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20 secrets to win that first professional job

1. Define your goal. Yes, a job. Now, beyond that, if you could do anything, what would you do?

“The person who says, ‘I’m willing to take anything,’ has a much more difficult time,” says Tory Johnson, co-author of “Women for Hire.” “They think it makes them look flexible. The reality is it makes them look desperate or unfocused, neither of which is good.”

2. Don’t be afraid of having several goals. Life is like college. You might not know exactly what you want yet. Welcome to the club. So elect to have several related goals, with resumes tweaked to match, says Johnson.
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Job Search Strategies: Pros and Cons

There are many ways to look for a job, some of which are better than others. Presented below are some of the most popular ways, as well as helpful hints and pros and cons of each.

Want Ads

Strategy
Scan want ads. Mail resume with cover letter tailored to specific job qualifications.

Tools
Newspapers
Journals
Newsletters
Trade magazines
Cover letters
Resumes

Pros
Involves minimal investment of time in identifying companies. Resume and cover letter are sent for actual job opening.

Cons
Resume and cover letter will compete with large number of others. Ads follow job market; least effective in times of economic downturn.

Helpful Hints
Use as a meter on the job market in a certain career field.
Try to get your materials in as early as possible.
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More execs quit jobs to decide what’s next

It’s becoming more common, and more acceptable, for executives to take some time off to re-evaluate their lives. After more than 25 years in public relations, working many 80-hour weeks, Mary Trudel craved a complete rest from her job. In March last year, she quit her senior management post at the Hill & Knowlton agency with no idea what she would do next.

She focused on long-buried interests, traveling to Belize and Guatemala. She became more involved with her church. She took Spanish lessons, joined a book club, went to the theater and the ballet, attended lectures and started working out regularly. Sometimes, she woke up early to watch the birds in New York’s Central Park, followed by a docent tour at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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How to ace that job interview

How not to impress a recruiter: 1) Send your CV to all 25 jobs advertised; 2) Send your resume by email, fax and snail mail; and 3) Don’t specify which job you are applying for.

Some tips for impressing recruiters are obvious, but others are more subtle. For example, most people won%u2019t be late to an interview, but how many realise that turning up early is just as bad?

According to mbajungle.com, even showing up ten minutes early can irritate recruiters.
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Going toe-to-toe on office etiquette

Even though he was never given a dress code, rising Syracuse University junior Michael Swartz knew enough not to turn up on the first day of his summer internship on the Kalamazoo (Mich.) Gazette design desk wearing sandals and iPod earbuds. Yet by the second week the sandals were on and the earbuds were in and no one seemed to mind.

Quarter-sized and inked on the inner wrist is probably OK, but tattoos are better suited to a job in a record shop or a carnival sideshow. By Ali Burafi, AFP/Getty Images Just the other day, he sported a T-shirt emblazoned with a Budweiser logo. (OK, so it peeked out from under a button-down shirt.) A co-worker noticed. “He goes, ‘Dude, you wore a beer shirt to work?’ ”
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Age Vs. Youth

If you wear a necktie to work while most of your co-workers show up in t-shirts, face it: You’re on the road to geezerhood.

The mix of older and younger workers often plays out in clashing values, different pay scales, occasional resentment and sometimes lawsuits alleging “ageism.” It shouldn’t. With a bit of thought and effort, it’s possible to mix the experience of age with the enthusiasm of youth to create an engaging, productive workplace.

“I think people feel protective and threatened whenever resources are scarce,” says Lynne C. Lancaster, co-author of When Generations Collide: Who They Are. Why They Clash. How to Solve the Generational Puzzle at Work. “This can be caused by competition for promotions at work or even the next good job. Bosses shouldn’t favor hot shots, because they may leave, while ignoring veteran employees and their bedrock performance.”
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Women Who Step Out of the Corporate World Find It Hard to Step Back In

Women executives who leave the corporate world when they hit a glass ceiling, want to raise a family fulltime or decide to focus on other interests, encounter frustrating roadblocks in their attempts to re-enter the workforce, according to new Wharton research.

To overcome the obstacles, women should confront the difficulties they face and prepare for their return to the labor force the moment they leave, says Monica McGrath, adjunct professor of management at Wharton, executive coach and co-author of the study entitled, “Back in the Game. Returning to Business after a Hiatus: Experiences and Recommendations for Women, Employers, and Universities.” “I was seeing many women who, when they reached 50 and their kids were heading off to college, said, ‘Now let me get back to work,’ and they couldn’t,” says McGrath. “These are talented professional women. Why was it so impossible?”
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Why do people join the ranks of the unemployed

Why do people join the ranks of the unemployed?
Most often, it’s the result of significant company changes such as a restructuring, merger, sale or major reorganization, according to an annual career transition survey. Among the respondents who had lost their jobs, 94 percent cited changes at their company as the reason, up from 64 percent in the 2001 survey. That number rose to 75 percent in 2002 and to 79 percent in 2003.
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Behind-the-Scenes With a Top Marketing Headhunter: What CEOs Are Looking For

“Soft skills are out. Hard, analytical skills are in,” says Harry Joiner, author of the popular MarketingHeadhunter.com blog. “This is a turbulent time for marketing VPs. There’s a growing mentality among CEOs that ‘there’s nothing as devastating to an opinion as a number.’”

In his role as executive recruiter, Joiner talks with CEOs, CMOs and marketing VPs across America to discover who they want to hire, who’s about to be fired, and who’s yearning to switch jobs. We interviewed him to get the inside scoop…

Marketing skills in red-hot demand now
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Young bosses advised about older workforce

Charity Mears has great communication skills and a high-ranking position, but Carol Cobb noticed something else when she met Mears, her new boss.

“She’s my son’s age,” said Cobb, 51, who works for 31-year-old Mears at ESCO Communications Inc., a voicemail company in Indianapolis.

“Of course I notice her age because she could be my daughter, but what overrides that immediately is her knowledge, how well she communicates with people,” she added. “You’re in awe of that.”
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