Washington State DVA Womens Summit

I will be going here Saturday. Had a ball last year.  If you can get a chance, wonderful conference of women, by women, for women veterans.

Details.

Project Homeless Connect

How to Deal with Tricky Issues on your Resume

** Repost from a friend's blog **

How to Deal with Tricky Issues on your Resume

It would be so great if our work experience were to be a glistening straight line of continuous work, punctuated by promotions and superior accomplishments.  The truth is that for most of us, life happened causing numerous career zigzags, sputters and interruptions. 

In today’s economy there is little tolerance for less than perfectly aligned skills and experience.  That leaves many of us pondering how to develop a resume that doesn’t get trashed instantly. 

Let’s review some of the resume challenges and discuss what you should do:

      Worked for the same company more than once.  This does happen more than you realize.  You get laid off, rehired, laid off and so on.  There are two ways to address this:

1.     Lay out your resume in chronological order by dates you worked.  Treat each entry as if it were a separate company. 

2.     If the work for the same company had no interruptions by working for other businesses, simply group it into one entry, but be clear with your work dates.

      Work Gaps.  The only way to avoid a gap in your work timeline is to fill it with volunteer work or temp work.  Both experiences are “resume worthy” and will show you really don’t have a gap, because you were working.

      Volunteer experience.  Some people think that non-salaried work should not be displayed on a resume, like it doesn’t count as “real work”.  It is real work, unless what you did had no bearing on your previous career or the one you’re pursuing.  If you’re a marketing professional and volunteered to do marketing, wear it proudly and put it on your resume.  The fact that you weren’t paid is not as relevant as your accomplishments.  Besides, non profits would pay for that work to be done if they had the budget to do so.

      Temp work.  Temp work is a great job-search method.  The concern is that when you have multiple job assignments working for a variety of companies, how to put all of that down so it makes sense to the reader.  The first thing you must realize is that you are working for the temp agency, even though your work is being done at a different business.  Your business entry is made by using the temp agency and the type of work and work period.  You can also outline the various companies you worked for, as well as your accomplishments under the temp agency as the business.  Don’t try to create an entry for each job assignment as it will get too busy and complicated to follow.

      Self employment.  For the business owner reentering the work force, this always feels intimidating; but it shouldn’t be.  You make an entry for your place of business as you would with any position you held for another company. List your company by name, dates and put down your work responsibility as “owner”.  As a business owner you usually wear many hats, giving you even more accomplishments and skills.  Hone in on those that are most relevant to the position you are pursuing.  A concern that some people have with hiring a business owner is their desire to work independently.  You want to show that you can work collaboratively with others and successfully with a team.  Indicating that information proactively will be to your benefit.

      Worked for a controversial person or cause.  Whether this work is paid or unpaid, sometimes disclosing the information can create strong negative reactions.  Especially in this political season, you never know where unfavorable judgment might exist.  Depending on the specifics of the situation, you may want to leave the experience off your resume all together, especially if it doesn’t create a massive gap.  If it does create too big of an unexplainable gap, then consider toning down the details, like using initials instead of names or using a high level description such as: Political Campaign group.  You will need to give this some thought to ensure you don’t knock yourself out of the race by giving too much information.

The best approach to your resume is to think through what the hiring manager is going to see and if it tells your work story effectively.  We all too often get caught up in the details of our issues.  Try to think at a higher level about what you’ve done and how to lay it out as so that it makes sense to the reader and effectively sells your assets.

From Dorothy Tannahill-Moran – Your Career Change Agent from www.nextchapternewlife.com

This entry was posted in Job Search on August 21, 2012 by Dorothy Tannahill Moran.

How long does the battle continue after a soldier returns home?

** This information was provided through the Oregon Military Support Network.  I am guessing the free showing are completed but you may still be able to see the production.**

This is a great play the network should know about. Military, veterans and families are free on Tuesday showings.  http://www.artistsrep.org/onstage/201213-season/ithaka.aspx

Ithaka

May 28, 2013 - June 30, 2013

By Andrea Stolowitz
Directed By Gemma Whelan**

How long does the battle continue after a soldier returns home? 

Marine Captain Elaine Edwards has just returned from her latest tour in Afghanistan but this time things are different – home doesn’t feel right and nothing makes sense. A blow-up fight with her husband propels her to skip town to undertake an Odyssean journey through the American landscape battling her demons and trying to find her way home. 

With this newly commissioned play, Oregon playwright Andrea Stolowitz examines coming home from war drawing from interviews with veterans and their families. This production was made possible through a new play commission generously provided by Stephanie Fowler and Irving Levin.

Who Makes Minimum Wage?

This article was forwarded by the Department of Labor this afternoon.  Currently, there is a lot of push to increase the minimum wage from the current Federal minimum of $7.25 to $9.  Oregon minimum wage is currently $8.95.

This article was originally published by CNN.

http://economy.money.cnn.com/2013/02/13/who-makes-minimum-wage/?iid=ELn.com/2013/02/13/who-makes-minimum-wage/?iid=EL 

Community Health Fair

Compassion Downtown Portland

July 20th, 2013

8am-3pm

Veteran’s Memorial Coliseum

• Basic Medical Exams

• Basic Dental Cleaning and Emergency Treatment

• Basic Eye Exams

• Social Service Information Fair

4 Sources For Job Leads You Should Consider

This is from the blog: Tim's Strategies ...

Posted: 21 Jun 2013 08:49 AM PDT

This is a guest blog post by Sharon Hamersley. 

It seems that at least once a week I read an article or hear something on the radio that goes like this:
“Jane Jobseeker has been out of work for over six months and is doing everything she can to secure employment. Jane, how many job applications have you submitted this week?”

Jane replies “Well I know for sure that it’s over 30. I’m on every job board and anytime I see something I like I fill out the application and submit my resume. But you know, so far I haven’t gotten a single response back from any of my applications. What is wrong with these folks? Why can’t they see I’m qualified and at least talk to me?

As is clear from this not-so-hypothetical situation, job boards have become almost entirely useless as a source of real job leads. Many jobs are close to being filled by the time the posting goes up on any of the national sites, or even on local sites. I’d like to suggest some other sources that will spare you the effort of throwing your resume into a black hole.

1) LinkedIn – OK the savvy among you already know about LinkedIn. So perhaps you can skip to the next section. For the rest, LinkedIn offers a treasure trove of information about jobs. You can find it by joining professional groups and following companies. And you should know that many recruiters are searching LinkedIn for potential candidates and paying to post jobs and contact potential candidates. So make sure your profile is up to date and presents you in the best possible light.

2) Twitter. Increasingly, recruiters are tweeting job postings. Try searching [Company Name] + [Recruiter] on Twitter to see if a recruiter at that company has a Twitter account. If they do, follow them.

3) Facebook – yes I know everyone warns job seekers away from Facebook, but there is a smart way to be present there as well. Your purpose is to find and follow companies with a Facebook presence that you would like to work for.

In the past 3 months, I have seen 5-6 job postings that were promoted first on Facebook as a “heads up” to friends and followers. Positions included Executive Director of a non-profit and a middle-management position at a local animal shelter. In both cases, the actual job had not been posted on the organization’s web site when the Facebook alert went out. One way to screen the candidate pool is to find out who is really passionate about what your organization does, and Facebook followers fit this criteria.

4) E-mail lists. This is a very diffuse category to describe, so let me give two specific examples:

I subscribe to a niche business publisher’s bi-weekly e-mail. Mostly this is about new books coming out, but they post jobs at their business as well as jobs at related businesses. Over the past six months, there have been Editor, Marketing Director and CFO positions listed. I’m not positive that these were listed only in the newsletter, but had I been interested, I certainly would have referenced it as the source. Can’t hurt and quite possibly would help!

I am also a subscriber to the national e-newsletter of an advocacy/education group. They make it a point to list open positions as part of the newsletter. Most likely their regional affiliates will post the job to a web site (or may have already done so) but just referencing the source puts you in the “in” group of those who have a genuine interest in the organization.

So what other sources have you found helpful to beat the Job Board blues?