Friday, October 10, 2008

In Search Of A Sample Cover For Employment

The fastest way to turn yourself into a job-getter, as oppose to a job-hunter, is by writing a custom cover letter. By avoiding cover letter samples for employment, one is increasing their chances of results. It is without question that a company receives hundreds of resumes, e-mails, and telephone calls concerning an available position. A cover letter is the way a hiring manager singles out those who do not fit the job specifications, or have what the company is looking for. If an applicant uses a sample cover letter for employment, then they are saying to the hiring manager “I am lazy. I may or may not do the job I’m applying for, depending on my mood, and I really have no interest in this position”. Worse yet, the hiring manager may see the applicant has unoriginal or having poor communication skills. The latter is by far the worse of the attributes one could have assigned to them by using a sample cover letter for employment.

One of the ways to get a hiring manager’s attention right off the bat, and what a sample cover letter could never have, is by addressing the cover letter to an actual person. Find out who is overseeing the hiring process for the company one is applying to, and then use that advantage in the cover letter. It is much more likely to stick in the mind of the hiring manager that someone took the initiative to find out who they were going to be dealing with than that stuffy generic heading of “To Whom it May Concern” or “Dear Sir/Madame” of a sample cover letter for employment. After awhile, the hiring manager starts to hear the teacher from Charlie Brown.

How To Resign From Your Current Construction Employment?

Resigning from any construction employment can be daunting and there are certainly right and wrong ways of going about it. When you resign you are doing nothing wrong no matter how nervous and scared you may be before having to talk to your boss. So, should you go about it?

Firstly, a written resignation should be thought about to avoid any miss understanding that could arise. Your statement of resignation should say that you have decided to leave your current construction job, that you have enjoyed your time at the company and state the date when you will be leaving (bearing in mind your notice period). This will be kept on file as a reference.

Once you have written your resignation, ask your construction manager if you can speak to them in private. Take it with you and resign orally to your manager. Always remain calm, positive and polite, keeping it simple and to the point. Be prepared for any kind of reaction, as you do not know how they may react. Your construction manager may be the worst manager you have ever had to deal with but that does not give you an excuse to resign shouting and screaming obscenities at them and expressing your hate for the company. This will ruin any chances of a reference in the future and you do not want to burn any bridges.

Neither before nor after you speak to your boss should you tell your colleagues a different reason for why you are leaving the role. Again, this is because you do not want to burn any bridges after leaving. If something else gets back to your construction manager, then it will not bear well.

A final thing to remember is, always work hard right up until the day you are due to leave. References can be extremely important to your future construction job search and you do not want to loose out on the potential of getting some high-quality backing. Sometimes you will not be accepted for construction employment without valid references, so try to take note of the above when you resign.

Part-time Freelance Employment: Is It For You?

More people are finding freelance employment outside of their regular day jobs. They leave the security of their regular employment to move on to the challenges of freelance employment. Freelancing has become a career choice for many people who enjoy the benefits that it offers. Freelancers often attribute their interest to freelance employment to the following factors:

• Wider range of job opportunities;
• Fast turnaround of projects;
• More freedom to choose projects of choice;
• More flexibility to work on different jobs on a simultaneous basis; and
• High income rates

Do you have what it takes to freelance? Before you take the plunge and begin the journey of working at home, read through the following steps.

1. Determine the amount of money you’ll need to earn to sustain your expenses. If you have a day job now, you will save a lot of money once you make your shift to freelance employment. If you begin to work at home, you will save a lot of money from commuting, food, taxes, and more.

2. Take a self-assessment test. List all of your skills and experiences. Include your hobbies and interests; doing this will determine what types of freelance jobs you can handle. Do you keep a personal website? Then perhaps you can freelance as a website designer? Do you keep a personal blog? Maybe you can freelance as a writer or blogger? If you know how to conduct searches on the Internet, you can write about any topic that may be given to you.

Benefits Of Work At Home And Self-employment

When we start a work at home business there are dreams of working in our pajamas, sleeping late, and retiring early. Most of these expectations fall outside of reality. However, there are some tangible advantages like moving to the cottage for the summer, and working on your laptop from the dock. Property investors and tourism writers can travel the world – tax free.

The most common benefit that attracts people to work at home businesses is the opportunity to stay with family, and reduce expenses. Eliminating the fast food lunches, new clothing every season, driving to work, parking, baby sitting, cell phones, blackberry fees, and beauty parlor/barber fees can reduce a household's bills by more than $10 000 - $15 000. Add a second vehicle, insurance, maintenance, and fuel, and the yearly savings from a work at home position can reach $20 000.

This means that a work at home professional can earn $20 000 less than they would make if they worked out, and still break even. Earning $20 000 from a work at home position, $400 a week, is the same as an office job which earns $800 a week, in many professions.

One main reason for working at home is vacation time. While many work at home professionals do not take long vacations, the freedom to take a vacation when you want to, is worth the effort needed to establish a business.

The biggest advantage is telling people that you are running a business instead of starting one. A franchise or a brick-and-mortar business takes five years to establish. Most business gurus tell new business owners that they must reinvest all the profits from a business for five years before the business is stable.

Tips On Obtaining Employment In Spain

If you are considering living in Spain, you will need to find employment and finding certain jobs in Spain can be tough depending on the area you want to live and your vocation. Generally, you will find more job opportunities in larger cities, but regardless of where you will live, you must start gathering information and begin you search early.

First, you will need to decide the area in which you want to work and live. You are more likely to find a job with a decent salary if you focus on the larger cities such as Barcelona and Madrid. Visiting the regions and cities in Spain will help you in your decision of where to live.

You will need to be in Spain at some point during your job search since this is the best way to find the employment for which you are seeking. Having a local address on you resume will, more likely than not, make your search much more effective and efficient. If you have family or friends in Spain, you may want to use their address on your resume. Likewise, you should consider getting a cell phone with a local number from Spain, since potential employers will need a way to contact you and the necessity of incurring long-distance charges may detour that employer from making initial contact. List this cell phone number on your resume and include an email address as well. The easier it is for employers to contact you, the better chance you have of getting an interview and the job.

The job market for certain occupations may be very competitive in some areas. This is especially true for jobs listed on employment websites, as some jobs receiving hundreds of applications. Take some time to browse the jobs and become familiar with various requirements of employers.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Job Hunting

We are known for what we do rather than what we are. This is an unfortunate reality but one has to accept it. Getting a job is not that simple, but before that the most important thing is knowing what sort of job you are capable of doing and want to do.

First up, consider and revise the goals you have set for yourself. If you don't have any then make some. Be sure about what you want to achieve and only then can you pursue it. When considering what type of job you want, think about your weaknesses and strengths and then look for a job that suits you best.

The next step is to make a list of all the companies/organizations that you want to apply to. Having done that, it is time to write and send them your resume. Writing an impressive and honest resume is important. Leave out any information you feel would give them a wrong impression if that is possible and focus on highlighting your achievements and positive aspects of your academic and extra curricular activities.

Do some research on these companies and find out on what basis they tend to hire their employees. Find someone recently employed if possible and inquire about the type of questions they can possibly ask. Prepare yourself for the interview and be confident. If your academic results are not good enough, show them that they do not reflect what you are capable of. Companies usually tend to employ people who are confident, show good management skills and are acute learners, rather than based on their academic records.

When you appear for your interview, keep in mind you are about to become a professional, so start acting like one. Dress properly in a business suit and stay upright. Show them you are confident and that you were made for this job. While expressing your point of view on some question they might ask, hold back your biases for a while and make them hear what they want to hear. If you are asked about your future plans and goals, be realistic when you answer.

The amount of competition in this world keeps growing and getting a job becomes more and more challenging. You might fail in your first few interviews but eventually you will find a good job that suits you. Keep trying, because giving up or accepting defeat will be the beginning of a troublesome and worthless life.

Why Is Your Job Really Stressful?

In my survey conducted few weeks back I realized a very crucial fact pertaining to professional career. A common question Is your job really stressful? was the theme of the survey. What was really uncommon was the result of the survey. I realized that a majority of the survey takers were happy with their job. Every morning was a new challenge to them as far as their jobs were concerned. However this was a positive feedback and contradicts the fact that many people are unhappy with their jobs. So I researched more on this topic. This is what I found out, 90% of the masses are happy with their job but extremely stressed because of many allied factors. Let us see these factors in detail.

Here goes the boss's pet, a phrase used commonly against people that try to be extra friendly to their seniors or bosses. This is mainly done with the motive to get noticed in the eyes of your seniors or bosses. People who are called so cause unavoidable stress to the rest of their colleagues. Their colleagues won't just envy such people but would be worried that their contribution towards the company would be overlooked and decisions could be influenced by that particular person. On the other side of this story would be the fear incurred by such people, of loosing the attention that they got from the seniors. The co-operation level got by their colleague would constantly be reducing. Hatred and anger would be emotions constantly shown towards people with this behavior. This could be considered as one important factor that could cause that person to part ways from the company or cause their colleagues to do so.

Another point that was high up in the list of factors that cause stress in a corporate environment is sabotage the company. This can happen in many different ways, so let us see few incidents on this topic. This is what happened in one case scenario; A senior chef of a hotel got a better job opportunity at another place. He made up his mind and decided to leave. During his notice period at the company, he offered better job opportunities and remunerations to his junior chefs and asked them to quit too. They did the same and joined him at his new work place. All the chefs who left were happy. However this is not the end of the story, here we see that one person so easily sabotaged the entire hotel. This is one concern that keeps bothering many people. They keep living under the fear that if any member of their team quits then how do they manage the rest of the team, so that it doesn't affect the business.

Another cause of the stress element in everyday professional life is competition. In fact competition is one issue that if done over a certain limit could be harmful in any phase of life. This is what I once witnessed; two good friends were employed at the same law firm. They were new and the urge to impress your seniors was obviously. This led to mere competition between the two of them. For every small case they got they was always a tough battle for the poll position. Every case was thoroughly studied, well researched and amazingly presented to their seniors. The seniors were happy with both their performances. However, something that was ignored and later faded was their friendly and their trust in each other. A healthy competition is always a step towards success but over a certain limit it could be very harmful. This competition would make all the competitors stressful. It could cause ill health, mental sickness, employee sabotage or even force an employee to quit their job.

Last but not the least is back stabbing a colleague. This happens in most cases and could cause a lot of stress to the person who is being back stabbed and the person who back stabbed him. The first person may be extremely stressed as he was back stabbed once and would fear to trust any other employee. He might also be forced to quit his job due to bad performance. The back stabber on the other hand will also be stressed because he would fear the fact that someone else could back stab him or else if his colleagues would realize his behavior then they would avoid him and ignore him completely. People generally back stab other friends or colleagues with the intensions of hatred, envy and jealousy.

These were some conclusive factors that the second survey resulted in. One more thing I often see is people often change their jobs because they were offered more pay or a lesser hard working job. Well your work should be spiritual. So work hard and true, there are no short cuts in life. You may try a short cut but soon you will realize that we don't work for the money but we get money because we work.