Alison Doyle

How to be a Job Interview Star

Do you have a job interview coming up?  Do you want to make a shining impression on the interviewer?

Here's how to take advantage of the opportunity you have to dazzle a potential employer in person and to be the star of the candidate pool.

Our Job Interview Videos series have advice for all levels of job seekers including on how to prepare for an interview, how to decide what to wear, how to present a professional image, and how to handle a phone interview. 

Take a look and find out how to leave the best impression with these job interview tips.

Related: Job Interview Questions and Answers | Job Interview Attire

Image Copyright James Tutor

Job Scams, Spam, and Junk

I know I'm not the only person who is tired of all the clutter in the career space. Those of us who have been around for a while are, to be blunt, appalled at some of the websites and individuals who are trying to make a buck from job seekers who can ill afford to waste even a few dollars in the worst job market in most of our lifetimes.

Job Scams

My list of job search scams is getting longer by the day and I can hardly keep track of the spam emails that job seekers get just because they posted their resume online.  The sad part is that it's hard to tell what's legitimate and what's not, even if you've been in the job search world for a while. For someone who is just starting out, it's really difficult to tell the difference.

Free Job Search Resources

I spend time every day deleting junk from my discussion forum and reminding job seekers that you do not need to pay to access job listings, to look at sample resumes and cover letters, or to get job search advice.  Everything you need to effectively job search is available free online. 

Job Search Services

What you might want to pay for, if funds allow, is for a professional resume writer, a career counselor, or a DVD or book or two to help with your job search.  That's different - you're paying for a product or service, not for something that's available elsewhere for free.

Related:  Free Job Search Help | Scam Warning Signs

Bad Job, New Job, No Job at All?

Do you have a bad job, the worst job ever, a new job, or no job at all? If you have a few minutes, I'd love to add your stories to our lists.  Also, the stories already posted are interested reading - from really sad unemployment stories to funny first job stories.

Unemployment Stories
Unemployed? Share your unemployment story and tell us about the job you lost, what it's like being unemployed, and what you might have learned while you're out of work. Read, as well, about others who are unemployed and what life has been like for them.
Share Your Unemployment Story

My First Job Stories
What was your first job? How did you get your first job? What did you love (or hate) about it? What did you learn from the experience?
Share Your First Job Story

How I Found a Job Stories
Finding a new job isn't easy, especially in a difficult economy. Share your job search success story and what you learned during your job search.
Share Your Job Search Story

Worst Job Stories
Have you had a really bad job? Share your worst job story and let us know what made it a bad job, what you learned, and how other people can avoid a bad job situation. If you'd like to include a photo, upload one to go along with your story. If you're still working at your bad job, don't include your last name or a photo!
Share Your Worst Job Story

10 Tips for Online Networking and Job Searching

 Anyone who is starting or building a career or actively job seeking should think about building an online professional presence – on LinkedIn, especially, and perhaps on Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites.  You don’t have to do it overnight. In fact, you can’t. 

Building an online presence is a process not an event and it will take you time to create. That said, taking the time to increase your visibility to clients, prospective employers, and networking contacts, is really important. 

If you haven't started yet, don't worry - these 10 tips for building an online presence to use to get started will help you get the ball rolling so yo can use your online presence to enhance your job search and grow your careers.

Related: Social Media and Your Job Search | Follow Alison on Twitter

Want a Snow Bum Job?

If you'd love to spend the winter being a snow bum on someone else's dime, here's your chance.   Sun Peaks Resort in British Columbia, Canada, is giving one person (skier or boarder) the chance to be the Sun Peaks Snow Bum for the winter 2009–2010 season.

Spend three months on the slopes with a free place to sleep, food to keep you energized, flights to get you here, plus outerwear, gear and a season’s pass for carving up the powder.

Social media skills are a must and the winner will have a chance to bolster their resume and their online presences by communicating on social media platforms, including, but not limited to, Facebook™, Twitter™, YouTube™ and the official Snow Bum blog, and participate in media stories about the contest or other Sun Peaks content.

Here's how to apply:
http://www.snowbumcanada.com/

10 Tips to Jump Start Your Job Search

Need to get your job search moving?  From tapping your connections to targeting your cover letters, these 10 tips to jump start your job search will help you get started on a job search or help you get your job search in gear, if you're not getting as much action as you'd like to see.

More Job Search Tips

• Cover Letters
• Resume Writing
• Finding a New Job
• Job Interviews
• Using LinkedIn

Real-Time Jobs iPhone App

TwitterJobSearch, the Twitter job search engine, has just released a new iPhone app - Real-Time Jobs.  TwitterJobSearch's QuickPitch tech platform allows job seekers to find and apply for these jobs with a single tap on their iPhone.

In addition to providing real-time mobile job searching, the app marks the introduction of the company's QuickPitch technology. Job seekers can attach an online resume or CV, social media profile, and/or a video CV to job offers that have been posted to Twitter with a single click. 

"To develop a complete mobile solution, we had to move the entire recruitment process to the cloud," says Bill Fischer, co-founder of TwitterJobSearch. "By bringing together our real-time search capabilities with our QuickPitch platform, we're aiming to re-invent a job search process that simply requires too much effort."

More: Real-Time Jobs App | iPhone Job Search Apps

Top Job Search Tips

Need job search help? These job search quick tips will help you get your resume written, your cover letters composed, your job search on track, and your networking efforts focused.

Top Ten Tips For...

Cover Letters
Resume Writing
CVs
Finding a New Job
Job Interviews
Using LinkedIn
What (and What Not) to do When Job Search

 

Help Wanted: $10K Bathroom Job - Must Tweet

If you're looking for a holiday season job and you want to earn a lot of money, relatively speaking, for working just from late November through New York's Eve, you're comfortable with social media, video, and sharing potty stories, this job might just be for you (really).

Charmin has launched a national job search to find five outgoing and enthusiastic people to work in New York City's Times Square Charmin Restrooms this holiday season for a salary of $10,000 each,

The five chosen "Charmin Ambassadors" will interact with hundreds of thousands of restroom guests, while getting paid to revel in their own "love of the loo." This isn't your ordinary 9 AM - 5 PM job, and Charmin only asks that candidates should enjoy going to the bathroom so much - whether it be to catch up on reading or just enjoy some "me time" - they never want to leave.

Charmin will conduct open auditions at New York City's Hilton Hotel on 53rd Street and 6th Avenue on Thursday, November 5 from 10 AM - 6 PM. Judges will be asking candidates to explain why they "enjoy the go" and why they should be selected as a "Charmin Ambassador." The winners will be announced at the opening day for the Charmin Restrooms on Monday, November 23.

For more details about the "Charmin Ambassador" job opportunity and the open auditions, visit www.EnjoyTheGo.com.

Share Your Stories

Do you have time to share your story?  I've received some really sad unemployment stories.  They are heartbreaking to read, but really give us good insight into how tough the job market is and how difficult it is to be unemployed.   I've also received some great first job and worst stories already - from princesses to paper boys and they are fun to read.

Unemployment Stories
Unemployed? Share your unemployment story and tell us about the job you lost, what it's like being unemployed, and what you might have learned while you're out of work. Read, as well, about others who are unemployed and what life has been like for them.
Share Your Unemployment Story

My First Job Stories
What was your first job? How did you get your first job? What did you love (or hate) about it? What did you learn from the experience?
Share Your First Job Story

How I Found a Job Stories
Finding a new job isn't easy, especially in a difficult economy. Share your job search success story and what you learned during your job search.
Share Your Job Search Story

Worst Job Stories
Have you had a really bad job? Share your worst job story and let us know what made it a bad job, what you learned, and how other people can avoid a bad job situation. If you'd like to include a photo, upload one to go along with your story. If you're still working at your bad job, don't include your last name or a photo!
Share Your Worst Job Story