Job Seeking? Expand your (Geographic) Horizons

Cool article about Jeanne Guerin, who just landed a great job in her field...

Instead of just applying to local companies, she broadened her search, hoping that a remote company might consider a work-from-home arrangement... and voila! She got it.

Congratulations to Jeanne! She was featured on CNNMoney.com about how she did it-

http://money.cnn.com/2010/02/18/news/economy/hired_telecommute/index.htm

Kathy Robinson
www.turningpointboston.com

New Boston Career Events Link

To those of you who were using MarksGuide to find career-related networking events... here's a substitute now that MarksGuide seems to have gone away.

http://www.bostoneventslist.com

Kathy

www.turningpointboston.com

Cover Letters: Necessary or Not?

Here's an unscientific but VERY interesting poll of Boston area recruiters on the topic of cover letters... this was collected and compiled by Lanning Levine, a local human resources executive and consultant. (The entire summary below is his, as well.) Thought I'd pass along...

Cover Letter Poll

I hope you all agree with me that these are very interesting results:

1.Do recruiters read resumes? 40% said YES, 20% said NO, 25% said sometimes, 10% said they skim, and 5% did not comment
2.Do hiring managers read cover letters? 40% said YES, 50 said NO, 5% said yes, and 5% did not comment
3.Which do you read/look at first? 75% said they read the resume first , 25% said they read the cover letter first
4.Do you tear off and throw away the cover letter? 90% said NO, 10 % YES

The results are interesting. I found them very insightful. Most of all, that we are a group of very respectful professionals.

Even if we do not read or pass the cover letter on, 90% of us keep the cover letter with the resume.
Most read or skim the resume first. For this who did not read the cover letter first, most commented that if the resume gave interest, they went back and read the cover letter and very carefully with intent.
It seems be a draw on whether the managers read them or not.

5. Are there specific jobs (not fields) where the cover letter does or does not matter.
For those who commented, the comments are consistent, as follows.
If the role or function requires communication, having the cover letter, and a good one, not only matters, it is a MUST HAVE for the door to open. Quality determines if it is a deal maker or deal breaker.
As a rule, for techie jobs, non-management jobs, non-exempt jobs, a brief good cover letter neither help nor hurt the applicant.

In short, it seems that even in the technology filled new millennium, resumes are generally read first, but cover letters do matter, for those who are looking for them. Seems it cannot hurt to send it.

Thanks, Lanning, for digging into this topic!

Kathy Robinson
Career Coach/Business Consultant
TurningPoint
www.turningpointboston.com

"Follow" Group Members on LinkedIn w/o a Connection

TIP: Now You Can "Follow" Members of Groups You're In

New Following Enhancement:

LinkedIn literally just introduced Following across shared groups to make it easier for you to see contributions made by your connections and other valued users.

By default, you are following your connections and they are following you.

To follow a non-connection, simply click the link by their name in a discussion or on the Members page.

Updates from the people you’re following will appear at the top right of your My Groups page, the top right of the group Overview page, and in your weekly LinkedIn Updates email.

If you follow someone, you are following them in all groups you share with them.

Enjoy!


Kathy

Keyword Use on Resumes: Quoted in The Ladders

Hi,

Check out this Ladders Article... I weighed in on steps about how to integrate keywords into your resume.

http://finance.theladders.com/career-advice/Tuning-Your-Resume-to-Right-Keywords

Kathy
www.turningpointboston.com

CBS Appearance: How Not to Act Old

Whether you're job searching or waiting in line at the Beehive downtown :-), here's one reporter and author's take on being hip. My short piece in this is about how to be perceived as hip around the job search process... and thanks to Denny Baylor, a great Business Analyst/ Project Manager/ QA Expert who plays a short cameo.

http://wbztv.com/video/?id=82912@wbz.dayport.com

Enjoy!

Kathy

CNN Money Interview: Switching into Healthcare

Considering a switch into healthcare or another industry? Here's one woman's story on how she did it:

http://www.fortunesmallbusiness.com/2009/10/30/news/economy/hired_healthcare/index.htm



Any other success stories you've heard of recently? What kinds of successful switches have you seen people make in this economy?

Kathy