Monday, May 9, 2011

Have You Considered Consulting as a Career? plus 1 more | Career Rocketeer

Have You Considered Consulting as a Career?

Posted: 09 May 2011 03:30 AM PDT

An ever increasing number of older executives, and by older I am talking 35-50 years old, have a tremendous amount to offer but find it hard to get back in the game with a dedicated employer; and those over the age of 50 are finding it even harder.
So what I have been suggesting to many of these displaced executives is to explore the world of consulting, either for a company or on their own.
Now consulting is not a route for everyone to pursue. It takes a certain mindset and personality, and certain fields such as IT, accounting and healthcare among a select few are more fertile for consulting than others.
Moreover, going into business yourself may seem risky, but if done right can be a road to job security or a new job. So here are a few thoughts on how you may want to proceed.

Determine what you have to offer and put it all down on paper and score yourself 1-10 on how strong you are. For me a 7 and above is an adequate score.
Check online, in local papers and with people you know in the community and determine what the demand is for the experience and talent you have to offer.
Do not get frightened off if you see there is a demand but also a lot of potential competitors.
Put together a business plan if you can, or find someone who can help you with this task.
Go to a company like Vistaprint and look into getting business cards made up and some starter brochures. If you are not creative or you're not a good wordsmith get someone to help you with this as well.
Explore CRM and lead generation sources and their costs.
Find out what others are charging for what you intend to provide.
Contact 100 people in your business, personal, family and social network, tell them what you want to do and ask for their help and/or feedback.
Remember this above all else, consulting is all about value and building relationships and trust. Moreover success will not come overnight. Make a commitment of at least 6 months and $1000 and see where that takes you.

These are very basic tips so if you want more specific details feel free to call me and we can chat.
A special FYI and personal invitation:
Please join me and your hosts Chris Perry, founder of Career Rocketeer, and Dorothy Tannahill-Moran in their CAREER STUDIOS Free Career Seminar Series on Wednesday, May 25th at 5:30pm PST / 8:30pm EST when I will be the special guest.
Your resume is the most visible and active part of your job search, so you want it to be powerful and effective at getting the attention of hiring managers.
However many of you don't always know if it does. Join us while we discuss what no longer works and what does work in writing a resume for today's job market. I will cover topics where you will learn: How to identify your audience and determine useful information for your resume; How to determine your true value to a new employer; How to establish a "personal brand"; All about effective Bio Resumes, Leadership Resumes and Executive Resumes; Whether cover letters are obsolete and how/when to create an effective cover letter; Can you send a customized cover letter with a static resume?, and much more.
You can register for FREE at http://www.eventbrite.com/event/1630943195/pn, All you need to participate is a phone. Register here and we will send the call-in number and access code to you via email prior to the call. Also, enrolled participants will receive a FREE MP3 downloadable recording of this session following the seminar. Plus, as a special gift you will receive a free resume critique and 15% discount from me on any resume or bio you hire me to write.

Author:
Perry Newman, CPC CSMS is a nationally recognized executive resume writer, career coach, AIPC certified recruiter and SMMU certified social media strategist known for his ability to help his clients get results. You can view his sample resumes at http://www.perrynewman.com, and email him your resume at perry@perrynewman.com for FREE resume critique.

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Interview Question: What’s the Scariest Movie You Have Seen?

Posted: 08 May 2011 05:20 AM PDT

I had a conversation with someone recently who asked if I had anything exciting planned for the weekend. I said it depends on your definition of exciting. She replied something like a movie. I asked her if she had any recommendations. She said she rented the film 127 Hours and liked it. She then went on to say she also liked horror movies. However, she said most people don’t. I told her I was one of those people.
However, I asked her what she liked about horror movies. She said she liked being scared. Honest answer and we went on to discussing other things. However, I did not think fast enough to ask why she liked to be scared. But it gave me ideas.
I have since learned there are two theories behind why people like horror movies. One, the person is actually not afraid but excited by the movie. Two, the person endures terror in order to experience relief at the end.
The first one makes sense because as much as the filmmaker tries to draw you into the movie you are safe in your theatre seat or couch. At least that is what you believe, until the movie is over and you have to drive, walk, or run home in the dark.
Some people have trouble accepting the second explanation citing how can the most fearful event become a pleasant moment. Sounds reasonable, take away the possibliity of a positive outcome and you are back to the first explanation that some people just like being scared.
Without debating, the redemptive value of horror movies because personally I don't see any. I asked the same question of someone else, why do you like horror movies, and they told me they were intrigued by the special effects and wanted to know how they were produced. He was a film student.
When you stop to think about it we need people who are not easily frightened. In fact, we need people who thrive on the possibility of danger and are excited by it in a good way. The classic examples would be a soldier, EMT, firefighter, or law enforcement. The truth is we need leaders in every walk of life who are not frightened for example by an economic downturn, a natural disaster, plane engine failure, rising gas prices, declining sales, increased competition, or budget deficits, etc. These events are not for the faint of heart.
Maybe a good question on a job interview might be what’s the scariest movie you have seen? If they say, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory you should be impressed because it is ranked in the Top 50 of scariest movies. Remember, you are not trying to determine their taste in movies. You want to know if they easily frightened by sudden changes. Do they run from it or run towards it?

Guest Expert:
Thomas D. Cairns, DBA, is the Principal and Chief Career Coach of Cairns Blaner Group (www.cairnsblaner.com), a consulting company focused on delivering career management strategies and services. He is a career coach for the Graziadio School of Business at Pepperdine University and adjunct professor of management at Azusa Pacific University. Previously, he served as Chief Human Capital Officer, U.S. Department Homeland Security, and Senior Vice President, Human Resources NBC Universal a division of GE. He may be contacted via e-mail at tom@cairnsblaner.com.

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Moola Days

How Geo-Targeting Can Make You More Money

Posted: 08 May 2011 11:52 AM PDT

One of the benefits of being a webmaster, is that you are given the ability to experiment with as many networks as you wish, as long as you follow the affiliate network’s policies. Whether the program is based on different payment methods, like CPA (cost per action), CPM (cost per thousandth impression), or PPC (pay per click), the concept of geo-targeting is something that webmasters shouldn’t overlook when it comes to appraising the value of their website’s ad inventory.
If you are a webmaster and have join some of the more known networks like, CJ, and ClickBank, MaxBounty, and so on, you would know that certain advertisers within the network, only allow certain amount of traffic based on the visitors’ country. If there is ever a case where you are promoting only a offer that supports, let’s say the United States, you could be losing money on your ad inventory because that particular offer only accepts U.S. based visitors. I know this sounds sort of like common sense, but I would like to emphasize the importance of realizing that there is more room to optimize and maximize your profits if you promote a particular offer/advertiser that centralizes around a particular country. One of the common mistakes I see with most webmasters is that they don’t realize this, nor manage and maintain their ad inventory wisely. And as a result, lose an opportunity to earn even more.
For those who don’t know what geo-targeting is, it is generally displaying certain content, generally important for advertisements, based on the visitors’ country. Generally geo-targeted ads are more personal and has more relativity to the user’s interest, thus it almost always have a greater chance of profitability.
Many well known networks like Google Adsense, is a highly populated network filled with hundreds of thousands of advertisers and publishers, so geo-targeting may not be as helpful. However, if you are a webmaster with some of the lesser known affiliate networks that aren’t as populated, it is almost always recommended to look into geo-targeting to ensure you are maximizing the most from your ad inventory by displaying ads specified to a visitors’ particular country. In addition, usually geo-targeting ads are more personal and is more relevant, which can also play a larger role in achieving better results, than let’s say an ad that generalized and plain. The importance of geo-targeting and where it shines is that it knows the audience and centralizes ads around their interest. Thus as a result, in most cases, the webmaster who geo-targets generally have a higher chance of profitability from their ads because of their greater appeal to the visitors.
In most cases, if you are promoting a offer that only supports a certain country, it is advised to have a backup ad that shows up if it is not the country supported. By doing this, this in turn maximizes the webmaster’s ad inventory in all ways possible, without changing a single thing. The importance of geo-targeting is ad relativity, so when choosing ads, it is important to keep in mind what the visitor from a particular country may be interested in. In most cases if you do not supply a back-up tag, the ads is likely to do the following: not show up, show public service ads, a colored background, or redirects to another link that generally has a very low conversion rate. The difference between not geo-targeting to geo-targeting can be the difference of a 10-40% increase of your general income depending on how little your current ads support other countries.
The point that I want to make is that, make sure to optimize your ad inventory and traffic in all possible ways. Although geo-targeting may be a hassle, it may prove to be beneficial in increasing your income with the websites you currently have. That is why it is recommended by most Internet Marketers to be part of mutiple networks, to ensure you have more than enough advertisers to consider. Now whenever a webmaster asks for ways to increase their income, tell them geo-targeting is one of the many ways they should consider to optimize and maximize their profits.
How Geo-Targeting Can Make You More Money is a post from: Moola Days

Can You Find a Job Without a College Degree?

ResumeBear Blog

Can You Find a Job Without a College Degree?

Posted: 08 May 2011 07:11 AM PDT

For many people who worked their way up, the lack of degree was never an impediment — until they lost their jobs.
Bill Gates never graduated from college. Neither did Michael Dell nor Steve Jobs. Outside of the tech world, Richard Branson has done pretty well for himself without a college degree, as has Barry Diller.
But Sharon Willis is a more common example of the challenges to American workers who never graduated from college.
Since February, Willis has been the acting vice president for external affairs at Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, a medical and health-sciences graduate school of 850 students. She will continue in that role until some time in the fall, when she will resume her position as deputy vice president. The VP role is one she wanted to apply for when it became vacant but couldn’t, even though she had the experience and knowledge. Why? She doesn’t have a bachelor's degree.
Willis started at the university 28 years ago as a clerk typist and worked her way up through the ranks. She describes herself as the “go-to” person for just about everybody with whom she works. Willis has done the job of vice president, and the college president knows she is up to the task on a permanent basis, yet her lack of a college diploma — a job requirement – means she does not qualify for the position.
Willis has hit a professional wall at the university, and she realizes that things would likely not be different elsewhere.
“When we have vacancies here, I see the qualifications of the applicants, many of whom have master’s degrees,” said Willis. “I realize that if I were to leave here, I would probably rank at the bottom of the applicant pool because of my lack of a degree, despite excellent experience, job stability, a very strong work ethic and great references. It’s disheartening.”
What Willis suspects to be true about the world outside the university is only too real for many of the millions of people the recession unleashed upon the job market. Many of these people started at a company in an entry-level position and worked their way up the ladder. Not having a college degree may not have mattered – until the time came to apply for a new position.
Bruce Hurwitz, president and CEO of Hurwitz Strategic Staffing, said he sees this issue come up regularly. “Every time I have tried to get a client to waive the college-degree requirement in light of the candidate's exemplary work experience, I have been refused,” he said. “They almost always say that it is their policy that all employees have at least a college degree.”
Such jobs now account for most of the economy. Nearly 60 percent of American jobs now require at least a bachelor's degree, according to “Help Wanted: Projections of Jobs and Education Requirements Through 2018,” a June 2010 report released by the Center on Education and the Workforce at Georgetown University. That number jumped from 28 percent in 1973 to 59 percent in 2008 and is expected to rise to 63 percent over the next decade, the report said.

Resume and Networking Solutions

So is your dream job, even most jobs, out of reach if you don’t have a college degree?
“I believe that employers want the right person for the job,” said Karla Porter, director of workforce development and HR for the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Business and Industry and a private consultant on human capital and new media. “They’re not looking for a certificate, a degree, a piece of paper; they are looking for a solution provider. If there is a person who can do that for them and has a proven track record and can show what they’ve accomplished for other companies, I believe they will be considered.”
All of this must be conveyed in a carefully constructed resume. “To replace the college-degree situation on a resume, the person needs to stress the results they have been able to achieve due to their extensive experience,” said Dianne Durkin, president and founder of Loyalty Factor, a consulting and training firm.
“Make sure the resume is very, very well done,” Porter said. “If it’s not, it will go to the ‘C’ pile.”
Tony Deblauwe, senior HR partner at Citrix Systems and founder of HR4Change, agreed: “Your resume has to be rock-solid. It has to demonstrate your experience, your skills, your accomplishments. You’re promoting your best skills so that people focus on that and not get to the end and say, ‘Well, where’s your degree?’ ”
Cheryl Palmer, president of Call to Career, said she has worked with many people who have been to college but never got the degree. When writing a resume for a person in this situation, she mentions the college major and degree program but does not state that that he has a degree. “I’m being truthful, but not drawing undue attention to the fact that they don’t have a degree.”
This strategy will also help you get your resume past the Applicant Tracking System (ATS) software that most companies use to screen resumes.
“If [a job description] says ‘bachelor’s degree required’ and you don’t have a bachelor’s degree, your resume can say ‘bachelor’s degree not completed or not attained’ so the system will pick up the keywords ‘bachelor’s degree,’” Porter said. “You don’t want to say anything that is not true, but you want your resume to get in front of people. Make sure your resume contains the same keywords that the job description contains, and then rearrange them to how they fit for you.”
It’s commonly understood that networking is one of the most important things you can do when pursuing a new job, but it’s even more critical if you don’t have a degree, said Palmer. “If you don’t have a degree, the whole idea of networking is much, much more critical,” she said. “Employers prefer to hire someone that they know something about. They prefer people who have come referred. If you are trying to land a job in this very competitive job market and you don’t have a degree, you really have to take that networking to another level, to get around the fact that most employers are looking for a bachelor’s degree at an absolute minimum.”
Along those same lines, strong recommendations from clients, former employers, co-workers and associations can go a long way toward making up for the lack of a college degree.

It’s Never Too Late

So, what else can you do if you don’t have a college degree? Well, you can get one – or at least begin working toward one, no matter what your age.
Once enrolled in a program, you can write on a resume that a degree is “in progress,” experts suggested.
That’s just what the Uniformed Services University’s Willis is doing.
A busy single mother of three, Willis is taking classes in business management in the hopes that she can break through the barriers put up by the lack of a degree. Willis said her boss is very supportive and is giving her whatever time she needs. In addition, because she works for a federal institution, she gets tuition reimbursement. All of this, along with flexible options such as online classes, has allowed Willis to start on a path she hopes will lead to a higher-level position.
“I think in the long run, people are much better off just going ahead and pursuing the degree, no matter how hard it may be,” she said. “That’s what everyone will be looking for. You do get to a certain point where you just can’t go any further, and that’s where I am right now.”

Happy Mother’s Day to All the Great Mothers

Posted: 08 May 2011 06:45 AM PDT

The ResumeBear Team Wishes You a Fantastic Day

Sunday, May 8, 2011

My Reference Said Bad Things About Me

My Reference Said Bad Things About Me

Posted: 07 May 2011 11:00 PM PDT

My new boss shared with me one of my references had said bad things about me. How do you make sure your references won't do this to you?

To get this useful advice and many other helpful career resources, visit us now at CAREEREALISM.com.

Moola Days

Pros and Cons of a Financial Planner

Posted: 07 May 2011 01:03 AM PDT

A financial planner is a person that helps other people to manage their money. This person has the expertise to help you to take your income and expenses and make them work well together. The job of a financial planner is to help you to make wise spending and investing decisions. While the planner does not do this without your permission, you do have to be willing to give the planner the respect he or she deserves to help you to build the wealth you want. Should you have one? The best way to find out is to consider both the good and bad aspects of planning finances.

The Pros and Cons

Take a look at the pros and cons of hiring a financial planner to do what you need. Here are some things to take into consideration.

Pro: A financial planner has the necessary skills and knowledge to help you to make wise financial decisions. Unless you have this, it may be difficult for you to make wise decisions for your own well being.

Con: A financial planner is likely to charge you a fee for their service. That fee may be a set fee paid on a monthly basis or a percentage of what the planner earns for you. In some cases, you could pay a significant amount of money for this service.

Pro: A financial planner can manage your money all the time. It is his or her job to make sure your portfolio is making money for you. This means that even if you are not able to make transactions happen quickly, he is able to do so.

Con: Having one person making decisions about your money can be risky. If a mistake is made, you can still lose some or your investment. Some planners may not be as consistent or as skilled as others, thus it is critical to find a professional you feel has the experience you need them to have so you trust them.

Pro: Many people who use financial planners are able to have better control over their financial future. Planners can help with your budget, but many are excellent at helping you to build to your retirement goals.

Con: Some less than ideal planners will try and sell your financial products, investments or other items because they have an interest in doing so. You want to ensure that a financial planner you hire is only working for you, and is not being paid to encourage you to buy a specific type of insurance product or a specific financial instrument.

While most financial planners are skilled and able to provide you with the best possible service, others are lacking. The best way to overcome any of these cons is to simply find a financial planner you can trust. It can be an ideal situation when you find someone you trust that has the experience to help you to build your wealth. Unless you have that type of degree, it is often difficult to rule out the benefits of hiring a professional.
Pros and Cons of a Financial Planner is a post from: Moola Days