Job Tips For The Frustrated Job Seeker

Written by TJ Smith


There is nothing more frustrating and depressing when you are out of work and trying to find a job and your job search is going no where. Don't feel bad, you are not alone and there is a good reason why searching for a new job can be so difficult. There is no doubtrepparttar job market has changed. 30 years ago when I applied for my first job I remember answering an ad inrepparttar 137010 paper, calling and speaking to a real person, going in forrepparttar 137011 interview, filling out a application, hadrepparttar 137012 interview and was offeredrepparttar 137013 $3.75 and hour shipping job. Things are not that simple today. Back then there was no voice mail, no email, you mailed in a typed resume, who had a fax at home? You called and talked to a real person. You may of filled out a application but notrepparttar 137014 dozen forms you need to today. And you never had to prove you were legally allowed to work inrepparttar 137015 United States. Today if you are looking for a job how to you stand out inrepparttar 137016 impersonal hiring environment that exists in most companies. If you apply online you are competing against dozens if not hundreds of others. Competition is stiff for a number of jobs a human never even sees your resume. Are there steps you can follow that will improve your chances? After being unemployed for several months after 3 years of self employment and becoming more depressed and frustrated in not finding a job, I took my job search to a new level which finally paid off in a new job. I had been self employed for 3 years but after a divorce and starting life over, my self employment was no longer working. I had to biterepparttar 137017 bullet and start looking for a job. The first mistake I realized was my resume was not working. I had updated it to reflect my self employment which was not related to my previous career. I was trying to find a position in my previous career inrepparttar 137018 graphics and computer support industry. By starting my work history with my self employment it made it look like I had been out ofrepparttar 137019 industry even longer and my skills even more outdated. I was just shooting myself inrepparttar 137020 foot. I changed my self employment to reflect my computer skills so while I had been out ofrepparttar 137021 industry for awhile I wasn't out of touch. Some employers have doubts about people who have been self employed. They think they are going to go back to their own business or worse they only want a job so they can use company resources for their own gain. In my case I was able to explain that I had an opportunity to work at home and spend time with my preschool son, it had been for family reasons. Most employers respect that. To begin with you really need to take a hard look at your resume. If you have always worked in one area and are applying for a position similar to those you have had inrepparttar 137022 past then your resume may just need some updating and polish. There are a number of good books and websites on resume writing. If you really need help then a resume service may be money well spent. How many resumes do you have? There is no reason you can't have several. I was applying for a variety of positions some that would made me "over qualified" or unrelated experience if I stuck with just one standard resume. I created a "general" resume that listed a variety of skills that could fit any number of non specific jobs. You can have one that is very specific forrepparttar 137023 industry you are applying for and there is no reason you can't change it to a specific company especially if it will be scanned in and checked for "keywords" Some companies scan for keywords or buzzwords related torepparttar 137024 position, their company or industry. Even if you arerepparttar 137025 most qualified person for that position, if your resume doesn't have those keywords, it will never get seen. In addition to having a few different resumes you should have it in several different formats also. If you need to mail it in then a nice easy to read printed resume is in order. Same if you will be faxing it in. If you email your resume then your cover letter will be your email and your resume will be attached. Most employers request it be in a word .doc format or text but you can also use a pdf format. If you have your own website why not post it online with a link in your email. That way if your attachment can't be read they can print it offrepparttar 137026 internet. For examplerepparttar 137027 link could be http://www.yourwebsite.com/yourresume.html. You should also have a unformatted text only resume for uploading to online job sites.

Boy Scouts of America and Leadership Coaching

Written by CMOE Development Team


The Center for Management and Organization Effectiveness talks with Dennis St. Jean, Assistant Director Professional Development Division, Boy Scouts of America, Irving, Texas.

CMOE: Having recently attended one of your leadership conferences I walked away with a totally different view of Boy Scouts of America. Can you tell us about your organization?

Dennis: Our intent is to haverepparttar volunteers inrepparttar 136899 community, andrepparttar 136900 youth, receiverepparttar 136901 recognition. As a result most people think of us as a volunteer organization and don’t know that we have 3,500 full time commissioned professional staff working in 326 local Boy Scout Councils. Our Staff Leaders work with our first level professional, Unit Serving Executives.

CMOE: What isrepparttar 136902 role of a Unit Serving Executive?

Dennis: They arerepparttar 136903 workhorses of our organization, responsible for fund raising, recruiting volunteers, recruiting new members, and starting new scouting units. They work directly withrepparttar 136904 volunteers and their efforts determine our success in meeting our Mission and Goals.

CMOE: Sorepparttar 136905 Staff Leaders managerepparttar 136906 Unit Servicing Executives?

Dennis: They do more than manage, they lead and develop. Even though we are a not-for-profit organization, we operate like a business. Since our staff salaries arerepparttar 136907 biggest line item in our budget, we must maximizerepparttar 136908 contribution of our people. We believe that maximization is more acute forrepparttar 136909 Scouts. Every dollar spent has to be raised. It is absolutely imperative thatrepparttar 136910 Staff Leader sharpensrepparttar 136911 skills of those reporting to them and constantly develops them to become even better.

CMOE: What role does leadership coaching skills play in achieving this goal?

Dennis: Our Operational Management System (OMS), like many other performance management systems, has four phases: Clearly communicating expectations, Providing feedback on barriers and needed development, Coaching to improve, and Rewards based upon performance.

CMOE: Are your Staff Leaders good coaches?

Dennis: They are good people and we assumed that leadership coaching behaviors were natural. Our feedback from some of our highly rated people who left, and current valued employees, told us that bothrepparttar 136912 quality and quantity of coaching was lacking. They were not receiving enough coaching, feedback/direction, andrepparttar 136913 coaching was either not effective or focused only on barriers, not on developmental plans. Even when discussing barriers there was not enough emphasis on “why” and “how to improve.”



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