New

5 Job Search Tips to Survive a Recession

Today's economic news may be gloom and doom but it needn't derail your job hunt. You can still win a great job, even in a lousy economy. You will have to get smarter in your job search strategy, though.

Here are five tips to incorporate into your job search approach during an economic downturn:
1. Research your options
Does your industry or line of work offer little promise of employment in the coming months? If so, now is a good time to step back to identify the projected top performing industries and jobs. The best place to find this info is on the Web through Google or Yahoo. Start with "best industries work recession" or "recession jobs 2008" to uncover articles describing some of the more "recession-proof" sectors to target.
2. Change your focus
Start asking yourself the question, "What's in it for them?" as opposed to, "What's in it for me?" Especially in an economic downturn, you'll want to stay focused on what you can accomplish for your next employer. Show them that you understand the macroeconomic "bigger picture" of the role you play in moving the company forward.
3. Sell results, not skills
Leave behind that old mindset that your job-related skills or length of service are selling factors. The new mindset is to think of yourself as a mini profit-and-loss center rather than just an employee. Employers today buy results and are less impressed with candidates promoting a long laundry list of skills. You'll want to define the many ways your past and present job performance is an asset to your next employer.
4. Start talking money
The downturn has made the private sector economy even more bottom-line-oriented than ever. Hiring managers categorize employees into one of two distinct groups:
a.) those who help make money
b.) those who help save money.
Which one are you?
For example, Barry, who preferred to withhold his last name for the purpose of this story, worked as the human resources manager of a midsized company. While much of his work focused on compliance issues, he noticed that the company was paying many thousands of dollars to locate and hire good employees. As a result, Barry developed and implemented an in-house employee referral program that netted three quality hires in a six-month period. This saved the company almost $70,000 that the company would have paid for recruiters and advertising costs.
Barry saves money for his company, and this is an accomplishment future employers will want to hear about.
Rethink your current or past job to understand your position in the bigger corporate P&L picture. Here are some questions to ask yourself:

· How did my work improve the performance of my department or company?
· How many roles did I perform that saved the company the expense of added employees or contractors?
· How has my work made the work of others (employees and managers) easier, faster and more effective?

Collect specific examples of the benefit that your company gained from the work you've already performed. Clarify the specific benefits your company received by making money or saving money, and write them down.
5. Add achievements to your résumé
Employers don't hire employees, they hire problem-solvers. Your new résumé should be a hard-hitting sales tool designed to accomplish one goal: get the interview. To demonstrate this, add a specific achievements list to your résumé. Take the list that you developed in the previous section and hone it down to your biggest and most notable accomplishments. Now, describe the benefit that your employer gained from each example. This will put you several steps ahead of your job-seeking competitors. Plus, you'll now have some talking points ready for that next phone interview.
Summary
Don't let all the hype about the recession spook you into a state of panic. By revising your tactics to include a more solution-selling approach to employers, you stand a better chance of getting hired in today's faltering economy.

New

1. Feed Your Strengths! You have been given the great ability to create logical, ethical principles that transcend personal experience. Allow these principles to be as good as they can be by creating them with consideration for all available data.
2. Face Your Weaknesses! See your weaknesses for what they are, and seek to overcome them. Especially, resist the tendency to judge too quickly, and remember the importance of considering other people's feelings.
3. Talk Through the Facts or write them down. You need to step through the facts in order to define good principles to live by. Verbalizing them or putting them down on paper may be a valuable tool for you.
4. Take in Everything. Don't dismiss ideas prematurely because you think you already know the answer. Seek first to understand, and then to be understood.
5. When You Get Angry, You Lose. Your passion for your principles is admirable, but becomes destructive when you fall into the "Anger Trap." Remember that Anger is destructive to personal relationships, and can be extremely hurtful to others. Work through your anger before you unleash it upon others. Disagreements and disappointments can only be handled effectively in a non-personal and dispassionate manner.
6. Be Yourself in Relationships Don't expect yourself to be a "touchy-feely" or "warm fuzzy" person. Realize that your most ardent bonds start with the head, rather than the heart. You expect your actions to speak for themselves to your loved ones. This may not be enough for some. Be aware of other's emotional needs, and express your genuine love and respect for them in terms that are real to YOU. Be yourself.
7. Be Accountable for Yourself. Don't blame the problems in your life on other people. Look inwardly for solutions. No one has more control over your life than you have.
8. Be Humble. Judge yourself at least as harshly as you judge others.
9. Resist the Urge to Control Others. You can't force others to adhere to your ways of thinking. You may think that you know what's best for others, but you really only know how they can best act according to your ideas of what is right. Just as you are entitled to live as you see fit, so are they. Instead of judging and controlling others, focus on using your judgement to create better impartial principles.
10. Spend Some Time Alone. Encourage the development of your introverted side. You'll find many tangible benefits to becoming a more well-rounded person.

Handwritting Analysis · Handwritting Analysis in New with 1 comments on Fri Jul 11, 2008 3:03 pm

Nicole is moderately outgoing. Her emotions are stirred by sympathy and heart rendering stories. In fact, she can be kind, friendly, affectionate and considerate of others. She has the ability to put herself into the other person's shoes.
Nicole will be somewhat moody, with highs and lows. Sometimes she will be happy, the next day she might be sad. She has the unique ability to get along equally well with what psychology calls introverts and extroverts. This is because she is in between. Psychology calls Nicole an ambivert. She understands the needs of both types. Although they get along, she will not tolerate anyone that is too "far out." She doesn't sway too far one way or the other.
When convincing her to buy a product or an idea, a heart rendering story could mean a great deal to her. She puts herself in the same situation as the person in the story, yet she will not buy anything that seems overly impractical or illogical. Nicole is an expressive person. She outwardly shows her emotions. She may even show traces of tears when hearing a sad story.
Nicole is a "middle-of-the-roader," politically as well as logically. She weighs both sides of an issue, sits on the fence, and then will decide when she finally has to. She basically doesn't relate to any far out ideas and usually won't go to the extreme on any issue.
People that write their letters in an average height and average size are moderate in their ability to interact socially. According to the data input, Nicole doesn't write too large or too small, indicating a balanced ability to be social and interact with others.
Nicole will demand respect and will expect others to treat her with honor and dignity. Nicole believes in her ideas and will expect other people to also respect them. She has a lot of pride.
Nicole will be candid and direct when expressing her opinion. She will tell them what she thinks if they ask for it, whether they like it or not. So, if they don't really want her opinion, don't ask for it!
Diplomacy is one of Nicole's best attributes. She has the ability to say what others want to hear. She can have tact with others. She has the ability to state things in such a way as to not offend someone else. Nicole can disagree without being disagreeable.
In reference to Nicole's mental abilities, she has a very investigating and creating mind. She investigates projects rapidly because she is curious about many things. She gets involved in many projects that seem good at the beginning, but she soon must slow down and look at all the angles. She probably gets too many things going at once. When Nicole slows down, then she becomes more creative than before. Since it takes time to be creative, she must slow down to do it. She then decides what projects she has time to finish. Thus she finishes at a slower pace than when she started the project.
She has the best of two kinds of minds. One is the quick investigating mind. The other is the creative mind. Her mind thinks quick and rapidly in the investigative mode. She can learn quicker, investigate more, and think faster. Nicole can then switch into her low gear. When she is in the slower mode, she can be creative, remember longer and stack facts in a logical manner. She is more logical this way and can climb mental mountains with a much better grip.
Nicole is capable of seeing far into the future. She plans two, three, even ten years in advance. Nicole has high goals and can literally see them being reached. She is very self-confident and has a high self-esteem. Nicole will reach whatever level of success she desires.
Nicole has the self-concept that is possessed by less than two percent of the population. That two percent contains the most successful people in the world. When a person has a high self-esteem, she frees herself to achieve an unlimited world of success. Nicole has achieved this frame of mind. Congratulations. She has the self-confidence to take great risk, thus reaping the rewards. If she does fail, it doesn't break her confidence. She knows she can do it! In retrospect of our research, this trait is one of the most desirable to possess, because it releases the writer to achieve her full potential. We recommend everyone raise their self-esteem to this level.
Nicole is sarcastic. This is a defense mechanism designed to protect her ego when she feels hurt. She pokes people harder than she gets poked. These sarcastic remarks can be very funny. They can also be harsh, bitter, and caustic at the same time.
Nicole is very self-sufficient. She is trying not to need anyone. She is capable of making it on her own. She probably wants and enjoys people, but she doesn't "need" them. She can be a loner.
Nicole has a healthy imagination and displays a fair amount of trust. She lets new people into her circle of friends. She uses her imagination to understand new ideas, things, and people.
For a graphologist, the spacing on the page reflects the writer's attitude toward their own world and relationship to things in his or her own space. If the inputted data was correct Nicole has left lots of white space on the left side of the paper. Nicole fills up the rest of the page in a normal fashion. If this is true, then Nicole has a healthy relationship to the past and is ready to move on. The right side of the page represents the future and Nicole is ready and willing to get started living now and planning for the future. Nicole would like to leave the past behind and move on.

2nd · 2nd in New with 0 comments on Fri Jul 11, 2008 3:02 pm

And now I am seeing if this is going to actually work..... Wow that would really be great! In this experiment I am trying to see if I can post my resume to a webpage. Hmmmmm we will see shortly now won't we?

WTH?! · WTH?! in New with 0 comments on Fri Jul 11, 2008 3:00 pm

Well..... I just signed up and logged in and at this very moment am curious about what I am supposed to do next.......create a post? Hmmmm...ok maybe this is a post and maybe I need to make 8 or 9 more of these before I can start my webpage. Well this does but does not make sense to me and therefore I may have to look into something else.