Showing posts with label employment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label employment. Show all posts
with Alan Ladd
@SPL: DVD 650.14 Int
There are a lot of people looking for work right now, so the job market is more competitive than it was even a year ago. In order to help put your best foot forward, it helps to know the better practices behind job searching. In Interview The Best, consultant Alan Ladd, a job coach with more than 20 years experience, explains the job search process from start to finish, as he goes around a table of job-seekers. Some of them have college degrees, some have graduated from university, and some have little formal education but years of experience in a particular field. The philosophy that Ladd believes is that it does not matter how qualified you are, the person that interviews the best will always land the job. The DVD is sectioned into “chapters” on your resume, searching for a job, identifying your strengths, the interview, questions and answers, “the close” and the follow-up. There is also a chapter review where each section’s highlights are listed for quick reference (hit the “pause” button frequently to take notes). These highlights are often small thing that often seem unimportant but could be the difference between getting an interview and the job or not. For instance, your resume may impress an employer and she decides to call you to set up an interview. Except that she gets your answering machine, and the message says, “Yo, I ain’t here – leave your info!” She probably won’t, and she won’t call back, so it is important when looking for work to look and sound professional – even in your voice mail. Another example Ladd highlights is doing homework on the organization or companies to which you are applying. Test their products, check out their website and annual reports, visit the site or take a tour of the facility – all this before an interview is good preparation. Not only does it give you extra armor for the interview, you will also know where their offices are located and be able to arrive for an interview relaxed and on time. There are many more true-to-life examples on this DVD, it is a useful tool for anyone at any level of education or experience trying to land a new job; I highly recommend it. Click here to find Interview the Best in our on-line catalogue.
@SPL: DVD 650.14 Int
There are a lot of people looking for work right now, so the job market is more competitive than it was even a year ago. In order to help put your best foot forward, it helps to know the better practices behind job searching. In Interview The Best, consultant Alan Ladd, a job coach with more than 20 years experience, explains the job search process from start to finish, as he goes around a table of job-seekers. Some of them have college degrees, some have graduated from university, and some have little formal education but years of experience in a particular field. The philosophy that Ladd believes is that it does not matter how qualified you are, the person that interviews the best will always land the job. The DVD is sectioned into “chapters” on your resume, searching for a job, identifying your strengths, the interview, questions and answers, “the close” and the follow-up. There is also a chapter review where each section’s highlights are listed for quick reference (hit the “pause” button frequently to take notes). These highlights are often small thing that often seem unimportant but could be the difference between getting an interview and the job or not. For instance, your resume may impress an employer and she decides to call you to set up an interview. Except that she gets your answering machine, and the message says, “Yo, I ain’t here – leave your info!” She probably won’t, and she won’t call back, so it is important when looking for work to look and sound professional – even in your voice mail. Another example Ladd highlights is doing homework on the organization or companies to which you are applying. Test their products, check out their website and annual reports, visit the site or take a tour of the facility – all this before an interview is good preparation. Not only does it give you extra armor for the interview, you will also know where their offices are located and be able to arrive for an interview relaxed and on time. There are many more true-to-life examples on this DVD, it is a useful tool for anyone at any level of education or experience trying to land a new job; I highly recommend it. Click here to find Interview the Best in our on-line catalogue.
encore: finding work that matters in the second half of life
0 comments Posted by RL Godfrey at 8:07 PM
by Marc Freedman, founder of Civic Ventures
Ostensibly written for baby-boomers who are either too bored or too poor to enjoy retired life, this book is just as relevant for anyone currently looking for fulfilling employment. It includes essays from trailblazers who have done complete 180’s from their former careers, like a former car salesman who became sick of the way customers were cheated, and traded in his lot to become what he calls a “social entrepreneur”. He started a business that provides low-interest loans and fuel-efficient cars to low-income families in rural New Hampshire. The interconnecting chapters explain the current state of employment for the baby-boom generation in the US, but the appendix is the really helpful part that helps you focus your own career path. With hard questions to answer like how much income you’ll need and which community or national problems motivate you into action, the appendix shares links for occupational direction, and directly focuses on some of the more prominent fields, like education and health care. According to a further example in the book, one doesn’t need to have started out in either field to start a new career in them – a former truant officer became a critical care nurse in her “retirement”. With this book and its examples as your guide, you’ll be on your way to becoming part of what author Richard Florida calls “the creative class” – the class that is likely to change the world. For further career direction, check out the “Career Cruising” database, available for free on our website http://www.stratford.library.on.ca/databases.htm#employment
Find a copy of encore: finding work that matters in our on-line catalogue.
No Job? No Prob! How to pay your bills, feed your mind and have a blast when you’re out of work
0 comments Posted by RL Godfrey at 2:40 PM
By Nicholas Nigro
I wish there were not a demand for books like these, but thank goodness the publishing world is responding to the current economic reality. Released this month is this very optimistic approach to unemployment, No Job? No Prob! Nicholas Nigro’s philosophy is that unemployment does not have to mean a reduction in the quality of life. He looks at joblessness as a series of opportunities to reorganize one’s mind and life’s direction, create new networks, have fun in unconventional (and virtually free) ways, as well as making a bit of money to help tide things over. The atmosphere of the book is upbeat, positive and anti-doom-and-gloom; a hard but necessary thing to achieve for those of us who feel that job loss is akin to a shipwreck. (This is aided by numerous “Unemployment Benefit facts” sprinkled throughout the book, like “you can get up bright and early to watch the sun rise… and then go back to bed.”) Not all fun and games, each chapter also has a series of exercises to help you get through this stressful time – like focusing one’s goals, choosing where to trim one’s budget, streamlining the job search so it doesn’t consume you, plus a whole chapter of tips for avoiding stress, boredom and depression. Although the book is American in its focus, it only takes a little imagination (and maybe the help of your friendly neighbourhood librarians) to find local equivalents of its suggestions. This book is for anyone who is currently unemployed or facing job loss.
I wish there were not a demand for books like these, but thank goodness the publishing world is responding to the current economic reality. Released this month is this very optimistic approach to unemployment, No Job? No Prob! Nicholas Nigro’s philosophy is that unemployment does not have to mean a reduction in the quality of life. He looks at joblessness as a series of opportunities to reorganize one’s mind and life’s direction, create new networks, have fun in unconventional (and virtually free) ways, as well as making a bit of money to help tide things over. The atmosphere of the book is upbeat, positive and anti-doom-and-gloom; a hard but necessary thing to achieve for those of us who feel that job loss is akin to a shipwreck. (This is aided by numerous “Unemployment Benefit facts” sprinkled throughout the book, like “you can get up bright and early to watch the sun rise… and then go back to bed.”) Not all fun and games, each chapter also has a series of exercises to help you get through this stressful time – like focusing one’s goals, choosing where to trim one’s budget, streamlining the job search so it doesn’t consume you, plus a whole chapter of tips for avoiding stress, boredom and depression. Although the book is American in its focus, it only takes a little imagination (and maybe the help of your friendly neighbourhood librarians) to find local equivalents of its suggestions. This book is for anyone who is currently unemployed or facing job loss.
Click here to find it in our on-line catalogue and reserve a copy.
Get Wired, You’re Hired! The Ultimate Canadian Internet Job Search Guide by Mark Swartz
0 comments Posted by RL Godfrey at 11:54 AM
Dec. 12, 2008
Ontario has been hit hard by job losses of late and times are getting tough. People who suddenly find themselves without a job may want to consult this book, Get Wired, You’re Hired – it is written specifically for Canada’s job market, and can be found in the the Career Centre at the Library. What makes this book better than your average job search guide (besides the fact that it’s Canadian), is that it shows how to expand your range of work options – beginning with an evaluation of your own skills and leading into sections about exploring different options and upgrading skills (it may be easier than you think). It also tells how to find and apply for - in the correct format – most of those jobs on-line. Part two of the book is a directory of job and career sites in Canada, complete with current (as of printing) pictures of the headers you should see when you go to each site – very handy in case you have misspelled something in a lengthy web-address. It might be tempting to go straight to this half of the book, especially since it has a section specific to industries, but the first part gives great hints at things like getting your resume or cover letter noticed by those impersonal screening programs that many employers now use – and yes, this is a resume writing guide as well. Each web-tool the book mentions has been developed by universities or employment consultants, and there is plenty of practical advice in its “unplugged” section, where the author, president of TheCareerExperts.com, answers questions from readers of his Toronto Star column. From new workers to Canada, to those recently unemployed or even those wanting to shift careers but haven’t a clue where to begin, Get Wired, You’re Hired is a good place to start. Click here to find it in the SPL catalogue.
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