Job Seeker Information

After one of the major job boards reported a major security leak in 2007, you may have become a little bit wary about putting your resume online, for fear that your contact information might be exploited for money-making purposes such as direct mail, email marketing, or identity theft.  There are measures you can take, however, to ensure that you’re not at risk when applying for jobs online at sites whose URLs end in jobs.com.

You could always just not put your resume on the Internet, right? Well sure, but that’s going to put you at a pretty big disadvantage, as a lot of recruiters use the Internet to find candidates, and if it’s not there, they can’t find you, which means that you will have to be a lot more proactive, monitoring many job boards before you find a position that matches your skill set.  It’s much easier if the recruiters can find you, and another advantage is that they might be able to tell you about unadvertised jobs.  If that’s the case, you want to be able to be easily found- so how can you assure you’re not opening yourself up to a ton of risk, and that your information will be safe?

A good rule of thumb is don’t post your resume anywhere that you’re not confident about.  Trust your instincts.  When you do decide to post your resume to a job board, make sure you read their privacy policy carefully.  They may resell your resume or access to it, and you need to make sure that their affiliate websites and clients also have privacy policies that you can live with.  You might even want to set up an employer account so that you can check the boards’ employer guidelines for searching resumes, too.  At the end of the day, the best way to get the information you need is to email or call the jobs.com board and request it- they want your resume, as it’s how they make money, so they will do their best to accommodate you in most cases.

Once you’ve decided which board(s) you trust enough to post your resume to, take proper precautions when applying to jobs and responding to email solicitations. Job boards work hard to ensure that only legitimate jobs are posted, however, it’s near impossible to catch every single one of those “spam” job postings that may get through the filters. What this means to you is that you must keep an eye out for fishy jobs and emails. The old adage is truer than ever on the Internet- if something is too good to be true, it probably is. Never, ever give out your social security number or bank account information. An employer should never ask for that information via email, and a job board will not ever ask you for that information either, as is stated in most of their Privacy Policies.

If you are unlucky enough to be a target of one of these phishing scams, or some other sort of deception, it’s in your, the job board, employer, and everyone that uses that site’s best interest to report it to the board as soon as possible and with as much information as possible.  You can also report strange-looking or sounding jobs, too- this will help cut down on the number of fake jobs posted to that board.  The more you can help the job boards, the better job they will be able to do of prevention in the future.

By knowing where your resume is posted, doing your due diligence in regards to security measures and keeping an eye out for fraud, you can help keep yourself and your personal information safe while conducting an online jobs.com search.

The security breach at a major online job board last year may have made you a little hesitant to put your resume into online databases for fear that your contact information will be used for money-making purposes such as direct mail or email marketing or even identity theft. However, there are security measures you can take that will make your search for internet jobs more secure.

There’s always the option of just not putting your resume on the Internet at all, but that’s going to saddle you with a pretty large disadvantage in that recruiters that use the internet to find candidates won’t be able to find you!  Instead, you will have to proactively monitor many different job boards, looking for companies that are looking for you.  It’s a lot easier to find candidates for a recruiter when they can search through online databases looking for skill sets that match yours and contacting you about unadvertised job openings.  If the case is that you want to be easy to find, you’ll have to post your resume, so how can you do that and ensure that the boards you post to are legitimate and have precautions in place to ensure the safety of your information?

Always make sure that you feel confident before you post a resume to a internet jobs website.  Read their privacy policy carefully, primarily to figure out where they may repost your resume, or who they may sell it to.  If they do redistribute it to other sites, do you trust those sites, as well?  The best way to get answers to these kinds of questions is to email or call the board directly.  You can even log in as an employer and research all their policies on resume searching.  These boards want your resume- it’s a large part of how they make money- so any one that’s any good will accommodate your requests without a problem.

Once you’ve decided which board(s) you trust enough to post your resume to, take proper precautions when applying to jobs and responding to email solicitations. Job boards work hard to ensure that only legitimate jobs are posted, however, it’s near impossible to catch every single one of those “spam” job postings that may get through the filters. What this means to you is that you must keep an eye out for fishy jobs and emails. The old adage is truer than ever on the Internet- if something is too good to be true, it probably is. Never, ever give out your social security number or bank account information. An employer should never ask for that information via email, and a job board will not ever ask you for that information either, as is stated in most of their Privacy Policies.

If you do get a scam or “phishing” type of email and are able to deduce from what job board the sender got your information, it’s in everyone’s best interest for you to let the job board know as soon as possible, and give them as much information about said scam and the person who contacted you as possible.  You can also report fraudulent looking job postings.  The more aware the job boards are of potential rip-offs, the better job they can do to prevent them in the future.

By knowing what internet jobs sites ere your resume is posted on, doing your due diligence in regards to security measures and keeping an eye out for fraud, you can help keep yourself and your personal information safe while conducting an online job search.

Hi everybody! Today, I will be taking some time to speak to the person looking for a part-time job.  This is a bit of a departure from what is usually a more career-oriented column but I feel this information is valuable as well.  Conducting an online job search for a part time job is done in the same manner as conducting an online job search for a full time job!  The same rules apply- make sure there is some way for the employer to contact you that isn’t on line, for example- use a cell phone, voice mail or answering machine to help stay in touch when email isn’t available.  If you’re also pounding the pavement- walking into physical work locations to ask about employment opportunities, you should be prepared for an immediate interview and/or offer of employment! You may also find other opportunities at national job boards such as Go Jobs.com.

There are niche boards on the Internet that specialize in part-time work, and the big national board also have search engines that will allow a job seeker to search only for part-time positions.  The nice thing about using these boards is that you can usually complete the whole application on-line, from the comfort of your home.  Some of the larger retailers, such as JC Penney and Target, have special sections – ending in jobs.com- on their websites, just for part-time hourly workers.

Most online applications for part-time work are the same as those for full-time jobs- they will require contact information, education, and employment history, as well as salary information and your availability. Some of these applications will also ask for references.

Make sure that you diversify your job search by using other resources such as classified sites like Craigslist, and the print edition of the newspaper.  Make sure you stay vigilant of your surroundings, you never know when the coffee shop on the corner will put out a Help Wanted sign.  Alternatively, you may want to approach the manager of such an establishment directly and ask if there are any unadvertised employment opportunities available. 

Remember, there is help out there too- make sure to utilize free or inexpensive services that provide job search assistance such as your high school guidance office, college student employment office and state Department of Labor offices, as well as your local public library.

You should make sure that everyone you know knows you are looking for a job- your social and professional network can help you find unadvertised jobs- networking is very important because it works!

Get the competitive edge with your recruiting strategy… start using Niche job boards.

 
I’m going to shake things up a bit today, and post an article for employers, rather than one for job seekers.  This should still be valuable to job seekers, though, as a “through the looking glass” view of how employers view you.  The topic today is niche job boards- any board that ends in jobs.com, really, and why you, as an employer, should be using them as part of your recruiting strategy.

Finding a job on the Internet can be stressful and confusing for even the most qualified job seeker. As someone in the recruitment industry, you understand just how many job boards are popping up on the web daily. And you also know the struggle to understand which add value to your recruitment practices and which are not so valuable.

There are many ways to better present your company to qualified job seekers. For starters, going to where your ideal candidates are on the web shows them that you are not taking the easy way out by only using the quantity providers many employers default to. Discovering more about job seekers you feel are qualified lets them know you are serious about filling the position with someone who will excel. And you know best, a key part of selling (products, your company, whatever it may be) is making the “buyer” feel wanted and cared about.

Still not convinced that you need to post on niche job boards? Here are a few reasons to consider:

1. Niche job boards narrow the number of jobs seekers have to look through to find that diamond in the rough you posted. The more generic job boards require clever searching to eliminate jobs that aren’t in the seeker’s area, industry or professional level. With fewer jobs listed, it’s easier for job seekers to find your job, even on the 15^th day of posting.
2. Resume mining on niche job boards is less of a hassle than big boards. Although the quantity is lower, the quality level of the seekers is much higher making it more likely that you’ll find a great candidate.
3. If you’re thinking in terms of budget, hint hint…a vast majority of smaller, niche job sites charge a very minimal posting fee, if they charge at all.

It shouldn’t be too difficult to find niche job boards to post to by doing a simple web search.  A good idea would be to look for associations related to your industry- they are as targeted as job boards come, usually don’t charge high fees, and in general have good pools of candidates.  Always be on the lookout for good boards that end in jobs.com and you should have a resource stockpile in no time!  Good luck, and hopefully this niche board strategy will pay off for you as it has for me!

Today I’m going to discuss the healthcare system in the US to give you a better idea bout what you might be in for when looking for healthcare jobs.  First let’s look at some basic facts about the type of care and locations where the healthcare industry operates.  Who is “the healthcare industry”, anyway?  In the United States, healthcare is provided by an array of public and private entities, funded by both public and private sources.  The breakdown is that the US government foots about 24% of the bill, with private insurance paying about 36% and out-of-pocket expenses being about 15% of the total cost.  That adds up to lots and lots of healthcare jobs for qualified individuals!

Types of Healthcare Services

• Ambulatory care- aka “outpatient” care, where no hospital stay is required
• Home Health Care = Nursing services, ordered by physicians and provided in the patients’ residence
• General Practice- general practitioners of “family medicine”
• Specialty Practice- specialty physicians- oncologists, pediatricians, cardiologists, etc.
• Non-Physician  - physician assistants and nurse practitioners

Where are Healthcare Services typically administered?

·        Private Hospitals (usually operated by private corporations, for a profit)

·        Nonprofit Hospitals (usually operated by religious organizations or independent nonprofit organizations, or governments)

·        Specialty Clinics such as prenatal clinics, surgical centers, or family planning clinics

·        Hospice care (for patients with less than 6 months to live, typically subsidized by charities and/or government and provided in the patients’ home)

What other things does the medical industry do?

·        Research, development, production and marketing of pharmaceutical drugs

·        Manufacture of Medical equipment/ devices

·        Medical research

This may come as a shock to you- it certainly did to me- but the US spends over $7,000 a year per person, for a total of 2.25 TRILLION dollars (facts are from 2007).  That means that we spend more, as a function of either GDP or on a per-capita basis, than any other developed nation in the world, and as I stated before, it means a lot of work for people looking for healthcare jobs.  Healthcare counts for 16% of our yearly GDP!

The US is the only wealthy industrialized nation in the world without a universal healthcare system.  About 16% of the total population is uninsured, with the rest being insured either through the government, their employer, or privately purchased insurance.  There are also programs, funded by taxpayers, to provide healthcare coverage for the elderly, the disabled, children, veterans, and the poor.  In fact, the government is the largest insurer in the country, spending 45% of the total cost of healthcare every year.  Federal law mandates that medical services providers must provide emergency care to anyone that requests it, regardless of their ability to pay.  There’s a real problem with healthcare costs rising faster than wages or inflation- in the year 2001, over half of all people who declared bankruptcy did so because of “medical causes”.

The healthcare industry in the US is not thought of very highly throughout the rest of the world.  The World Health Organization conducted a study in 2000 that ranked the US healthcare system as the best in the world in terms of responsiveness and expenditure, but 37^th overall in performance and 72^nd overall in overall level of health.  However, that particular study has been widely discredited as not correlating very well with patient surveys about their own feelings on their medical care.

Bear these basic facts in mind when you decide if the healthcare industry is right for you, and come back for part 2 of my series on healthcare jobs!

If you’re in the job market in Southern California, finding web developer jobs in Irvine will be very competitive.  This article will help you get ready for that search! Did you realize that technically, programmable computers have been around for centuries?  The first was a humanoid designed to entertain rich guests at parties- it played the drums, and by moving pegs around on its gears, it could be made to play several different rhythms!  The first modern equivalent was the Jacquard loom, invented in France in 1801.  This machine incorporated space for a punch-card, and based on what card was entered, could be programmed to weave several different patterns.  If you’re looking for a web developer job in Irvine, this could be helpful- it’s a very competitive area!

In 1896, International Business Machines was founded as the Tabulating Machine Company, by Herman Hollerith.  He expanded the use of punch cards and they were actually used to program computers all the way through the 1970’s.  The punch card was a major advance in the science of computing, as for the first time the whole machine didn’t have to be reconfigured to run a variety of programs. 

In 1954, the first high-level programming language- Fortran- came on the scene.  This was a major step forward as it allowed programmers to enter instructions in algebraic terms; these instructions were then converted by a compiler into machine language used by the computer to carry out calculations.  At this point most programs were still entered into computers using punch cards or long strips of “tape”.  By the end of the 1960s, computers had advanced to the point where instructions could be directly typed into the machine itself, due to advances/cost decreases in memory and parts.

Time marches on, and computers aren’t immune to the effects of time, either- computer programming languages nowadays work on quite an abstract level from their earlier counterparts.  This means that more computer processing power is needed, but it also means an easier learning curve for new programmers, and simplification/streamlining of the process for experienced programmers.  This has led to quite an increase in demand for programmers in developed countries, as the economy marches ever towards the service sector.

The five most important elements of any computer program are

• Efficiency: the amount of system resources a program consumes-the less the better.
• Reliability: how often the results of a program are correct.
• Robustness: how well a program anticipates situations of data type conflict and other incompatibilities that result in run time errors and program halts.
• Usability: the clarity and intuitiveness of a programs’ output can make or break it’s success. This involves a wide range of textual and graphical elements that makes a program easy and comfortable to use.
• Portability: the range of hardware and OS platforms on which the source code of a program can be compiled and run.

The steps of development of a software program are usually:

• Requirements Analysis- what does the software need to do?
• Modeling- anticipating usage scenarios
• Implementation- bringing the software on line
• Failure Elimination- debugging and further testing

Bear these things in mind when you start you programming career- these are the most fundamental aspects of computer programming.  Keep these things in mind when you search for Irvine web developer jobs and you will be ahead of the game!

never looked back! The people, the weather, and the job market here are all just fantastic.  California is a great place to live and work, but there are some differences between working in California and working in other states.  You’ll want to take these into account during your first Cal jobs search.

Everyone loves taxes, right? RIGHT?? No, of course not, but we still need to discuss it here.  Employers in California can only deduct payroll taxes as required by law.  There are a lot of things they aren’t allowed to deduct from your paycheck, either- they can’t charge you for having a picture taken or for a work uniform, they can’t deduct your gratuities from your check, and they can’t charge you for “business expenses” or physical examinations as required for work.  Employers can’t charge you for “breakage”, either- they have to absorb that as part of the cost of doing business.

Minimum wage in California is also the highest in the nation, even higher than the Federal minimum wage.  Minimum wage out here is $8 an hour, which is pretty good if you consider that means you can make almost $1300 a month working at a very low-skilled job.  Of course, there are special stipulations for sheepherders, but since you probably aren’t a sheepherder we will gloss over those.  If there is ever a conflict between the State and Federal minimum wage, the tie goes to the employee and the employer must pay the higher wage.  Another interesting fact is that this law applies to servers, as well- whereas servers in other states make much less than minimum wage, based on the assumption that they will receive tips, in California they make the same minimum wage as anyone else- from $2.31 and hour to $8 an hour is quite a big step up!

Holidays in California may work differently than you’re used to, as well.  There is absolutely no requirement that an employer close down on any day of the year, nor is there a requirement that a Cal employer must pay extra to employees working on holidays.  Make sure that you bear this in mind when discussing your schedule with a potential employer- in California, Saturdays, Sundays and Holidays are nothing special, when it comes to extra pay.

You may not be used to this next fact, either, but Cal jobs are very specific about how your pay is disbursed, as well.  Employees must be paid on the 26^th of the month for all hours worked between the 1^st and 16^th of that same month, and on the 10^th day of the next month for all hours worded from the 16^th of the previous month through month end.  Also (this was a surprise to me), when you leave a job, all outstanding wages must be paid within 72 hours of the employee giving notice/working their last shift.

The biggest difference between California and where you currently work may be that California is an “at-will employment” state.  Employees are free to quit their jobs without cause, and likewise, employers are allowed to terminate their employees without cause, as well.  However, anti-discrimination laws still apply- you can’t be disciplined or let go based on any of the following criteria (as defined by the California Fair Employment and Housing Act): race, color, religion, national origin or ancestry, physical disability, mental disability or medical condition, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, age (as it applies to people over 40), pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.  Keep all of the above in mind when starting your cal jobs search and things should go swimmingly!