Winners of the JobMob 5th Birthday Week Contests

Winners of the JobMob 5th Birthday Week Contests 21 5 contests and over 50 comments later, it's time to award the prizes. Except where specified, the winners were chosen by me. In reverse order of appearance: 5) #CONTEST: Leave a Comment, Win Job Interview Video Tutorial Packs Thanks again to ZoomInterviews for sponsoring this contest.eval There were 15 prizes to be won so all 5 commenters get a prize: Isabelle Yehoshua Paul Chris Parker Kate Laurie Tamres 4) #CONTEST: Leave a Comment, Win Help For Your Google Rankingseval Thanks again to BrandYourself.com for sponsoring this contest. The winners, as chosen by BrandYourself co-founder Evan Watson: Grand prize winner: Johnny Lewis Second place winners: Chris Mole Tyson Mitchell William Nickles David Raskin Naomi Elbinger 3) #CONTEST: Leave a Comment, Win Copies of Bring Your Superpowers To Work Thanks again to Bring Your Superpowers to Work author Darcy Eikenberg, ACC for sponsoring this contest. The 5 winners of book copies, as chosen by Darcy: Yehoshua Paul Janet Burke Chris Parker Rob Epstein Kate Anyone can download a free chapter of the book (or audio version) by signing up on RedCapeRevolution.com. 2) #CONTEST: Leave a Comment, Win a Smart Resume Design Pack Thanks again to LoftResumes.com for sponsoring this contest. The 5 winners are: Adriana Yehoshua Paul David Raskin Chris Parker Vynette Arnell 1) #CONTEST: Leave a Comment, Win High Quality Business Cards Thanks again to UPrinting.com for sponsoring this contest. This was the hardest contest to judge because there were a lot of good comments and only a few prizes, but the 3 winners are: Avigail Frij David Sigal Esther Shira Stepansky And that's it! I hope you had fun with the contests, and I always hope that more people will get involved next time. To all the winners, mazel tov and congrats. I'll be in touch with you asap on how to claim your prizes. Thanks to all the commenters for their comments, and to everyone who shared any of the contest announcements with people who might have been interested. I really appreciate that kind of support. Question of the article What kind of contests would you like to see on JobMob? Tell us in the comments.

Top Tips For Shortlisting Candidates

Top Tips For Shortlisting Candidates Shortlisting candidates is potentially the most important part of the recruitment process. With the majority of roles often having tens or even hundreds of applicants, ensuring that you’re selecting the most relevant candidates to go through to the next stage of the process is crucial to recruitment success.   Robert Scott, Managing Director at Aaron Wallis Marketing Recruitment said: Shortlisting candidates effectively is the first step to finding a new employee who can drive your business forward. Using a logical and structured shortlisting process is crucial to success, or you could end up missing out on the talent hidden within the pile of applications.” But so many businesses look at CVs and they make decisions based on a spelling mistake, the format of it, the picture of the person on the CV, or  other kinds of gut feels. Ive even known candidates being rejected because they dont support the right football team. How to do it effectively is as follows. Quite often, you will get a massive response of applicants to your roles and shortlisting is a really fundamental integral part of getting the recruitment process right. Many companies, when shortlisting, really dont go about it in the right way. They kind of go on the gut feel of that CV rather than having a structured, logical approach to shortlisting. Start with your person specification Before you start the shortlisting process, it’s important to define what your ideal candidate looks like. Ask yourself the qualifications and experience which will be needed to succeed in the position and the skills they’ll need to possess to hit the ground running. It can be useful to compare your person specification against a current top-performer if you have an employee in a parallel role. Mark-up  your person specification with M-E-P When you write your person spec, make a list of all of the skills, qualities, and attributes youre looking for your target candidate to have. Now mark them  M  for  mandatory,  E  for  Essential, and  P  preferred the icing on the cake, the nice to have. Score all of the attributes accordingly. Now,  M  is the  mandatory minimum requirement  to be chosen for or selected for an interview.  E  is  Essential, they will need to demonstrate at the interview to secure the role. And the  Ps are the  Preferred, the nice to haves. So when were going through the persons spec, mark them all out  M,  E, or  P. And when were shortlisting, go through the logical process of matching does the CV have the Ms? If they do, bring them in for that first interview. Conduct your shortlist in stages The quickest way to shortlist is to do it in stages. The first stage should be to run through all the CVs and simply exclude those who don’t meet the mandatory requirements you’ve defined earlier in the process. This should quickly make a long list of applications much more manageable. In stage 2 you should go through the remaining CVs, assigning the candidates scores against each item in your list of essential criteria, recording the scores on a spreadsheet or database.   This will give you an easy way to rank candidates and give you a top ten shortlist to work with. Use more than ‘Gut Feel’ Sticking to a structured and logical M-E-P system should help you shortlist candidates without superficial bias like judging a candidate from the design of their CV or what they’ve labeled under their interests and hobbies. If they have all of the mandatory requirements for the role, use the interview stage to judge candidates properly CVs will only tell you so much. About the author: Rob Scott has specialized in technical sales recruitment, particularly engineering and electronics sales recruitment, and has over 12-year operational and commercial management experience.   During his corporate life, Rob won the coveted best-performing manager award 2004 for profitability (out of 315 group managers) and won numerous other group Awards for both achievements and excellence.   Since setting up Aaron Wallis Rob has steered the company to enjoy double-digit growth year-on-year through turbulent economic times by maintaining clients and making a difference.

How to Start Saving For Retirement - Classy Career Girl

How to Start Saving For Retirement Retirement doesnt have a cookie cutter plan that will work for everyone. That being said, I am most concerned about Millennials (that means my generation) and our finances in retirement. Im not going to blame  politics, social security  or  the pity party our generation is throwing about student loans in this article. We keep it classy here and you can find that on other sites. Instead, what  I want to focus on is that statistics show that many  of us are seeking  higher education, which means we are starting the workforce later in life. For example, I did not start a full-time job until I turned 26. That means we are losing precious time since we are starting our jobs later in life.  Your best advocate when saving for retirement is TIME. Our generation is bogged down with more debt and we are statistically underemployed. This means that we are making less money than others in the past with the same level of education that weve obtained.   So we have a few things not on our side: Less Time, Lower Income and Higher Debt. We also have parents that may have had their own retirement hit hard a little under a decade ago. Planning for our retirements is now even more important because we may even find ourselves needing to assist our parents more than previous  generations.  Retirement, like student loan debt, needs to be taken seriously. Here are a few things you should consider when youre trying to learn about saving for retirement. How to Start Saving For Retirement 1. Maximize an Employer Match. Some employers will match dollar for dollar up to a certain percent, some will match 50% of your contributions up to a certain percentbut whatever it ismake sure you take it. I cannot stress enough that this is FREE MONEY! At a minimum, contribute up to the max amount of the match. Your future self will thank you. Dont quite understand what I mean?  If your employer will match 100% of your contributions up to 6%that means that if you make $40,000 a year, 6% of your salary is $2,400. So if you contribute $2,400 to your retirement account that year, your employer will throw in an EXTRA $2,400 to your account. (If you contribute 10% which comes to $4,000 your employer will still match just $2,400) If they will contribute 50% of your contributions up to 6%, then if you contribute that same $2,400 your employer will throw in $1,200. That is a lot when you think about it, because ideally if you invest it well, and it will grow each year until you retire. 2. Consider a Roth IRA/401(k). Putting the word Roth in front of an IRA or 401(k) means that you are paying the tax on the income first, then you are putting the money into retirement. If you have a non-Roth retirement account, you will be paying tax when you pull the money  out of the account, that means not only on the amount you put in, but also on the growth of the money youll be receiving over the next 30 years. 3. Automate Your Retirement. If you havent noticedIm all about automating your financial goals. Whether its paying down debt or saving moneyautomating your goals is awesome. Automate your retirement, just like you automate your bills and your savings account. If you dont have a 401(k) with your employer (or something similar depending on the entity you work for) you can set up your direct deposits to deposit into an IRA, just as you do your checking account.  4. Set up a Roth IRA Dont Have an Employer Match? Thats Okay!  I didnt either until I was 28 (or 3 months agohowever you want to think about it). Set up a Roth IRA (I use Charles Schwab) and you can still automate your retirement to go straight into your retirement account. If youre self employed you can set up a self employed account (SEP). Note: If you dont have income (example: if youre a stay at home mom) you cant put money into a retirement account. 5. Use a Financial Calculator How Much Money Do I Need to Retire?  There is no crystal ball in the world that can tell you exactly how much you need to retire. There are so many factors, but there are some great calculators out there to help as well. Here is one from  CNN money. Start with 10% if youre in your 20s and still struggling with other obligations. If youve paid off your debt, bump it up to 15% or 20%! How much you need at retirement has a lot to do with what you want your lifestyle to be like in retirement. Do you  plan on traveling a lot? Or do you plan to enjoy living in relaxation and reading at home?So the answer to the million dollar question How Much Money Do I Need To Retire? It depends. (which is a completely satisfactory answer for a lawyer) 6. Do NOT Borrow From Your Retirement Account. Please, oh please.dont do it. I believe borrowing from your retirement account is equal to (or worse than) not putting money in retirement at all. Youre putting that money away because you will need it some day, and even worse borrowing early will likely result in penalties and fees. 7. Make Your Retirement a Priority No Matter What. Generally Retirement is Creditor/Bankruptcy Proof.    Im making a very generalized statement here, please see a bankruptcy attorney or financial adviser regarding your circumstances. Here is the deal, if you are struggling with mountains of credit card or medical debt, this is the ONE thing I would tell you to put money towards prior to trying to pay down that debt. I believe you should continue to put money towards your retirement in these circumstances because you will need that money later on. If you file bankruptcy, youll never get a refund for those payments you made to your existing credit cardsbut if youve put money in a retirement account, you may still have that money in the end (that means it is exempt from bankruptcy). Note: Did you know now is a great time to put more money into a IRA? You can contribute money up to April 18th of 2016, and count it towards your 2015 retirement maximums!

Got a 22 degree Stay positive

Got a 22 degree Stay positive You have finally finished University life beyond ‘the Warwick bubble’ beckons. You should be fired up with excitement but your results weren’t quite what you’d hoped. Instead of getting that magic 2:1 you’ve got the dreaded 2:2. OK stop right there! Getting a 2:2 may feel like end of the world but it really isn’t. Yes, you need to stop and take stock of your situation, but it’s certainly not all over. Now is the time to start thinking about plan B. And if that doesn’t work you have to move on to plan C! Flexibility and resilience are key to future career success, so start as you mean to go on. What to do next: You can’t hide. It will not go away, so meet the challenge head on. 1. Is it appropriate or even possible to appeal your final degree classification? You will need to look carefully at the precise regulations to see if there is any chance that you may have grounds. Here at Warwick an appeal is possible only in very restricted circumstances. Even if you think you do have grounds for appeal, don’t assume that it will be successful. Talk through your options with an academic. Act quickly and be hopeful â€" but stay realistic. 2. Do you have a conditional offer for a job? If so, ring the company and let them know the situation. There may be no room for manoeuvre, but if you really impressed at interview they may choose to confirm the job offer. Some organisations deal with cases on their individual merits, whereas others operate a blanket policy of “no 2:1, no offer”. You won’t know until you try, so ring now and make your case. 3. Don’t panic! There are options that are still open to you. It may feel as though the 2:1 threshold restricts your access to many of the UK graduate schemes, but this is by no means all .   If closing dates have passed you can apply for them in the next graduate recruitment cycle. This is not necessarily a bad thing as it will give you time to re-group and re-energise before you start the job application process. 4. Don’t get caught up in the media hype and assume that only graduate schemes mean ‘graduate jobs’. The big recruiters represent just a tiny slice of the graduate market. Some of the main players have strong brand and high campus visibility, but there are plenty of great opportunities within the small to medium sector. And the really good news is that many of the smaller companies will operate more flexible entry requirements. 5. Book an appointment    to talk your options over with a Careers Consultant. We are impartial (which may not be true of parents and friends) and view things from a neutral perspective. It might help to bounce some ideas around, safe in the knowledge anything you say is entirely confidential. Don’t worry if you live outside the local area: we offer Skype and telephone appointments and are here throughout the summer. 6. Avoid considering postgraduate study as a means of ‘compensating’ for your degree classification. Postgraduate study is a worthwhile option, but as part of a considered career plan. It isn’t something you should consider as a default measure, and you will struggle to convince prospective employers of the benefits when it comes to future applications. Do your research and gather all the information before making a final decision. 7. Get yourself job ready by updating your CV and plugging any potential gaps. Consider how well your CV highlights your skills â€" both soft and technical. Consider what your selling points as an employee are. 8. Start thinking about your online brand and build a professional profile that reflects your career aspirations. If you have a sector in mind, can you join any professional associations?  They often arrange networking events and are a great source of insider information. All is not lost Try to put all of this into perspective: remember, this is the beginning â€" not the end â€" of your career. By all means be disappointed, but you need to accept it and move on. Your hopes of working for a particular company may have been dashed in the short-term, but with time and some experience behind you there’s every chance of applying again (perhaps for a better role!) at some point in the future.

How to Manage Graduates, Guide for Baby Boomer Bosses [Guest Post] - Career Pivot

How to Manage Graduates, Guide for Baby Boomer Bosses [Guest Post] - Career Pivot How to Manage Graduates At Inspiring Interns we deal with placing graduates in graduate jobs every day. Gen Y’s have different expectations and work place values to their baby boomer bosses â€" in many ways they are the high-expectations generation. They’ve been brought up with gold stars, being told they’re amazing, and being encouraged to find their passion and do work they love. Thus their expectations of the workforce are higher than any generation to date; they want flexible hours, great colleagues, exciting and varied work that challenges them, career progression, good pay and benefits, and to be acknowledged when they do well. This may sound like they’re asking a lot â€" they are. And it’s fantastic. What better way to have our workforce transform to provide all these things than with a push from the younger generation’s fresh energy and high expectations? It means the work place has to improve if it wants to keep young talent employed. The main concern for employers in regards to young workers is employee retention. Therefore what is the best way to manage graduates so they want to keep working with you? Mutual respect Graduates want to be respected, even though it’s likely they haven’t done much to ‘deserve’ it, they want to be respected for who they are. Research shows they prefer a friendship relationship with a boss, as opposed to a hierarchical relationship. They want to be able to bring new ideas to the table, and have those ideas listened to and considered, if good. Thus a good way to manage graduates is to focus on building a personal relationship with them. Share the vision of current projects, sharing why they need to do the work they’ve been given; why it’s important, and how it will help the company. Instant feedback Generation Y doesn’t want to wait six months to get feedback, they want to know how they are doing now. Research shows that many Gen Y’s don’t stay in graduate jobs longer than 24 months, so waiting a quarter of that to get feedback doesn’t make sense to them. When given constant feedback they can grow and progress much more quickly, which is what many of them want. A good way to do this is to have a conversation with them about how frequently they would like feedback; bi-weekly/monthly/tri-monthly? Variety Repetitive jobs bore anyone, but graduates have particularly low levels of patience for them. Giving Gen Y’s the freedom to come up with creative projects on the side, or to work with another department for a day to better understand that role, are great ways to keep Gen Y’s engaged. Touch base with them regularly about how they’re enjoying their work, whether they’ve had any out-of-the-box ideas, and whether they’re satisfied with the variety of work they have. Are you managing your younger employees in this manner? Please write a comment below on what you can do differently. â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€" Listen to the most recent episode This post was written by Ben Rosen. Ben is the CEO and co-founder of Inspiring Interns, the UK’s leading graduate recruitment agency. Inspiring Interns connects talented graduates with top companies and start-ups across the UK, filling graduate jobs and paid internships (with the aim of going permanent). They have kick-started the careers of over 5,000 young people. Like what you just read? Share it with your friends using the buttons above. Like What You Read? Get Career Pivot Insights Check out the Repurpose Your Career Podcast Do You Need Help With ...

Qualify For a Salary Boost by Earning an Advanced Degree - CareerAlley

Qualify For a Salary Boost by Earning an Advanced Degree - CareerAlley We may receive compensation when you click on links to products from our partners. To the man who only has a hammer, everything he encounters begins to look like a nail. Abraham Maslow With so many college graduates being out of work these days, there is an increasingly common trend of jobs and promotions being awarded to candidates who simply have higher qualifications. It is often stated that it is vital for both job seekers and job holders to improve their qualifications in order to stand out from the rest. Employment data offers an insight into this. Master of All Gone are the times when a bachelors degree guaranteed a high paying and stable job. Instead, more and more graduates are staying in school to pursue masters degrees in an effort to leap frog ahead of the competition. A masters degree aids success in job applications and extends the reach of your resume, allowing you to be seriously considered for senior posts. Salary Range Gaining a masters degree not only greatly improves your chances of getting a top post but dramatically increases the likelihood of a salary increase. Studies have shown that pay increases can range from 10 to 300 percent, per degree. Of course the size of this increase depends on the institution your degree is from, with well renowned universities conferring a greater effect on the raise. What is surprising is that the degree by which your salary can be improved varies immensely among different careers. Top Earners The biggest jump in earnings for new masters degree holders over bachelor degrees can be found in the physical sciences where an average salary hike of $37500 was recorded. This almost doubles the next largest salary improvements of $22000 and $21000 which were experienced in the computer programming and science management fields, respectively. Middle Ground Masters degree holders in the human resources sector earned an average of $19000 a year over their bachelor degree holding colleagues, while economics and engineering majors brought home on average $16000 and $15500 more. Chemistry, finance and elementary education professionals were just below on an average of $11000. Art and Philosophy stood at $9000, with Mathematics at $7000 and foreign languages at $5000. Little Change The smallest salary difference between masters degree and bachelors degree holders appears to be in Psychology and Sociology sectors, earning only $2500 and $1800 a year more, respectively. This may be offset by the perceived personal rewards these careers can provide to those involved. Weighing the Options These figures are particularly interesting to currently employed professionals considering pursuing an advanced degree while working. Although many companies provide support for boosting their employees qualifications, the considerable time and effort commitment may not be worth it, financially. Typically, though, the expenses incurred from funding an advanced degree have been found to pay themselves off in three to five years. It could be argued that the opportunity for support should be capitalized on as the trend is likely to continue with minimum qualifications soon reaching the masters degree level. Perhaps a very busy and stressful few years is worth the peace of mind of securing your job for the foreseeable future and the enviable flexibility of being able to apply for more senior posts as they arise. Becca Carey is a freelance writer living in Phoenix, Arizona. She writes for higher ed blogs where you can learn more about getting a masters degree online. This is a Guest post. If you would like to submit a guest post to CareerAlley, please follow these guest post guidelines. Good luck in your search. Visit me on Facebook

Tips for Writing Your Resume

Tips for Writing Your ResumeHow long should your writing to be on a resume? This question is asked quite often by people who are not sure about the best way to present their CV.Writing a resume can take a lot of time, but that's ok. Instead of rushing and trying to get it done in a short period of time, you can take a more deliberate approach. The majority of people will probably tell you that when you make the choice to have your resume made for you, you should be ready to be looking at it for about four months or more.That is to say, most people tend to be able to spend three months preparing their resumes. Therefore, if you are lucky enough to have your resume finished in less than four months, you might not have much time to get creative with your resume.If you want to know how long should your writing to be on a resume, consider what sort of professional you are. Do you need to be focusing on one particular industry or are you looking to cover as many as possible? For example, y ou might be very keen on finance and still look at a broad range of skills, including product development, network marketing, business development, sales, data entry, project management, marketing, customer service, and more.If you choose the first option, consider how long you are going to need to write your resume. If you are in a job that's related to the industry you are trying to sell, you might find that a general resume would be fine. However, if you are looking to build up a portfolio of skills, you might want to consider using some of the following tips.Start out with a well-written sample of what you are going to include in your resume. You might want to place an industry summary on the first page. You could also use an Industry Spotlight to include your work experience. Then, include information about yourself that you think will really help the reader understand your capabilities.For example, you could write a career overview that includes some of the key facts about you and then highlight any education you have had. Include information about your skills, qualifications, and interest in the company. When your resume is completed, keep all the information organized so you know what is important and what you need to focus on.This article has discussed the basics on how long should your writing on a resume. However, there is much more that you need to know. The best way to learn more is to ask other professionals.