The Voice of Job Seekers

Mark Anthony Dyson ★ Career Writer ★ Speaker ★ Thinker ★ Award-winning Blog & Podcast! ★ "The Job Scam Report" on Substack! ★ I hack and reimagine the modern job search!

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Job Seekers, Need Extra Income? Try Tutoring

Job Seekers, Need Extra Income? Try Tutoring

Tis the post-season of goodwill, and what better way to help our fellow man than with the gift of knowledge? During the winter season many students and their parents will be looking for tutors to aid them in their studies for the coming year and the series of standardized tests which beckon. Tutoring provides an excellent opportunity for jobseekers to use their craft to help others, earn some extra income and maybe even initiate a new career.

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In the current economic climate there are many teachers who are fully qualified yet cannot find work. Tutoring during the winter can potentially alleviate this issue. If you are an unemployed teacher you can tutor during the winter whilst continuing to apply for other full time or part time employment. When searching for a tutor, students and their parents prefer certified teachers, which increase your chances of acquiring consistent employment. However, tutors with other forms of professional experience are also sought after. For example, if you have previous experience in fields such as nursing, business, finance, law, or can adeptly play a musical instrument, then tutoring could prove to be an industrious career prospect.

Tutoring offers a wide variety of choice when deciding who to tutor and in what subject. You can work independently by utilizing contacts from previous schools or jobs to promote your availability for tutoring. If this does not suit you then there are a multitude of test prep companies which employ tutors. They assign you to students in your area to help prepare them for standardized tests and professional certificate exams.

Moreover, there are several free online resources which can aid you in tutoring, especially if you have not tutored before. There are online forums you can frequent which enable you to discuss teaching techniques and syllabus changes with other tutors. There are also databases whereupon you can access and print off free worksheets to use during your tutoring sessions.

Tutoring offers you the liberty to work at times which are convenient for you; from an hour after school to several hours on weekends or during the holidays. You can work as often or as sporadically as you wish because there remains a consistent need for private tutoring for a range of ages of students and in a variety of subjects.

Tutoring can provide a lucrative income during the winter and can continue throughout the following year. Pay varies depending on the particular student, the subject for which they require tutoring and the duration for which they require to be taught. $10 to $25 per hour is the average wage, however, there is an ever increasing demand for specialists in math, sciences and foreign languages, and thus some tutoring sessions may result in you earning up to $65 an hour!

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Tutoring during the winter can provide a stable income, and provides you with an opportunity to teach a subject which interests you, which you can teach at your own pace. Moreover, if you enjoy tutoring, you can continue it throughout the year, particularly in the fall and spring when there is a high demand for tutoring college students in preparation for their SAT and ACT aptitude tests. Tutoring has the potential to develop from a winter past time into a promising career as you remain in contact with modern education and its ever developing syllabus.

About Mark Anthony Dyson

I am the "The Voice of Job Seekers!" I offer compassionate career and job search advice as I hack and re-imagine the job search process. You need to be "the prescription to an employer's job description." You must be solution-oriented and work in positions in companies where you are the remedy. Your job search must be a lifestyle, and your career must be in front of you constantly. You can no longer shed your aspirations at the change seasons. There are strengths you have that need constant use and development. Be sure you sign up to download my E-Book, "421 Modern Job Search Tips 2021!" You can find my career advice and work in media outlets such as Forbes, Inc., Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, Glassdoor, and many other outlets.

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If You’re Snaggled Tooth, and Batfaced, You Won’t Get the Job

If You’re Snaggled Tooth, and Batfaced, You Won’t Get the Job
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We’d like to believe that but really, it is the job seeker, not the employer.
So we’re told by the Job Preparedness Indicator study.
The right candidate goes up and beyond the job description. If you are too different despite clearly stated quantitative and qualitative results you will likely miss opportunities that are only accurate on paper.
So we’re told.
Many job seekers without hesitation will attempt to please every type of employer. This is a dangerous practice, one that extends unemployment and sustains the under employment statistics that yet to exist. You, the job seeker, must diminsh the tangible reasons for not being hired.
Remember, it’s you. Not the employer. Afterall, it’s your biases don’t matter.
Can’t help it, if they wanted to
Hiring managers, recruiters, human resource screeners in the hiring process can’t help if his or her personal biases influence employment decisions. It goes way beyond the scope of race, gender, creed, color, and sexual preference.
Take if easy on yourself as you will likely be turned away because of a bias that has nothing to do with skill compentency.
No one really knows why that in high volume job hiring campaigns the reason that people don’t get jobs. In a Wall Street Journal article last May, one consultant stated that specific feedback is unlikely given upon a job candidate’s request because there is a fine line between objective and subjective.
No surprise here. What if an employer told you, ” So your southern drawl is a distraction for most of us northerners anyway. How would you even relate to our high-end Yankee clients?” We can chalk that up to the cultural noise bias that exists. This report says there are 10 types of hiring biases (thanks to Joann Corley). Interviewers are fundamentally learners, and they have to be. They are ascertaining new information that is critical to their investment in you as the employee. They live, they learn.
The objective and subjective has arms, legs, and can color differentiate and discern societal lines.
Employers will find reasons
Employers have to like you. Like learning, past personal preferences play a valid part of your decision making abilities. Interviewing is learning as it should be an adult pedagogical theory of its own. Hiring managers are often untrained interviewers who rely on their own personal, but basic training and knowledge when thrown for a loop. This is not a good thing at all, especially when this could mean the job candidate is much sharper than the interviewer. But they many, like regular folks, decide not to like you.
Temperance, good judgement, relevant hard skills, and evident soft skills such as flexibility should regulary be noticed. You  have to sell yourself. You have to “fit” the company culture. There is not an auto-convinced button to be pressed. Having just enough for the job is at times, too little to be remembered by.
If the candidate is snaggled-tooth and offensively unattractive, he or she is subject to a number of hiring biases without saying a word. By the time they reach a competent career coach, despite the job seekers lousy formatted and faulty strategy resume, the person positively stands out.
What? Good job candidates with lousy resumes get hired! But that is why we (career coaches, advisors, recruiters)  tell you its the relationship and your presentation that will get you noticed, not the dental work employers think you need done.

About Mark Anthony Dyson

I am the "The Voice of Job Seekers!" I offer compassionate career and job search advice as I hack and re-imagine the job search process. You need to be "the prescription to an employer's job description." You must be solution-oriented and work in positions in companies where you are the remedy. Your job search must be a lifestyle, and your career must be in front of you constantly. You can no longer shed your aspirations at the change seasons. There are strengths you have that need constant use and development. Be sure you sign up to download my E-Book, "421 Modern Job Search Tips 2021!" You can find my career advice and work in media outlets such as Forbes, Inc., Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, Glassdoor, and many other outlets.

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Special Report: The Job Preparedness Indicator 2013

Special Report: The Job Preparedness Indicator 2013

Last year, I reported that  The Job Preparedness Indicator is an annual survey conducted on behalf of the Career Advisory Board, established by DeVry University. It offers data, trends and advice for job seekers on how to bridge the skills gap and meet potential employers’ needs. This year, I will be briefly discussing The Job Preparedness 2013 and highlight some of its findings.

Briefly from the press release, the data from the 2013 Job Preparedness Indicator shows that hiring managers’ confidence in the U.S. job market is at an all-time high. Eighty-six percent of hiring managers are at least somewhat confident the job market will improve in 2014, up nearly 20 percent from 2012.

While hiring managers are “bullish” about the job market, they are less satisfied with their candidate pools. Only 15 percent of hiring managers say nearly all or most job seekers have the skills and traits their companies are looking for in candidates. Hiring managers’ message to job seekers is simple: It’s not the economy, it’s you.

The Job Preparedness Indicator shows that in order to take advantage of the improving market, job seekers will need to completely overhaul their approaches to job searches and interviews, and learn how to communicate that they have the skills employers value most or the “skills gap” will carry on.

 

 

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Alexandra Levit is a spokesperson for the Career Advisory Board, and as I did last year, I was able to ask her some question in regards to the survey findings:

 

The study appears that job seekers lack the ability to network. Or perhaps, are failing to demonstrate competency?

I think most people don’t really know how to network effectively, and this is demonstrated in the Job Preparedness Indicator by the fact that only 40 percent of job seekers are making good use of a mentor.  I talk a bit more about how to do this below.  A lack of networking competency could also explain why job seekers are confident going into interviews, but are still not getting the positions.  Most jobs are secured through someone you know.

 

The study suggests that job seekers fail to research deeper into the skillset and not just the job opening. Is that a good assessment into what is wrong with job seeker research efforts?

That’s fair.  The JPI research shows that employers are looking for things that they may not list in the job description, so even though you should be prepared to speak to highlighted skills, you should also be spotlighting your experience with skills that are generally in-demand, such as business acumen, global competence, and strategic perspective.

 

How can job seekers offer value to the basic skill sets that are being requested by the employer?

Job seekers should look carefully at every job description and pluck out the key skills mentioned.  For each, they should brainstorm a concrete example of how they have used that skill to achieve results with a past employer.  In addition, it’s helpful to talk with people in your industry to identify in-demand skills that may not be directly requested, and develop a similar plan for showcasing those.

Much of the studies I have seen have suggested that soft skills are lacking substance for graduates. Does this study point to inadequate soft-skills as well?

Yes.  Hiring managers place importance fundamental skills that showcase an entry-level candidate’s ability to adapt and assimilate into a position.  Displaying dependability and a strong work ethic, an ability to work well with others, and self-motivation are considered most important among hiring managers when looking to fill a position.

 

From this study, what solutions would you offer job seekers to improve in showing his or her competencies?

According to JPI, about 3 in 4 hiring managers (74 percent) say job seekers should have someone to talk to, such as a mentor, counselor or job coach about their employment prospects.  But unfortunately, only 40 percent of job seekers say they have someone like this.  Job seekers should also understand that the most effective way to secure a valuable mentor is to identify a successful individual a few steps ahead in their field and propose a specific vision for the relationship.

 

To get the most out of a mentor relationship, job seekers should think through questions in advance, listen carefully, follow through on the advice given, and look for ways to help the mentor in return.  A mentor is truly the best person to provide honest and direct feedback about what you could be doing differently to better your prospects.

About Mark Anthony Dyson

I am the "The Voice of Job Seekers!" I offer compassionate career and job search advice as I hack and re-imagine the job search process. You need to be "the prescription to an employer's job description." You must be solution-oriented and work in positions in companies where you are the remedy. Your job search must be a lifestyle, and your career must be in front of you constantly. You can no longer shed your aspirations at the change seasons. There are strengths you have that need constant use and development. Be sure you sign up to download my E-Book, "421 Modern Job Search Tips 2021!" You can find my career advice and work in media outlets such as Forbes, Inc., Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, Glassdoor, and many other outlets.