the lion's share of the work

00001100001010100001000110000101010100010

That is binary code for - A New Job is Just Around the Corner. Ok, my binary code writing is a little rusty but it STILL represents some kind of data.

Making sense of Internet data, namely your online resume, is a huge undertaking for HR folks. To aid them in their search for the best-fitting candidate, many are employing technology that uses a semantic program to evaluate the enormous volume of resume data. To explain…

Scenario: pretend for a moment that you have a job. You’re an HR person and you need to match up an open job position you have with hundreds or thousands of candidates. Feeling a little ~ needle in a haystack?

Solution A: you spend weeks and weeks wading though resumes looking for top contenders.

Solution B: you spend a couple hours looking through resumes that have been selected for you by a resume semantics program.

Survey says – Solution B.

Alternatively…

You remember those 2D cartoons - fun, colorful, and entertaining but a flat visual compared to 3D. Think of the currently popular 3D CG animated films that literally jump off the screen and blow your mind. The 3D/CG example is the semantic programs for HR folks. It’s not JUST pinging keywords (2D). Semantic programs are making contextual relevance of your resume position descriptions (3D). This will yield HR personal better candidate results for open positions. Do yourself a favor folks and create context in your resume, the 3D version of you on paper, so that the hiring programs and people can find you.

let's agree to disagree

Facebook. Reason #862 why you didn't apply to that job yesterday. Getting on the massive time suck site can really veer a job seeker off course. Never fear my employment challenged friends, a sweet justification is near! Monster.com's FB page hosts many 'getting hired' handy tools.

Last month the company asked jobseekers to submit questions about jobs and the economy they’d like to have answered by the White House. Although there is a ton of responses already, it's been said that the most interesting questions (most "likes") will actually be answered by the WH. Bring it Barack.

Need a couple more justifications to spend time on FB that don't include stalking your ex?

• Connect with the almost 11,500 people who dig Monster
• Get informed and entertained by the nearly 60 videos
• Find job events near you
• Trash talk my old employer on the Wall (on second thought, skip that)

Maybe someday YOU could be on their Success Story tab.

water under the bridge

WARNING: it might be too late for you!

Yes, it's true, LinkedIn has a new online career tool but it's only good for college students. Although this new career connector isn't for seasoned professionals, it still acts as a good exercise to understand where you are and to start navigating to where you want to be.

Currently, Career Explorer takes the person's educational degree and indicated industry and displays traditional entry-level jobs. Depending how large your LinkedIn universe is, Career Explorer will then show you people who have the job titles that match your academic and professional experience. Next step? You know it, you electronic social butterfly.

How does LinkedIn refine their new online functionality? Let college student bang around on it and see what's popular and what needs more work. Select colleges have been given access to test out the new tool. When it's ready, the whole LinkedIn community will get access and a new career path is just a hop, skip, and jump away.

let's cross that bridge when we get to it

Good advise is good advise but for the ladies out there, these sites are female friendly AND a good resource for employment:

EVENTS

• Dames Bond

• The Boss Network

• Women for Hire

ADVISE

• James Has A Job

• She Takes on the World

• Works by Nicole Williams

SUPPORT GROUP/EMPLOYMENT CLUB

• Waggle Force

Happy navigation and participation!

don't throw anyone under the bus

HowIGotLaidOff.com is all I am going to say.

I know faithful readers, this is a blog about GETTING a job.

Well, sometimes we just need to blow off a little steam. Enjoy.

look at this from the 30,000 foot level

With all this blog talk we haven't really gone near the idea of making your own blog creation. Yes, yes, online friends I feel your hands trembling on the keyboard. Create my own blog? Yes. For those of you who have made the online journaling commitment - good on you! For the late adopters... come on, the internet pool is nice and warm and ready for you.

Do you have an opinion about something? Are you passionate about an area in your life? Do you need a forum to complain about your less then stellar love life? Then share it. NO WAIT - don't share about that last one ~ unless you are ready to be Carrie Bradshaw 2.0. Let's keep it to our online career topic. The whole idea here is to show potential employers that you can write, have a unique point-of-view, and embrace digital technology.

Follow these steps and prove to yourself and the online universe that you CAN do it!

• Choose what you want to write about
• Pick an online resource - Blogger & WordPress are both FREE and work great
• Determine some sort of publishing schedule - how often are you going to write
• Populate your posting with images, video, and anything that makes for a rich experience
• Start building your followers by asking friends and family to support your blog

The previous steps are incredibly simplified but it really is easy to set up and get going. There are also hundreds of sites, forums, and blogs that can coach you in blogging 101.

Still timid to try? Then YOU start following blogs that are already out there. After awhile you might even be so bold to comment on posting topics that interest you. This is a great way to start a conversation with pros in your chosen industry.

On your mark, GeT sEt, START BLOGGING!

knock the ball outta the park

Folks, Twitter is still here. Despite the confusion about its utility, there are ways to bring Twitter into your life without having to dress in a big bird suite.

For our purposes, we'll stick to how Twitter can be your 411 for job searching. First at bat, your Twitter bio. IF people like recruiters and hiring managers check you out, let them and your following audience know you are on a job search. Don't forget to point to other elements of your online presence and capabilities. Include links to your personal .com, blog, LinkedIn profile, or portfolio like the one we talked about earlier on Visual CV.

Submitting for a job online can seem like there is no real HR person on the other side the Submit button. Twitter can give you access to the faceless folks who are looking for good talent everyday. Find HR recruiters at companies you are interested in working for and follow them. They are sure to tweet job avails as they come up and you'll be the first to know.

Next at bat, identify a company you would like to work for then look within "your" department. Find your potential boss and follow him or her. You'll get a good idea if this is the kind of person you would like to work for. This also provides you with talking points if you can score an interview with the person.

Another area within Twitter to consider are hashtags like #JobAdvice. Find out what is going on in your industry and contribute back with interesting insights. Don't forget the law of Giving and Receiving. If you need a job - help others find one. If you come upon a Tweet for a sweet gig but it doesn't jive with what you are up to - pass it on to someone who could benefit from the posting.

Last at bat, take it easy on what you inform the world about. Yes, I would like to hear about an interesting job you found NOT what your cat just dropped off in the litter box.

It's your turn on deck friend.

let's pick the low hanging fruit

It's QR time. What's that you say? You don't have your QR code on you? Oh right, you just left it in your other bag. OR maybe you don't HAVE a QR code. Sans or con code, its arrived on the shores of America and YOU could use one. What am I talking about? I am talking about a two-dimensional bar code that was created in Japan. The "Quick Response" code captures information in a cryptic looking image so that it can be shared, mobile, and referenced quickly and easily. What we are talking about here is the image on the left. How it works is by taking your URL, maybe your LinkedIn profile or your online portfolio www, and using a free QR site to generate this image for you. That's all you need.

How are these codes used? Business cards. Hear me out. Yes you are looking for a job but you can still have business cards. There are a couple of companies out there that offer these business cards for free. [Note, they drop their brand name in small point on the back of the cards.] The QR idea being, add your customized QR code to your business card and the next time you are at a networking function, forget your portfolio, it's on your card! Some smart phones, like the Google Android, use the camera to scan and reference the image. Alternatively, people like recruiters also have personal scanners that allow them to quickly reference these codes that can point to vast amounts of data.

The only Q I have for U is - will you try it? Let me know!

we've got to get our basic blocking and tackling down

How is the job search going folks? If you are like many people, it's going ~ eha. I am here to tell you to stop consulting your magic eight ball and try a more reliable source. Indeed.com has a job trend tool that will help. I typed "blogger" into the tool. As you can see below, I would have gotten no love the summer of '05. Fast forward several years and you can see that my options for getting paid to blog are much greater. Sigh, if I only used the Monetize tab in my Blogger template. Never! How do your job interests trend?

"blogger" Job Trends

"blogger" jobs

The tool might not be able to look into the future but the data it reviews and predicts upon could be more helpful then looking into a black water filled plastic ball. Trust me, All Signs Point To Yes.

eat the elephant one bite at a time

Greetings Friends,

Just finished my thesis. Sorry its been awhile. Let's see what is happening out there in the world of online job employment...

Looks like Marian Schembari made headlines with her personal online ad campaign. The focus of the campaign? Herself.

For 150 bucks the college grad bought ads on Facebook that were targeted to the industry she wanted a job in. Although publishers (the target audience) took note, ultimately Marian landed a gig in PR. With that kind of online promotion initiative, I'm not surprised.

How would your FB ad read?

Digital MarCom Strategist for hire!

I'm Nikki. I recently got my masters from Columbia. My dream is to work in the health and well being industry. Can you help?