Juggling Multiple Job Searches

One jobseeker may get an offer too soon: I cast a wide net in my job search and interviewed with some companies that I am not that interested in just to practice and get out there. Well, I am far along in the process with some of these and just beginning with my first choice companies. I am afraid that an offer will come along that I don't really want. At the same time, in this market I am afraid to turn down a sure thing with just the hope of something better. What can I do to buy time?

In this market, more candidates are casting a very wide net with their job search with good reason. Hiring targets change constantly as budgets get slashed, companies get acquired or restructured, or circumstances change the needs over time as firms take longer and longer to decide. The downside of applying to a lot of places is that it is hard to control the pace of the search. Some companies move through the process faster than others. You may find that you are in the final rounds at one company and just starting the first round elsewhere. If your first choice is the slower company, how do you slow down the faster search without seeming disinterested?

Just as you negotiate salary, here you need to negotiate for time. The same rules of negotiation apply: know who you are negotiating with - their wants, their constraints - and frame your requests accordingly. Prospective employers want their company to be your first choice. They want to know that you're excited and genuinely interested in the position. They also have very real time and budget constraints. Maybe you are filling a spot for someone who is leaving in two weeks and they need to have the replacement there next week to transition. Maybe their fiscal year ends in two weeks so if they don't hire for this spot before then they lose that space in the budget. When a company pushes a process through quickly or pushes for a decision quickly, they may have good reasons and not just giving you a hard time.

Therefore, ask about timing for all employers as you go through the process. How quickly do you expect to make a decision? When do you need this person to start? How many rounds/ how many people will be involved in the decision? Once you know that a firm is interested in you, these are all fair questions and will help you know how quickly the process may move for all companies in your pipeline so you can effectively juggle your schedule and negotiate for time.

You can go to your first choice company and let them know what is happening with the other company. Don't be pushy but let them know that you have another company who is interested and close to a decision. Get a commitment or at least a good estimate from your first choice as to when you will hear from them. Then you know how much time you need to negotiate for. You also remind the first choice company that you are desirable on the market!

At the same time, ask your second choice for the time you need. Reiterate your interest, but let them know that you have committed to certain meetings and don't want to cut these short. I do not recommend continuing to interview with companies that you are not genuinely interested in because it wastes everyone's time. But if you would potentially accept an offer at a firm but it is just a lower priority, it is worth negotiating for more time so you can make an informed decision. Your second choice may become more desirable as you learn more about it (or about your first choice). In this way, negotiating for time means a more informed job search.

Caroline Ceniza-Levine helps people find fulfilling jobs and careers, as the co-founder of SixFigureStart®, career coaching by former Fortune 500 recruiters. Caroline has recruited for leading companies in financial services, consulting, media, pharmaceutical/ healthcare, and technology. She is the co-author (along with Donald Trump, Jack Canfield and others) of the best-selling "How the Fierce Handle Fear: Secrets to Succeeding in Challenging Times" 2010; Two Harbors Press.

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Tips to Help You Customize Every Resume

Create a Master File, including everything you have to offer to any employer. Don't let this be a roadblock! It's just the on ramp. Start entering and keep entering as you think of other information that might interest an employer. This will never be "final" since it's a living document, growing throughout your career. You never delete anything from the Master File but you are always adding to it:

1. Format your existing resume to your advantage before you start to add things. If you've worked in one profession your whole career and steadily advanced, a chronological resume can be a winner. If you haven't had that kind of career, consider a functional resume or a hybrid so you can focus attention on what you bring to the job instead of your work history.

2. Add a summary - a paragraph that gives an overview of who you are professionally. This can be long and include more than you would ever send for any individual opportunity. Don't edit as you go. Just get every high level statement about you that you can offer into your Master File. If you wind up with 100 pages it doesn't matter. No one but you will ever see it all.

3. Add as many general objectives as there are for what you know you can do well. You should be able to think of several positions that you're qualified for and several industries where you have something to offer. Objectives are theirs, not yours. Each one is a Job Title in an industry.

Example: General Manager for a solar panel manufacturing company.

4. Show your skills. Use the keywords and search engine terms that you know employers are looking for. Showing them near the top of the resume will keep you from landing in the reject pile. Using the terms the company is looking for will keep you in the running whether your resume is being reviewed by a human or a machine. The skills that will stay in your customized resume are the ones that support the objective you use.

5. List your accomplishments in concise, bulleted paragraphs - two to five lines. This is the part that differentiates you and shows that you do more than just meet expectations. Start with the most powerful verb that fits and then mention the results. After that you can elaborate about how you did it.

Example: Decreased costs 40% for a large packaging machinery company by performing gap analysis in three days and implementing the highest priority changes over a two month period.

6. List your job experience as one-liners. Start with your job title because you are the product, not the companies you worked for or the dates and places that you worked for them. Follow your position title with the company name and location. Put the from and to dates out at the right margin. List your present or last job first and work backward.

7. List your education. If you are a recent graduate, show it right after your objective. A recent degree will explain light experience and avoid unreasonable expectations. If you have relevant experience from your jobs as you went to school, the recent degree will show you to be a real go getter with your eye on the prize. Most of the time, the degree is a company requirement for a position and it can go at the end.

Conclusion: When you find a position that interests you, it's a simple matter to turn a copy of your Master File into an excellent example of relevant clear, concise communication by deleting everything that does not apply from the copy of the Master File. You will get more interviews and you get interviews for the kinds of jobs you want. The hidden benefit in this process is that you will remember how good you are.

Got drama in your workplace? Drama comes from confusion and resulting dissatisfaction. Put a solid, structured business system and clear, concise communication in place and end the drama.

Joy Montgomery saves time and money with skilled business systems analysis and accompanying clear, concise communication in a way that strengthens teams - a friendly way. She puts you in a position to succeed with consistently satisfied customers and employees. She applies the same skills as a career coach.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Joy_Montgomery

Tips To Help You In Your Search For A New Job

Many people despise the grueling process of searching for a new job but it can be easier than you think if you follow a few simple steps. With it becoming harder and harder to find a new job due to the lack of them you want to be sure your maximizing your search results by staying organized and dedicated. You don't want to become discouraged in your search so you should follow some rules in order to avoid this and get the most out of your job search.

The first thing you want to do is make sure that you have a killer, updated resume. You don't want you resumes cluttered with a bunch of work from your teenage years but instead want relevant work history to the type of job you're applying for. Your resume should be a testament to your professionalism regarding both your work history as well as your ability to put together a great resume with relevant information. It also doesn't hurt to buy some nice resume paper to print your resume on. You should make sure that you have ink and the printing capabilities to do this so that you can adjust your resume anytime you want according to the specific position you are applying for. With a great resume you will be on your way top job search ease in no time.

Organize the materials that you will use to determine what kind of position you are looking for. Filing information so that you can have easy access to it will help you to determine what information you need for a particular resume or interview. It is always better to know exactly what you want to say when attempting to get a particular job and having the right research and easy access to it will help you to achieve this.

Develop a realistic schedule for your search each day and stick to it. Plan certain times to deliver your resume as well as a certain time frame each day that you will use to make call backs to check on your applications. Having a set schedule to do everything in will not only help to alleviate stress from your job search but will also help you to stay used to carrying out daily activities as if you were still working. This can make the transition much easier on you and the lack of stress will help you land a great job in the end.

Making a quiet space for you to perform your search activities will also help you in your search. Being able to go to your space and having everything where you need it will greatly reduce job search stress. Organization is always key when searching for work

Finally, be sure you track each of your job search possibilities. Be sure to make adjustments to your schedule and your job application lists so that you are not doing unnecessary work and much stress will be eased.

Following these few simple tips will not only make the process of job searching easier but more enjoyable as well. Not to mention you will be much more likely to land the perfect job.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Syed_Abik

The Job Market in Central Europe

Since the European Union started to expand towards east, multiple Central and Eastern European countries profited from a wide range of investments from Western countries looking forward to enjoy the benefits of implementing branches in new economies with high possibilities of return and low competition. Thanks to that, the job market in Most of EU's new members (Slovenia, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary) grew considerably since 2004 specially in the areas of finance and information technology.

After spending the last century being destroyed by wars and oppressed by a socialist unviable regime, the Central European nations were freed in the 90's, following the collapse of Soviet Union, but only from the year 2000 the job market could profit from this freedom as internet allowed multiple jobs to be done from remote locations, beneficing also from the announcement that the European Union would be enlarged, allowing most of the former socialist republics to ascend towards the region's Economic bloc.

Nowadays, virtually all banking sector in Central Europe is maintained by Western groups, which either installed their subsidiaries in the formerly socialist countries, or bought the banks which were already present in the region, partially or entirely, creating a whole new hierarchy of employment in these countries' financial sector.

The information technology also created a huge inflow of vacancies to the countries which had their economies stagnated for decades thanks to the failed socialist system: with lower costs of production (lower salaries, tax incentives, less burdens to the employer), and highly educated personnel, a hysteria of IT outsourcing could be witnessed in these countries, allowing major companies to cut their costs moving back offices firstly to countries as the Czech Republic and Hungary, spreading out later on as far as Lithuania and Bulgaria.

As many of these jobs created in the east reflected in cuts in the west, the inflow of expatriates from Europe and third-part countries to the new EU members grew considerably, and profiting from an easier work permit legislation, several IT professionals from other continents also came to join the job market revolution in central Europe, as well as locals, which, using the freedom of movement in the block could as well look for opportunities in different countries regionally.

Today, cities like Prague, Budapest and Sofia profit from a cosmopolitan and multinational job market, highly connected to the west with low cost airlines, as well as the traditional means of transportation (mostly by railways). These cities attract not only workers from the region where they are located, but also professionals from the West, considering the high standards of living of countries like Slovenia and the Czech Republic, which already surpassed former Western EU members in GDP per capita, such as Portugal.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jan_Baros