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Lots of Job Hunting, but No Job, Despite Low Unemployment
Even with the strongest labor market in half a century, getting work after losing it can still be a challenge.
By Patricia Cohen | The New York Times
RIVER VALE, N.J. — Laura Ward flipped through the small, lined notebook where she had neatly recorded every job posting she had answered, résumé she had sent and application she had completed since being laid off in March 2016.
No. 28 was a job listing for a creative manager at Byre Group posted on the website Indeed.
No. 97 was about a brand marketing administrator job at Benjamin Moore.
No. 109 — marketing operations at AMC. No. 158 — associate project manager at Vitamin Shoppe. Read more…
How to Deal With Job-Search Depression | So much of who you are is wrapped up in work, but you are more than your job.
By Micaela Marini Higgs
Looking for a new job but having zero luck getting hired can be, to put it lightly, incredibly demoralizing.
As it turns out, “the data supports the conventional wisdom,” said Dan Witters, a principal and research director at the
Gallup National Health and Well-Being Index.
While research shows that people experience an increased sense of well-being just after losing their jobs, that trend
reverses if they’re still hunting after 10 to 12 weeks. On top of the obvious financial stress that comes with being
unemployed or underemployed, these groups also suffer from worse physical health, with rates of depression rising
among the unemployed the longer they go without finding work.
MANAGEMENT & CAREERS |‘I’m Still Under Construction’; Six Tales of Lifelong Learning – WSJ
Pressure grows in competitive market for workers to figure out future career paths on their own time and dime
By Lauren Weber
Lifelong learning has become a mantra in American corporations as employees face pressure to stay relevant in a rapidly evolving workplace.
Employers, politicians and educators are hammering the message that people need to continuously upgrade their skills because of advancing technologies. Even companies that invest in employee training expect workers to figure out their future career path, and some want workers to retrain themselves on their own time and dime.
What you need to know before disrupting your career to follow your partner to a new location.
By Rebecca Koenig, Staff Writer
Dual-career couples have unique relocation challenges.
Couples career-planning can be challenging under the best of circumstances. When one partner’s occupation requires relocation, it may be difficult to ensure both people can build fulfilling careers. “I do think it’s incumbent on couples to be strategic and have conversations about who is willing to do what,” says Lisa Wolf-Wendel, professor of higher education administration at the University of Kansas and co-author of “The Two-Body Problem: Dual-Career-Couple Hiring Practices in Higher Education.” “It’s quite miserable to move somewhere for one person’s job and the other person isn’t doing something that is satisfying.”
By Paige Doepke
When a job seeker applies for a job online, most often, his or her resume is “parsed” or read by an applicant tracking system. The applicant tracking system breaks each resume down into categories, making it easier for hiring managers to sort through candidates. But did you know that each ATS actually reads resumes in a slightly different way?
If given the opportunity, an applicant can increase their chances of getting past the resume screener by catering their resume to the specific ATS. For example, if the ATS being used does not parse plural forms of keywords correctly, the applicant should pay special attention to keywords before submitting his or her resume. For a better understanding, here’s a look into how the top five ATS read resumes differently. Find out more about this topic by attending Getting Your Resume into Human Hands (2.0) Read more…
What is the Role of Higher Education in the Gig Economy?
By Van Ton-Quinlivan
As the gig economy becomes the new norm, it’s upending the workforce and the way we work.
Technology is leading the transformation and causing a continual need for skilling, reskilling and upskilling, particularly for those who comprise the gig economy — freelancers, independent contractors and professionals, consultants, side giggers and more. According to “Freelancing in America: 2018,” a study from Upwork and the Freelancers Union, 70 percent of full-time freelancers participated in skills training in the past six months, compared to 49 percent of full-time non-freelancers. And platforms like Lyft have begun offering education benefits. Read more…
How to Talk to People, According to Terry Gross The NPR host offers 8 spicy tips for having better conversations.
By: Jolie Kerr
“Tell me about yourself,” a.k.a the only icebreaker you’ll ever need
Those are the only four words you need to navigate a potentially awkward conversation, whether on a blind date or at a cocktail party. Ms. Gross avoids asking more pointed questions (for example, “What do you do for work?”) that presume information to be true. Read more…
Survey of 850 hiring managers finds that this is the No. 1 thing that can sabotage your interview
Now is a great time to be looking for a new job. Unemployment is at an all time low, and companies are hiring. But just because the market is looking up doesn’t mean that you can have a bad interview and still expect to land the job of your dreams. Read more…
Hate to break it to you, but if you’re treating LinkedIn like an old-fashioned Rolodex, you’re doing it wrong.
Nearly every industry uses LinkedIn to find and vet job candidates, and over 90% of recruiters rely on the site, according to data from the Society of Human Resource Management. So your profile can’t just be a storage unit for career contacts — it needs to be a living, breathing record of your professional life. Read more…
How U.S. Law Needs to Change to Support the Self-Employed and Gig Economy
By: Diane Mulcahy
If we were designing a labor market from scratch today, it’s unlikely we’d create one that rewards only full-time employees. It wouldn’t make sense given the many ways that people choose to — or must — work: independently, part-time, on the side, as a contractor or freelancer, or on-demand. An estimated 30-40% of today’s workforce are self-employed either part- or full-time, and the numbers are only expected to grow. If we were designing a labor market today, we’d create a system that supports everyone who works. Read more…
Job seekers want the hiring process to be more like a food delivery app
by Nicole Spector
It’s a job seeker’s market and potential hires want to see the hiring process include reminders, text messages and other app-like bells and whistles.
It’s been a few years since I was on the hunt for a job, but I can easily bring to mind how miserable the process could be. It wasn’t unusual to spend hours perfecting cover letters and modifying my resume to upload onto platforms, only to have the whole application fail to load due to a glitch in the site. Then I’d have to start all over (and I almost always would). But I sucked it up and played by the company’s or recruiter’s rules because what choice did I have? The ball wasn’t in my court, it was in theirs, and at the time (circa 2014) the U.S was still picking its feet up from the great recession and there wasn’t exactly a plethora of decent jobs available. But the tables have turned. In a tight labor market with a historically low unemployment rate, today’s job seekers aren’t wasting their time on organizations that don’t show them respect in the hiring process. Read more…
by Jessica Howington, FlexJobs Content Manager
For many job seekers, the lengthy hiring process in place at many organizations can be frustrating. This is particularly true when you have your sights set on one position over others. In most situations, a quick hiring process can truly make a huge difference for both job seekers and employers.