Great Occupations

Having a degree is a distinct advantage when looking for a job, however there are plenty of careers which do not require a degree. Payscale.com created a list of the top 7 jobs which don't require a college degree. Read the rest of this entry »

About.com’s article, The Top Ten Job Search Engines on the Web, contains many of the names you’ve heard of: Monster.com, CareerBuilder.com, Indeed.com, HotJobs, Dice, LinkedIn and many more. The mega-job boards should absolutely be used as one of the tools in your job search toolbox. Another tool for your toolbox is Twitter. Twitter is rarely the first tool that pops to mind for job searching, however it has one advantage over all the other job sites.

Speed. Twitter allows you know about jobs the second they are posted. Monster, CareerBuilder, and many company career sites send you notices when something is posted that “fits your profile”. They just don’t do it as fast and organically as Twitter. Searching on hash tags (“#jobs”) is a great way to find jobs that have been posted. According to CIO Magazine, “The Twitter tags most utilized by job seekers include #jobs, #job, #jobseeker, #career and #careers….” All you need to do is search by those hashtags (for example, “#jobs”) using Twitter’s Search Engine (or just go to Google).

You don’t need an account…. Even if you don’t have a Twitter account you can use their search features. There are also other tools that aggregate job “tweets”. The best tool I’ve seen is TwitJobs.com. It’s had over 911,000 jobs posted in the last 30 days. That’s an average of 1265 jobs per minute! Click on the nifty Job Map on the left side to see a map location of all the jobs tweeted in the last 72 hours.

Technology/Networking…. Technology like Twitter and job boards have really helped alleviate some of the burden of searching for a job. However, you need to realize that even the best technology is not going to give you the same (or better) results as direct interaction through networking. When you search, make sure you are using all of your tools in your job search toolbox - technical or otherwise.

Jay Markunas is a Career Coach and Job Search Technology Specialist. He and Partner, Angela Loeb, help job seekers and career changers position themselves to find their next job at The Job Search Boot Camp website.

CNBC recently posted its most stressful jobs of 2010. Was yours on the list?

The study looked at 21 factors that cause stress on the job, and ranked 200 professions based on how the demands play into the work day.

In the top 10 was Real Estate Agent(ranked #10) with the average Agent working 9.5 hrs. per day, high compeitition, high time pressure, and above average unemployment.

Down from #1 last year, Surgeon ranked #4 with an average of 11 hours per day, high competition, and moderate time pressure. Surgeries generally take many hours to complete all the while requiring precision (including the consequences of the patients life). Other honorable mentions were Police Officer (ranked #5), Taxi Driver (ranked #3), and Corporate Executive (#2).

The Most Stressful? The #1 most stressful job of 2010, according to CNBC, is Fire Fighter. It involves hazardous conditions and long, irregular hours. They work an average of 11 hrs. per day generally under very high time pressure to handle an emergency. The Dept. of Labor estimates the profession will grow by about 19% to about 368,000 Fire Fighters in the U.S. by 2018. Median average wages in May 2008 was around $44,260 with the top 10% earning more than $72,210/year.

Jay Markunas is a Career Coach, Fortune 500 HR Professional, Blogger, Show Host, Web Site Developer, Video/Recording Editor, Marketing and Sales professional and Partner at Great Occupations.

Yesterday, we looked at a question raised by Mary, a new employee who started her job 6 weeks ago. She wondered if she should use another offer she got after starting the job to negotiate better pay during the company’s upcoming annual performance review process.

The Question: Should Mary talk with HR or her direct manager about the other offer?

My Response: Hi Mary, It could be considered very admirable that you’ve decided to stick it out with the employer you accepted 1st rather than back out and go with the offer for more money, but I agree that it’s tough, especially since the money was so much more with the other group. Your current company probably doesn’t worry if you had other offers and didn’t disclose that to them – all they care about is that they have you and all parties have agreed on terms. To them, it’s now about getting down to work and being productive together. From a logical point of view, I can’t see why you shouldn’t use it as a negotiation tool in the upcoming annual review, however, from an emotional point of view will they take offense? Will this cast doubts on your relationship? That is a possibility, of course. You’ve been with the company a short time. I would challenge you to ask yourself if you are truly happy and so won’t regret taking less money to be with this employer in the long run. If you are having doubts, and it’s not all about the money (or even if it is about the money) – if you can’t let it go in your own mind and heart, and it continues to “haunt” you, you will be unhappy in the end. You also have to ask yourself if you are willing to let this go if your employer says no. Of course, they might also become concerned about whether you will stay now. Whenever you decide to negotiate, you have to be prepared to walk away or back down if they say no. Additionally, the way you handle it, such as reassurances that you won’t leave, sometimes still might not help once doubt is cast into the relationship. You know the people involved. In the end, I’d say that you need to listen to what your intuition tells you about this situation. To sum up… if you are really bothered by the “less money,” and it will make you unhappy over time, it will probably be a good idea to see what can be done about it. However, be prepared for the emotional ramifications, too. As much as we would like to think that conversations about money should be objective, negotiating has a distinctive emotional side too. In the end, Mary, what you “should do” will be about you and what you feel. Hope this has helped! Please let me know what happens. Warmly yours, Angela

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Lest you think my answer is too noncommittal, let me remind you that I’m her career coach! My job is to help her explore all the angles so she makes a decision she is comfortable with.

But, I can pretend to be in her shoes… If I’m happy with my new employer, I wouldn’t mention anything to my manager or to HR. I would avoid rocking the boat and would accept that the negotiating time is pretty much over until I get more tenure. But if I want to gamble the relationship because I know this will keep bothering me, or because I’m not 100% happy in the new job, or because I know that the other offer is still good, I’d take the chance.

What do you think? Weigh in with your opinion by clicking here and taking the poll. Or make comments below.

Angela Loëb is an author, speaker and career coach. She and her partner, Jay Markunas, help people make successful career transitions through workshops, webclasses and 2×1 individualized coaching services. Listen to them on The Job Search Boot Camp Show. Find out more about their programs & services at www.greatoccupations.com.

Job Search Attitudes is the topic of tomorrow’s Job Search Boot Camp Show, and Brian Massey, author of The Market For Me, is our guest. By day Brian is a conversion scientist. By night (and this weekend!), he volunteers to give advice to job seekers. So, we are very honored to have him on the show to talk to us about his top tips around attitude and job search. He’ll share some concepts from his presentation “10 Job Search Attitudes that will get you more interviews at the places you want to work” – which you might want to take a peek at on slideshare.

I look forward to asking Brian what he thinks about what I consider one of the biggest attitude hurdles for most folks… and that is fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of rejection and fear of financial strain.

Last night I gave a presentation at a local church. Afterward a woman came to speak to me about how fear recently crept in and sabotaged a fabulous job opportunity. She’s in sales, and the hiring manager asked her what territory she would like. She froze. She said a feeling of self-doubt and fear that she might not be able to handle the job flashed through her. In that moment, she hesitated – she hemmed and hawed – she blinked when she should have been steady and fearless. They didn’t make the offer – they chose someone else.

In today’s market, the talent pool is deep, and fear can too easily sink you to the bottom. Your attitude is everything, and you can’t afford to stay in fear.

Fearless minds climb soonest into crowns. –William Shakespeare

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Angela Loëb is an author, speaker and career coach. Along with partner, Jay Markunas, she helps people gain clarity and develop successful strategies for career transition. Through their company, Great Occupations, they help job seekers and career shifters by offering seminars, webinars, tele-coaching events and individualized coaching services. Listen to them on The Job Search Boot Camp Show & check out their upcoming event The Job Search Boot Camp Webcast Series. Find out more about their services at www.greatoccupations.com.