Claim That Job Blog | Career Development & Career Progression Advice

7 Killer Career Success Tactics

Editor — Mon, 10 May 2010 17:35:53 +0000

Your success at work depends heavily on your ability to understand your skills and make them work for you in the industry you choose to work in. Here are 7 career success tips that you can use to increase your career success:

Take time to choose a career that is a good fit for your personality and interests. Dedicating yourself to a career that sounds lucrative or prestigious but brings you little pleasure will backfire eventually. Better to choose work that you feel a natural passion and interest towards. Your superiors will notice and reward your enthusiasm, and your personal interest will get you through challenges and tough times.

Research your choices well. Online job boards have lots of good information about various careers, what they pay, and what is required to enter them. College placement departments and alumni associations are good resources as well. Check with the department of labor in your state and don’t forget your public library.

Network aggressively. Make the most of social networking programs like LinkedIN and Facebook. Talk to everyone you meet about your career plans and ask for the names of three people who might be able to give you some advice, then follow through and call all three and ask for fifteen minutes of their time. Make sue you ask each of those people for more names as well. The best career opportunities are never advertised. Instead, the positions are filled through networking.

Take an inventory of your skills and interests. Actually writing them down can help you identify fields of interest you might not have considered. A good exercise to try is to write down five things you would do today if you had no restrictions at all (money, time), then next to each of those things, write five related careers. You might be surprised at where your real interests lead you.

List your accomplishments. Include all the things you have accomplished either on a job or in your personal life. Don’t forget volunteer work, creative projects, and community projects and associations. These can all help you discover what is most important to you in terms of finding a compatible career.

Consider hiring a coach or a career counselor. Professionals can help you break through if you are stuck in a work rut and can’t seem to see a way out or a way to make a lateral move. Career counselors can be found at a colleges, placement services, and even temporary agencies, and they are not necessarily expensive. A life coach will offer a more comprehensive perspective and will cost more than a counselor. However both can be helpful to get you moving to find career success.

How To Find A New Career That You Will Enjoy

Editor — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 00:02:01 +0000

Starting out in a new career can be exciting and frightening all at the same time. The time when each person stayed at one job until retirement has passed. Most people today have more than one career in a lifetime, so you don’t have to worry about staying in one place or feel bad because the time has come to move on.

Thousands of new careers are out there and new ones are emerging all the time. There are many variations of each and every one. To find a career that truly fits, start with carrying out alot of research. Take a battery of career tests if you can, the more the better. A community college is a good place to get started. Many of their services are free, and if they aren’t, the cost is usually minimal. Your public library will also stock materials on a variety of careers. Ask the reference librarian for help locating them. That’s her job and she will be glad to help.

Here are 6 tips to find a career that you will enjoy:

Career testing can point you in the right direction. Career tests give you a baseline of information that can point you toward the best areas of research for you personally. Start with a personality test, an interest test and an aptitude test. These tests are important because they suggest a variety of career choices that match your skills based on your answers to the test. You can then look into each more carefully.

Research each career thoroughly. Once receive the career test results and have identified several occupations that are right for you, you can start to research each one. The research may or may not tell you right away whether you would like that particular job, but it will give you a better idea. Check online with the Department of Labor and with the O*Net Directories for lists of these occupations.

Interview people who work in each career. Once you have narrowed down your list of occupations and done your research on them, choose four or five of them and look for professionals in those fields to interview. Make a list of questions and ask for a 20 minutes of each person’s time. Meet, ask your questions, and leave. You can always find people to interview by checking the yellow pages. Don’t forget to send a thank you note.
Check with continuing education or community centers. Both of these resources usually offer classes on specific careers. Taking a class is a great time to go and find out more about a possible direction and ask more questions about your potential career.

Read as much as you can on your choices. Trade publications in any field will tell you more about the job you are interested in. Read popular career books like What Color Is Your Parachute? by Richard Bolles . Barbara Sher writes great books on career placement as well. Lots of authors write different perspectives on how to find the career that suits you best and will make you happiest.

Consider a creative or artistic career. If you are an artist or a writer and you want to use a natural talent to earn your living, there are many ways that you can do that. Talk to other professional artists and writers about how they got started.

Thorough research will get you started towards a career that you love, but the rest is up to you. Allow yourself to try lots of different things and to pick the one that you will love the most.

10 Recession Proof Careers

Editor — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 10:14:11 +0000

Most of you will know by now that my book, Claim That Job, is focused on how to recession proof your career, and I take you through the 7 steps to do this.

While surfing the web, I came across this great article listing the 10 jobs that are recession proof. You can read though the list by clicking here.

When you have finished, come back here and click here to get you copy of Claim That Job. In this competitive and challenging job market, whether you’re working or lookng for a job, you need to give yourself and edge to ensure that you are at the front of the queue for the best jobs and promotions. I’ll show you in 7 easy steps how to do this.

Click here to get your copy of Claim That Job.

7 Hot Job Hunting Tips

Editor — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 20:52:34 +0000

The recession has made the want ads shrink to a single page or even less in many locations, but that doesn’t mean jobs aren’t out there: It just means they aren’t being advertised. The following 7 job hunting tips will help you flush them out even in the worst economy:

Network! Tell everyone you know that you are looking for work. Ask for their personal job-hunting tips and for three contacts. Then follow up and repeat.

Show up in person at companies where you’d like to work. Dress for an interview, bring resumes, and ask to see an HR person or make an appointment with HR.

Take any job while you look for your dream job. No matter what you do, even if it is just freelancing for cash, some kind of work looks better on your resume than a prolonged period of unemployment.

Check out temporary agencies. Often they can place you on a trial basis with a good company that will hire you permanently once your trial is over.

Check out your state government website for training opportunities and civil service jobs. Do the same with your city and county websites.

Follow up. Whenever you fill out an application or send a resume, ask when you can expect to hear back, and then follow up if you don’t.

Don’t give up. It’s easy to take the process personally. The average person spends six to eight months looking in this economy. Keep looking.

Even in a bad economy companies have to replace employees who become ill or retire. They just don’t post the openings. Go to them, ask for job hunting tips, and keep at it and you might just find a great job in spite of the recession!

How to Increase Your Chances of Career Success at Work

Editor — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 20:51:59 +0000

With so many people getting laid off day after day, how do you increase your chances of career success at work in this economy? You can secure your position and even be promoted, no matter how difficult the job market.

Here are some tips to insure career success no matter what you do for a living:

Focus on your best feature and promote that relentlessly. If you are organized, make sure you volunteer for anything that showcases your organizational talent and make sure your boss knows about it.

Dress a notch above your rank. If you work in an office casual environment, wear a blazer or a skirt even though you don’t have to.

Keep a list of your accomplishments. Review it with your supervisor at regular intervals. If you don’t already have regular performance reviews, request them.

Include your immediate supervisor in your ambitions. Share where you want to go with your career and ask for that person’s advice and help. Supervisors rarely get asked for this kind of support and they usually want to provide it.

Under-promise and over-deliver. This is a very old strategy but it still works. Set goals you know you can reach and then exceed them.

Be aware of protocol and never go over your supervisor’s head. Be friendly and upbeat and keep shoptalk and complaining off limits. A positive attitude goes a long way in today’s workplace.

Make sure you have one, and then ride it all the way to career success!

How To Ask for a Salary Increase - Part 2

Editor — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 19:53:17 +0000

Here’s part 2 of my tips on how to ask for a salary increase. For more information on how to work the politics in your job, or to get a job if you have recently been laid off - Click here to download your copy of Claim That Job.

Ask for the payback. Get a written agreement that if you perform at peak performance, a salary increase of a certain percentage will be discussed seriously at a specific time - six months or one year. If you reach your objectives at that time, and you are refused the salary increase, you have a true picture of your value to your superior and how your company treats his it’s employees. It might be time to consider moving on!
An option to “NO”. Sometimes companies have legitimate budget concerns that necessitate them saying “No” when you are seeking a salary increase. An option, which would cost them less, involves their agreement to pay your share of your life insurance, medical, dental or similar benefits. Although your share of life insurance may be only $1,200 annually, it would be pre-tax money that drops right into your pocket. Depending on the nation, state, province, it might result in a lower tax rate on the amount. Check with your accountant.
Value your potential. Perhaps you have a very high potential to provide profit but you are not in a position allowing you to perform to your fullest extent. If you have gotten the right training, or the firm will give it, and you have the right temperament, you might switch to another department. One that pays more, such as shown in the following step.
Go where the money is. For example, move from accounting to sales or marketing. There in addition to your base salary, your income usually comes from commissions and performance bonuses. Your income could be substantially higher. There are risks: you could fail in this new position. But is it worth the risk?

Following these salary increase questions give you an opportunity to get the pay increase you deserve!

How To Ask for a Salary Increase - Part 1

Editor — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 19:43:03 +0000

Seeking a salary increase above the inflation rate is never easy. And yet it’s essential, for at the “inflation rate”, after taxes, you may end up with no more money; perhaps less. Here’s what some Human Resource sources suggest you can do to get an above average raise in good times and bad.

Follow these salary increase questions steps to get you that pay increase.

Trumpet your worth. All too often your employer is not aware of how much profit you delivered to your company. If you cut costs $150,000 in your department, but your departments bottom line shows exactly what you budgeted, he may not realize you did it. You had taken serious “defensive” moves to protect the corporation’s profitability. Tell your boss about this saving!
How much you want. Your best move is to table, in point by point form, the $150,000 cost cuts you made and how you did it. In writing! Ask for a meeting with your superior. Point out what you achieved. And in a business-like manner, discuss the value you gave. If your boss then realizes your value – especially you pulled this off year after year - he might then realize your worth. He might realize your salary increase is worth 4% of this $150,000 amount, or $6,000.
Take on more responsibilitiy. Salary increases are based on profit accomplishments and merit. Never on what you think you need. One way to seeking a salary increase is to take on more responsibility, with no immediate pay raise.

Look out for part 2 next month.

Job Hunting Strategies for People Who Have Been Laid Off

Editor — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 00:37:42 +0000

The call to look for a good job comes at different stages. The need for job hunting could arise for a fresher or for a temporarily unemployed. However, if you have good job-hunting tips at your disposal, the endeavor can become hassle free and very productive. Check out these stratgies to give yourself a boost in the job market:

Network extensively

When you embark on a job-hunting spree, network extensively. You need to identify people within the industry and move on via their contacts. It pays to let everyone know that your skills are available. You need to scan the local yellow pages, classified columns and online sites of the companies you prefer. Once the web is strewn, it is before time that you find true expression. You need to then short list the prospective employers in order of priority and do everything in your capacity to get that interview.

Create a target-oriented resume

Ensure that you are completely aware of the skills required for the position applied for in each of the companies. The effort will pay off well. Your resume should reflect the skills that each of the profiles is looking for. This enables the management to short-list you for the job quicker and with surety. You should indulge in extensive research on each job profile to find out everything you need to know at the interview. Double-check and confirm that the segments highlighted tally with your understanding of the job and bullet point certifications relevant to the profile. A persuasive resume focuses on a particular profile and company. Always review your resume before you send it across. Make the appropriate changes before submission.

Remember courtesy and body language

It pays to enquire politely and thank every one of the employees who helps you. You never know who you could be interacting with. Beyond the fact that your interactions could be with someone important, courtesy goes a long way. From the reception staff, to the board members, everyone will read and judge you according to the courtesy extended. Your body language, the way you walk, sit and speak â€“ will all reflect your sense of self worth and confidence in your ability. Walking with your body aligned and speaking while maintaining eye contact are just some of the signs that speak volumes for your attitude and skills.Â

Display your skill areas

You should not miss a single opportunity to show off your skill areas. It pays to make the board aware of how efficient you are in the face of an adversity by quoting some previous situation that you may have salvaged. When sharing information on your skill areas, throw in a name or two of either referrals or names of people that you connect with. This personalizes the conversation and adds more credit to it.

Sell your ability

Being coy and shy does not work. You need to be bold and present your ability as the a perfect fit or the profile being considered. You should sell your ability as the right choice and present qualifications and experience at every point of the interview. This job-hunting tip will also culminate in many profitable promotions later on.

There are many online and offline resources dedicated to the endeavor of making good job-hunting tips available. They enable you to plan and prepare for the task ahead in a focused and meticulous manner.

Find out how to recession proof your career and download a free report on how to beat the recession – visit www.claimthatjob.com for more information.

To get access to 50 networking tactics on how to boost your business networking skills click here.

How to Impress for Success in a Tough Job Interview

Editor — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 21:04:49 +0000

So, you’ve submitted a killer Curriculum Vitae and supporting documents. You’re ahead of the pack and have just received a call for an interview. What do you do next?

The interview is the most stressful and important part of job hunting. This is where an employer will make a decision based on his or her impression of whether to hire youfor their job. You will want to do your best in this part because here lays the culmination of all your job hunting efforts. Flub it here and all your efforts from application to examinations will go down the drain.

1. Make a Great Impression

Always dress in your best attire for the interview. Your attire should be appropriate.
No matter what the company may require for their employees, the first impression for applicants should be conservative business attire.

2. Do a Little Research

One of the best ways to make a good impression on your interviewer is to do a little research on the company you are applying for. This will equip you with material to answer many of the questions the interviewer will ask. One of the main points of the questions you will be asked is how your skills can benefit the company. If you know a thing or two about the company, you will find it a lot easier to answer this question. Plus, dropping a few meaty tidbits about how much you know about the company will go a long way in impressing the interviewer.

3. Watch Your Body Language

Many of the interviewers are well versed in body language, and you will find that, throughout the interview, they will be looking for hints about your personality from the way you act, talk, and move. It would be abnormal to assume a different set of body language during the interview. What you should do is to take note of your body language so that at least it communicates openness and honesty.

Avoid telling lies or embellishing your answers. Experienced interviewers will notice this in an instant. Always keep your palms open and avoid crossing your legs or your arms together. Do not be afraid to make eye contact while speaking; just make sure that you do not come across as intimidating.

4. Confidence

Walk in with a purpose. Answer with a purpose. Try not to be too self-conscious. Make sure you are confident in what you say. If you hit a snag and find yourself in a compromising situation, make sure you handle the situation confidently even when saying that you do not know an answer to a question.

Confidence reflects competence. Employers always look for competent people to fill their ranks.

Find out how to recession proof your career and download your free stress-free job hunting report – visit www.claimthatjob.com for more info.

To learn about the secrets needed to get ahead in your current job, download you copy of www.50careersuccesstactics.com by clicking here.

How to Create a Killer Cover Letter

Editor — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 09:27:39 +0000

Most people lose a job before they get into the door because they don’t understand what a cover letter does for them. The cover letter that accompanies a resume is your first impression to any employer.

Follow these tips for getting into that first interview through the use of your killer cover letter:

Make it informative - Introduce yourself to the employer and tell them what job for which you are applying. In the next paragraph, give them a description of how your skills and abilities match the skills and abilities listed in the job posting.
Understand what type of cover letter you are sending - there are two different types of cover letters you might send. One is the letter of application that you send in response to a specific job. The other is the letter of inquiry which is used to ask about jobs within a company where you have interest.
Be business like but show your personality - the cover letter is the place to show a little about your personality as you write. Keep it business like, but let the employer know just a little about your style.
Email or Snail mail - usually the potential employer will say within the job posting whether email cover letters are okay. If you see an email address, you are probably safe to send an email; put it in the body of the email not as an attachment.
Long or short - a cover letter is an introduction so it should be short. A few paragraphs highlighting your achievements and how your skills meet their job will suffice.

Find out how to recession proof your career and download your free stress-free job hunting report – visit www.claimthatjob.com for more info.

To learn about the secrets needed to get ahead in your current job, download you copy of www.50careersuccesstactics.com by clicking here.