Atlanta Career Transition Blog

Promoting Yourself Online and in Print in Your Job Search or Business Venture

Gail Geary — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 15:29:03 +0000

There are so many effective ways to promote yourself. Here are a few:

1) Through your own website and linked in. When I first created my website, www.atlantacareertransition.com I was getting little action despite having embedded keywords. My webmaster assured me that this would improve over time. He was right and it blossomed. Jeff Cohan at www.nsiteful.com convinced me to blog and I did. Blogging is effective. Now, if you look up my name, Gail Geary, or my business, Atlanta Career Transition, in Google you will find that my entries are legion. Consider developing your own website and learning how to blog.

In last Sunday’s Atlanta Journal my clients and I were featured in a half page article, “Getting help with your career transition”. This is worth a read at www.ajc.com/business/getting-help-with-your-1153427.html.

Consider how having a website, a wonderful linked in presence, and a blog can contribute to your status as an expert, making you easy to find and to interview.

Should your resume bypass human resources?

Gail Geary — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 19:42:16 +0000

One of my current clients asked if he should bypass posting his resume on line. He had heard that resumes died a slow death in the human resources department. In the meantime he had communicated with the the hiring manager contact.

I advised him to post the resume online and to send it to the hiring manager also. Originally, human resources did the bulk of interview screening, and now they often assist in the hiring process. In my experience many companies such as Home Depot insist that the resumes come into the HR Department first.

Having said this, you are ahead of the game if you also locate the hiring manager and send her/him a separate copy and set up an interview appointment.

What luck have you had using the dual approach? What other suggestions do you have for getting your resume in front of the hiring manager?
What techniques have you used to locate the name of the hiring manager?

How to Answer Tough Interview Questions

Gail Geary — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 15:40:05 +0000

Always answer interview questions from the employers perspective which means in a way that shows you as a positive individual.
For example, in answer to “Tell me your reason for leaving” you may be inclined to say that you were fired because you put people before paperwork.” This answer is dead honest and will kill the interview. However, if you say, ” I found that after 14 years with my company, I needed to re-energize my career, go back to school and seek new opportunities in the healthcare field.” you will receive a positive response from the interviewer.

Leading Edge Job Search Strategies

Gail Geary — Tue, 24 May 2011 13:17:34 +0000

On Friday May the 13th, 2011, I spoke at the Ravinia Club in Atlanta on” Leading Edge Job Search Strategies”. The #1 Job Search Strategy is to be aware of industry employment trends. National employment trends in April as reported on CNN and Indeed reported over 34% plus increases from April of last year in Transporation, Manufacturing, Media, IT, Healthcare, Construction and Accounting. Deeper research revealed that state by state employment trends do not always track with national employment trends. So how do you find the industries in your state that are hiring?

Using Linked In to Land a Job

Gail Geary — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 21:08:12 +0000

One of the best ways to land the job you want in tough economic times is by putting your professional profile on www.linkedin.com. Recruiters and prospective employers use www.linked in for their primary search application. You definitely need your profile to be complete with a complimentary and current photograph and all of your recommendations in place.
I review all of my clients’ profiles for completeness and ” positve written presence”. Also, I recommend that my clients attend a free linkedin seminar in person or online through the website to learn how to locate and leverage their contacts for referrals. And, You can included your linkedin url in your e-mail address.

I am interested in hearing how you have networked using linked in to get into the company of your choice.

Is Entrepreneurship In Your DNA?

Gail Geary — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 15:58:39 +0000

According to Scott Shane, economics professor at Case Western University, entepreneurial characteristics such as higher than average extroversion, openess to experience and even the capacity to be disagreeable(useful in negotiation) are inherited.

In 2010 I have seen half of my clients embrace the entrpreneurial route, after discovering their passion and being disgusted with the current employment marketplace.

From the standpoint of my own family, my brother and I became successful entrepreneurs despite having very conservative, cautious parents. In our case we were rebelling against traditional ways. Maybe there is such a thing as DNA rebellion.

Do you think that entrepreneurs are born or developed? What characteristics have you seen in those successfully self-employed?

The Birkman Career Assessment

Gail Geary — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 19:26:52 +0000

In my experience the Birkman Career Assessment is the most thorough and revealing career assessment for adults. Not only does it ultimately point you to multiple career possibilities, but also provides you with Internet links which provide almost everything you need to know about your career possibilities.

Even if you are not changing careers you will learn your strengths, needs,leadership style, and how to deal with your stress behavior.

When my clients have taken the Birkman Assessment I debrief it for them and rely on its contents to enhance the entire career transition process.

How to Apply for Jobs Where You Appear Overqualified

Gail Geary — Thu, 06 May 2010 18:48:08 +0000

Although you may have created an outstanding executive resume, this resume may not be suitable for a job requiring less experience and less education. So what can you do?

My recommendation is that you create a second resume which is not so overwhelming in terms of titles, accomplishments, and education and is a close match for the job you are applying for. I can see it being one page instead of two. One of my clients and I brainstormed solutions to this problem today and we came up with additional solutions. you may want to try an unconventional type of profile called a CV. It a narrative version of your professional history and is used most often in education and artistic fields. Check this our at www.visualcv.com

How to Comment on Blog Entries

Gail Geary — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 14:40:43 +0000

Your comments are valuable to me! This article tells you how to register with my blog and contribute comments.

Registering

To comment on any blog topic, you must be first be registered. Register by clicking on the “Register” link in the sidebar.

You must first register before commenting on blog entries

Clicking on the “Register” link will lead you to the Registration page.

Enter your desired username and e-mail address

After registering, you will receive an e-mail with your username, a system-generated password, and a direct link to the login page. You can now log in. Click the Remember me box to avoid having to log in every time you come back to the blog.

Once logged in (and, in fact, every time you log in), you will be taken to your Profile page of the blog Dashboard. You may now update your profile as follows:

You can enter your first name and last name, and you can modify the system-generated nickname.
You can modify your e-mail address. You can enter your Web-site address and any screen names for AIM, Yahoo and Jabber/Google Talk.
You can enter Biographical Info; this may appear alongside any comments of yours.
You’ll probably want to change your password to something more memorable. Note that you must enter the new password twice.

Note: Until you actually click on the Update Profile button at the bottom of the page, you will not be able to select anything other than your username in the Display name publicly as box.

Go ahead and click Update Profile. You should now see a small message at the top of the screen saying User update. At this point, you can change the Display name publicly as selection. Do so and click Update profile once more.

Now click on the Visit site link at the top of the page to view the public blog. As long as you stay logged in, you will see a Site Admin link which will always take you back to the blog Dashboard.

Commenting

Now that you are registered, you can add comments or questions to any blog topic for which comments are open. (Some blog entries may be closed to comments, at the discretion of the authors.)

If you are viewing the full content of a blog entry for which comments are open (and are logged in), you should see a box into which you can enter your comments.

If you are viewing an “archives” page, you should see a link which either indicates the number of current comments or the message “No comments”. Click on the link, and you’ll be taken to a new page displaying the full content of the blog entry, any existing comments, and the comment-entry box.

That’s all there is to it!

Thank you,

Gail

How to Locate a Healthy, Hiring Employer

Gail Geary — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 14:10:27 +0000

When you are searching for a new job do your homework. One of the easiest ways to determine if a company is hiring is to go to www.indeed.com. Indeed.com is a website consolidator and brings in the majority of job banks on the Internet.

Next, input the key words (nouns and noun phrases) which describe your position title such as sales, sales management, account executive. Then input your city and state of interest and how far you are willing to travel. Voila! On the left side of the Indeed page you can see how many companies have posted job openings in your salary range and in your areas of interest. Finding these companies will give you an idea of who is hiring and is posting job openings. To find out if a company is healthy go to the company website and look at their financials, if posted. Read recent news articles on the site and google the company for more information.

It is true that this Indeed method will not usually uncover jobs in the hidden (unadvertised) job market. What can you do to uncover other hiring and healthy employers with hidden jobs?

Gail