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Job Search Success: Why Say NO!

Long time ago I wrote that NO! needs to be a part of a job seeker’s vocabulary. Your job search needs NO! to give it life right now. I’m continuing this discussion that Sassy HR Girl started a while ago. Stop being a desperate YES! job seeker!

I am glad it’s still relevant. It must be intentional. It must have authority. You Inc., the job seeker,is the only one who can establish what it means, and deliver it strongly!
There are far too many regrets YES! has triggered in missed opportunities. YES! has also corrupted your judgment. Too many options are harmful, but no focus is regrettable. You can’t find a job without a target. You’ll hit anything and perhaps everything that keeps you unemployed and unhappy.

That’s not good.

YES! to wrong opportunities, conversations, and gatherings are a time suck! It’s an illusion. It’s a place that you don’t want to exist or become a participant.

NO! is a smart person’s filter. The screen is there to deter all random requests for availability. The screen helps you and I discern ingenuine offers, creepy salesman, and Aflac. If you know what I mean. YES! should be sparingly used and at times, to get in front of the line. Like when you get the call for a second interview with a company you like.

NO! is like American Express. You rarely use it because you know you have to pay the whole bill at the end of the month. YES! is the debit card. You wish you’d use it less, but you don’t because it seems easier than cash. Debit cards lack filters. It’s easier to misjudge.

It exploits your lack of control

Use NO! to shrink your expenditures. Especially the egregious and frivolous cash sucking cries you can live without. You don’t want to go after non sensical opportunities just for the money to pay for YES!

Say NO! to inane networking contacts on any social network where you are using to make meaningful employment contacts. Saying YES! to them lowers your resistance for foolishness.
Ever tried negotiating with YES!? It’s a dance. It’s provocative. It also ensures failure. It’s temporary. It’s a shooting star. Once you have exhausted YES! to dance all night, then it forces NO! When you can’t have either, then who will kiss you on the cheek, “Goodnight?” MAYBE?

It’s better to say YES! or NO! At least you’ll know where you stand. MAYBE? is the lover that cheats on you and keeps you yearning for more, and you don’t know why?

Your job search efforts on all fronts yield catastrophic results is you keep applying and chasing after jobs that do not win your heart. It’s lust because it’s instant gratification or low hanging fruit, but since your NO! colored glasses weren’t on, it was on pretty on the outside. Wait to a few months go by in that job that compromised your ambition and career goals. The kiss of honesty is a peck on the cheek, and it’s no longer honest.

This is how not to get sucked into YES! mode:

Get financial counseling and look for ways lower your expenses. The more wealth you create now will help you apply sound judgment later in scenarios like negotiations, picking opportunities, and how you position yourself as a candidate.

Advisors. More than two people who are successful and regularly practice sound career judgment who offers logical advice.

A solid plan of the values you require of an employer. If everyone works 60+ hours weekly, rest assured, you will too. Is that what you want? No. Then plan to say NO!

If it’s too fast…then use NO! as a filter. You should look for the win-win and so should a potential employer. Anything less than that will corrupt a successful job search.

I’m sure you can think of others. Share it with us in the comments.

by Mark Anthony Dyson

5 Volunteer Efforts That Impress Employers

Volunteering always looks great on a CV. Even if your experience isn’t directly related to the job you’re applying for, volunteer efforts show that you are an active person who is driven by motives other than financial. Having said this, there are definitely some volunteer efforts which look better than others when it comes to applying for jobs. Here are a few of the most impressive areas of volunteer experience to have when applying for a new position.

1) Relevant experience

Of course, the best voluntary experience you can have is in something relevant to your field. If you are looking to go into finance or accounting than helping a charity out with their accounts, is a fantastic experience to have. In the voluntary job market, you often have the chance to progress much faster than if you were doing the same job in the paid world. This often means that you can gain experience of leading and managing teams sooner and, therefore, make an excellent candidate for an employee.

2) Volunteering abroad

Volunteering abroad poses a few more obstacles than volunteering in your own neighborhood and employers will recognize the challenges you will have had to face. Employers are always looking for dynamic individuals with excellent problem-solving skills and the ability to overcome difficult obstacles. Candidates who have had experience volunteering abroad often possess these qualities. Furthermore, in an increasingly globalised world, employers are looking for candidates with the ability to work internationally.

3) Something you love

If your volunteering work is not completely relevant to the career path you have chosen, make sure it helps a cause about which you are extremely passionate. It is very likely that once you get to a job interview, prospective employers will ask you lots of questions about your volunteering experiences. Therefore, it is very important that you are willing and able to talk at length about your volunteering. Employers look for genuine passion, and if you can convey this whilst talking about the work you’ve done for a brilliant cause then you are much more likely to make a good impression.

4) Training Included

Many charitable organizations may not be able to pay their volunteers, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t be rewarded for your efforts. Volunteers can often obtain useful qualifications through volunteering, such as first-aid certification or leadership training, which will look good as new skills on your CV and make you all the more employable in the future. If you do get yourself a volunteering placement, ask if there are any exams or tests that you can take make the most out of your experience. Volunteering always looks great on a CV. Even if your experience isn’t directly related to the job you’re applying for, it shows that you are an active person who is driven by motives other than the purely financial. Having said this, there are definitely some volunteer efforts which look better than others when it comes to applying for jobs. Here are a few of the most impressive areas of volunteer experience to have when applying for a new position.

5) Full-time Volunteering Work

We can all volunteer for a few hours a week in a local charity, cherry-picking the parts of the job which appeal to us. Employers particularly commend commitment to many hours a week. The closer to a full-time position you can get, the better it will look to prospective employers. They want to know that you can handle a full-time job, whatever the hours may be. Working 40 hours a week for free demonstrates a huge level of commitment and suggests that you will have had to do less pleasurable parts of the job, as well as the fun hands-on parts. This will further prove your motives are far from the financial and make you a very desirable job candidate.

What volunteer projects do you plan to participate in this year? Please share.

Richard McMunn, runs the leading career website, how2become.com. His aim is to help as many people as possible pass the recruitment process they are applying for to secure the job they have always wanted. The site offers a wide range of books and training courses for those who want to ensure they are fully prepared. You can also connect with How2become on YouTube.

by Mark Anthony Dyson

How Can College Career Centers Prepare Students (PODCAST Episode #3)

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J.T. O’Donnell , Founder of Careerealism.com, author, speaker, columnist, and blogger for Linked In. This interview is in conjunction with the Chicago event next Tuesday, July 30, the Career Advisory Board, established by DeVry University, hosted by Midwest ACE featuring executives from Microsoft, LinkedIn, IBM, Quintiles and well respected career experts and authors focused on how college career centers can prepare students to develop in-demand skills, get jobs when they graduate, and improve the quality of America’s workforce. J.T. and I had a conversation about the continual disconnect between college Career Centers and graduates and a few of the solutions needing to take place for success.

Here is a short outline of our conversation:

J.T. talks about the enormous responsibility college Career Services deal with factors they have no direct impact. Later in the conversation we talk about how administrative decisions impact some of the outcomes in the effectiveness of programs.

J.T. suggests that Career Services needs creativity to engage future graduates to have a positive effect on employment. She feels that this will affect how alumni will give back to his or her university in the future.

We also talked about the cultural shift and the lack of the budget that is available to college Career Services and the effect it has on a graduates job search.

J.T. also makes the point that alumni will become disinterested in donating because the education the college is providing are not converting to jobs for students. Parents are becoming more concerned about their investment in his or her child‘s ability to receive education and not a job when he or she graduates. J.T. shares an instance where an angry parent called for coaching and how her perspective gave the parent food for thought.

I asked J.T. if there were college and universities that stand out in heading the right direction in engaging students. She pointed out a couple of universities and even an MBA program who are making some headway in its engagement of students.

Please, enjoy our conversation!