Unemployed find old jobs now require more skills:

The jobs crisis has brought an unwelcome discovery for many unemployed Americans: Job openings in their old fields exist. Yet they no longer qualify for them. They’re running into a trend that took root during the recession. Companies became more productive by doing more with fewer workers. Some asked staffers to take on a broader array of duties — duties that used to be spread among multiple jobs. Now, someone who hopes to get those jobs must meet the new requirements. As a result, some database administrators now have to manage network security. Accountants must do financial analysis to find ways to cut costs. Factory assembly workers need to program computers to run machinery.

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You might be tempted to inflate your salary during job negotiations these days—after all, raises have been scarce.

Why tell a prospective employer what you really earn when you should be making more, perhaps quite a bit more? If a little padding can help you get to the number you want, what’s the harm?

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Here are six tips to either minimize a period of unemployment or turn it into a positive selling point:

1. Say you spent the gap upgrading your skills.

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In a tight job market, building and maintaining an online presence is critical to networking and job hunting. Done right, it can be an important tool for present and future networking and useful for potential employers trying to get a sense of who you are, your talents and your experience. Done wrong, it can easily take you out of the running for most positions.

Here are five mistakes online job hunters make:

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Does the employment history on your resume match what’s on your LinkedIn profile? Does the information you have on your Facebook page (if it’s public) match up with the information you have elsewhere online? It’s fine if you rework your job descriptions, for example, because targeting your resume is a good thing when applying for job. What’s not okay is if your job titles, companies, and dates don’t jive. That’s a red flag for prospective employers.

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If you’re job hunting you’re surely aware of the most egregious and common no-nos: showing up for the interview ten minutes late; answering your phone during the interview; handing over a resume riddled with typos; using a silly-sounding E-mail address; failing to demonstrate you’ve researched the employer; bad-mouthing your last boss; neglecting to follow up. You’re not doing any of that, are you? Of course not.

But you may not have considered some of the less-discussed, under-the-radar issues. Give this list a look and ask yourself, “Do any of these sound like me?”

1. You have unreasonable expectations. Everybody wants the perfect job. But if your criteria are too high, if you’re being too demanding, you may well remain unemployed. Nobody wants to be told to compromise, but the fact is that much of life involves just that, at least temporarily. Analyze your wants and needs. Which are must haves? Which are negotiable? Which can be put on hold?

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Karen Burns, On Wednesday May 12, 2010, 11:08 am EDT

“Yes, Facebook Can Get You Fired.”

Employees like to think that what they do on their own time is their own business, but that’s not always the case. According to a 2009 survey by the American Management Association and the ePolicy Institute, 27 percent of companies have policies about what employees can post on personal blogs. “You have to think about whether this will come back to haunt you,” says Nancy Flynn, executive director of the institute. That never occurred to Nate Fulmer, a warehouse manager for chemical supplier Environmental Express. Fulmer and his wife made fun of a local church sermon in a podcast they posted online in 2005. Fulmer says it got so much attention, his boss listened to it, thought it was offensive and fired him. “I was so blindsided,” he says. (A company spokesperson says the firm has new ownership and can’t comment on employee matters.)

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Myth #1: A resume should be only one page.

Absolutely not! The normal length of a résumé is two to three pages (at most). It is fine to have addendum pages such as a list of references or published articles. A one-page résumé is only appropriate for a recent college grad.

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“Libraries Will Get You Through Times Of No Money Better Than Money Will Get You Through Times Of No Libraries!” Apparently, this is more true than ever in these tough economic times.

A study released from the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation revealed that almost half of all poor Americans – that is, those living below the poverty line – depend on their local library for access to their email and the web. The kinds of tasks patrons used the library’s internet service to accomplish are highly illustrative of the way that web access has grown from a luxury to a necessity in our information-based economy. From the study:

40 percent of library computer users (an estimated 30 million people) received help with career needs. Among these users, 75 percent reported they searched for a job online. Half of these users filled out an online application or submitted a resume.

Read full article: http://booklifenow.com/2010/03/library-internet-usage-among-the-poor-health-education-and-career-figure-prominently/

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Article from: The Baltimore Sun By Marcia Heroux Pounds,

Toni Feliciano, a Nova Southeastern University student, is excited about the summer job she landed in Target’s executive internship program.

Before getting that offer, she sought coaching on how to interview and dress from communications specialist Teri Karst and she made sure her Facebook and MySpace online profiles were something she would want anyone to view.

“MySpace.com I use for my family and friends. I don’t feel I disclose a lot. Other friends tell their whole lives,” says Feliciano, 25, who has a year left at school. Since her father died in 2000, she has worked full time as an administrative assistant while attending college at night.

Profiles on MySpace can be made private by the user and Facebook viewers have to be “invited in” by the participant. But a Google search will reveal photos posted and friends on either site. Unless one exercises privacy controls, an entire profile can pop up via an Internet search on LinkedIn, for example.

As 2008 graduates leave high school and college for new opportunities, they should already have learned what they post on the Internet is never completely private. That photo posted of them downing shots at a party can come back to haunt them as job seekers.

Many recruiters, human resource professionals and hiring managers routinely Google job candidates for their Internet activity, including networking sites and blogs as part of their “background checks.” They may be looking for clues to a candidate’s character.

“You need to use discretion when posting,” says Scott McKenna, branch manager for Accountemps, a recruiting firm in Fort Lauderdale. MySpace, Facebook and other social networking sites are often used to post personal likes and dislikes, but a job seeker should also include professional highlights, he says.

Social networking sites and other Internet activity also can be used to the job hunter’s advantage, serving as a marketing tool. Even student job hunters could post letters of recommendation, list volunteer work and include information that would put them in a positive light to potential employers.

McKenna cautions that before posting a resume on LinkedIn or another site, make sure it is proofread for spelling and other errors. An online resume will reflect well on you – or not, and mistakes could get picked up over and over again if the resume makes the rounds.

“A first impression means a lot,” says Joe LoBello, a recruiter for Kramer Professional Staffing in Boca Raton. “We’re going outside the normal boundaries and recruiting from social networking sites.”

Recruiters often can search social networking sites by company or college to find potential job candidates.

LoBello has found candidates through his network on LinkedIn.

“It’s a great tool,” he says. “If you reach out to somebody, it’s a warm call.”

The people on LinkedIn may already know the person or have a friend in common. They’re attractive job candidates because they’re already employed and may not necessarily be looking for a job – until a better opportunity comes along.

Sue Romanos, president of Miami-based Careerxchange, takes a different view, making it a policy not to check a candidate’s Internet activity. “We don’t want to make a decision based on someone’s personal information,” she says.

Some job candidates announce their desire for a new job on their LinkedIn or other networking site. But remember your boss might be looking at that site, too.

“You need to think about what your purpose is on there,” says Mark Neuberger, a lawyer with Foley & Lardner in Miami.

“You can manage your persona and reputation online,” he says. Neuberger is on LinkedIn, for example, but is careful not to reveal his clients through connections on the site.

Karst, who helped Feliciano look for a job, warns not to forget old-fashioned networking, making contacts through industry associations and meetings. “As much as technology has given us . . . we are not connecting,” she says.

She helps students practice a 30-second elevator speech to pitch themselves and learn interviewing skills.

Social networking “is another tool and they should be able to use it,” she says. “In the end, I think it’s all about connection.”

Article from Yahoo! Finance

Employment and Social Media-

Andy Beal, CEO of the social media monitoring platform Trackur.com, says jobseekers should assume potential employers will do a Google search of candidates’ names. Social media profiles typically appear near the top of the search page.

If you have questionable pictures or posts on a public profile, take them down or make the profile private to avoid trouble.

Also, steer clear of negative talk about a prospective employer on any social media platform, Beal says. Many companies monitor mentions of their brand throughout the Web, he says.

He cites the case of a Twitter user who posted about a new job offer from Cisco, but expressed doubt about “the daily commute” and “hating the work.” A Cisco employee noticed the tweet and demanded to know the name of the user’s hiring manager.

Even employees who think their jobs are safe can sabotage themselves by being too honest online about their personal lives, or by posting feelings regarding a boss, client, co-worker or company for whom they work.

“We’ve seen a lot of cases of people publishing status updates that have gotten them in trouble,” says Justin Smith, founder and editor in chief of Inside Facebook. “People have said things that have caused problems with their boss because of what they said about their work or because they’ve shared some other kind of private information about work online.”

Caroline McCarthy, a staff writer at CNET News, says the best defense against such mistakes is to use plain old common sense. Remember, anything that appears on the Web is just a screenshot away from spreading quickly, despite the best efforts of social media users to keep it private.

From Fortune:

Farewell and good riddance to 2009, a year in which a whopping 85% of big companies did away with across-the-board annual merit raises, according to a survey by Deloitte & Touche. Surprisingly, executives fared somewhat worse than the rank and file, with 66% of senior managers seeing either no increase in their pay or a salary reduction, versus 54% of employees in the same boat.

The year ahead looks slightly brighter. For one thing, more than half (54%) of companies that froze salaries in 2009 are planning a thaw over the next few months, according to a poll by compensation consultants Watson Wyatt. Meanwhile, 35% of employers that had reduced or cut 401(k) matching contributions expect to restore them in 2010—with 70% of them reinstating the matches at their original levels.

One reason for the changes: Almost 40% of the companies surveyed think their financial situation is beginning to improve, or at least isn’t getting any worse, Watson Wyatt’s researchers found, up from 27% back in August.

Even so, salary increases at most companies are unlikely to exceed 3%, notes a study by consultants Towers Perrin. That’s certainly better than nothing, but it’s still a step down from the nearly 4% median increase seen in the pre-recession days of 2007.

Some employers seem to be contemplating giving out stock instead of money. Despite the markets’ roller coaster ride, a November poll of 200 companies by Charles Schwab found that 25% plan to boost stock plan benefits in the coming year.

So who is in the best position now to get a raise? The short answer: People whose skills are in demand because they serve a particular strategic purpose.

“Companies now want to invest in staff members with specific expertise who can help them capitalize on opportunities that are just emerging from all the economic turmoil,” says Max Messmer, CEO of staffing giant Robert Half International.

In a recent look at the IT and finance industries, Robert Half researchers identified 10 fields where pay overall is steady or rising, and starting salaries in 2010 will be more generous than average. They are:

1. Tax accountant. For tax accountants with two to three years of big-company experience, and a track record of achieving sizable tax savings, starting salaries average $46,500 to $61,500.

2. Compliance director. New regulations and accounting rules are creating demand for compliance experts, who, even at small companies, can command starting pay of $83,750 to $108,500.

3. Credit manager/supervisor. Credit specialists, who can evaluate credit risk, manage delinquent accounts, and help improve cash flow, earn starting pay averaging between $42,500 and $57,500.

4. Senior financial analyst. Finance mavens skilled at finding ways to boost profitability start at $57,750 to $74,000.

In information technology, where pay has been even flatter than elsewhere lately, starting salaries in three areas are nevertheless on the rise:

1. Network administrator. Cloud computing, voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) and software as a service (SaaS) have made this role more complex and demanding lately. Starting pay: $54,500 to $80,250.

2. Information systems security manager. Protecting company data is more challenging all the time. Starting salaries range from $96,500 to $130,750.

3. Systems engineer. People who can help employers build and maintain tech support for a variety of new projects start at $64,250 to $93,250.

Administrative employees who can “multitask within teams that have been stretched thin” are in big demand, Robert Half’s report says. Three jobs where pay will be rising in 2010:

1. Medical records clerk. Largely because of the complexities of transferring huge volumes of medical records online, skilled clerks’ pay will start at $31,500.

2. Customer service representative. A 2009 study by Robert Half and CareerBuilder found that hiring managers consider customer service “most critical” to their companies’ survival in this economy. Starting pay: $22,750 to $30,750.

3. Executive assistant. The ability to “wear many hats, support multiple managers, and adapt readily to change,” the Robert Half salary survey says, will put 2010 starting pay at $35,000 to $47,000. By Anne Fisher, contributor , On Tuesday December 29, 2009