In tough economic times, people's worries naturally turn to keeping their jobs. It's no fun to get a pink slip on a Friday afternoon announcing that you no longer work where you thought you did. It's gotten bad enough that even employers formerly thought of as bulletproof (Google, for example) are laying off large numbers of employees. Some retail outlets like Circuit City are closing their doors outright, and others such as Kay Bee Toys and Wilson's Leather are closing huge portions of their retail operations. Even the government, an employment sector once thought of as totally secure, is contracting and laying people off. Is there any way, in such difficult economic circumstances, to make yourself immune to your employer's cost-cutting considerations? Along with keeping active in your job search and frequently checking online job listings, there is one other huge step you can take, too.
One sure way you can let your employer know how valuable you are, is to educate yourself. Put yourself in your employer's shoes- if you had two employees, both equally qualified, equally experienced, and equally salaried and benefited, wouldn't you want to retain the one with a higher level of education? Employers want workers that constantly strive to better themselves by increasing their knowledge- some employers even provide tuition reimbursement all the way up to 100% of the final cost! Higher education allows employees to learn as much about their chosen industry as possible, and that's in both the employees and the employers best interest.
It may seem like an impossibility to keep up with a full time job, stay abreast of the demands of friends and family, and attend college, simultaneously. It can be difficult, but it's not impossible- one only has to look at the large number of people attending law school at night to see that. Technology has presented us with another alternative- distance education, or home schooling, for higher education. You can earn a degree in much less time than you thought possible, and from the comfort of wherever you keep your computer! Online education provides a quality learning experience while allowing students to avoid the hassles associated with the traditional brick-and-mortar classroom such as buying textbooks, finding parking, dressing up to be presentable to peers, and adhering to a rigid schedule- all at a cost that's comparable to that of classes in traditional educational settings.
Most distance learning requires you to read an electronic textbook (often included in the price of tuition), complete assignments, and participate in discussion groups via message board or email several times per week. You will also have to collaborate on group assignments, as well, so you'll need a way to stay in touch with fellow classmates, such as Instant Messenger or an IRC chat room. The biggest advantage to distance learning is that you can do it on your own schedule- you can log in and do your daily reading, discussion and research after the kids are down and the dishes are done, for example. It's not prohibitively expensive, either, costs of home school online education are about the same (maybe a little bit higher) than costs of attending physical, brick-and-mortar classes.
It will take quite a bit of internal motivation and a strong, self-driven sense of responsibility, as well as self-discipline to succeed, as well. You're going to have to be tough on yourself- no classes to attend means no instructors to harangue you or remind you about assignments, so you're going to have to keep abreast of things all on your own. If this sounds like something you can handle, you should ask your employer about reimbursement for online education- everyone wins!
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Monday, November 10, 2008
HR Search Engine Optimization
The ultimate goal of any HR Search Engine Optimization (SEO) campaign is twofold.
1. Increase the number of highly qualified and targeted job seekers to your corporate career website.
2. Increase an employer’s brand, through obtaining high search engine rankings for pages that contain content related to the keyword strings that job seekers are using to search for jobs.
It seems like every day a new company is trying to get into the HR SEO business. Most of these vendors are selling the same product or service, something along the lines of “we will pull your jobs from your ATS, create a micro-site that optimizes those jobs, and then send the candidates to your ATS”.
This approach will result in optimized pages that the search engines will find; however, it’s not meeting the two stated goals of any SEO campaign. This on its own will not lead to more job seekers applying for your open positions. No job seekers will find these pages- it’s not enough just to structure a page so that Google can see it, you have to actively get back links, as well- so no brand authority will be achieved.
Here is why.
You absolutely have to have pages that are optimized for keyword phrases that job seekers are actually using in their job hunt. If no one on Google is using the phrase “electronic assembly jobs in Des Moines, Iowa” (and they aren’t) in the search engines, it doesn’t matter how much time or money you put into optimizing that page- because no one is searching that keyword phrase. No one searching means no one finding your pages means no one applying to your jobs. When was the last time you searched Google and went to Page 2 of the results? Chances are, not very often. In fact, some results show that this happens less than 10% of the time. Top 10 and Top 20 rankings are all that really matter. In fact, when optimizing for any “search string” that has 4 or more words in it, page 2 doesn’t even matter, because there are so few people searching on these phrases, (i.e. “search traffic”), that 10% of 100 searches in a month is only 10 people… That is NOT going to drive candidates to your website.
So is there anything out there that does work?
The first step you have to take is to do research on keywords- in other words, researching a list of potential keyword search strings and using your research to develop a litany of “keyword phrases” your target audience is likely to use to search for jobs. It’s only after you’ve done this research that you can begin working on designing a “landing page” for your jobs, specifically constructed to rank highly on Google and other search engines for the keyword strings your target audience is using. It’s important enough to stress again- the key to SEO is knowing what keyword phrases your jobseekers are using to look for jobs in the search engines. Only after you know that information can you start designing pages around targeted, highly relevant keyword strings. After your page has been optimized, typically, an SEO vendor will help to “submit” and promote the page with Google, Yahoo!, MSN, etc.
It’s not a difficult process.
THAT’S NOT ENOUGH THOUGH! Taking the above steps will probably get you into Google’s index- but not on page 1 of the search engine results. If it’s a competitive phrase, you probably won’t be on page 2, 3 or 4, either. The last part of the SEO process is the most critical, hardest, most difficult and expensive process. Without the proper marketing of your career site and landing pages, your pages are the same as everyone else’s. In order to be an “authority” (and therefore, in the top of the search engines) you need to have other, quality websites link to your pages.
In summary, there are 3 critical steps in SEO:
1. Conducting keyword research to figure out how to build your brand and drive traffic.
2. Design and create a web page optimized for those keywords.
3. Implementing a landing page marketing strategy to build credibility and authority to these new web pages.
Any SEO strategy that does not make use of all 3 of these aspects is destined to fail, and that failure will be measured by the distinct lack of new job seekers to your SEO micro site or career site.
1. Increase the number of highly qualified and targeted job seekers to your corporate career website.
2. Increase an employer’s brand, through obtaining high search engine rankings for pages that contain content related to the keyword strings that job seekers are using to search for jobs.
It seems like every day a new company is trying to get into the HR SEO business. Most of these vendors are selling the same product or service, something along the lines of “we will pull your jobs from your ATS, create a micro-site that optimizes those jobs, and then send the candidates to your ATS”.
This approach will result in optimized pages that the search engines will find; however, it’s not meeting the two stated goals of any SEO campaign. This on its own will not lead to more job seekers applying for your open positions. No job seekers will find these pages- it’s not enough just to structure a page so that Google can see it, you have to actively get back links, as well- so no brand authority will be achieved.
Here is why.
You absolutely have to have pages that are optimized for keyword phrases that job seekers are actually using in their job hunt. If no one on Google is using the phrase “electronic assembly jobs in Des Moines, Iowa” (and they aren’t) in the search engines, it doesn’t matter how much time or money you put into optimizing that page- because no one is searching that keyword phrase. No one searching means no one finding your pages means no one applying to your jobs. When was the last time you searched Google and went to Page 2 of the results? Chances are, not very often. In fact, some results show that this happens less than 10% of the time. Top 10 and Top 20 rankings are all that really matter. In fact, when optimizing for any “search string” that has 4 or more words in it, page 2 doesn’t even matter, because there are so few people searching on these phrases, (i.e. “search traffic”), that 10% of 100 searches in a month is only 10 people… That is NOT going to drive candidates to your website.
So is there anything out there that does work?
The first step you have to take is to do research on keywords- in other words, researching a list of potential keyword search strings and using your research to develop a litany of “keyword phrases” your target audience is likely to use to search for jobs. It’s only after you’ve done this research that you can begin working on designing a “landing page” for your jobs, specifically constructed to rank highly on Google and other search engines for the keyword strings your target audience is using. It’s important enough to stress again- the key to SEO is knowing what keyword phrases your jobseekers are using to look for jobs in the search engines. Only after you know that information can you start designing pages around targeted, highly relevant keyword strings. After your page has been optimized, typically, an SEO vendor will help to “submit” and promote the page with Google, Yahoo!, MSN, etc.
It’s not a difficult process.
THAT’S NOT ENOUGH THOUGH! Taking the above steps will probably get you into Google’s index- but not on page 1 of the search engine results. If it’s a competitive phrase, you probably won’t be on page 2, 3 or 4, either. The last part of the SEO process is the most critical, hardest, most difficult and expensive process. Without the proper marketing of your career site and landing pages, your pages are the same as everyone else’s. In order to be an “authority” (and therefore, in the top of the search engines) you need to have other, quality websites link to your pages.
In summary, there are 3 critical steps in SEO:
1. Conducting keyword research to figure out how to build your brand and drive traffic.
2. Design and create a web page optimized for those keywords.
3. Implementing a landing page marketing strategy to build credibility and authority to these new web pages.
Any SEO strategy that does not make use of all 3 of these aspects is destined to fail, and that failure will be measured by the distinct lack of new job seekers to your SEO micro site or career site.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Anchorage Alaska Jobs
Are you in the market for Anchorage Alaska jobs? The good news is that our northernmost state has plenty of work available for engineers.
It wasn't always easy to attract quality engineers to work in Alaska, what with the state's long winters and dark daylight hours and relative lack of creature comforts. Even though there are a lot of things not to like about Alaska on the face of it, Alaska experienced tremendous growth in the second half of the 20th century, with cities such as Anchorage growing by as much as 13 times, due largely to engineering feats such as the securing of a clean, reliable, unfrozen water supply, increasing amounts of well-paved roads, and the implementation of gravity sewers. Another major factor was the building of a huge natural gas pipeline from the Kenai fields, which gave the professional community working %LINK3% access to a clean, reliable, safe source of energy, making the dangerous yet ubiquitous floor stove obsolete. What did all of these projects have in common? They needed skilled engineers to be successfully carried out!
Engineers are in high demand in Alaska; the state's environmental challenges ensure that there will always be engineering tasks to carry out. All one has to do is look at any industry-specific publication, Association web site, or engineering job board to determine that engineers and surveyors are always going to be in demand in America's northernmost state. There are surely more Alaska engineering jobs available than there are people to fill them, as people in the industry are reporting an increase in the amount of firms trying to lure them away from positions they already hold to work %LINK2% instead. This is a natural outcome of the fact that engineers are always needed no matter what the economic climate may be.
The outlook for Anchorage jobs is good for several reasons, the first being that an increasing amount of Federal money is being allocated for new projects in oil and gas acquisition there. Expansion of infrastructure, construction of utility pipelines and the desire to exploit new sources of oil and natural gas ensure that there will be many large-scale engineering projects going on in Alaska, and for quite a while as well. Among young people, engineering isn't really seen as a "cool" or desirable profession, so as older veteran engineers retire, there are fewer college graduates coming in behind them to take their jobs.
Alaska has a very extreme climate, and along with that there are limited transportation networks and logistical infrastructure. All of Alaska's' difficult working conditions crystallize to forma need for increasingly ingenuous engineers- you won't be working in a cube; instead, you'll be out in the field on the cutting edge of design, earning the respect of those who understand the difficult challenges of working ion Alaska.
It wasn't always easy to attract quality engineers to work in Alaska, what with the state's long winters and dark daylight hours and relative lack of creature comforts. Even though there are a lot of things not to like about Alaska on the face of it, Alaska experienced tremendous growth in the second half of the 20th century, with cities such as Anchorage growing by as much as 13 times, due largely to engineering feats such as the securing of a clean, reliable, unfrozen water supply, increasing amounts of well-paved roads, and the implementation of gravity sewers. Another major factor was the building of a huge natural gas pipeline from the Kenai fields, which gave the professional community working %LINK3% access to a clean, reliable, safe source of energy, making the dangerous yet ubiquitous floor stove obsolete. What did all of these projects have in common? They needed skilled engineers to be successfully carried out!
Engineers are in high demand in Alaska; the state's environmental challenges ensure that there will always be engineering tasks to carry out. All one has to do is look at any industry-specific publication, Association web site, or engineering job board to determine that engineers and surveyors are always going to be in demand in America's northernmost state. There are surely more Alaska engineering jobs available than there are people to fill them, as people in the industry are reporting an increase in the amount of firms trying to lure them away from positions they already hold to work %LINK2% instead. This is a natural outcome of the fact that engineers are always needed no matter what the economic climate may be.
The outlook for Anchorage jobs is good for several reasons, the first being that an increasing amount of Federal money is being allocated for new projects in oil and gas acquisition there. Expansion of infrastructure, construction of utility pipelines and the desire to exploit new sources of oil and natural gas ensure that there will be many large-scale engineering projects going on in Alaska, and for quite a while as well. Among young people, engineering isn't really seen as a "cool" or desirable profession, so as older veteran engineers retire, there are fewer college graduates coming in behind them to take their jobs.
Alaska has a very extreme climate, and along with that there are limited transportation networks and logistical infrastructure. All of Alaska's' difficult working conditions crystallize to forma need for increasingly ingenuous engineers- you won't be working in a cube; instead, you'll be out in the field on the cutting edge of design, earning the respect of those who understand the difficult challenges of working ion Alaska.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Start your Career Nursing by Reading This Article!
If you were enrolling in a nurse training program in the mid to late 1990's, you probably heard that you were really in for it, training for a difficult jobs- you also probably heard that with all these nurse training schools popping up, it was going to be very hard to start a career nursing, as there just weren't enough jobs to go around.
Not any more! For a long time, people who studied the healthcare industry said that there might be a reversal of fortune, and there has been. Gradually, care providers such as nursing homes and hospitals, who depended on nurses to operate, came to realize that as nurses left their jobs they were becoming more and more difficult to replace. This has led to a severe shortage in the number of nurses available in the US- and the situation is getting worse. The shortage of qualified nurses is a global problem, meaning that health care providers have to compete on a world-wide scale to fill nursing positions.
The benefit of the shortage, to nurses, will be an improved future work environment, as employers try to better conditions in order to attract quality candidates. However, in the short-term, it's putting a lot of strain on everyone and may actually exacerbate the frustrations nurses may have, which may cause them to not only leave their jobs but also discourage others from becoming nurses.
In order to ensure that the current crisis in nursing does not continue much further into the future, the two areas of retention and recruitment need to be addressed. This article will take a look at some of the topics that come up among nurses when it comes to addressing these issues.
With up to 40% of the nursing workforce expected to retire over the next 10 years, it's very important to keep the younger members of the profession happy, so that the current crisis in the field can be halted.
A common complaint among nurses is that they don't get the respect they are entitled to, as most people (especially those within the medical community) see nursing as less of a "profession" and more of a "job". This is particularly bad when it comes to the case of physicians, as they have been guilty in the past of giving nurses the impression that they are there simply to carry out the doctor's orders. Only now that the profession is hemorrhaging people does the system realize how integral nursing is to the healthcare system, and that nurses should be awarded the same respect as doctors, respiratory techs or other medical professionals. The general public is also becoming more aware of this reality.
Nurses are often short on respect, but the current nursing shortage is changing that. After all, the amount of education required to have a career nursing is the same as that required to earn a B.A., M.A., or earn any other undergraduate degree!
Another oft-cited concern of professional nurses is that the conditions in their places of work are very poor. In this case, work conditions do not apply to the many different situations a nurse will have to put up with from patients during a course of a day; rather, they concern areas of the job that are directly informed by management policy, such as hours of work, nurse to patient ratio, the use of support staff, and the condition of equipment.
The average work week of a nurse in the United States will consist of a combination of both day and night shifts. While it is simply not possible to run a facility without a night shift of nurses, what is being suggested in many areas is that pay levels are increased for the less desirable and more difficult night shifts. Many facilities are also looking at rearranging the work schedule, so that night shifts are not as long as the day shift, perhaps including a transition shift.
As the government continues to ramp up medical spending, the concerns of nurses with regards to support staff and equipment will gradually alleviate. Nursing is a job that requires a lot of lifting, so it's important that hospital equipment is available to assist nurses with this endeavor, if they are to work the full span of a nursing career at a healthy level of fitness. Often, nurses report that they are taking care of duties that could be better performed by a receptionist or orderly, and healthcare providers are going to have to juggle their budgets to be able to afford the support staff that their nurses need.
In the short term, the nurse to patient ratio will continue to be the biggest problem concerning both nurses and patients. The nursing shortage means that most facilities cannot fill vacant positions needed in order to bring the ratio down to a level that nurses are comfortable with. However, by properly addressing the issue, there is hope that this situation can be resolved.
Recruitment of nurses is the second vital area in the future of nursing. This area will see a marked attempt to train more nurses as well as efforts by all facilities to offer enticing deals to attract nurses to positions within them. Those that do not or cannot offer sufficiently attractive enticements will find that they do not have the nursing staff necessary to run their facilities.
Unfortunately, universities and colleges are not graduating enough nurses quickly enough, to replace those that are leaving the profession. Further complicating things is the fact that many of them are not going to work in traditional nursing workplaces such as hospitals but are instead choosing relatively lower-stress jobs with higher levels of pay such as nursing homes or incarceration facilities.
In order to improve the patient to nurse ratio that is such a common complaint among nurses, it is vital to increase the number of students coming out of nursing schools across the country. Universities and colleges need to have the funding available to create these spaces. In addition, facilities and governments will have to offer programs such as student loan forgiveness programs in order to attract potential students to the profession.
In the last decade there has been much growth in so called "secondary industries" targeted towards nurses, such as nursing agencies and travel nursing programs. Both of these types of organization hire their own nurses and then contract them out to facilities in need; as a result, these nurses are generally higher paid than their traditionally-employed counterparts and they also enjoy the benefit of changing their workplace frequently, often with travel expenses fully paid. Medical institutions are going to have to match these kinds of benefits to attract quality nurses.
As far as the nursing profession goes, the long term future is bright. The current shortage allows a graduating nurse to virtually write his or her own ticket. In addition, the shortage is expected to grow worse, which has pushed the concerns of nurses into the public spotlight. In order to alleviate the shortage, governments and facilities will have no choice but to meet the concerns of nurses in order to keep them at their jobs.
Alternatively, the future of the nursing profession may lie within nursing agencies. Unless facilities and governments realize that the concerns of nurses need to be met at the ground level, new and established nurses alike will continue to gravitate towards the pay and flexibility that these agencies offer.
I hope you've found this discussion useful, and it's obvious that a career nursing is something that needs to be thought about pretty seriously. Good luck!
Not any more! For a long time, people who studied the healthcare industry said that there might be a reversal of fortune, and there has been. Gradually, care providers such as nursing homes and hospitals, who depended on nurses to operate, came to realize that as nurses left their jobs they were becoming more and more difficult to replace. This has led to a severe shortage in the number of nurses available in the US- and the situation is getting worse. The shortage of qualified nurses is a global problem, meaning that health care providers have to compete on a world-wide scale to fill nursing positions.
The benefit of the shortage, to nurses, will be an improved future work environment, as employers try to better conditions in order to attract quality candidates. However, in the short-term, it's putting a lot of strain on everyone and may actually exacerbate the frustrations nurses may have, which may cause them to not only leave their jobs but also discourage others from becoming nurses.
In order to ensure that the current crisis in nursing does not continue much further into the future, the two areas of retention and recruitment need to be addressed. This article will take a look at some of the topics that come up among nurses when it comes to addressing these issues.
With up to 40% of the nursing workforce expected to retire over the next 10 years, it's very important to keep the younger members of the profession happy, so that the current crisis in the field can be halted.
A common complaint among nurses is that they don't get the respect they are entitled to, as most people (especially those within the medical community) see nursing as less of a "profession" and more of a "job". This is particularly bad when it comes to the case of physicians, as they have been guilty in the past of giving nurses the impression that they are there simply to carry out the doctor's orders. Only now that the profession is hemorrhaging people does the system realize how integral nursing is to the healthcare system, and that nurses should be awarded the same respect as doctors, respiratory techs or other medical professionals. The general public is also becoming more aware of this reality.
Nurses are often short on respect, but the current nursing shortage is changing that. After all, the amount of education required to have a career nursing is the same as that required to earn a B.A., M.A., or earn any other undergraduate degree!
Another oft-cited concern of professional nurses is that the conditions in their places of work are very poor. In this case, work conditions do not apply to the many different situations a nurse will have to put up with from patients during a course of a day; rather, they concern areas of the job that are directly informed by management policy, such as hours of work, nurse to patient ratio, the use of support staff, and the condition of equipment.
The average work week of a nurse in the United States will consist of a combination of both day and night shifts. While it is simply not possible to run a facility without a night shift of nurses, what is being suggested in many areas is that pay levels are increased for the less desirable and more difficult night shifts. Many facilities are also looking at rearranging the work schedule, so that night shifts are not as long as the day shift, perhaps including a transition shift.
As the government continues to ramp up medical spending, the concerns of nurses with regards to support staff and equipment will gradually alleviate. Nursing is a job that requires a lot of lifting, so it's important that hospital equipment is available to assist nurses with this endeavor, if they are to work the full span of a nursing career at a healthy level of fitness. Often, nurses report that they are taking care of duties that could be better performed by a receptionist or orderly, and healthcare providers are going to have to juggle their budgets to be able to afford the support staff that their nurses need.
In the short term, the nurse to patient ratio will continue to be the biggest problem concerning both nurses and patients. The nursing shortage means that most facilities cannot fill vacant positions needed in order to bring the ratio down to a level that nurses are comfortable with. However, by properly addressing the issue, there is hope that this situation can be resolved.
Recruitment of nurses is the second vital area in the future of nursing. This area will see a marked attempt to train more nurses as well as efforts by all facilities to offer enticing deals to attract nurses to positions within them. Those that do not or cannot offer sufficiently attractive enticements will find that they do not have the nursing staff necessary to run their facilities.
Unfortunately, universities and colleges are not graduating enough nurses quickly enough, to replace those that are leaving the profession. Further complicating things is the fact that many of them are not going to work in traditional nursing workplaces such as hospitals but are instead choosing relatively lower-stress jobs with higher levels of pay such as nursing homes or incarceration facilities.
In order to improve the patient to nurse ratio that is such a common complaint among nurses, it is vital to increase the number of students coming out of nursing schools across the country. Universities and colleges need to have the funding available to create these spaces. In addition, facilities and governments will have to offer programs such as student loan forgiveness programs in order to attract potential students to the profession.
In the last decade there has been much growth in so called "secondary industries" targeted towards nurses, such as nursing agencies and travel nursing programs. Both of these types of organization hire their own nurses and then contract them out to facilities in need; as a result, these nurses are generally higher paid than their traditionally-employed counterparts and they also enjoy the benefit of changing their workplace frequently, often with travel expenses fully paid. Medical institutions are going to have to match these kinds of benefits to attract quality nurses.
As far as the nursing profession goes, the long term future is bright. The current shortage allows a graduating nurse to virtually write his or her own ticket. In addition, the shortage is expected to grow worse, which has pushed the concerns of nurses into the public spotlight. In order to alleviate the shortage, governments and facilities will have no choice but to meet the concerns of nurses in order to keep them at their jobs.
Alternatively, the future of the nursing profession may lie within nursing agencies. Unless facilities and governments realize that the concerns of nurses need to be met at the ground level, new and established nurses alike will continue to gravitate towards the pay and flexibility that these agencies offer.
I hope you've found this discussion useful, and it's obvious that a career nursing is something that needs to be thought about pretty seriously. Good luck!
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Use Caution When Applying to Jobs.com Websites!
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.
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.
Monday, September 1, 2008
Personal Privacy- Internet Jobs Search and your resume!
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 internet jobs search 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 website. Read their privacy policy carefully, primarily to figure out if they repost your resume to other Internet jobs sites. 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 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.
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 website. Read their privacy policy carefully, primarily to figure out if they repost your resume to other Internet jobs sites. 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 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.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Information For Health Care Jobs Seekers
Welcome back if you're a returning visitor and just plain welcome, if you're new! As you know if you've been here before, this is where I give advice to job seekers. Today, I am featuring an article about the US healthcare system, designed to give those looking for health care jobs a high-altitude view of the industry as a whole. Let's get started!
In the US, a diverse selection of individuals and legal entities pay for health care- patients are offered both inpatient and outpatient services by charitable, commercial, or governmental entities. The healthcare system is funded by a mix of public and private funding, with the government picking up about 45% of the total annual cost.
There is also a huge market in the US for medical devices, medicines and medical research and development. Most spending on medical R and D is privately funded; however, non-profit organizations and the government provide some funding as well. Most medical research and development for direct medical application is conducted in commercial labs, and most general research is funded by the government (for example, the National Institute of Mental Health) or by universities.,
The law uses a "fee for service" business model when it comes to healthcare similar to other service industries, meaning that the patient must pay out-of-pocket, in full, for all medical treatment rendered. If a patient has insurance, they will pay a set monthly premium that will help pay most of the cost of medical treatment, however, a deductible (a minimum part of the total cost) is usually paid up front. Alternatively, the patient may have to pay a "co-payment"- a small part of the cost of every procedure.,
Most health care coverage provided through a person's work is provided through managed care organizations which pay much lower prices for medical services than an individual would if they paid out of pocket. The thing that makes managed care different from traditional insurance is that the health plan organization has contracts with specific health care providers, as the managed care organization is able to bring their numbers to bear to negotiate price reductions.
There are many individuals that are not covered by private insurance, but are covered by government programs such as Medicaid (which provides care to the poor), Medicare (which provides care for the elderly and disabled), or the Veterans Administration (which provides care to veterans, their families and survivors). In 2006, Medicaid provided coverage for 38 million Americans while Medicare did the same for about 40 million. Another 11 million people are eligible for coverage but are not enrolled in any kind of government program.
The number of physicians accepting Medicaid has decreased over the past decade due to high administrative costs and low levels of reimbursement. Another program, the State Children's Health Insurance Program was created in 1997 to provide coverage for children in families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid yet can't afford to buy health insurance- however, this program is already losing funding in may states.
Thank you for taking the time to read my article, and if you liked it won't you leave a comment? I hope you are well served in your health care jobs search by my advice- feel free to contact me if you'd like to discuss the healthcare industry in general!
In the US, a diverse selection of individuals and legal entities pay for health care- patients are offered both inpatient and outpatient services by charitable, commercial, or governmental entities. The healthcare system is funded by a mix of public and private funding, with the government picking up about 45% of the total annual cost.
There is also a huge market in the US for medical devices, medicines and medical research and development. Most spending on medical R and D is privately funded; however, non-profit organizations and the government provide some funding as well. Most medical research and development for direct medical application is conducted in commercial labs, and most general research is funded by the government (for example, the National Institute of Mental Health) or by universities.,
The law uses a "fee for service" business model when it comes to healthcare similar to other service industries, meaning that the patient must pay out-of-pocket, in full, for all medical treatment rendered. If a patient has insurance, they will pay a set monthly premium that will help pay most of the cost of medical treatment, however, a deductible (a minimum part of the total cost) is usually paid up front. Alternatively, the patient may have to pay a "co-payment"- a small part of the cost of every procedure.,
Most health care coverage provided through a person's work is provided through managed care organizations which pay much lower prices for medical services than an individual would if they paid out of pocket. The thing that makes managed care different from traditional insurance is that the health plan organization has contracts with specific health care providers, as the managed care organization is able to bring their numbers to bear to negotiate price reductions.
There are many individuals that are not covered by private insurance, but are covered by government programs such as Medicaid (which provides care to the poor), Medicare (which provides care for the elderly and disabled), or the Veterans Administration (which provides care to veterans, their families and survivors). In 2006, Medicaid provided coverage for 38 million Americans while Medicare did the same for about 40 million. Another 11 million people are eligible for coverage but are not enrolled in any kind of government program.
The number of physicians accepting Medicaid has decreased over the past decade due to high administrative costs and low levels of reimbursement. Another program, the State Children's Health Insurance Program was created in 1997 to provide coverage for children in families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid yet can't afford to buy health insurance- however, this program is already losing funding in may states.
Thank you for taking the time to read my article, and if you liked it won't you leave a comment? I hope you are well served in your health care jobs search by my advice- feel free to contact me if you'd like to discuss the healthcare industry in general!
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