GSETA

GSETA Institute Training on Sharpening Your Listening Skills Set for October 7 & 8

The GSETA Institute will be sponsoring training sessions on improving your communication style by sharpening your listening skills in October. Here's a description of the training:

Have you ever noticed how good it feels when someone really listens to you? When we're listened to, our feelings and needs are taken into account, we're more relaxed and open, and we feel we can achieve our objectives. Learn how you can get these kinds of results when communicating with others. This workshop will provide you with the key to clear communication through developing an understanding of effective listening techniques. You will be introduced to the Personal Listening Learning Model, resulting in improved communications, fewer misunderstandings, and more productive information sharing between team members. You will discover the five different approaches to listening and understand why most people depend on their natural listening approaches.

At the conclusion of this session, participants will be able to:

• Recognize the importance of developing good listening skills by reflecting on their past learning experiences.
• Discover the five different listening approaches used in communication and the specific characteristics of each approach.
• Discover that most people use their most natural listening approach. 
• Explore strengths and challenges as listeners
• Identify effective listening approaches and behaviors and practice modifying their listening approaches to meet the communication needs of team members.

This training will be offered once in each of the Northern/Central and Southern tiers of New Jersey. It will be taught by Roy Davis, president and founder of Davis Success Solutions.

 

Northern/Central Region

Wednesday, October 7, 2009                  

Middlesex County Fire Academy

1001 Fire Academy Drive

Sayreville, NJ 08872

 

 Southern Region

Thursday, October 8, 2009     

Camden County Resource Center

2600 Mt. Ephraim Avenue, Suite 105

Camden, NJ 08104

 

Download and complete the registration form. Registration forms are due by September 24, 2009.

Friday Link Round Up

Some interesting links for this rainy Friday morning. . .

• Facebook Privacy: A Guide--Some good tips on Facebook's privacy settings and how to use them.

• America's Job Exchange Announces Partnership with Accessible Employment--"America's Job Exchange (www.americasjobexchange.com), a leader in job search and online recruiting solutions, today announced partnership with AccessibleEmployment.org, a national job board dedicated to including disabled employees in today's workforce. The partnership also coincides with the launch of a new 'Disability Exchange' offering job search and career-related services specific to this special community."

• Laid Off Workers Eye the Abyss--UI benefits are set to expire for millions of job seekers within the next few months. This story looks at how people are struggling to survive.

• Screenr--We've discussed before how screencasting (a recording of activity on your computer screen with audio narration) can be a great way to show job seekers how to do things like fill out an online application or use a job board. Screenr is another free screencasting tool you may want to try out. No downloads--you can do the recording in your web browser.  Some tips on using Screenr are here.

• How to Switch Careers in a Recession--some good advice. 

• Multitaskers: Pay Attention if You Can--Turns out that the people who multitask the most are actually the worst at doing it. "Multitaskers are more easily distracted and less able to ignore irrelevant information than people who do less multitasking." Apparently it pays to focus.

Are You Killing Your Resume with These Boilerplate Phrases?

Liz Ryan has an excellent list of resume-killing phrases that appear on WAY too many resumes. They include:

• Results-oriented professional
• Cross-functional teams
• More than [x] years of progressively responsible experience
• Superior (or excellent) communication skills
• Strong work ethic
• Met or exceeded expectations
• Proven track record of success
• Works well with all levels of staff
• Team player
• Bottom-line orientation

This is the kind of boring corporate-speak that makes an employer put a resume into the "no thanks" pile. Might be a good idea to start helping job seekers weed these phrases out of their vocabulary.

Friday Link Round Up

Some good links this week. . .

• Do You Pass the Social Media Recruitment Test?--According to a study commissioned by CareerBuilder.com 45% of hiring managers are screening social media sites before hiring, with another 11% planning to implement such policies in the near future. Thirty-five percent of these employers said they found content that made them not hire the candidate, so now's a good time to start having job seekers take a closer look at their use of social media. If there's a problem, here are some strategies for cleaning up "digital dirt."

• Good Jobs First report on ARRA--In this report, released in July 2009, Good Jobs First evaluates the websites created by state governments to highlight their role in the implementation of the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

• How to Tweet Your Resume--For job seekers who are on Twitter, this is a good set of tips. 

• What I Learned at the Google Grants Workshop--Some ideas on how to use Google applications to support workforce development activities.

• Seven Steps to Strengthen Accomplishments on Your Resume--from the folks at JIST. 

• Labor Department to Tighten Scrutiny--USDOL is hiring 670 investigators to enforce labor regulations.

• WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool--a very nice tool for assessing whether or not your website meets accessibility standards. Copy and paste in the URL of the page you want to evaluate and you will get a detailed and easy to understand report of many of the most common accessibility problems with websites.

To Break Into a Company, Find the Career Paths That Start the Process

An excellent post from Jonathan Degani at Job Mob suggests that the best way to get into a company or organization is to understand the internal dynamics and how most people make their way into that company:

If you know where you want to go, the best thing you can do is contact someone who is there and learn the path, down to step one.  Then focus your job search on getting to that one pivotal step. For example, in KMPG, the new blood enters either (1) as a CPA or (2) in transfer pricing.    When I spoke to someone from Osem, I found out that in order to work there you have to start out in the PR department.  Nielsen’s workers all start out in marketing analysis.

This is particularly true for entry-level positions at larger organizations where there tend to be certain entry points into the company where they are likely to hire from the outside.

The trick, then, is to do some research into the company and to try to find people to talk with who can offer insight into the typical paths at that organization. Here are some additional resources for conducting that research and making those connections:

• Using LinkedIn
• The Ultimate Guide to Searching the Social Web
• Do Your Research!
• Twitter for Job Search

Friday Link Round Up

Another Friday, another group of links to explore:

• Why Blogging is Good for Your Career--Because CNN and CareerBuilder say so. Seriously, though, blogging really is an excellent career strategy for most professional job seekers.

• Clever Reference Checks--This is a good tip to share with employers. Have them call references when they are NOT likely to be available. Then leave a message for them to call back if they want to recommend the applicant. The more who call, the more likely you have a great candidate. Of course, this assumes that call-backs don't happen because people don't want to make a recommendation as opposed to them just being too busy to make the call.

• Another Hurdle to Joblessness: Credit Checks--This NYT article isn't news to most One Stop staff. Still it's a confirmation that what we've been seeing for awhile is going strong.

• Setting Up an SMS Campaign from Your Desktop--A lot of One Stops are starting to think about launching text messaging campaigns, especially to stay in contact with young people. This is a great article on how to get started.

• Try a "Failure" Resume--Erin Murphy talks about writing a "failure resume." She says it was a a "great exercise in self-awareness and helps you appreciate your flaws as catalysts that have moved you in a unique direction - the same way that strengths sometimes do." To have your job seekers write a failure resume, ask them to identify their flaws or "weakness skills" and then have them develop a resume that describes how these skills have made them a better job candidate. An interesting alternative exercise.

Get Weekly Briefs on What's Happening in ARRA Programs Across Agencies

Looking for a way to keep track of all the programs that are being implemented under ARRA?

Wider Opportunties for Women has developed a weekly scan that pulls together information across all agencies and programs, including upcoming deadlines and webinars and reports by OMB, advocacy groups and others. You can get your weekly copy of the brief by visiting the WOW website and clicking on the link at the bottom of the "What's New" section. Here are some items to check out from this week's issue:

From the Department of Labor – two important guidance letters!
TRAINING AND EMPLOYMENT GUIDANCE LETTER NO. 21-08, Change 1
The purpose of this guidance letter is to clarify an earlier letter by:  

1. Advising states of two important clarifications about Pell Grant eligibility requirements,
2. Encouraging states to use procedures that inform Unemployment Insurance (UI) beneficiaries before enrollment whether training is considered by the state as UI Approved Training, and
3. Reminding states that determinations made on UI Approved Training requests may be reported as “countable” non-monetary determinations for workload purposes.

TEGL No. 21-08 provides an overview of Pell Grant eligibility requirements, but it did not include two important eligibility criteria in its original draft.  Pell Grants are available only to individuals in an undergraduate degree or certificate program, regardless of full time or part time status. Secondly, students who already have an undergraduate degree cannot receive a Pell Grant to obtain another undergraduate degree.  However, these students may apply for other financial aid such as student loans. 

TRAINING AND EMPLOYMENT GUIDANCE LETTER NO. 30-08 
The purpose of this guidance letter is to announce the grant application process and to transmit guidance for the development and management of the PY 2009 Workforce Information Grants to States.  PY 2009 ETA workforce information grant funding is to be used by SWA grantees to provide and support the workforce information services needed for states to successfully identify, develop, and maintain sustainable and competitive regional economies capable of addressing both short- and long-term employment need.

Representatives of the Department of Energy made a presentation to the National Governors’ Association on the weatherization program. This PowerPoint presentation from that event contains the contact person and information for each state as well as basic information on the weatherization program and ARRA.  The Power Point is archived here.

Thanks to Workforce Developments for the WOW link.

Friday Link Round Up: The Social Media Powered Job Search

Over the past few months, we've done several blog posts on using technology and social media for job searching. For your Link Round Up this week, here's a "One Stop" guide to those posts.

• Using Google Calendar for Job Searching

• Twitter for Job Search

• More Twitter Job Search Feeds

• Some Resources for Dominating on LinkedIn

• Resources for Online Portfolios

• The Ultimate Guide to Searching the Social Web

• 10 Good Minutes: Some Great Podcasts for Job Search

• Email Networking Tips

• Have You Heard of these Job Search Sites?

• Is Google Sabotaging Your Job Search? Here's How to Deal with It

Are People Talking About Your One Stop Online? What You Can Do to Find Out

 Did you know that people may be talking about you online and you may not even realize it?

From blogs to message boards to Facebook and Twitter, people are having conversations about their experiences with companies and organizations and your One Stop may be one of the experiences they're discussing. How can you find out out? By setting up a social media listening dashboard. By using the proper tools and strategies you can keep track of what people are saying and be able to respond to what you discover.

Here are some resources to get you started:

• Set Up Your Social Media Listening Dashboard in Less than 30 Minutes

• The One Page Social Media Dashboard

• 19 Free Social Media Tools for Your Dashboard

• The Five Step ‘Shut Up, Listen and Spin’ Guide to Online PR and Social Media Agency Work

• Social Media Listening Literacy for Nonprofits

• Social Media Power Secret: Listening