Career-Employment Advice
What Are the Building Blocks For a Great Career? 
By http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Peggy_McKee Peggy McKee
Strengthening your career plan and developing strategies to reach the professional and economic goals you have is always a valuable exercise. Whether you have just graduated from college or you are a grizzled veteran with many years or even decades of experience, taking a step back and assessing where you are with your career plan can make for a more rewarding professional life personally and economically. What have you done recently about this?
A great strategy is not developed accidentally. To create the right plan, you have to examine your current career situation along several different major lines of analysis including:
1. When you look at the position you would like to have in 5 years or 10 years, what educational background describes the individuals in these positions? This is a critical consideration and should be examined without trying to justify your credentials. You are looking for commonality from as many good examples as possible. Just because one happens to be a high school drop out doesn't imply this will generally work. Additionally, you have to consider what happens to the exception should they lose their position.
2. Can you identify what the network of vendors, contractors, peers, and managers reporting to this person would often be? Your network plan should incorporate this.
3. Also, developing a network of recruiters and peer business relationships could prove extremely useful. Exposure to industry best practices will prove strategic. Participation in industry opportunities builds access and later career opportunity momentum.
4. Further, you should have a sense of how long you should be seeking to remain at each point of your career plan before promotions and lateral moves. Also, you should ensure you are aware of the experiences and other factors that may be playing a role in these positions.
Much of this may seem impossible or a struggle to accomplish. However, over the course of years with a clear vision, these objectives become reasonable. However, translating the objectives, roles, responsibilities, and experiences a defined strategy with a defined execution plan becomes a reasonable and achievable goal.
So, are you serious about your career? If so, you need to get started creating a well conceived and detailed career plan. And, you have to put that career plan into action with executable steps, actions, and expectations. Begin today, understanding where you are headed, what the connections you will need are, what the experiences you have to have and begin creating your plan.
Peggy McKee owns Career Confidential a job search coaching for top sales talent, sales management, marketing and service personnel! Peggy's 9+ years as a top recruiter and owner at PHC Consulting filling roles for leading national companies gives her proven perspective on the process. Visit http://job-search-success-secrets.com/customer-feedback.htm to see testimonials of real job hunting success stories.
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Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?What-Are-the-Building-Blocks-For-a-Great-Career?&id=4462936 What Are the Building Blocks For a Great Career?
Searching For a Job in Difficult Times
By http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=A_Harrison_Barnes A Harrison Barnes
If you are like so many people in the world today, chances are that you currently do not have a job. There are tons of resources out there to help you find a job; you just have to know where to look.
One of the first and most obvious places to look for a job is your local unemployment office. If you are eligible, you may also want to sign up for unemployment as well just to make sure you have some type of income coming in. It may seem as if everyone is there and you do not stand a chance for finding a job, but with persistence, you are likely to luck up.
Most people look for jobs that they have previous experience with. While this may be the first thing you need to do, it may not be the only thing you should do. If you are an experienced teacher but know you could probably excel behind an office desk in a doctor's office, then try not to limit yourself to just one profession. Think about the skills you already possess as well as those you would like to learn. Not all employers hire people based on their experience alone.
Try to apply for jobs that you know are not going to experience any layoffs in the near future. Healthcare and energy jobs are always in demand. The food industry is also another very popular career field that isn't expected to be going anywhere anytime soon. Once you have submitted your application with your potential employer, give them time to review it and then give them a call back. People who exhibit interest after applying for a job are usually the ones who end up getting called in for an interview.
Searching your local newspaper classifieds can also take you a long way when searching for a job. However, you may need to search more than one local newspaper as they have a tendency to post different jobs. The internet is also a very valuable resource. rel=nofollow [http://employmentcrossing.4worklife.com/] Online job sites like CareerBuilder and Monster post new jobs everyday. It is best if you create an online resume and submit it to these types of sites. Employers tend to find these very useful and usually end up calling you.
In order to fully maximize your chances of getting a job as soon as possible, you need to remain consistent. Do not let there be a week that goes by that you do not pick up a local newspaper and read the classifieds to see what is out there. When it all comes down to it, a job is a job. Sometimes, people have to settle for less than what they think they are worth. People who have a job during this difficult time should consider themselves to be extremely fortunate. It is important to remember that finding a job is work in itself. By taking advantage of all possible job resources, you are sure to find a job suitable enough for your situation in less time than you think.
A. Harrison Barnes is the founder and CEO of http://www.careermission.com/ CareerMission, the parent company of more than 90 job-search websites, employment services, recruiting firms and student loan companies. CareerMission (originally Juriscape) employs several hundred employees in 14 offices throughout the United States, Asia, and Europe. These companies were literally started from Harrison's garage several years ago after Harrison quit his job.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?Searching-For-a-Job-in-Difficult-Times&id=2754652 Searching For a Job in Difficult Times
Attn - Read the Labels Before You Drink the Career Advice
By http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=JT_O'Donnell JT O'Donnell
With the creation of blogs has come a wonderful opportunity for people to become better informed on a variety of topics. Just visit Alltop.com and you'll find a 'magazine rack effect' of blogs on almost any subject you can think of. In fact, when you click on the careers tab, you'll find plenty of content providing advice. However, not all of it is worth taking.
Blog readers beware! Some online writers aren't giving accurate or sound advice. Here's why...
As more blogs are created, it gets harder for sites to increase readership. So, the need to stand out becomes critical. It starts with crafting intriguing titles for their posts so they can capture a reader's attention and get that all-important 'click' on to the site. But, when that doesn't result in enough hits, a blogger may opt to go beyond the headline and into the body of text with advice and commentary meant to shock and gain attention. There's an old saying, "any publicity is good publicity," and many bloggers today are embracing that strategy. They believe that creating a buzz is more important than creating a valuable resource. Sadly, the result is a lot of bloggers offering insights that are more than just a little off-base.
So, how does an innocent reader do a litmus test to make sure what they are reading is viable advice? A few suggestions:
1) Confirm the author can back up their advice with reputable facts. A single success is an accident. 2-5 times could still be just luck. But, an ability to provide dozens of examples - now that's a fact.
2) Assess the credibility of the source. What's the writer's credentials? Should they be giving you advice on this subject? What qualifies them?
3) Follow your gut's BS meter. A simple but true test. If the advice flies in convention and makes you think, "Really? Why then aren't more people embracing it?" Leave it alone and let someone else try it first.
When we reached out to the current career experts donating their time to answer career questions from followers on Twitter, we chose people with a wide range of experience. The key word in that phrase: experience. Better still, we chose a large number of experts to participate so those seeking advice could see the collective thoughts of the group on the subject. This enables us to offer advice consensus and deliver a comprehensive answer to each career question received. It's a known fact the IQ of a group is always higher than the average of its participants. So, it only made sense that we would create a career advice tool that would leverage the power of a team.
In closing, I ask you this:
At the end of the day, would you take medical advice from a team of doctors with PhDs and a successful track record of healing, or would you go with the Witch Doctor in the crazy outfit who just landed on the scene?
It's your career, treat it well. Seek advice from credible sources to ensure you get the right advice. The health of your career is at stake.
J.T. O'Donnell is a nationally syndicated career expert, author and founder of CAREEREALISM.com. Her work has been noted by leading sources including, CareerBuilder.com and BusinessWeek.com for its timely, cutting-edge job search and career strategy advice for young professionals, ages 18-40. For more articles, visit her at http://www.CAREEREALISM.com today.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?Attn---Read-the-Labels-Before-You-Drink-the-Career-Advice&id=2312410 Attn - Read the Labels Before You Drink the Career Advice
