(Analytics) The Job Market's Needs

Finding Out What the Job-Market Will Need

One of the newest ways (in by newest I mean over the last decade or so) to find a career is through what the internet calls "Hot Jobs". And by "Hot Jobs" they really mean "Projections". These are basically projections made up by a number of people on how common a particular job will be. This can be confusing however, because sometimes these jobs are chosen because they sound new or exotic. One of the most common occupations in the U.S is truck driver; however, you would never know that from a list of "Hot Jobs". Here is a list Forbes: 

1. Software Developers (Applications and Systems Software)

2. Accountants and Auditors 

3. Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists 

4. Computer Systems Analysts 

5. Human Resources, Training and Labor Relations Specialists 

6. Network and Computer Systems Administrators 

7. Sales Representatives (Wholesale and Manufacturing, Technical and Scientific)

8. Mechanical Engineers 

9. Industrial Engineers 

(10. They didn’t list a tenth, due to a website glitch, I’m sure, so let me: Truck Driver)

(Analytics) Caution! Don't be so quick to Choose/Change Careers

4 Cautions about Choosing/Changing Careers

1. Go for any career that seems fascinating or even interesting to you. However, make sure that you first talk to people within this line of work. Ask them questions about that career and try to probe into their minds on their true attitudes and motives for working in that field. Of course almost every person will feel a little different about a career; therefore, you must know that your calling to a career may be a little different then theirs. Also, you don't have to feel the way that they do about a career, so if you are interested, don't get too discouraged by their viewpoints.
2. Realize that just because you change careers doesn't mean that you have to completely change who you are. Bring you uniqueness to your field of work because that is most likely what will get you hired. Having a firm stance on your life as you are moving it around will help you maintain these unique attributes about you: your character, your faith, your values and your gifts.
3. Do what you want to do, not just what's hot in the job-market at the time. Because this will change over time and you will eventually be stuck with a career that you really don't want. You want to make sure that your passionate about what you do, employers love that! I understand that sometimes when choosing a career you gotta do what you gotta do; however, if you can afford to go for the career you want...then go for it!
4. The best work or career for you will be the one that uses all of your transferable skills in your favorite subjects and fields of knowledge. This will be the job that offers you your preferred people environments and working conditions. However to first find this, you must truly know yourself.

(Analytics) Starting Your Own Business

What to do now?

So what do you do once you've hit a wall on job pursuit? I mean, all the blogs prior to this one have been about how to find a career or how to pursue a job. Well, what if none of those things worked? One thing you could possibly do is to start your own business! It's been almost everyone's dream to be their own boss. Where they can set their own hours and sell their own products. According to some surveys, up to 80% of all workers toy with this idea at some point in their lives. This shows that there is a chance that you have thought about this as well. There are endless possibilities for the career path you can pursue such as running your security service, making your own app, or possibly selling your own homemade products. You just need to be open to the possibilities and any suggestions that could potentially change your life. Start off by writing down the possible things that you may want to do in your business. Brainstorming these ideas could help you can see what things you are interested in. Then, read up on these ideas and see which one is tailor-made for you. You may think that you want to pursue a certain business, but find out later that starting your own business is your true calling card.

(Analytics) Tests

"Tests" are one of the ways to help you possibly choose or change careers. The real name for this is instruments or assessments. You can use these tests to possibly help, direct, guide, or even redirect you to a new career. There are six learning tips about testing that you should consider when using this as a career decider:

1. You are absolutely unique. There is no person in the world like you. It follows from this that no test can measure YOU; it can only describe the family to which you belong. Don't take it personal if you don't get the results you wanted from the tests. It is simply an easier help you choose the career that could possibly best fit you...if not then keep searching.
2. Don't try to figure out ahead of time how you want the test to come out. Stay loose and open to new ideas. The point of this test is for you to experiment and find yourself. If you go in with a predetermined notion that you only want a certain career, then doing a test will be a waste of your time. Be open to new ideas and you will be surprised at the possible careers that you can pursue.
3. In taking a test, you should just be looking for clues, hunches, or suggestions, rather than for a definitive answer that says "this is what you must choose to do with your life." As I stated before, this is simply a tool to help you decide what career you want to pursue...key word is "help". This does not mean that you have to choose the career that it highlights, it only gives you clues or hunches towards the right career.
4. Take several tests and not just one. One can easily send you down the wrong path. We've all dreaded that one class that has the one exam and your whole class grade depends on it. Well this is somewhat like that class. You don't want you final decision to depend on just one test...so take as many as you need to in order to find the career path that best fits you.
5. In good career planning, you're trying, in the first instance, to broaden you horizons, and only later narrow your options down; you are not trying to narrow them down from the outset. This is a process. Its somewhat of a marathon...not a sprint. So make sure once you take these test, you go through all your options to make sure this is the path you want to take. You will be surprised that once you take one of these tests, it will open your eyes to other possible careers. 
6. Testing will always have "mixed reviews." Some people will say that these tests help them choose the career of their dreams and that they are lucky to have ever found such a test. Others will tell you that these tests were a complete waste of time and they wish they would've never did them. Just know that doing tests doesn't work for everyone and there will always be a positive and negative review.

(Analytics) How to Deal With Handicaps

The Key Employer Prejudices

The word "handicap" is a general and broad term, which could refer to either the job-hunter's disabilities or the employers prejudices. If you are deaf in one ear and you apply for a job that requires you to hear, then that is a disability. This means that there are certain skills that you don't have that are detrimental to the job you are pursuing. Notice the difference: a disability is something within you and a prejudice is something within the employer. Here are some of the Key Employer Prejudices:

1. OUT OF WORK TOO LONG. This is a prejudice that relates simply to how long you've been out of work. This is a situation where either the employer cares about it or he/she doesn't....so don't worry if you've been out of work for a while. You have to be persistent and move on to the next employer and hope that they don't value previous work experience as much.
2. AGE. One of the reasons that this is a huge prejudice is because there are a lot of baby boomers reaching there retirement years. You must realize that this is a "prejudice" not a "handicap". Therefore, if you can show that employer that you still have that fire, then by all means the job can still be yours. 
3. RETURNING VETERANS. Here's a crazy statistic for you, 44% of returning vets do not feel their military skills and training are respected by employers. To be honestly, we can only assume that "some" employers are prejudice towards hiring vets. Some employers rely to much on the assumption that vets come back with PTSD (which is real by the way). However, we can also assume that some employers are prejudice in favor of hiring returning vets as well.
4. FORMER PATIENTS. This prejudice is based on the hiring of ex-mental patients. Not necessarily somebody that was hospitalized, but someone who did have a serious problem and probably overcame it. The main concern that the employer has is, "What skills are needed to do this job, and does this man or woman have them?" and "Does this person get along well with other people?" Once again this is not a handicap, but an employer prejudice that they have. 

(Analytics) Where do you work? Its your choice....

Before You Formally Approach Companies

So your searching for a career and you've finally found the career that you've been dying to do. Well, what;s next? Don't just rush over there clueless. Now is your chance to really impress the company you're going for because we all know that companies love to be loved. Do a little research, matter of fact do a lot of research on the company in question. You want to know something about the company from the inside. Secondly, you want to find out if you would enjoy working there. These are the minor precautions that you want to take in order to not have to do your career search over again. There are three ways to do some research before you walk to that dreadful interview:

• Friends and Neighbors. You need to go through your whole contact list of people you know to help you with this process. Once this happens, you will be able to find someone that knows someone who works at the company you are pursuing. Grab a coffee or arrange a meeting with this person to ask them anything you want to know about the company. This will be your most beneficial way of gaining information since it is first hand from someone who works there. 
• People at the Organization in Question, or Similar. This helps if you are not able to meet with someone face-to-face. LinkedIn is a great way to achieve this objective as well as emailing. If an email doesn't work, try going to the company in person and possibly ask them questions that you have. Now you want to preferably ask them questions that are in print somewhere so that it doesn't seem as if you are bothering them. I may also caution you to not try this with a large company; however, a smaller company that is easier to access may give you more success. Make sure that you approach the desk when you walk in as well because you don't want to offend the higher ups by walking straight to them with questions.
• What's on the Internet. In this day in age almost any information that you need on a company is on the internet. Therefore, using the internet will be very beneficial to your success of finding information the company that you want. You can simply go to the companies website and look for any information that you want and possibly contact employers through this process as well. So what if the company doesn't have a website? Well you can still type in the companies name and there will be information readily available for you. There will be people that have information on the company through blogs and other informative sites.

(Analytics) What people-environment does your career have?

The Party Game Exercise

One of the biggest keys of deciding a career, that so many people miss is the fact that people help identify careers. This is because every career has a characteristic people-environment. There are six factors that help you identify what people environment you are interested in and this will help you choose your career. This theory was created by (the late) Dr. John L. Holland which helps career pursuers find the path best for them. According to Dr. Holland, every one of us has 3 preferred among the six factors. See where you stand among the six factors:

1. Realistic People-Environment: this group consists of those who prefer nature, or plants, or animals, or athletics, or tools and machinery, or being outdoors.
2. Investigative People-Environment: filled with those who are very curious, liking to investigate or analyze things, or people, or data.
3. Artistic People-Environment: filled with those are very artistic, imaginative, and innovative, and don't like time clocks.
4. Social People-Environment: filled with people who are bent on trying help, teach, or serve people.
5. Enterprising People-Environment: filled with people who prefer to start up projects or organizations, or sell things, or influence and persuade people 
6. Conventional People-Environment: filled with those who like detailed work, and like to complete tasks or projects.

(Analytics) Do you really know job searching?

Six of the Best and Worst Ways to Look for a Job

1. Looking for employers' job-postings on the Internet. On average, this method apparently only works 4% of the time. Almost everyone you ask while you're out of work will tell you to search for job postings on the internet. You can use sites such as CareerBuilder, LinkedIn, and US.jobs or even job search engines like Indeed to help this pursuit. But, is this really the best place to look? It may prove successful for some; however, it levels off to just a 4% success rate for most.
2. Posting or mailing out your resume to employers. From experience I can say that this helps you to get an interview and on average this can help you get a job 7% of the time, which is a generous estimate by the way. There is study that shows that only 1 out of 1,470 resumes actually resulted in a job. This is an astounding finding seeing that fact that there are so many resumes floating around. This may come as a shock to most job-hunters, but it is true.
3. Answering local newspaper ads. This job searching method fluctuates from working 5% of the time, up to 24% at best (shocking right!). This fluctuation is due the level of salary that is being pursued. Most of the time you are answering "help wanted ads" in a local newspaper. Those of you who are looking for lower level salaries may find that it works 24% of the time; those of you looking for high salaries...well I think you know what percentage you get. 
4. Going to private employment agencies or search firms for help. Much like the previous method, this method fluctuates as, but somewhere between 5% and 28% of the time at best. This day in age we're lucky because these agencies used to place just office workers; now they place in almost any category of jobs. You may ask, "Why the wide variation of success rate?," well because these agencies vary greatly in their staffing. However, at their best they are way more effective than depending on just your resume. 
5. Answering ads in professional or trade journals, appropriate to your field. This method consists in looking at professional journals in your profession or field, and answering any ads there that intrigue you. This method works only 7% of the time however. 
6. Using the Yellow Pages. This involves you going through the Yellow Pages of your local phone book so that you can identify subjects of interest to you. This method works a whopping 65%. Now of course the traditional method makes it lot harder to get employers to consent to see you. However, you will have a nine times better chance of finding a job with this method, than if you had just depended on your resume.

(Analytics) Six Secrets to Salary Negotiation

1. Never discuss salary until the end of the whole interviewing process at that organization. Make sure that it is not discussed until it is clear that they want you. This may be at the end of the first interview (which would be the last if they offer you) or at the end of a series of interviews. You must focus on shining during the hiring-interview so that the employer must have you...and that's when you have them hooked.
2. The purpose of the salary negotiation is to uncover the most that an employer is willing to pay to get you. Negotiation is a word that scares most job-hunters or career changers. However, negotiation can be your best friend because it bridges a huge gap between you and the employer. It answers whats the highest that we're able to pay you and whats the lowest that we can pay you for. This is where negotiation comes into play, for you and the employer to find a common ground on both your goals...to make money.
3. During salary discussion, never be the first one to mention a salary figure. Employers have one thing in mind when it comes to salary...how much is this person willing to work for? You are trying to get the most out of the employer while the employer is trying to pay you the least they can. They'll try different tactics such as asking you, "What kind of salary are you looking for?" You may see this as a kind way of asking how much you want to get paid; however, remember the rule, do mention a figure first! Kindly ask them, "Well you created this position, so you must have some figure in mind, and I'd be interested in first hearing what that figure is."
4. Before you go to the interview, do some careful research on typical salaries for your field and in that organization. As I stated before, salary negotiation may only be engaged once the employer mentions a lower figure than they are willing to offer. However, how will you know what that is? By doing research before hand on salaries of that position offered by that company and other companies in the industry. You will be surprised with the thousands of dollars extra you can receive by doing a little research and negotiation.
5. Research the range that the employer likely has in mind, and then define an interrelated range for yourself, relative to the employer's range. This is simple...yet complicated. Doing research is key however, because if you are able to find about employees with similar positions then you will be able to find your range. Find out the employer's range, then make your range at least a couple thousand higher. Know your worth.
6. Know how to bring the salary negotiation to a close; don't leave it "Just Hanging". Discuss some of the benefits that can be offered to you. Don't just leave after salary negotiations. And don't forget to get everything discussed in the meeting in writing. Employers during the interview process tend to "forget" things discussed in the interview process...or they're just playing games. Make sure that every negotiation or change is in writing and you sign it. It'll make all the difference.

(Analytics) Ten Commandments for Job-Interviews

Ten Commandments for Job-Interviews

1. Small new organizations with 25 or fewer employees create 2/3's of all new jobs...those are the companies that you should pursue when you first search for jobs. If you have no success in this market, then broaden your search to the larger organizations of 50 or more employees and if there is no success there, go for 100!
2. Do homework on yourself and yourself what you are looking for in a career search. Once you do this you will able to ask others, preferably 80 or more people, to help you hunt for places to interview. 
3. Use "bridge-people"(those who know you and also know the employer) to help you connect with the people who have the power to hire you. You can use these people to get introductions to people who are high in the hierarchy of the company.
4. Go to your public library or use the World Wide Web that you probably search on everyday to do some homework on the organization that will be interviewing you. Nothing will impress an employer more than someone who comes in interested about the company.
5. Want to impress the employer? Come with your own questions and curiosities about the job. This will give the employer the impression that you are very interested and excited about the job.
6. If you were the one to initiate the appointment, ask for just 19 mins of their time. Keep to your word on this because everything you do from that point will be taken into account when the hiring process starts.
7. Don't rattle. Many people get nervous when they are asked questions during an interview. So make sure to keep your answers brief, between 20 seconds to 2 mins. 
8. Come to the company as someone who can make the organization better, not a "job-beggar". You want to convince that you can do the job in question better than anyone who had previously had the position.
9. Once the interview process is over ask, "Given all that we have discussed, can you offer me this job?" Don't negotiate the salary unless it is clear that the company wants you.
10. Always write a thank-you note the same evening as the interview, and mail it at the latest by early next morning. This in addition to emailing it. You will stand out from the others if you do both.

(Analytics) LinkedIn: A Business Person' s Mandatory Profile

Social media is becoming one of the most important outlets for a person to have in this day of age. Whether you want to get on Facebook and vent to your friends about last nights game or you want to get on instagram to post pictures of the wonderful vacation your family just went on. Social media is a way for you to reach out to people across the world and get to know them without leaving your computer chair. LinkedIn has become one of the most crucial ways for jobseekers to get out to employers to possible obtain a career. Its a way to show all of your accomplishments that employers may never see on a resume. However, their are some unspoken rules and regulations to creating a LinkedIn profile and I will give you 9 short simple steps to creating one.

1. PHOTO- Having a photo on your profile is one of the most important beginning steps to making a LinkedIn profile. If employers look at your profile and you have a million accomplishments with no photo, it becomes sort of a turnoff because they have no idea who you are. Having a clean cut, sharply dressed headshot of yourself will go a long way in the job market. 
2. JOB TITLE- Use this section to show off your current job. If you don't have a job then put the job or industry you are seeking to help employers identify those who are curious about jobs within their industry.
3. PAST JOBS OR EXPERIENCE- When describing your past jobs or experience, don't list them, tell a story behind it. Use this as a summary for the accomplish you had, then explain how you accomplished it and what you did to make it to that point.
4. SUMMARY- Competitive advantage is the keyword here. Use this section to separate yourself from any other people who are within the same field as you. What makes you different than the other 30 people applying for this job. 
5. SPECIALTIES- List every keyword that you can think of that will lead you to the job that you want. If you are having trouble then go to someone's profile who has the job you are looking for and use some of their keywords. Go ahead its not cheating, that's what this network is for!
6. LIST- This is simple, just like any hobbies, interests, training, clubs and organizations that you belong to or participate in, etc.
7. ADD LINKS TO ANY WEBSITE- Do you have a Twitter, Facebook, Blog? Then add those links to your profile, at your own risk. If you have anything on your facebook that would not be considered professional or maybe its too much into your personal life, then don't put the link. You only want to include things that will fortify your brand and image in the eyes of employers.
8. JOIN- One or more groups on LinkedIn. Use this as a way to network and get yourself out there. If there are organizations or groups that have similar interest to you, then join them and communicate with them. You will be surprised at some of the opportunities that people can present to you just by the click of a button.
9. DESCRIBE- Use LinkedIn to describe something that is important to you. If you take a picture with the president at a national conference or you are given an award at a prestigious event. POST IT! Talk about what happened to those who are connected with you because these moments can lead to connections beyond what you imagined.

(Analytics) Finding a Job That Pays a Middle Class Salary is Getting More Difficult

Why is probably the first question that popped in your head. We have become our own demise in a sense. With the increase in technology, we can see that there is less of a need for humans in some jobs. However, with the increase in technology we can see that there is a need for people who have knowledge in these areas. Since people with more education generally get paid more, manufacturing jobs have caught the bad end. Jobs such as child-care workers and cashiers are getting paid less because it requires very little education to perform these jobs.
   
In the book, "What Color is Your Parachute?", we can see that one reason it is hard to get high paying jobs is because it requires a degree of education for these jobs. Some of the highest paying jobs such as Mathematicians, Astronomers, and Computer Hardware Engineers all require that you further your education to improve your salary. In 1980, we could see from the book that 25% of women held healthcare jobs and now that number up to 44%. Jobs in healthcare are becoming more important which is why they pay a high salary.