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Writer and editor Randy Woods shows you how to promote your strengths and find your dream job in a changing marketplace.
November 4, 2009
Posted by Randy Woods
Hey, did you know that November is Career Development Month? That's OK, neither did I. But you can bet that the nearly 135,000 unemployed people in the Seattle area have not just career development but also survival on their minds right now. For the lucky rest of us with employment, this is no time to get complacent--or panicky--about career choices. In a shaky economy, there is a tendency to avoid adding to the instability by asking for promotions and pay raises. Most just drop the whole idea of looking for...
November 1, 2009
Posted by Randy Woods
Have we all enjoyed our extra hour this morning? The end of Daylight Saving time means the days of 4 p.m. sunsets are fast approaching. Instead of using today's time change to scarf down your remaining Halloween candy, perhaps it would be better to spend that hour registering for this week's career planning events around the region. Here are some suggestions to kick off your November job search efforts. Bellevue College's Power Workshops - The college's Center for Career Connections sponsors a series of free workshops on career and job-search...
October 30, 2009
Posted by Randy Woods
It's now been more than two days since Boeing's momentous announcement that the second 787 line will fly south to North Charleston, S.C., instead of Everett. Last time I looked out the window, the sky had not fallen and lights were still on in Seattle. Yet the vitriol still seems to be raining down in torrents. Not to make light of how our struggling employment market lost a chance to secure 3,800 jobs over the next seven years, but judging by the angry responses I've read by many in the...
October 27, 2009
Posted by Randy Woods
After sending out countless resumes, squirming through interviews and slowly building up your network, it's tempting for job seekers to fantasize about cutting out the "middleman"--about walking right up to the CEO, offering a firm handshake and talking about how you, alone, are the answer to their staffing needs. That's madness, right? Surely, only in a Hollywood movie could you approach the top decision maker without going through the proper "gatekeeper" channels. Nonsense, says career psychology expert Paul Anderson of ProLango Consulting. Those executives who appear to be the most...
October 24, 2009
Posted by Randy Woods
Each month, a new wave of national job fairs blows through town on their grand tours, many of which have little to do with the Seattle job scene and are of dubious merit to local job hunters. But as October draws to a close, a number of home-grown networking and job-search events are being offered around the region that are geared specifically to Seattle-area job seekers. Here's a selection of some organizations that are offering free networking events this week. Job Seeker Network, Mon., Oct. 26 - At each of...
October 23, 2009
Posted by Randy Woods
Of all the fiscal quarters in the year, the fourth has got to be the hardest to predict and analyze. Since the holiday season is such a crucial sales time for most businesses, any spike in hiring or increased sales can be written off as a temporary seasonal bump that will dissolve in the next quarter. Still the latest Labor Market Outlook survey from the Society of Human Resources Management is showing that the fourth quarter of 2009 will be, well, not great, but at least much better than last...
October 20, 2009
Posted by Randy Woods
Lord knows the last thing out-of-work people want to hear right now is anything about "trickle-down" economics, that much-derided Reagan-era theory that financial incentives for the wealthy will eventually funnel down to the rest of society. This idea, however, is starting to bear fruit in the local IT community in the form of new job openings. While browsing through LinkedIn the other day, I came across a relatively new user group called Puget Sound IT Jobs, created by Nate Frickel, senior technical recruiter at the Rylem staffing agency in Seattle....
October 16, 2009
Posted by Randy Woods
For those who were counting on getting some extra income for the holiday shopping blitz, it may be time to come up with a Plan B. According to a new survey released this week by Aon Consulting, 44 percent of large, nationwide retailers said they will hire fewer holiday workers than they did in 2008. Given the horrendous fourth-quarter performance of most retailers last season, it's no wonder they're skittish this year. But there is another important piece of information in the Aon study that may give enterprising job seekers...
October 15, 2009
Posted by Randy Woods
One of the most frequently cited solutions to the current employment crisis in this country is the alleged rise of the "clean technology," or clean tech, sector. In a perfect world faced with growing energy demands and aging infrastructure, clean tech was supposed to ride in like a knight on a white horse to provide living-wage jobs and save the earth at the same time. This week's numbers from Olympia, indicating a 9.3 percent unemployment rate for Washington state and a loss of 5 percent of total jobs in the...
October 12, 2009
Posted by Randy Woods
If you haven't ironed your best interview clothes, better make some time for that tonight. The fall job search season is kicking into high gear with two back-to-back job fairs this week. In the spirit of October's athletics-heavy calendar, both will be held at Seattle's adjacent SoDo sports palaces. Tomorrow, Tues., Oct. 13, the Seattle Employment Guide will host its Autumn Expo Job Fair at Safeco Field's Ellis Pavilion from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The next day, Wed., Oct. 14, Jobbernaut returns, right across the street, with its quarterly...
