Career Marketplace Blog

Wall Street Journal blog, Hire Education, Deloitte CEO, Barry Salzberg shares his thoughts on how students should begin career preparation as early as high school.

Below is a excerpt of Salzberg’s blog. Read Full Blog

Even in a good economy, the transition from college to the workplace can be tricky. Some people sail through academia to work without a hitch. Others have a harder time finding the right fit; they’ll need to adjust their expectations and/or improve their skills before they begin their careers.

So where’s the disconnect? Why isn’t everyone coming out of college career- and future-ready?

For many students, it may be because they had to spend time getting up to speed on college-level work. That leaves them less time to reap the benefits of higher education and grow into the kinds of young professionals employers expect to hire.

As colleges prepare for final exams this month, millions of first-year students will get concrete data on how well they’ve been prepared for higher education. More than two-thirds of high-school students in Deloitte’s 2010 Education Survey told us they felt well-prepared for college, while more than two-thirds of high school teachers fear their students are not prepared to handle college course work.

Which view is correct? The sad truth of the matter is no one really knows.

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U.S. News and World Report article, How to Beat 8 Job-Search Time-Wasters, Tim Tyrell-Smith shows you ways to get past common job-search mistakes.

Tips to look for in Tyrell-Smith’ s article are:

• Applying to Everything
• Bugging Recruiters
• Networking Blind
• And more

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In her article for U.S. News and World Report, Karen Burns shows readers 20 Ways to Stay Motivated During Your Job Search.

Below is an excerpt from Burn’s article. Read Full Article

The longer you look for a job, the tougher it becomes. Who could blame you for feeling despondent, discouraged, depressed—even bitter? Some days you may not even feel like getting out of bed.

Unfortunately, not only is depression, well, depressing, it also makes it harder to get out there and look. And the less you get out and look, the less likely a job offer will come your way. Even worse, prospective employers tend to be turned off by negativity. It’s the most dastardly kind of Catch-22.

What all this means is that a major part of anyone’s job hunt is staying motivated. We all have our ways of keeping on keeping on, but here are some time-tested suggestions to prevent your search from getting you down:

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U.S. News and World Report article, Great Interview But No Offer: Why You Didn’t Get the Job, Lindsay Olson explores possible reasons you didn’t get the job.

Reasons to look for in Olson’s article:

• You didn’t sell yourself
• The job specifications changed
• You sounded desperate

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In her article for U.S. News and World Report, Karen Burns gives you 10 Reasons to Step Up Your Job Search Over the Holidays.

Below is an excerpt of Burn’s article. Read Full Article

t’s tempting to put your job hunt on hold during the end-of-year holiday season. “I need a break,” you may tell yourself. “No one’s hiring this time of year anyway. I’ll double down on my efforts in January.”

It doesn’t help that everyone else seems to be having fun, and job hunting is—for most of us—not fun.

But contrary to popular belief, many employers do hire over the holidays. Personal lives may get more hectic this time of year, but many businesses slow down, giving the powers-that-be breathing space to think about staffing and even conduct interviews. Many companies are putting the pieces in place for 2011 projects and want to bring new people on board before then.

In fact, in some ways, the holidays are the best time to find a job. Here are ten good reasons why you should ramp up your job search during the holiday season:

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In his story for ABC News, Zachary Sniderman shows readers 5 Ways to Get a Job Through YouTube.

Sniderman’s tips include success stories from people who have found job opportunities using YouTube. Read Full Article

Have you found success in your job search using YouTube or other Social Media sites? Tell us your story in the comments section.

In her article for Mashable, Stephanie Marcus shows job seekers HOW TO: Score a Job Through Facebook.

Tips to look for in Marcus’ article:

• Read Your News Feed
• “Like” or “Friend” Companies You Want to Work For
• Start a Dialogue

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Considering a Career in Accounting? Know Your Software
By: Hunter Richards

Employment in the accounting field is pretty strong – in fact, “much faster than average” employment growth is expected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics between now and 2018. But accounting job seekers still need to go the extra mile to stand out from the rest of the crowd. If you’re in the job market for accounting, you need to gain proficiency with the right software to be marketable. 500 accounting job postings have provided useful data to reveal which software skills employers most often desire in candidates.

Key Takeaways
It’s simply imperative to know Microsoft Excel for accounting jobs. But there are countless additional software skills which must also be considered. These are the key research findings that will help you train with the most lucrative accounting system and maximize your chances of success:

• When finding your first job, look for a company that uses a “big name,” widely-used accounting system like SAP, Microsoft Dynamics or Oracle. That will improve your odds of getting hired next time you’re in the market for a new position.
• More and more companies are focused on business intelligence – the tools that analyze financial data to uncover business trends and opportunities. Try to gain experience in Business Objects, Crystal Reports, Cognos, etc.
• If you’re looking to work in a big corporation, you should learn systems like SAP and Oracle. If mid-size companies are your preference, learn Sage and Microsoft Dynamics. Quickbooks skills are always in demand, but especially by smaller companies.
• As the Microsoft Dynamics products converge, knowing any one of these systems will give you transferable skills across the entire Dynamics product line. For now, Dynamics GP appears to be in highest demand.
• Don’t get too comfortable with PeopleSoft or JD Edwards; although they are often mentioned by employers, they’re likely to decline in use as Oracle migrates to its Fusion apps. But it’ll take a while, so skills with these systems are still valuable.

The research for this article was performed by Hunter Richards of Software Advice, an online resource that reviews fixed asset accounting software and other systems. The original article can be accessed here.

U.S. News & World Report article, Tips on Following Up After You Send a Resume, Lindsay Olsen has helpful tips on how to professionally follow up after sending your resume to an employer(s)

Below is an excerpt of Olsen’s article. Read Full Article

One of the most frequent questions I get from job seekers is about follow-up timing after submitting a resume. Who do I contact and how long should I wait?

The answer depends on how you were introduced to the company. If you respond to a job posting online, it’s important to remember that some ads generate hundreds of responses a day. Many companies have tools to automate processing your application into their applicant tracking systems. A real person may not be looking at the responses sent and many times, the hiring manager isn’t even involved at this stage.

The best way to make sure your resume gains the attention it deserves is to tweak it to fit the job description. It sounds like obvious advice, but job seekers often don’t do it. Integrate the keywords that a recruiter might use to find a qualified candidate in their database. Your goal is to make sure your resume will be found and put on the short-list. If you have done this and haven’t heard back, give it a week and follow-up.

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Wall Street Journal article, Make the Most of a Starter Job, Ruth Mantell reports that recent college grads are willing to accept positions outside of their field in order to gain valuable skills and  experience they can use throughout their career.

Below is an excerpt from Mantell’s article. Read Full Article

With the tough labor market, many recent college graduates may take jobs outside their field and settle for lower salaries than they might have hoped for.

But there are steps college grads can take to better position themselves for success down the road.

Entry-level workers can take positions that teach them universal skills they’ll need throughout their career, says Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources at job website CareerBuilder.com. “Even if a position isn’t what you want, it may be rich in experience.”

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