Job References have changed rapidly lately, keep this information in mind during your next job search.

Traditionally, recruiters call references after a thorough face-to-face interview. The contacts are provided by the job seekers and are typically people who are likely to provide a positive recommendation. However, these days your prospective boss may have called your references before you walk through the door and they may not be the contacts you provided.

Professional networking sites such as LinkedIn Corp. and Jobster Inc. are making it easier for employers to get in touch with people who have worked with job candidates in the past or know them personally. Recruiters say they use such sites where people create online profiles and then link to professional colleagues who are also members to find mutual connections they can hit up for information.

Such reference checking can be a “double edged sword.” Many social networking users routinely connect online to people they have only a passing relationship with. There’s no guarantee these references will be favorable. Additionally a potential employer can inadvertently turn your covert job search public, by contacting a current coworker for a reference. On the other hand many profiles list glowing recommendations from contacts and coworkers that help a job search. Just be careful and aware of what employers may find when they do their homework on you.

Interesting article I found on yahoo finance, what to do if you hate your job and how to make a change. What to Do When You Hate Your Job

I found these resume writing tips recently, really good information for someone looking for a new job. Most Job seekers do not realize how important your resume is to a successful job search.

You may be the best person for the job, but the fact is, you’ll never even get an interview in the first place, unless your resume is good. You should tailor your resume to highlight the qualifications, work experience and any education that you’ve had that best represents the type of work you are applying for. You should also include any other work experience that you’ve had, as well as any accomplishments that you have made in your field.

There are also quite a few things that recruiters hate to see on resumes as well. Many people think that recruiters really don’t go all the way through a resume, but they really do. Recruiters have certain pet peeves when it comes to reading a resume. Below are a list of the things that recruiters hate to see.

Fancy fonts and colors are not eye catching in the manner that you likely wanted it to be. Needlessly adding objectives and introductions on your resume bores recruiters.Avoid writing your resume as a narrative or in the first or third person. Pictures and/or graphics on a resume is distracting to a recruiter. Lying or putting misleading information on your resume is a major no-no. There are always ways for a recruiter to check up on you and many do, so don’t lie. Getting caught in a lie on a resume just says that you can’t be trusted.

U.S. employers plan to maintain a stable, yet cautious approach toward hiring in the final quarter of 2007, according to the results of the latest Manpower Employment Outlook Survey by Manpower Inc. “It is not unexpected that U.S. employers have conservative hiring plans for the fourth quarter,” said Jeffrey A. Joerres, Chairman & CEO of Manpower Inc.

The seasonally adjusted survey results show that in the majority of industry sectors the hiring pace is expected to remain steady during the final months of 2007. Of the 14,000 U.S. employers surveyed, 27% expect to increase their workforces during the fourth quarter of 2007, while 9% expect to trim their payrolls. Fifty-eight percent expect no change in the hiring pace, and 6% are undecided about their hiring plans.

“Companies that deal with producing goods are struggling, but the service sector is doing very well,” said Jonas Prising, President of Manpower North America. “We can clearly see this trend in the survey results, with Services employers reporting the strongest hiring intentions for the fourth quarter, and those in the Manufacturing and Construction sectors coming in with weaker employment projections.”

For all the details please read this article from yahoo. Everyone should read this.

How to Land Your Dream Job

Very good info for Job Seekers in a recent article I read. According to a recent survey of recruiting experts by Diversity Inc, here are the five biggest mistakes job applicants make and how not to make them:

1: Not researching the company before the interview. Thorough research will reveal what positions are available and what type of employee the company wants. Network with people already working at the company; call professional organizations the company is associated with, and ask people you know who work at the company about their experience.

2: Inability to articulate needs and desires. Companies are hiring because they either need to solve problems or have opportunities that require more employees, which is why the best applicants are those who can articulate how their experience is best for the particular position.

3: Being unprofessional in the interview. Applicants often commit faux pas that can be excused among friends but that make them less desirable to recruiters. Examples of unprofessional actions include: bringing food to an interview, sharing personal information not relative to the job, and speaking ill of a former employer.

4: Demonstrating poor communication skills. Be prepared to talk with confidence and expertise about who you are and why you’re the best fit. Practice the basics of communication before going to the interview, listening and responding and not talking over the other person. At the same time don’t be dull or fear showing enthusiasm.

5: Not keeping the personal to yourself. Don’t put your social-network identification on your resume or mention it in the interview. Make sure your voice mail message reflects a professional attitude. Use an email address with your name before the @ sign, from a professional email address provider.

This article just appeared earlier this week. Job Seekers that posted their resume online had their personal info stolen from Monster.com

SavannahJobs.com and our family of sites does not store or ask for resumes. We feel the trend of resumes databases are going away with all the privacy concerns.

Trojan horse called Infostealer.Monstres by Symantec has stolen more than 1.6 million records belonging to several hundred thousand people from Monster Worldwide Inc.’s job search service. That data is then used to target the Monster.com users with credible phishing mail that plants more malware on their machines.

The the entire article at CIO.com

More and more people are publishing there entire lives on social networking sites. If you are one of those people take a few minutes to read this article that appeared on Forbes.com With very little effort you gave obtain quite a bit of information on people without their knowledge. Forbes.com article

Info from the US dept of Labor shows increased hiring has been occuring the past few months.

U.S. employers added 132,000 jobs in June and payrolls rose more strongly than previously thought in April and May, according to a Labor Department report that underlined a strengthening job market.

Wages also grew and the work week lengthened while the national unemployment rate remained steady at a relatively low 4.5 percent, bolstering an impression that the economy was bouncing back from a lull at the start of the year.

June hiring topped forecasts for 120,000 new jobs made by Wall Street economists surveyed by Reuters. Also, the government said 75,000 more jobs than previously thought were created in April and May – completing a brisk pace of hiring throughout the second quarter.

This information was taken from a CNN Money story.

Employment seekers found positions 17 percent faster between April and June than in the previous quarter, according to the Job Market Index by employment search firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. The survey said that labor shortages spurred by low unemployment are allowing job seekers to secure higher salaries and more generous benefits.

The biggest improvement was in job seekers above age 50, whose search times decreased by an average of 32 percent from the previous quarter, according to the study. The firm cited the Bureau of Labor Statistics showing that the unemployment rate among workers aged 50 to 54 eased from 3.3 percent to 2.8 percent over the last two years.

The median job search time for people who got jobs was 3 months, down from 3.6 months in the previous quarter. The figure was 29 percent lower than a recent high of 4.2 months set in the third quarter of 2006. Almost 93 percent of those seekers said they were able to get equivalent or better-quality positions, compared with nearly 91 percent last quarter.

It is best to be professional when it comes to submitting resumes to possible employers. Alot of candidates are trying innovate ways to get themselves noticed. Alot of time those tricks and backfire. Remember the person you are sending your resume is busy and making that person take extra time or doing something to make you stand out can cause your resume to take a quick trip to the garbage can.

Read about the tricks in this article that appeared on Yahoo finance.

The number of online job ads increased in 33 states in May of 2007. Total online job ads were 4,374,400 in May, an increase of 9,000 or 0.2 percent from April, according to The Conference Board Help-Wanted OnLine Data Series released 5/30/07. Online advertised vacancies continue to be up substantially (29 percent) over the year (May ‘06 to May ‘07) There were 2.9 advertised vacancies online for every 100 persons in the labor force in May.

“Although online job ads were virtually unchanged in May, they have expanded rapidly in recent months and continue to run substantially above last year’s level,” said Gad Levanon, Economist at The Conference Board. “Several factors are at work here. Booming industries like healthcare, and hot occupations like IT and business managers, advertise heavily online while industries like construction and manufacturing that have turned down in the last year have historically made less use of online job advertising. Online job advertising isn’t likely to weaken significantly as long as the industries/occupations that recruit heavily online continue to remain strong.”

The 4,374,400 unduplicated online advertised vacancies in May include 2,812,900 new ads that did not appear in April, as well as reposted ads from the previous months. During May, total ads increased by only 0.2 percent and new ads declined 3 percent from the previous month. Over the year (May ‘06 to May ‘07) total ads and new ads rose 29 percent and 24 percent, respectively.

If you are driving around Savannah keep your eyes open for our newest ad campaign. We have ads running on the CAT buses.

Kim Jones – SavannahJobs.com was very excited to be a exhibitor at the Savannah Chamber of Commerce business expo and banquet. We had quite a few people visit the booth. Just another way SavannahJobs.com is involved in the business community making sure our clients get the most exposure for there money.

Emurse is a really cool service that helps you create and host an online resume. You can include pictures and video plus they help with formatting. Take it from someone you looks at a ton of resumes, help in formatting will go a long way. The last thing you want to do is send a resume to a hiring manager that they have a hard time reading or navigating.

http://www.emurse.com Create, share and store your resume online for free

Did you know that a recent survey said that the majority of managers decide on hiring a candidate within the first 10 minutes of an interview. So you need to to be very prepared for the interview and have a plan in your mind. Please take a few minutes to read this article. It has some great interviewing tips.

These are some good interview tips to keep in mind.

Start the interview in the best possible way: when the interviewer asks the, “Tell me about yourself” question. Forget an autobiography, use the 60 Second Sell. This technique has you analyze the job duties the employer wants accomplished, then select your top five selling points – your strongest abilities, experience and skills (AKA your personal brand) – that demonstrate you can do the job.

Link these five points together in a few sentences and you have created a “verbal business card” that is the most effective way to begin and to close the interview. Keep the momentum going with good, prepared answers to questions and practice before you ever face the interviewer.

Pre-determine some specific examples of your past performance for any situational questions that come up. AND DRESS UP! Too casual is unprofessional, but this is a mistake many people are making. You need to “look” like a role-model of the company who would fit in nicely with the image the company wants to portray. A big smile on your face is also an important asset; use it often.