service is free if you still have access to your college’s .edu email address.)  Or use your network to personally get in touch with employees at the company.  A well-developed LinkedIn account is especially helpful for identifying connections.

Set up informational interviews.  An informational interview gives you the opportunity to receive firsthand knowledge and ask questions of someone in an industry or—even better—at a company you are interested in.  It is not a typical formal interview because it is more about you learning from them than it is about them evaluating you.  Not only does this provide the opportunity for you to ask questions about the hiring process or desired skills in the business, but it also makes the person aware that you are looking for a job without you directly asking for one.  If the informational interview goes well and you make a great impression, the person you meet is more likely to recommend you or let you know of availabilities at his or her company before they are advertised to the public.

Leave your resume or business card.  Whenever you meet someone in your industry or a potential company you’d like to work for, always finish by leaving your contact information in the form of a business card or resume so that they can reach you or review your information in the future.  Since this isn’t a formal interview, you should never begin by giving them your resume or asking for a job, but you can politely ask if they would like a copy of your resume for future reference.  If a resume seems too forward, leaving a business card is a great option, too.

These tips should get you on the right track to locating the hidden job market and getting hired where you truly want to work.  Continue to build relationships and always leave the impression of a motivated, hard-working professional, and a you’ll be more likely to hear about new opportunities before they’ve been officially announced.

About Mario Schulzke

Mario Schulzke is the creator of CareerSparx (http://www.careersparx.com), an online course that helps recent college graduates begin their careers.  For more information, download a free 61-page guide on how to start your career (http://www.careersparx.com).

It’s hard finding a job.  It’s even harder if you don’t know what kind of job to shoot for.

Today, over at U.S. News, see 15 tips for choosing a career.  Meant especially for new grads, but there’s some stuff there that could apply to more experienced workers too!