04 Mar 10 A Job-Search Guide to Help People Over 45 – XVII

This is 17th post of the series written to help people over 45 secure jobs for them. We have come a long way. I hope by now you have gained enough confidence and rearing up to go. Some of you might have gone ahead and secured a job. This series is approaching its end now. It would be no more than 2 posts in this series. So, before it gets over, let us get together and pour everything on paper for you to see and use it.

Plan, Plan, and Plan

Planning is important. It takes the surprise factor and blind spot out of the equation. Review the list of common questions asked in an interview, and prepare an answer for each one of them. Do not mug up. Just make yourself comfortable with the questions. During the planning process also find a way out to blunt the ruthless edge of your negative characteristics. Do not make it look like your biggest asset, but soften its edge and make it look less damaging.

Look uber-cool

Well, I do not intend to suggest that you should take in all those garbage being consumed by teenagers in the name of fashion and “walking ahead of time”. All I want to suggest is to look up-to-date and in the know of things that matter to the job you are being interviewed for.

When I say up-to-date I also mean up-to-date in your appearance. I know it was not the first thing you expected to read when you wake up in the morning, but it important. You will not like to look like a black sheep among all the white clones. Dress as the way people younger to your dress, at least for the interview. It will convey the person on the other side of the table that you may be chronologically from different group, but your psychosocial make is same as his own.

Tell them you will learn

Do not flinch if you are faced with a question that you do not know answer of, or if you have asked about a technology which you have never heard of. Tell your interviewer that you are unaware of thing in question, but you will learn it sooner than expected, and if you are promised the job, you can start learning right from today. This will tell your interviewer, how much keen you are for the job, and how much time you are willing to devote for that. The interviewer will not pass unimpressed.

What else do you think is necessary to excel in an interview? Use the comment box and send in your suggestions.

Tags: Appearance, Black Sheep, Blind Spot, Clones, Common Questions Asked In An Interview, Confidence, Fashion, Garbage, Interviewer, Job Guide, Job Help, Job Search, Jobs, Negative Characteristics, Psychosocial, Questions Asked In An Interview, Search People, Surprise, Teenagers, Things That Matter

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17 Feb 10 A Job-Search Guide to Help People Over 45 – XI

Have you worked on your résumé lately? Keep the answer to yourself, I will get back to that in a while, but before that let me tell you without using so many words that there are quite a few things you need to do to your résumé to make it attractive. Your 10 years old résumé will not do. Let’s begin seeing what all you need to do.

Avoid dead metaphors and done-to-death cliché

Think like this: In a hiring season, an employer or HR manager has to go through hundreds of CVs every day before he could call any one person for the Interview. And the worst part is almost all the résumés he reads are written using same set of dead metaphors and done-to-death phrases. It is boring. If you want to make your résumé stand out from the similar-looking crowd of résumés then avoid using any clichés. Use your own language and make it appealing.

Update your resume

Now is the time to answer the question posed in the opening sentence. Have you or haven’t you? If your answer is no then go ahead and start constructing your résumé yet again. Add freshness to your dust-biting résumé.

Do not give complete work details

If you are 45 then chances are you have been part of workforce for close to 25 years, and it is but natural to have done many jobs in all those years. But do not put all of them in your résumé. No one is interested in reading 1000-page epic résumé, and no one cares about where you provide janitorial services during tough times. Only mention things relevant to the current job, and things that increase your chance of employability.

Even if heaven falls on earth, your résumé should not be longer than 2 pages. Not even and half pages.

Enough of reading for today, now it is time to start working on your résumé. Get going!

Tags: 10 Years, Crowd, Dead Metaphors, Earth, Employability, Freshness, Heaven, Hr Manager, Janitorial Services, Job Guide, Job Help, Job Search, Jobs, Opening Sentence, Phrases, Resume, Search People, Tough Times, Work Details, Workforce

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20 Jan 10 Starting An Internet Writing Career

Writing on the internet, and expecting to get paid for your work, isn’t easy. Most people who don’t have experience in the field may think that setting up a blog, and then getting some traffic is enough to make a living, but it isn’t. In truth you have to work at it, craft your ability, and be prepared to go through some rough patches. How you work through these, and adapt your writing ability, are the keys to your success.

The biggest part about being successful writing is pretty much just being diligent. You have to work at any career, and writing on the internet is no different. You can’t allow yourself to second guess your career choice, or give up when the assignments seem too few and far between. Something has to break eventually, but if you give up, you’ll never get that opportunity.

Learn how to use keywords, and to write SEO. Search Engine Optimization is the most important technique for any internet writer. If you want your articles to garner attention, and be read by the mass public, you need them to get noticed on search engines. Because sites like Google operate searches by using keyword recognition, you need to have your articles formatted properly, and with the correct sprinkling of keywords.

Make sure that you make friends within the industry as well. Network, network, network so that you can connect to as many job providers and writers as possible. These are the people that have and will know about the best jobs. Getting connected to them will open up as many doors as possible, and really get your career moving.

As long as you work hard, and are diligent, you can succeed. Just remember to keep at it, and don’t give up on writing.

Tags: blog, Career Choice, doors, Google, Guess, Internet Writer, Job, Jobs, Mass Public, Moving, Rough Patches, Search Engine Optimization, Search Engines, Sprinkling, Successful Writing, traffic, Truth, Well Network, Writing Career

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04 Mar 10 A Job-Search Guide to Help People Over 45 – XVII

Plan, Plan, and Plan

Look uber-cool

Tell them you will learn

17 Feb 10 A Job-Search Guide to Help People Over 45 – XI

Avoid dead metaphors and done-to-death cliché

Update your resume

Do not give complete work details

20 Jan 10 Starting An Internet Writing Career

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