GSETA

Get Job Search Feedback at the Interview

According to this CNBC article on job search, the best time to get feedback on the job search process is during the interview, not after the company has rejected the applicant when they're less likely to even respond to his/her query. Three questions to ask are:

• Who else are you considering for this position and how do I compare?

• Have I answered all of your questions, or is there something still outstanding that would make you reluctant to bring me on board?

• What is your timetable for making a decision, and who is on the decision team?

Depending on the responses a job seeker gets, there's still time to address any objections or concerns and potentially turn the interview around in his/her favor.

Tips for Completing a Job Application

 For many job seekers, the job application is one of the first steps in obtaining employment. Here are some tips for completing applications from JIST. Also check out these suggestions from Quintcareers.

Sample Guidelines for Using Social Media

Is your One Stop thinking about using social media tools like blogs, Facebook or Twitter? At a minimum, do you use email to communicate both in and out of your organization? 

Online communications have become the heart of daily interactions in virtually all companies and organizations. Here are 40 sample policies used by companies, the military and other organizations that you can draw from in creating your own One Stop policy.

The "Secret Sauce" of Freelancing

Freelancers--people who practice their profession on a contract basis, usually to work on specific projects or for a pre-specified period of time--make up 1/3 of the current workforce and their numbers are growing. The rise of web-based tools and business's reluctance to bring on permanent workers for many jobs are fueling this growth.

For many dislocated workers, freelancing can offer a new career opportunity or, at a minimum, a way to bring in extra cash while looking for a more permanent full-time position.

Last week we talked about helping job seekers figure out if the entrepreneurial life was for them. Now, here are a few resources specifically geared to freelancers:

• How to Start a Freelance Business Today: Tools for Beginners

• Get Started as a Web Worker

• 7 Ways to Research Your Freelance Target Markets

• Freelance Switch's Tools for Freelancers

• 101 Essential Freelancing Resources

• How to Position Yourself as an Expert

• 10 Game-Changing Tips from the World's Top Freelancers

• Why Freelancing is Freakin' Hard!

Friday Link Round-Up: The Online Portfolio Edition

Time for this week's Link Round-up. This time we're focusing on online portfolios, a tool every job seeker should consider developing.

• 5 Reasons Why You Need a Portfolio and 7 Reasons Why it Should be Online--Start here if you're wondering why job seekers should have an online portfolio. To this list I would now add that having an eportfolio is going to help push up your Google rank, which means employers are more likely to find your portfolio when they do a search for you online.

• Build a Killer Online Portfolio in 9 Easy Steps

• 15 Efficient Eportfolio Tools

• Stand Out with an Eportfolio

• The Online Portfolio: Show and Tell Employers You've Got What it Takes

• How Online Portfolios Put You at the Top of the Candidate Pile

• Guide to Using Free Tools to Create an Online Portfolio--Includes a number of portfolio examples

• Instructions for Creating an Online Portfolio with Delicious

• How Public Should Your Portfolio Be?

30+ Brilliant and Creative Resumes

Check out these 35 resume examples for people who want to break out of the resume rut. A few of the more interesting ones

What do you think?

Cold Hard Truths for Job Seekers

Recruiter and blogger, PeopleShark has some advice for job seekers--and some of it isn't pretty:

• Don't send your resume via snail mail. It makes you look old-school, limits the exposure you will get and poses a compliance problem. When no one is looking, a recruiting coordinator will throw it away, because he/she doesn't know where to file it, or how to scan it.

• This is not the time to switch careers. There are too many good, experienced folks on the market. Few companies are interested in hiring newbies, when seasoned professionals are available.

• If you don't have a real network of people you know, have lunch or drinks with, who know your work, you're up a creek without a paddle. This is why relationships are important. If you lose your job, and suddenly turn to LinkedIn or Facebook to build your network, you're in trouble. If you lose your job and you're already in my LinkedIn or Facebook, I will try to help you.

Is Entrepreneurship for You?

After a layoff, many dislocated workers start considering the possibility of starting their own business. Here are some checklists that might help in making the decision:

• Considering Leaving Your Day Job?

• The Entrepreneur's Checklist

• Checklist for Starting a Small Business (from the Small Business Association)

• Do You Have What it Takes to be an Entrepreneur?

For those who are planning to pursue the entrepreneurial path, here are a few free online courses they can check out:

• Entrepreneurship and Business Planning Course from Carnegie Mellon--Taught by Mark Juliano, an adjunct professor who otherwise works in the private sector, the course covers the ins-and-outs of starting a new venture. Following a very logical trajectory, it starts with the fundamentals — developing ideas for new companies, writing business plans, and creating teams — and then moves through more advanced materials that you’d typically find covered in b-school: marketing, competitive strategy, sales, pricing, funding and finance. Finally, when you dive into the podcasts, you’ll realize that Juliano has clearly taken pains to present an accessible course for listeners. Along with clearly presented lectures, you get a host of supporting online materials, plus a course blog.

• Small Business Association Podcasts--Download these podcasts to your iPod and learn small business basics on the go.

• My Own Business--This curriculum lets you build your business plan as you go.

How many customers at your One Stop are considering the entrepreneurial life? Let us know in comments!

Nailing the Interview

"What is it that certain people say or do during a job interview that makes them stand out?

 Why do some people struggle to find work, while others land a job in no time?"

The author of How to Nail the Interview wanted to find out, so he set up a fake office, advertised a job opening, set up secret cameras and began interviewing. The result is this collection of 22 tips, complete with video demonstrating the many, many ways in which an interview can go horribly wrong.

The guy in the video above, for example, seems to prefer a job with no responsibility. Good luck with that.  And this guy was perhaps a little TOO honest in discussing his pilfering activities at one of his previous jobs. You do have to admire the bravado of taking office chairs along with the pens, though.

Friday Link Round-Up: The Email Edition

Ahhh email--we love it, we hate it. This Friday's link round-up is all about taming your inbox.

• Lifehacker's Top 10 Email Productivity Boosters--If you can do it, "process your email in batches" is probably your best time-saving tip from this list.

• Seth Godin's Email Checklist--Run through this list before you send your next email.

• How to Outsource the Inbox and Never Check Email Again--Tim Ferris is a millionaire working only 4 hours a week, so there might be something to his ideas here.

• Five Fast Email Productivity Tips--Number 1 is to check your email less often.

• Tips for Mastering Email Overload--Circulate this one around the office. If everyone plays along with these rules your inboxes will thank you.

• 9 Step Program to Cure Email Addiction--If you start to get nervous when you're away from your email, this article is for you.