After a pretty heavy week here in Jobacle Land, we are pleased to bring you the Forward of the Week, kindly submitted by Shawna from Florida. Things You Wish You Could Say at Work:1. I can see your point, but I still think you’re full of shi*.2. I don’t know what your problem is, but I’ll bet it’s hard to pronounce.3. How about never? Is never good for you?4. I see you’ve set aside this special time to humiliate yourself in public.5. I’m really easy to get along with once you people learn to see it my way.6. I’ll try being nicer if you’ll try being smarter.7. I’m out of my mind, but feel free to leave a message.8. I don’t work here. I’m a consultant.9. It sounds like English, but I can’t understand a damn word you’re saying.10. Ahhhh .. I see the screw-up fairy has visited us again.11. I like you. You remind me of myself when I was young and stupid.12. You are validating my inherent mistrust of strangers.13. … [Read more...] about Things You Wish You Could Say at Work
Drama: Resume Hunter Under Fire
Looks like we've got a heated debate on our hands here at Jobacle! I'd like to take a moment to address our loyal readers and the thousands of new people that have joined us over the past few days. A feature that pops up every few weeks on Jobacle is the Resume Hunter. This is an exercise where the Hunter locates a public resume and brings the document's faults to light. The hope is that both the resume poster and the general public can glean a bit of useful information from the exercise. Allow me to clarify a few things:- The Resume Hunter is not designed to be mean-spirited. The honest-to-God goal is to actually HELP people learn from common (and public) mistakes. I never anticipated this volume of negative feedback. At this time I do not plan to pull the feature. In fact, we have another one hitting the Web next week (so subscribe!). The Resume Hunter is a new twist on dishing out useful information. It would be easy … [Read more...] about Drama: Resume Hunter Under Fire
Match Jobs With Your Skills at Jobfox
This is a guest blog post by job hunter Sally Lawton. Company: Jobfox.comSlogan: Be the HuntedPros: Creates a professional Webpage; generates a skills list; automatically matches candidates to jobs; protects job-seeker’s informationCons: Limited sample size; limited job and skill categoriesDo you ever wish that the “I’m here for networking” option on MySpace could actually help your career? Jobfox.com takes the personal-page layout of MySpace, and gives it a professional edge, leaving job-hunters confident that employers will see them at their professional best, and not at their partying best.The professional Webpage generated by Jobfox can be a powerful marketing tool because it offers a centralized location for a candidate’s resume and portfolio. The page also offers a skills map, a list of what the candidate wants in a job, and an “about me” section. The skills map shows how a particular position generated a candidate’s … [Read more...] about Match Jobs With Your Skills at Jobfox
Reveal Your Company's Holiday Plans and Win
The holiday flood gates have officially swung wide open. In fact, as I type this, I'm surrounded by strings of lights, faux snow flakes and poinsettias. They're probably at your office too;"Ambiguous decorations" as to not offend anyone. I hate being a Grinch. I LOVE the holidays - when I'm with my family and friends. Holidays at work, however, are nothing but a land mine-filled mess. Career media will trot out their annual Holiday Party Dos and Don'ts list. (It's already started) As always, it will be stale information. These same folks will fabricate stories of office party chaos. You know, the one where the boss and the administrative assistant had too much to drink? It's all BS. December is jam-packed with bizarre office rituals. For example, this Holiday Door Decoration Contest that was submitted by an anonymous Jobacle reader. Listen, anything with that many rules that is judged by "The Quality of Work Life Committee" simply can't be fun! Here's some insight into my … [Read more...] about Reveal Your Company's Holiday Plans and Win
Working Podcast: Hottest Tech Jobs
Episode #75 of the Working Podcast brings you the following career advice and employment news: - 5 reasons why it's important to talk to your boss, manager or supervisor if you want to get ahead in your career. - My wife, who knows absolutely nothing about technology, helps bring you the hottest tech careers for the next decade. - The Career Filter, the part of the show that brings you the hottest career resources, shares 5 Facebook apps that can help you land a new job. Plus learn about Jiibe and Web-based project management tool 5pm. If you've ever written an office memo (or just read one!) we've got a great song for you. There are three ways to listen: - Stream on our homepage (shows plays instantly) - Stream from the player below (about a 60 second load time) - Download direct … [Read more...] about Working Podcast: Hottest Tech Jobs
How to Avoid a Know-It-All at Work
The world's population is roughly 6.6 billion people according to Wikipedia. Despite the enormity of that number, there are a disproportionately lower number of outward personality traits one can display; i.e. - the wallflower, the overachiever, the comedian, the bully, etc. Unless you work in an office of only three people, you likely work with people that encapsulate a good assortment of these characteristics.Out of these traits, the one that fascinates me the most is the over-opinionated know-it-all that loves to share his or her opinion as fact. You know the type. They catch you in a break room and give you the lowdown on politics or the problem with today's music or the key to the Jets failed season. Or, if you're really unlucky, they'll chew off your ear on a multitude of subjects. Their focus is usually on what they see as a problem, and their conviction often comes off as arrogance.Not only do they know everything, they also love to unload this … [Read more...] about How to Avoid a Know-It-All at Work
Video Resumes Continue to Fail, etc.
As another month of Jobacle-mania wraps up, here's what's on my mind:1) Thanks to the ladies at Clearchannel's NewsRadio 740 KTRH in Houston, TX for giving us some love.2) The time waster of the month has definitely been the Cubicle Freakout Game. How much destruction can you unleash on your cube in the allotted time period?3) The Working Podcast continues to grow rapidly, especially in Asia!? For some reason we've been getting a nice clip of traffic from qq.com and music.soso. I have no idea what they're saying about us...but thank you...I think! Can anyone translate?4) An open message to career blogger posers. You know who you are. Download the 90-second rant.5) According to a recent Vault survey, 89% of employers are interested in viewing video resumes. If that's the case, we think about 88% of them will be disappointed. While video has swept the Web, we here at Jobacle still feel the video resume has nowhere to go but up. Vault recently wrapped up their … [Read more...] about Video Resumes Continue to Fail, etc.
The Worst Resume Template Ever
We here at Jobacle are on an endless hunt for the perfect resume. And we're pleased to report that so far, it's nowhere to be found. Cue the music, Bob. It's time for the Resume Hunter! Today's lucky contestant is Vinay Pandey of New Delhi. Fluff: The first thing I gather from this resume is NOTHING. After reading his objective I have no idea what Vinay does or wants to do. Be clear in your objective; especially if you want to work in HR. Also keep it short and to the point, and for God's sake, no run on sentences. Grammatical errors are completely unacceptable in this day and age. Word processing has come too far to allow misspellings. If anyone can figure out Vinay's objective, please explain it to me because I'm lost. If one has enough technology to post a resume on the Internet, one has the technology to make sure that what they write is grammatically correct. Or at least darn close. Layout: A Google search of "resume format" garners roughly 22 million results. There is no … [Read more...] about The Worst Resume Template Ever
Find a Job! 8 Career Facebook Apps
As Facebook continues its march towards social networking domination, they are regularly adding career-related applications. Here's a look at some recently-added employment tools that can help Facebook users land their dream job.INTERN NATION: College students looking for three credits and employers looking for cheap labor both find love with an internship. An updated list of opportunities can populate within your profile with this app. Remember, even if you are removed from college, internships can be a great way to make a successful career transition.JOBSTER: With over 250 partner employers targeting the 18 - 30 demographic, you can connect directly with hiring managers at companies you'd like to work at. Find openings, learn about recruiting events or convert your profile into an online Jobster resume.FIND A BETTER JOB: This Career Builder project is designed for job-seeking college students. Your profile info is scanned and you are matched with job … [Read more...] about Find a Job! 8 Career Facebook Apps
Should Employees Get Paid for Ideas?
I recently purchased a vintage employee handbook from the now defunct Trans World Airlines (TWA). Thumbing through it, secretly hoping to find some ridiculously outdated and outlandish personnel policy, I uncovered what I think is a pretty neat perk: The TWA Suggestion Plan. The benefit made employees eligible for cash rewards (over $5,000) if their suggestion was adopted and helped make the company money. Folks also won awards if their suggestion had an "intangible value" to the company. That's some serious money in 1965! Now I can only speak from my experience, which to this point has been: Share an idea // make the company money // get no reward // get no credit. Perhaps it's just the media industry where companies feel your mediocre salary also gives them ownership of your ideas. Check out the vintage handbook excerpt below. If your company has a "suggestion plan," we'd love to hear about it. What are your thoughts? Should companies reward employees for helping them make … [Read more...] about Should Employees Get Paid for Ideas?