Career Development Office - Blog

A tough job market is more reason to do right on the things you can control.

From the NY Times..

Everyone knows the grim news — unemployment in the United States has jumped to 8.5 percent, a 25-year high, and is racing toward double digits. Since November, the nation has lost more than three million jobs.


Nancy Crase for The New York Times
Eddie Hamm, center, is a former construction worker who now works for Culver’s restaurant. With Mr. Hamm are the owner, Zachery Schaefer, right, and his partner Rob Bollock.
But not everyone knows the brighter side to the equation: deep in the maw of the deepest recession since the Great Depression, millions are still being hired.

So, while 4.8 million workers were laid off or chose to leave their jobs in February, employers across the country hired 4.3 million workers that month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“The best thing you can say about these numbers is it speaks to the dynamism of the U.S. economy, and the net negative number that we all traffic in masks that,” said Robert J. Barbera, chief economist at ITG, a research and trading firm. “Ninety out of 100 people who know the number — 650,000 were lost in February — think that means no one was hired and 650,000 were fired.”

In February — before the economy started to show the first faint signs of a possible recovery — there were three million job openings nationwide. And despite large new job losses likely to be announced Friday, there are still millions of job openings.

Who is hiring? Hospitals, colleges, discount stores, restaurants and municipal public works departments. I.B.M. is hiring more than 700 people for its new technical services center in Dubuque, Iowa, while the Cleveland Clinic has 500 job openings, not just for nurses but also for pharmacy aides and physical therapists. And after President Obama’s stimulus package kicks into gear, state, local governments and road-building contractors are expected to hire more.

Zachary Schaefer has hired 72 people since February for the Culver’s hamburger and frozen custard restaurant that he and several partners just opened in Surprise, Ariz.

“The amount of applicants who are qualified is definitely up,” he said. “Whereas before we were counting on a lot of high school applicants, now there are a lot more middle-age people applying.”

Eddie Hamm, a former construction worker, was unemployed for five months when he drove by the site where the Culver’s was under construction. Mr. Hamm, 29, applied for a job there, and now he’s a “fry guy.”

“I’m just happy I got hired — I didn’t want to stay home, not doing anything,” he said, hardly complaining that he is earning half the $15 an hour he made in construction. “I don’t look at it like I’m making $7.50. I look at it — I’m having a job in a down time, and it’s a job where I can move up.”

Economists and job counselors advise the unemployed that there are definitely jobs to be had, even if there aren’t nearly enough to go around. With 13.2 million people out of work, there are 4 1/3 unemployed Americans for every job opening. “You’re facing more competition for every job you apply for, but the reality is there is a lot of hiring going on,” said Andrew M. Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University. “You’re never going to find anything unless you apply.”

Even industries that have taken a beating are doing plenty of hiring. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, construction companies hired 366,000 workers in February, and manufacturers hired 249,000. Retailers hired 536,000 workers in February, but that was down 25 percent from the previous February.

Some job openings are to replace retirees, some to replace employees who left for other jobs, but many openings result from expansion. Companies that are still growing are blessed with talented applicants.

“It’s easier to hire in a recession — we have about five applications for every position,” said Howard Glickberg, principal owner of Fairway Market, the well-known grocery company based in Manhattan.

Fairway just hired 350 people for its month-old store in Paramus, N.J., the first Fairway outside of New York State. The company plans to add 1,200 more workers over the next two years by opening stores in Queens; Pelham Manor, N.Y.; and Stamford, Conn.

“What you have to be afraid of is hiring someone who can’t find something better at the time, and when they find something better they leave you,” Mr. Glickberg said. “I want to hire someone who will make a career of it.”

The nation’s largest private-sector employer, Wal-Mart Stores, is also hiring aplenty. Wal-Mart, with 1.4 million workers nationwide, hires several hundred thousand workers each year because of employee turnover, and expects to increase its domestic work force by nearly 50,000 this year, thanks to plans to open 150 new stores.

Shawnalyn Conner is running a hiring center for a Wal-Mart store that will open on June 17 in Weaverville, N.C., near Asheville. She plans to hire 350 workers.

“The biggest comment that we get from people is that they’re looking for a company that’s growing, and Wal-Mart offers that,” said Ms. Conner, who, as the top manager of the new store, has hired 77 people so far. Gisel Ruiz, senior vice president for the people division of Wal-Mart U.S., said the company had a hiring program for former junior military officers, often for jobs as assistant store managers. With many veterans having a hard time landing jobs, Wal-Mart hired 150 former officers last year.

The health care industry has held its own in hiring. The University of Miami medical school, which runs three hospitals, has 250 openings and is hiring about 35 people a month, compared with 100 a month in good times. Cleveland Clinic has 500 job openings, compared with 2,000 during better times.

“We have a hiring freeze on, but even when there’s a hiring freeze, we need to maintain our head count,” said Joe Patrnchak , Cleveland Clinic’s chief human resources officer. “We have 40,000 people, and you’re going to have some openings.”

He is encountering an unusual snag in hiring people. “A challenge we have now is people from other areas are having problems selling their homes,” Mr. Patrnchak said. “People aren’t quite as mobile nowadays.”

The University of Miami medical school is also facing an unexpected problem. “There’s a flood of applicants, but even so, it’s harder to find really good, experienced people,” said Paul Hudgins, its associate vice president for medical human resources. “We’re seeing people hunkering down and saying they’re going to stay where they are.”

The recession has encouraged people to cling to their jobs. Just 1.5 percent of workers voluntarily quit their jobs in February, the lowest level since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began collecting those numbers eight years ago.

Like many educational institutions, Washington University in St. Louis continues to hire. It has 175 job openings in admissions, residential life and other areas. There is a flood of job applicants, and Ann Prenatt, vice chancellor for human resources, said that has pros and cons, the advantage being that the university does not have to offer large premiums as often to draw coveted applicants.

Tips for Job hunter over 45.
From the Today Show.

The tips are relevant to anyone.

On the Job, but on the Lookout for Work
An article about networking from the NY Times.

From the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE)

3. Emerging Careers Can Present Exciting Opportunities for Students

While many are fretting about the impact of the economy on jobs for college students, Sharon Jones is excited about the prospects for students who can apply their knowledge, skills, and abilities to emerging occupations.

An emerging occupation is one that has been recognized in small numbers, but continues to grow, according to Jones, assistant director at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. There are many catalysts for emerging occupations, such as technological advances, new or altered laws and regulations, and changing demographics. Jones tries to identify emerging occupations by surfing the web to identify job leads for students or poring over U.S. Department of Labor reports.

“It’s not easy,” she says. “Most information in government reports is old, and by the time they’re written about, they’re established and no longer ‘emerging’ occupations. The world of work is changing so fast that it’s hard to keep up with it.”

Many emerging occupations manifest in small organizations, Jones says, meaning highly recognizable organizations don’t have positions in these fields at the start.

“When the field does mature, it might be blended into a job description that has a lot of other duties, such as webmaster,” she adds.

That blurring has led to college students’ lack of awareness about new career fields.

“Many times, students don’t know that a function can be a career,” Jones explains. “For example, I’m amazed at how few know about search engine optimization (SEO), which has been out there for a while. Some students have done SEO work during their internships, but either don’t understand that it can be an occupation, or don’t describe it correctly on their resumes.”

Still, Jones feels that members of this generation are uniquely qualified to enter new occupations on the ground floor, before degrees, majors, or courses even exist for these occupations. College students are more likely than ever before to choose double or triple majors, and one or more minors.

“They just need help applying skills that they have or should acquire and seeing the connection to an emerging occupation,” Jones says. “It’s important that career advisers know what’s required to be a successful job candidate in these fields so they can steer students toward critical electives and valuable experiential opportunities.”

Following are some emerging occupations that Jones identifies:

LIBERAL ARTS

Accent reduction specialists—A growing speech pathology specialty, sometimes people go into this through English as a Second Language training. Applications for accent reduction specialists include helping someone who is unable to make a presentation because of an accent, or training customer service representatives to speak perfect English without a strong accent.

Linguistics—There are many emerging occupations within linguistics. For instance, some companies are looking for employees to name their products and services. Because of globalization, brand naming is important to ensure a name is acceptable in many languages. Globalization requires that products and services be delivered in local languages. It also has applications associated with national security, interpreting, and international business.

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

Cultural analysts/linguists—One offshoot of this career is accompanying military forces and analyzing media content in a country to report implications of what’s reported and its influences on the local population.

Human terrain analysts—These professionals conduct primary ethnographic and social science research with local leaders in a country and translate conversations and documents to interpret local or regional culture.

Leadership analysts—Professionals in this field are used by the CIA, among others, to produce assessments of foreign leaders and officials and help key U.S. national officials to deal with their foreign counterparts.

EDUCATION

Child life specialists—Professionals who are trained to help children and families cope with traumatic situations, such as hospitalization or violence.

Patent analysts—These professionals help local companies determine how new concepts or products are unique and marketable. (These jobs are also available in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.)

SCIENCES

Creative perfumers—Creative perfumers evaluate the odors of chemicals for everything from expensive perfumes to deodorants, according to a client’s goal for its scent. Creative perfumers are trained to create fragrances during a rigorous training process that requires them to study hundreds of natural and synthetic materials.

Security engineers (federal job)—Security engineers create analytical and physical security systems that foresee and prevent future security problems.

Transportation geography researchers—These professionals apply geographic information systems to work on existing and new transportation networks. They also interact with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to conduct vulnerability assessments.

Genomics—This group of professions is centered on using DNA in research. For example, clinical genomics analysts can use DNA for personalized medicine, to increase the likelihood that treatment will be effective for an individual.

HEALTH

Nurse anesthetists—These nurses collaborate with surgeons, anesthesiologists, dentists, and other healthcare professionals to administer anesthesia.

Health informatics specialists—Health informatics specialists work with doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals to use electronic medical records and computerized programs to guide their diagnoses and treatment plans.

CNBC Special Report on the Job Search and where the jobs are

How To Find a Job Online
Forget Monster. Try Facebook.
By Farhad Manjoo
Posted Tuesday, March 17, 2009, at 5:54 PM ET

"The House voted Wednesday to approve the largest expansion of government-sponsored service programs since President John F. Kennedy first called for the creation of a national community service corps in 1963.

The legislation, which passed by an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 321 to 105, would more than triple the number of service positions by expanding AmeriCorps and creating volunteer programs focused on education, health care, clean energy and veterans. The total number of positions would grow to 250,000 from 75,000 now in AmeriCorps.

The Senate is expected to adopt a nearly identical bill early next week..... "

see link for detailed article

CNBC has a special report and a Town Hall: Where The Jobs Are

"As bad as the job market may seem, some sectors are holding up better than others. Here's what companies are hiring, what types of jobs are available and in which states you'll find them. Click through to see all major sectors...."

Career Couch
A Cover Letter Is Not Expendable
By PHYLLIS KORKKI
Published: February 14, 2009

Q. You are getting ready to apply for a job electronically, and your résumé is ready to go. Do you need to prepare a cover letter? Are they necessary in this day and age?
Skip to next paragraph
Chris Reed

A. Cover letters are still necessary, and in a competitive market they can give you a serious edge if they are written and presented effectively.

Cover letters are a graceful way to introduce yourself, to convey your personality and to impress a hiring manager with your experience and your writing skills, said Katy Piotrowski, an author of career books and a career counselor based in Fort Collins, Colo. You can also tailor them to a specific company in ways that you cannot with a résumé.

Ms. Piotrowski recently had a job opening at her small company, Career Solutions Group, and she was dismayed when about a quarter of the 200 applicants did not send cover letters. Most were within five years of graduating from college, she said, reflecting a more informal mind-set among younger people.

Q. How should your cover letter be organized, how long should it be, and what should it say?

A. First, do your best to find the decision maker’s name, and use it in the salutation. If you are applying to a blind ad, say “Dear Sir or Madam” or “To the Hiring Manager.” Ms. Piotrowski said she received cover letters that had no salutation at all or began with “Hey there” — not a strong start. If you want to be on the safe side, use a colon after the salutation, although some people now feel it is permissible to use a comma in an e-mail message.

Your cover letter should be short — generally no longer than three or four paragraphs, said Debra Wheatman, a career expert at Vault, a jobs Web site.

In your first paragraph, explain why you are writing — it may be that you are answering an ad, that you were referred to the company through networking, or that you learned that the company is expanding, said Wendy S. Enelow, author of “Cover Letter Magic” and a professional résumé writer in Virginia.

In the middle paragraphs, explain why you are a good candidate, and show that you are knowledgeable about the company. Then convey a clear story about your career, and highlight specific past achievements. This can either be done as a narrative or in bullet points, Ms. Enelow said.

You can also highlight qualities you possess that may not fit the confines of a résumé, Ms. Wheatman said.

She once worked in human resources at Martha Stewart Living, and recalls reviewing applications for a chef in a test kitchen. One woman had a career in manufacturing, but her cover letter described how she had grown up in a family that was passionate about cooking and where she had frequently made meals from scratch. The woman got the job despite her peripheral work experience.

Finish your letter by indicating that you will follow up in the near future (and make good on that promise). Sign off with a “Sincerely,” “Cordially,” “Thank you for your consideration” or similar closer, followed by your name and, if you like, your e-mail address.

Q. Where should your cover letter appear, in an e-mail or in an attachment?

A. You can include your letter in the actual text of your e-mail message or place it above your résumé in an attachment. If you put it in a separate attachment from your résumé, you run the risk that a harried hiring manager will not click on it at all. If you place it in the text of your e-mail message, it should generally be shorter than if you use an attachment, Ms. Enelow said.

Then, if you really want to make an impression, make a hard copy of your cover letter and résumé and send it to the hiring manager by regular mail. Attach a handwritten note that says, “Second submission; I’m very interested,” Ms. Piotrowski said. “I’ve had clients double their rate of interviews simply from doing that,” she said.

Ms. Enelow calls this “double-hitting,” and says she has seen it work remarkably well. She said a senior-level client of hers got an interview and was hired because the hard copy of his cover letter and résumé reached the company president, whereas his electronic application was rejected by someone in human resources because it did not meet certain rigid criteria.

Q. What are some common mistakes in cover letters?

A. A cover letter with typos, misspellings and poor sentence structure may take you out of the running for a job. If you cannot afford to pay someone to review your cover letter and résumé, enlist a friend or a family member with good language skills to do it instead.

Another misguided thing people do is to make the cover letter all about them: “I did this, I’m looking for, I want to ... I, I, I.” Structure your letter so that it stresses the company and what you can do to help it reach its goals, Ms. Piotrowski and others said.

Another danger is including too much information — for example, very specific salary or geographic requirements, Ms. Enelow said. It is also unwise to point out that you do not meet all the criteria in the job description, she said. You can deal with that later, if you get an interview.

Hiring managers are looking for ways to exclude you as they narrow down their applications, she said. Do not give them that ammunition.

E-mail: ccouch@nytimes.com.

NY Times article

Tips on the difficult transition from college and the working world.

New York Times Article

For the class of 2009, finding a job is going to require advanced problem solving skills. CNN's Stephanie Elam reports

molly baade BMC 05

Buenas from the wilds of Nicaragua!

Although I blog all the time at mytb.org/mbaade, figured I would send out one of my mass emails after my first three weeks of living and training in Nicaragua with the Peace Corps.

So with the Peace Corps service is for 27 months, which includes 3 months of in country training and 24 months of service. The PC is divided up into 5 different sectors: TESOL, Environmental Education, Small Business, Health, and Agriculture.

I am part of the Agriculture sector in Nicaragua and am 3 weeks into my 11 week training period and I AM LOVING IT! We have Spanish classes every Mon-Tues-Thursday at least, from 8am-12 and then applied Spanish from 1-3pm. Most Wednesdays and all Fridays we have technical sessions and tech training... which includes EVERYTHING from how to make organic fertilizer to how to compost with vermiculture to getting proper vaccines to talking about riots, rape, machismo, the Contra wars in the 80´s, to learning the rules and regs of a US Govt program like the PC to meeting and talking with current Volunteers about their experiences to learning how to utilize medicinal plants to how to convince farmers to plant cover crops with their corn to put nitrogen back into the soil to ... to attempting to do all of this with farmers in the backcountry ... in Spanish!

The Peace Corps here in Nica is extremely organized and very well run, in my opinion. I am super happy to be a part of it.

During our 11 weeks of training we live with host families. I had a lot of trepidation regarding this point, but it is awesome. I´m the 9th aspirante that my family has hosted, so they´re pretty used to gringos and our weird ways.

My host family is awesome and consists of mi madre and padre, Moncha and Ajenor; my 11 year old neice, Xilonem; my 17 year old brother, Isaac; my 2 year old nephew, Metzelito; Metzel´s mom and my sister in law, Rebecca; and 3 month old Jordan Jose, or JJ, the most tranquilito baby I have ever met oh-my-god-he´s-adorable! There are others who are working in Costa Rica and a son who married a PCV and now lives in the States.... but they´re not regularly there.

Nica houses are usually made of concrete or adobe or cement blocks. My house is made of cement, has a large living room with leather couches and television, has 3 huge bedrooms.... but is lacking things like... running water. Oh yes, I use a latrine that I hike to up the hill, and down the hill is the baño where there is a cistern and a bucket and I take bucket showers. We go outside to do the dishes and laundry is done by hand on a concrete lavadero. The kitchen has a refrigerator and a gas stovetop, but the stove that uses firewood and cast iron pots is used much much more frequently.

But, really, life is good! The latrine that I use is not at all scary; bucket baths are very refreshing - I can literally see the steam rising off my body in the cool early morning mountain air; the food is awesome, even though I have no idea how I´ll learn to cook like she does over the fire.... Training and Spanish and commiserating with my fellow 21 trainees keeps me PLENTY busy!

I live outside of Esteli in the northern mountains. We are spaced out along the PanAmerican Hwy which, predictably, runs from Panama to the USA... but it´s just a 2 lane highway in Nica - not remotely like I thought an intercontinental hwy would be, but whatever. Right now we are in the rainy season, so it´s usually temperate in the mornings, rains in the afternoons, and gets cool enough that I use a wool blanket at night. From afar it looks a lot like home... rolling hills, forests, fields dotted with trees and fences... and then you look closer and instead of oaks next to dogwoods it´s pineapples next to guavas, bananas, coffee, oranges, passionfruits, pihtaya, starfruits, mangos, and a whole host of other things that I have no idea what they are.

My madre is an awesome cook and I love her food. It´s so good that my two bosses come to my house for lunch every day during the week, too. The main staples are rice, beans, and corn... with a lot of tomatoes, peppers, onions, tortillas, and an awesome thick white cheese they call cuajada. Some people have been having stomach problems - both from drinking non purified water and from the food... but having just come from China where I was also eating about the same food, albeit cooked and spiced differently, I haven´t had any stomach problems at all... knock on wood.

Training is intense and the dangers here are real, just as they are in the rest of the world... we´ve already had someone break a leg and be medically seperated, had several cases of severe diarrhea, had someone bit by a rabid dog, and I ended up severely allergic to SOMETHING, still don´t know what, but am fine now. Think it may´ve been the mango I ate from the tree by my baño.... but no way to figure out if that was it... I´m going to eat another one next month and see if it happens again, because if it´s NOT the mango, no way in hell I´m going to live in the land of lakes and volcanoes and fresh fruit and not partake in the mangos.

Well, I think that´s enough for now! Email is super had to come by as we´re dog tired most of the time and don´t have the time or energy to take the two busses here to Esteli often. I do blog a lot more than I email, so check it out for some photos and more updates!

adio!
-molly

ps for you spanish speakers, the S´s are totally aspirated here. Buenos dias becomes bueno dia, adios to adio, and the voseo is used here for super familiar relations... as in, y vo? instead of y Ud or y tu.