Tuesday, April 20, 2010

“Teens: Get help finding a job April 22” plus 3 more

“Teens: Get help finding a job April 22” plus 3 more

Teens: Get help finding a job April 22

Posted: 20 Apr 2010 11:19 AM PDT

Teen can learn new skills at the "Teen Job Workshop: How to use the Internet to Find a Job" offered from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Thursday, April 22, at the main Oak Park Public Library, 834 Lake St., third floor Computer Classroom. Teens will learn how to search for a job online and learn how to use social networking sites like Facebook to find job openings.


Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Job service for those with special needs prepares for work search

Posted: 20 Apr 2010 12:07 PM PDT

Finding work is a challenge in even the best of times for people with special needs like Jason Flythe and Lucy Trevino.

Rehabilitation Services, a division of the Illinois Department of Human Services, aims to level the playing field for those who want to work and pursue a career.

On Friday, April 16, Flythe and Trevino were just two of many who attended an interview and job clinic at the DHS offices in Westchester, where volunteers representing a variety of businesses and institutions "interviewed" DHS clients as an exercise designed to help job seekers with special needs be better

prepared in an interview situation.
Carl Larson, DHS employment resource specialist, said the interview process in finding job has proven to be essential to success.

"We find that for a lot of out clients, when they get selected for an interview, that's where the problems start," Larson said.

There have been occasions when the practice interviews led to the employment of one of his clients with the company or institution that provided the volunteer, Larson said.
"We've had people hired as a result of our job clinic," he said. "There's so many things that can sway a potential employer, little things."

Miranda Cary, a rehabilitation counselor for the deaf and hard of hearing, said DHS clients are physically disabled, deaf or blind, have problems with cognitive skills, are amputees or are wheelchair bound. Clients can start a file with DHS as early as 16 year old. At that point, the training to find a job and the search for employment begins.

"We try to make sure they are prepared to enter the work force," Cary said.

Trevino, 26, a resident of Cicero, has spinal muscular atrophy and is confined to a wheelchair. She said she became a client as a senior at Morton West High School. She has attended job fairs and resume writing sessions and practiced making cold calls. She has an bachelor of arts degree in bioengineering from the University of Illinois-Chicago, with a minor in mathematics, and is looking for entry-level position in product development.

The DHS program has been a positive experience for her, she said.

"You learn about the mistakes you've been making so that you can be better prepared," she said. "You learn about the questions you will be asked, because interviewers will pretty much ask you the same questions, so that's good to know."

Flythe, a 31-year-old Berwyn resident, has been a client for about nine years, and was placed as an intern at Matrix media in Chicago running soundboards. Flythe, who was born with a complication affecting his arms, is no longer employed, but said the overall experience was a positive one.

"Most importantly, it's been extremely helpful," he said. "I just participated in a job club here, where we prepare for interviews. Any help at this point is very needed."

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Career Tool for Job Seekers and Employers Now Available on Mobile Phones

Posted: 20 Apr 2010 04:45 AM PDT

Careers: Tweet Your Way to a Better Job

Posted: 20 Apr 2010 06:44 AM PDT

Some people use Twitter to broadcast what they had for lunch. Others, like those in Iran, tweet to protest oppressive regimes. But can you tweet and social-network your way to a new job or a promotion? "Everyone's job hunt is networking," says Penelope Trunk, founder of Brazen Careerist, a social-networking site. "Job hunters used go into a room full of people. Twitter is like a much bigger room."

With Twitter, you may only get 140 characters to be intriguing or inane. But unlike Facebook, LinkedIn, or other social-networking sites that require other users to approve your connection, Twitter encourages disparate strangers to subscribe to one anothers' streams. For anyone looking for a job or a promotion, that often means direct access to a prospective employer: a move that eliminates the idea of a good ol' boys' network. "It's a public atmosphere. Everyone is on the same platform, and they have the same rights," says Dan Schawbel, the 26-year-old author of the personal-branding book, Me 2.0.

For the unintiated, here's some context: Twitter is a cross between a newsfeed and a mini-blog that job hunters can use as a way to both listen to others and to establish themselves as experts in a particular field. Every few seconds, one of the service's 106 million users posts a 140-character message—either an original note or a message that highlights or republishes another person's link. Job hunters can use Twitter to show off their knowledge of a particular industry, while companies often use it as way to publicize information. This constant interplay lets job seekers research companies and lets businesses search for Web-savvy potential employees.

That's how 23-year-old Stephanie Maruca found her entry-level job at BlissPR in November 2009. She knew she wanted to work in New York after graduating from the University of Maryland. But given the economy and the tight job market, she realized she needed to be creative. "I'm convinced when you send your resume to a company, it goes into a big black hole," she says. Instead, she turned to Twitter, which she opted to use as a search engine and as a way to connect with hiring managers. She started following partners at several New York City public-relations firms. One day, a partner tweeted about a job opening. Maruca sent her a note through the service, called a "direct message" in Twitter parlance. This led to an interview and eventually, an offer.

Maruca successfully used Twitter in her job hunt in part because she didn't simply rely on it to promote herself. While it's fine to share your work with others, you also need to talk to people and share links to interesting information. Twitter etiquette demands that people give and take. Schwabel, for instance, says he spends up to two hours a day retweeting other people's messages and linking to new companies, groups, or individuals. "It's social capital," he says. If you're only in it for the self-promotion, fellow tweeters will tune you out, as they would with an annoying television commercial.

The second Twitter commandment is that job seekers should not be afraid to take the conversation offline. Use Twitter feeds as a way to research three or four companies you'd like to work for, but when you want to reach out to them, do so in an e-mail or through a phone call. Though Twitter is a great tool for introducing people, it does not supplant the importance of personal contact.

Twitter may be fast-paced and concise, but job hunters still need to recognize the need to keep things professional online. Hiring managers don't want to hear about your significant other or what you did last night, nor do they want to read lanuage that is full of text-message shorthand. "I recommend that people don't lose their professional edge on Twitter," says Erin T. Martz, a career counselor and member of the American Counseling Association. This includes everything from writing grammatically correct tweets to putting up a professional photo to sending thanks to people who follow you. If Twitter is like a huge room of people or a networking party, it's a good place to show off your smarts. Still, in this ever-connected world, job seekers need to treat all fellow Tweeters as potential colleagues or bosses.

© 2010

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
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