High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: Job Search Lessons from Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show Debut

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share them so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

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• 5 Job Search Lessons from Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show Debut: "Recently Jimmy Fallon made the leap to 'The Tonight Show.' For the job seeker on a quest for their own new gig, here are some gems from Fallon’s first day on the job."


• What HR Won’t Tell You: "Human resource professionals are doing the best they can to find and hire the best candidates. What should you know when you’re looking for a job?"


• Break Into IT with Temporary Work: "The business world may be looking for technology pros, but you're not a pro (yet) if you have a new certification and no experience. How do you gain that experience?"


• 5 Tips for Preventing Age Bias in Your Executive Resume & LinkedIn Profile: "Consider these 5 ways to get a better reception from employers – and create an “age-proof” executive resume and LinkedIn Profile-–if you believe age is working against you."


• The Era of Creative Resumes: "For a resume to be effective, it needs much more than just enlisting your details, qualifications, and achievements. This should always be kept in mind when you write modern and creative resumes."

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: Traits of a Great Job Seeker

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share them so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

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• Traits of a Great Job Seeker: "Here are seven job seeker traits to consider as you embark upon your job search. These traits have worked for others; hopefully, they will work for you."


• How to Stalk Your Future Employer (Without Being Creepy): "It might surprise you to learn that, yes, sometimes digging too deep and oversharing what you’ve learned about a potential employer or hiring manager can actually hurt you during the interview process."


• 3 Tips to Succeed in the Economy of You: "No matter where you are with your side-gig--the key to gaining greater professional control and financial security in this modern-day economy--here are the top 3 things you should be doing to ensure success."


• How to Manage Your Personal Brand When You're in Transition: "When you're changing chapters professionally, what's the best way to manage your personal brand? Should you even think about personal branding? Where do you start? Here are some helpful tips."


• How to Create an Irresistible Resume: "The words you choose to communicate your experience make all the difference in whether your resume is considered average or fantastic."

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: Using Pinterest in Your Job Search

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share them so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

© Bellemedia | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos

• Why You Need To Use Pinterest in Your Job Search: "Pinterest may not be the first thing that comes to mind when searching for jobs, but this infographic shows how it could it help."


• Surprise! You Shouldn’t Answer the Phone When Recruiters Call: "This has to sound like the stupidest idea you have ever heard. But you don’t want to get caught off-guard in phone interviews."


• What Type of Job Hunter Are You?: "Here are three basic thoughts to take to heart and learn about the job search."


• Why You Should Keep Your Personal Life Out of the Office: "Although work/life boundaries are more blurred than ever, spending too much work time on personal tasks will lead you to be much less productive."


• How to Start a Business When You Work Full Time: "If you haven’t already realized that there’s no true job security, now is a good time to start thinking about how you could bring in additional streams of revenue."

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: Unorthodox Job Search Techniques

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share them so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

© Bellemedia | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos

5 Unorthodox Job Search Techniques You Should Try: "You send out perfectly polished resumes and cover letters. Your LinkedIn profile is optimized. You’re networking and volunteering and blogging and tweeting… and still, no traction."

If you’ve been at it for a few months and aren’t getting

the results you want, it may be time to rethink your approach. It may be time to get a little weird."

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: Career Resolutions

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share them so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

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• 5 Job Seeker Resolutions to Make in 2014: "The New Year often brings the promise of change, possibility and resolving to make this year better than the last. Here are five steps to help you achieve your [job search] goal."


• How Working from Home Can Help Tackle Your New Year’s Resolutions: "In addition to no commute and dress code-–three other factors can have major benefits to your overall well-being. And maybe even your New Year’s resolutions."


• How to Invest in Your Career for 2014: "If you’re thinking about your professional new year’s resolutions, keep the following in mind when evaluating professional development opportunities."


• New Year’s Resolutions Every Job Seeker Should Make for 2014: "If your number one goal for the new year is to land a new job, hopes and wishes aren’t enough; you need to define and execute a plan to ensure your success."


• 10 Professional Resolutions for the New Year: "Whether a pay rise, promotion, or a new career are among your professional resolutions, the following tips may serve as useful in your quest to make 2014 the year for your career!"

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: Staying Positive After Layoff

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share them so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

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• Careers: Top Ways to Stay Positive After Being Laid Off: "While becoming laid off can be a very devastating experience for a number of reasons, it is important to take positive steps in your approach to this situation."


• 7 Ways You’re Making the Job Search Even Harder: "Many job seekers are trying to apply what worked in the past in a new set of circumstances. Much of their delay in landing that next position is self-inflicted; they are making the job search even harder."


• What to Do If You Lose Your Job: "If ever found in the position of losing your job, having a plan with the right attitude and approach to taking the step forward in the next chapter in your career helps."


• 4 Ways to Ignite Your Job Search Right Now: "We’re in the midst of the hustle and bustle of the season but that doesn’t mean career dreams need to be put on pause. There are a few ways to rev up that search even when it’s tempting to convince yourself the holidays will stall it."


• How You Should Address Getting Laid Off On Your Resume: "For your resume, there are a few tips those with job gaps should consider to up their chances of getting the interview."

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: Thanksgiving Edition

We share some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., every weekend, so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. This is our weekly roundup on job searching, careers, and the Thanksgiving holiday. Enjoy!

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• "Even though Thanksgiving is a time when most people are focusing on family, football, shopping and celebrating the holiday, you shouldn't shut down your job search just because it's a holiday week." Check out Thanksgiving Week Job Searching.


• "There are "plenty of lessons you [and your organizational team] can learn from how the Native Americans and Pilgrims" at Plymouth worked together. Discover them at Teamwork Lessons From The First Thanksgiving.


• "Although we may not control anything outside of ourselves, we are in control of what we think, feel and do." Read about 4 simple gratitude steps to improve your job search in Let Thanksgiving Inspire Your Job Search.


• "Now’s a great time for job seekers to really focus on their job search before the holiday craziness begins." Check out 5 Things Job Seekers Should Do Before Thanksgiving.


• More chain stores are starting Black Friday sales on Thanksgiving Day. Find out how this decision impacts seasonal retail workers at Retail Workers, Consumers Upset With Thanksgiving Day Hours.

Spring Cleaning for the Job Seeker

I am in full Spring Cleaning mode. It is 80 degrees here in Arizona and it is time to clean out the kids' drawers to figure out what does and does not fit for our new season. While I was cleaning out my daughter's closet this past weekend, I started to think about spring cleaning in other areas - most importantly the job search. So many job seekers get stuck in a rut and put their time and efforts into outdated job search methods. Here are some tips for you to make your job search run more efficiently.

• Evaluate your job search methods. Are you sitting at a computer surfing job boards during daylight hours? Internet job searching is for after the sun goes down! Get out of the house and network in the daylight hours. Remember, in an earlier post I shared that 80% of jobs that one recruiter fills are never even posted.
• Remove the focus from quantity and focus instead on quality. Spend your time researching your target company's history, mission statement, product mix and competition. Show them from the initial contact that you are focused on working for their organization.
• Evaluate your personal brand message. If you have not yet identified your personal brand (your strengths, skills and what you are "known for" around work). Make sure your resume, cover letter, and interview supports the consistency of your brand message.
• Freshen up your resume. Make sure it is a document that clearly demonstrates the benefits you can offer an employer.  Use previous measurable accomplishments to define what makes you a cost-effective employee.
• Clean up your online persona. If you don't have a current, updated professional profile on LinkedIn and Facebook then you are behind the curve. Social media is a tool that is critical in the job search process - use it wisely and to your advantage.
• Pull out your S.M.A.R.T. goals we worked on at the New Year and revisit your progress on achieving your milestones along the way to your goal. You will most likely become refocused and re-energized by getting back on track with your goals.