Career Marketplace Blog

In her article for Psychology Today, Katharine Brooks, Ed.D. gives readers advice to help determine if they should hire a career coach.

Below is an excerpt from Brooks’ article, Do You Need a Career Coach? Read Full Article

According to the International Coach Federation, this week is International Coaching Week designated as a time for coaches to educate the general public about the value of professional coaching services.

Career coaching services can be invaluable to someone navigating today’s job market, particularly those who are in transition from one career field to another or who have just acquired a new career-related certificate or college degree.

Read on to learn how you can determine if you need a career coach and what to look for.

Rachel Emma Silverman explores the rise of tobacco-free hiring in her article for the Wall Street Journal, Smoker? No Job for You!

Below is a excerpt for Silverman’s article. Read Full Article

A growing number of hospitals and other companies have adopted policies allowing them to turn down smokers as job applicants, the New York Times reported. Companies say hiring only nonsmokers helps to boost worker productivity, reduces health care costs and encourages cleaner, healthier living. Federal estimates say that employees who smoke cost, on average, $3,391 more a year each in health-care expenses and lost productivity.

Many companies have already banned smoking in the workplace, or offered cessation programs or incentives to quit (like higher health-care insurance premiums for smokers.) But now there has been an even more dramatic shift from “smoke-free to smoker-free workplaces,” as the Times termed it. Applications now boldly state that companies follow “tobacco-free hiring,” job seekers may have to submit to urine tests for nicotine, and new employees caught lighting up may be fired.

Read on to learn what tobacco companies and the American Civil Liberties Union have say about “smoker-free workplaces”.

In her article for U.S. News and World Report, Alison Green reports 8 Things You Should Know About Job References.

Green explains details about reference checks including:

• Employers don’t always stick to the references on the list you gave them.
• References are often highly subjective and opinionated.
• You can find out what kind of reference someone is giving you.

Read on to read to complete list and how your references can influence a potential job offer.

Could there be a positive hiring trend in 2011? In her article for The New York Times, A Sign of Hope for More Hiring, Phyllis Korkki reports an increase in job listings to online job boards including Simply Hired and Indeed.

Below is an excerpt from Korkki’s article. Read full Article

WILL businesses ever start hiring again? The numbers from last month — with unemployment at a painful 9.4 percent — didn’t seem to offer much hope.

But often, before hiring occurs, a job is posted on a Web site of some sort. If we look at job-posting numbers — a more recent snapshot of employers’ needs than the hiring data — the picture is more encouraging across a range of industries.

At Simply Hired, a job search engine, postings rose more than 50 percent last year over 2009, and they increased almost 70 percent in December 2010 over December 2009.

Read On