Employment Digest

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Unemployment at midlife

Until recently, I had spent many a day hanging out at the corner of Baby Boomer Boulevard and Global Economy Bypass waiting, along with a bunch of other people, for the bus to Permanent Employment Place.

This intersection is a dangerous one, littered with the wreckage of successful careers. The survivors would usually straggle over, dazed and confused, and ask whether we bystanders knew where they might get help salvaging the wrecks.

“I notice that more senior executives who are losing a job for the first time are quite devastated,” said one of those bystanders, Philadelphia-based career coach Sam Gibson.

To make matters worse, they are increasingly likely to spend a long time jobless. According to seasonally unadjusted figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, an average of 526,000 workers age 35 or older were unemployed for one year or longer each month in 2005, fewer than in 2004, but more than double the number for 2000, when the figure was at its lowest.
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China career boost

Each week, he meets with a private tutor to learn Mandarin. On airplanes, he listens to language tapes. And in his spare time, he reads books about the Asian powerhouse and blogs written by expatriates living there.

China “is really intriguing to me. I want to experience it,” said Carter, 44, UPS’ international sales and marketing manager for the Southwest region.

Although he’s traveled in the region for his job, now he wants to work full-time in China, for at least a few years.

“Who would think in our lifetime we would have the opportunity to be pioneers in anything?” he said.

As China evolves into an increasingly important market for many U.S. companies, a growing number of Americans are eager to work there, despite potentially formidable obstacles of language and culture.
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Bouncing back from a layoff
Dear Joyce: Just read that AT&T and BellSouth will hang up on 10,000 jobs when they merge. Tips on surviving a letting-go? — F.M.

Working harder and being likable are common save-your-skin strategies. But if the die is cast and you’re on the chopping block, as career coach Dan Sullivan says, “Always make your future bigger than your past.”

To do so, avoid these seven deadly sins of layoff survival.

* Failing to feather your own nest. Don’t let a misguided sense of loyalty keep your eyes glued to a rearview mirror.

Schedule all medical or dental work quickly, while you still have health insurance. Use all your vacation time. Empty any flexible spending accounts.

Take home contacts and networks you’ll use to find another job.
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Navigating online job boards

Posting resumes online is becoming increasingly popular, but that doesn’t mean some good old-fashioned resumé-writing skills aren’t important. (24 hours news services)

Not long ago, job boards were little more than classified ads online. Now, niche boards and more robust technology that allows you to better manage your postings have emerged. But as job boards evolve, so, too, must your job search skills.

“Before job boards, people primarily used newspapers or networking to find jobs. As the jobs posted on these boards increased and increased and increased, they spiked over into vertical job boards,” says Anthony Kaul, president and CEO of Higher Bracket Online Media Inc. in Vancouver.
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“Every hiring manager on the panel reported that the industries they represent use background checks as a normal part of the hiring process,” said Kathy Sweeney, a conference attendee and certified professional resume writer and owner of the Write Resume in Phoenix.
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A Recruiter Tells What Won’t Impress

Brad Karsh has thrown away stacks of résumés with barely a glance.

He has judged people in an instant, based on what they were wearing and the strength of their handshake.

And he still expected them to send him a thank-you note when he was done.

World-class jerk? Nah, just a former recruiting director. And if you’re looking for your first job, you might want to listen to what he has to say.

His book, “Confessions of a Recruiting Director: The Insider’s Guide to Landing Your First Job” (Prentice Hall Press, April 2006), walks recent grads through the basic steps of how to get that first job, including writing a good résumé, the truth about cover letters, networking, interviews and what comes after.
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How Much Is An Online Degree Worth?

In a time not so long ago, online degrees were questionable, frowned upon, even considered worthless. Could someone really sit at home, stare at a screen, and learn as much as someone sitting in a classroom?

Many educators doubted it. It seemed the lazy man’s way of learning. But new research suggests that stigma is not only fading, but transforming into eLearning accolades. Recently, an in-depth study from Sloan Consortium, a group supporting online education, confirmed what advocates of cyber-academics had been saying for years: Online learning can be just as good as — if not better than — a classroom degree.

“A majority of academic leaders (57 percent) believe learning outcomes for online education are equal to or superior to those of face-to-face instruction,” proclaims the Sloan study.
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Will Your Job Survive?

In case you’ve been worrying about how the war in Iraq will end, or the coming of avian flu, or the extinction of the universe as we drift into the cosmic void, well, relax. Here’s something you should really fret about: the future of the U.S. economy in the age of globalization.

For a discussion of same, let me call your attention to an article in the March-April issue of Foreign Affairs by Princeton University economist Alan Blinder. The vice chairman of the Federal Reserve’s board of governors from 1994 to 1996, Blinder is the most mainstream of economists, which makes his squawk of alarm all the more jarring. But the man has crunched the numbers, and what he’s found is sure to induce queasiness.

In the new global order, Blinder writes, not just manufacturing jobs but a large number of service jobs will be performed in cheaper climes. Indeed, only hands-on or face-to-face services look safe. “Janitors and crane operators are probably immune to foreign competition,” Blinder writes, “accountants and computer programmers are not.”
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Big Demand, Big Pay

Recent surveys show that a lot of people are itching to find new jobs and human resource managers are expecting a lot of movement - both signs that employers may need to sweeten the pot.

There also have been predictions that the labor market may start to tilt in favor of job seekers due to a shortage of skilled workers.

CNNMoney.com talked with specialists at national staffing and recruiting firm Spherion to find out which job-hunting workers today are sitting in the catbird seat when it comes to negotiating better pay.

Below is a list of in-demand workers in five arenas.
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Illegal Interview Questions

During job interviews you must choose your answers carefully. If you divulge too much personal information, you stand the chance of not getting the job. But what if the interviewer asks a personal or an “illegal” interview question? For example, if an interviewer asks if you are married or have children, it’s considered an illegal question.

You have the right to not answer those questions but you may seem uncooperative. In today’s security-conscious business world, it’s hard to know which interview questions are illegal. Here’s a short list of illegal interview questions - published by USA Today - to prepare you for your interview:

Illegal: Are you a U.S. citizen? Where were you or your parents born?
Legal: Are you authorized to work in the United States? What other languages do you speak? This question is okay as long as it relates to the job you are interviewing for.
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