The Undercover Recruiter

How To Find the Best Paying Jobs Using Social Media

Social media is more than just playing games on Facebook or tweeting every bit and part of your mundane life. Do you know that proper use of social media can enhance your chance of getting a well paid job? In this article I will be sharing some tips that might be useful when it comes to landing the job of your dream.

The first site that you will want to consider is LinkedIn. If there is a site that recruiters may use to uncover their next employee it will be this one. This is why it is important that you spend some time to create a good and accurate profile on the site. Do not forget to insert a picture of yourself on your profile-nothing fancy though.

What you need to remember is that the real power of a network is in the second degree, i.e. you should make the most of the network of your network. If there is someone within your network that is friend with someone influential you might want to ask for an introduction from a friend.

Blogging

Although blog may have lost its original influence, it can still be helpful when it comes to choosing a job if you know how to use it properly. One idea will be to start a blog where you will cover the latest developments in your field and at the same time share it with your networks on LinkedIn or any other social network. This will put you under the radar of some of the influential person within your industry.

Make sure that your posts are really pertinent and do not hesitate to share your own views and ideas to show your prospective employers how knowledgeable you might be in your niche.

For more on blogging, check out How Blogging Will Boost Your Career and Personal Brand.

Twitter

Twitter is another important tool when it comes to finding a job. Again you will need to make sure that you have a completed bio with a link to your online resume to give a good image of yourself. Again you should make everything sound professional-no silly avatars or background please.

Just as with your blog you will want to make use of this site to establish yourself as an expert in your field. To achieve this you will need to ensure that your tweets are relevant and really add value for all your followers. You might also want to follow all the leaders and influential person within your niche. This is where the advanced search features of Twitter might be really useful.

For more on Twitter, see 10 Hot Twitter Job Search Tips.

Facebook

This article will be incomplete without mentioning Facebook. Although many people seem to be using Facebook casually, it can also have some influences on your job searching endeavors.

First of all you will want to ensure that you do not have some compromising photos lurking on your Facebook account that will hinder your chances of getting your dream jobs. It might therefore be important that you monitor your privacy settings closely to ensure that sensitive information is not available on the internet.

There are a lot of companies that post job openings on their Facebook fan page and having a professional-looking Facebook account can really make your life easier when it comes to applying for these positions.

More on Facebook at 10 Useful Personal Branding Tips on Facebook.

Final word: Be Bold

Sometimes it may pay off to be bold. Whatever social media site you might be using, it might be useful to post a status update that will let your followers know that you are looking for a job. There are many people that have got their dream job via social media sites and this might also be the case for you.

Robert Bellarmine is a writer for Visitask.com where he deals with the subject of project management and other hot topics for career management.

photo by: c_ambler

Guest Blogger

This post is written by a guest blogger. If you are interested in submitting a guest post, check out our Guest Post Guidelines - we look forward to hearing from you!

Filed Under: Job Search, Money, Social Media Tagged With: Job Hunting, Social Media

How to Escape From Management Hell

Are you frustrated with your job or has your workplace become unbearable because of your overly-demanding, demeaning, controlling, intrusive, ineffective, criticizing and ultimately bad boss?

Bad bosses or managers are those that create a divide within the team, intimidate, bully, mistrust or disrespect employees and are the main culprit for job dissatisfaction and low morale.
These behaviours are defeating and demoralizing, eroding employee self-esteem, physical and psychological wellbeing, and lead us to question and doubt our self-worth, personal and professional skills and aptitudes.

However, although bad bosses can loosely fit into two categories: those who know they are bad and continue the behaviour intentionally and those who are oblivious to just how bad they are – it is not always easy to bring up into discussion how our boss’s behaviour or leadership style is affecting us, inside and outside the workplace.

But what are some leadership styles and how do employees respond to these?

The laissez-faire leadership

This is one that embraces a hands-off approach. Bosses and managers that adopt this way of working tend to fail to provide employees with any direction and underemphasise the importance of performance and progress feedback. These bosses and managers often fail to empower their employees and expect them to thrive or succeed with minimal management support or involvement.

The autocratic leadership

Here is one that embraces a dictatorial approach, one that gives orders and step-by-step directions and fast-tracks results.

To a competent and self-directed employee – or to any employee for that matter, the autocratic, aggressive and aloof stance, paired with the persistent direction and micromanagement can be straining and blatantly insulting.

The democratic leadership

This is one that embraces equality amongst team members, emphasises collaboration, encourages and welcomes ideas and suggestions.

This leadership style tends to be more effective by comparison with other leaderships behaviours and with this approach employees feel valued, listened to and appreciated.
But what could cause your boss to be so bad at his/her job?

How are you going to tackle the boss dilemma?

If your boss’s behaviour is a reoccurring problem, this could indicate s/he is experiencing high levels of occupational or personal stress. S/he might be overwhelmed by job requirements or lack the skills or training required by such a role.

However, trying to tackle the ‘bad boss’ dilemma leaves little room for crisis management. Public disputes over your boss’s shortcomings often prove counterproductive and therefore should only be discussed privately.

Throughout our employment history we might have come across a bad boss or manager that perhaps made us forget we deserve a civil and professional work environment; we deserve a boss or manager that contributes to our self-esteem and helps our professional confidence grow; one that helps us to advance in our career and facilitates the opportunity for a positive workplace experience.

Have you ever left a job because of your boss or manager or request a transfer to another department within the company or organisation you worked for?

Ioana Lazarov is guest writer and collaborator with Clinical Psychologist Fernando Tarnogol and blogger for Express and Star. She is a University of Wolverhampton Psychology graduate, who also studied Life Coaching. Her career pursuits and passions include psychology and mental health rehabilitation, retail and automotive electric systems manufacturing and engineering.

Guest Blogger

This post is written by a guest blogger. If you are interested in submitting a guest post, check out our Guest Post Guidelines - we look forward to hearing from you!

Filed Under: Career Management Tagged With: Career Advice

8 Tips for a Speedy Gonzales Job Search

Considering the tough competition of the job market, jobseekers need to be smart enough to perform their job search smoothly. A slow start to your job search may increase the period of unemployment. Many times, jobseekers also get stuck with their job hunting process. While searching for jobs, it is important to save time and speed up the process of finding jobs as much as possible.

To expedite the process of job hunt, you need to be equipped with some essential pieces of advice. Given below are eight essential tips to help you.

#1. Get Prepared

If you are starting a job search, you need to set up a couple of things. Make sure you are ready with a professional email address, a telephone answering machine or voice messaging system. Always remember to put your cellular phone number in the job resume, so that you are easily contactable by the employers. There are various job search toolkits available online as well to prepare yourself for searching jobs.

More tips at How to Create a Professional Email for Your Career or Job Search.

#2. Keep Your Resume Up-to-date

Nothing can be more frustrating than not having an up-to-date resume when it comes to finding a new job. You never know when an opportunity will strike. So, you should always keep your resume current and updated. Continue including new skills and experience in your resume as soon as your acquire them.

More at Top 10 Signs Your Resume Needs Updating.

#3. Keep Templates Ready to Edit

Have multiple copies of your job resume and cover letter ready to edit. If you are ready with the templates, you can immediately tailor the same according to the job application requirements. You won’t need to change the contact information, opening and closing paragraphs for applying to different job positions. Rest of the content can be optimized according to the requirements.

Also check out the LinkedIn Resume Builder for a quick way to send a resume.

#4. Use Job Search Engines

There are plenty of useful job search engines available on the internet. There are many job search engines that are global while there are other job boards that are regional. Prepare a list of all the major job boards, company websites and associations that you want to use. Use a number of job search engines and job banks to speed up the process of searching jobs.

Check out the Top 5 Job Search Aggregators out there.

#5. Let Job Information Come to You

There are several job banks and job sites that will send you job listings by email. Find out such job search agents that can send you current job information. There are various websites that specialize in sending job opening announcement to jobseekers. This step is very useful for speeding up the process of job hunting.

#6. Time Saver Tips

If you want to speed up the process even more, you can take help from resume writing and resume editing services online. There are plenty of online resume posting services that can immediately post your job resume to multiple job boards at one. This can save you ample time.

And in the meantime you can watch Speedy Gonzales Cannery Woe.

#7. Keep Your References Ready

Another most important job search tip is to be ready with the references that you want to include in your resume or want to send to the interviewers. Make sure you have complete informational details of the references you want to send. While creating the list of references, remember to include their full name, job title, company name, phone number and email address where they can be contacted.

See more at References Available Upon Request.

#8. Leverage Your Network

Jobseekers should be advised that not all job vacancies are advertised. Most of the job openings are filled through networking. Ensure that everyone in your professional networking loop is aware that you are searching for a job. Ask your contacts if they can provide your some valuable job information. Keep expanding your professional network as well.

Check out 7 Brilliant Ways to Use Your Network to Get a New Job.

James Tomerson writes regularly on career, education and latest job trends. To read more from him, you can visit Jobdiagnosis.com, which also offers jobseekers a free career test to choose a career which is in tune with their career, aptitude and skills.

photo by: Epiclectic

Guest Blogger

This post is written by a guest blogger. If you are interested in submitting a guest post, check out our Guest Post Guidelines - we look forward to hearing from you!

Filed Under: Job Search Tagged With: Job Hunting

What is All This Twitter Twitter Really About? [INFOGRAPHIC]

Is Twitter a mystery to you as well? Do you pretend to ‘get it’?. Well join the club!

Thanks to Cheryl Lawson (@PartyAficianado) we now know what Twitter is all about and how to actually use it.

Enjoy this infographic and be sure to check out 5 Ways to Boost Your Twitter Bio as well.

If you are looking for a new job, you might want to check out 10 Hot Twitter Tips to Find a New Job as well.

Image credit Party Aficionado.

Jorgen Sundberg

The original Undercover Recruiter, after 7 years in tech recruiting Jorgen now runs Link Humans, a social media marketing agency in London.

Filed Under: Infographic, Twitter Tagged With: Twitter