I absolutely LOVE a new year. I love to start over with a clean slate. Obviously it is not really a clean slate but the start of something bigger than me. A new year is supposed to motivate not depress. Many people start thinking about the new year ahead and it becomes a huge burden or they think about what they failed to accomplish the year before. Both trains of thought should be avoided.

When you start thinking about the negative stuff, u-turn your brain back to what is ahead of you. Be a future thinker and not dwell in the past. My wife and I had a conversation this weekend about history. I am not a history buff. I don’t really like to look back very much. I am a future thinking kind of guy who doesn’t really care what happened in the past. Yeah I do like to learn from past mistakes but don’t really like to think much about them.

History to me is kind of like getting stuck in the past. History can be exciting when it is used to define a people or provide understanding to a conflict. But picking and choosing the negative (or positive) things at whim to come up with a conclusion is short sited. It is wrong to think we would make any decisions differently than we did. It is only when you go through the past can you make decisions about the future.

As this new year creeps towards us, don’t get stuck wrenching over what could have been if… Think about what can be if moving forward. Always think ahead and you will stay ahead.

Let’s Get Started!

Jeff

I do love Craigslist for job searching. It is a great place for our clients and you to locate job opportunities. What we are seeing right now is that job searching on Craigslist is a daily activity. You cannot go there and apply to jobs then leave the site and a few days later visit it to see what new opportunities have arrived. It doesn’t work that way.

Craigslist is an open venue for hiring managers to post jobs to see if anyone fits their criteria. The “open venue” part is what you really need to grasp here. Open venue means it is changing by the minute. The savvy job seekers know this and understand how to play the game. So what is the game?

The game is getting your resume to the newly listed posting as quickly as you can. This can be accomplished in two ways. The first is with an rss feed. Craigslist allow you to have a new posting sent directly to you via email. This “feed” is like a direct line to their job postings that are updated every minute. Once you receive the feed, you can then decide to send your resume and cover letter directly to the hiring manager.

A second way is to have a automatic system that does it for you. One of our partners on our site does this. We upload client resumes and cover letters to their system and on a daily basis they search for job postings and send the uploaded resume and cover letter. This way you get to the hiring manager who made the posting. This auto apply system is fantastic because it applies jobs even when you don’t feel like it. Job searching can be frustrating and sometimes you really don’t feel like it. The auto apply system ALWAYS feels like it.

The next issue is how does your resume appear to someone who receives it. Every resume has a “feel” to it and many times it is tough to objectively understand yours. In the next posting, look for advice on creating the right “feel” for your resume…or let us do it.

Let’s Get Started!

Jeff

Ok so the economy is tanking and most people don’t know how far it is going down. And yes, our clients are also having a hard time finding job leads. Does it mean we change what we are doing? Absolutely not! Even when everything around you is swirling and unsure of where it is going to crash, you still need to stay the course and keep riding the waves.

Always remember that job leads are often found in the most remote of places from people you know. The online job boards are good to use, the postings are great to apply to, the resume distribution channels are excellent tools to use but in the end they are just tools with limited results. This doesn’t mean you don’t use them. On the contrary, you still do. But use them with the idea that you are STILL going to have to make contact with friends, family and acquaintances along the way.

Sometimes using the internet may stall your job search because of too much dependence on it. But once you start doing what you need to do again (such as making contacts) you will find what you are looking for.

Don’t stop connecting with people. It is the most effective way!

Let’s Get Started!

Jeff