HR Articles

Diversity on Paper

By Melissa Uhniat, CareerTV

It’s a no-brainer that employers are looking for diverse-minded candidates.  Since your resume is your first impression to an employer, showing diversity can only up your chances of getting an interview. If your resume is lacking diversity, Assistant Director of Rowan University’s Career & Academic Planning Center Ruben Britt advises college students and young professionals to start with bullet points.

Summary of Qualifications

Britt advises job seekers to create a new section toward the top of the resume to best demonstrate diversity on a resume. Title the section Summary of Qualifications, Britt says, and list a variety of your skills in brief bullet points.

“After the job objective line, create a summary of qualifications which is basically a sales pitch and it highlights skills and capabilities,” he said.    “You can say you possess organizational skills, experience in working with individuals with various cultures, computer literate in Microsoft Office, fluent in Spanish”.

List up to eight bullet points in the Summary of Qualifications section that hit the reader with key attributes about yourself as well as your experience.

Fluency in another language should be listed as the third or fourth bullet point in your summary.

“If you can speak another language that is a plus, and you can let employer know that you have experience and knowledge of another culture,” said Britt.

Diversity in Waiting Tables?

If your diverse qualifications max out at three or four bullet points, Britt encourages candidates to continue expressing diversity in their work experience from after school jobs or internships.

“Internships or even jobs where you have the opportunity to work around a lot of people or had the opportunity to interact with a lot of people, they can use it.  Even if you work in a restaurant, you are interacting with people from all different backgrounds.”

Sign up for diverse skills

You’ve listed all your qualifications, skills and experience, but still coming up short as a diverse candidate. Britt encourages applicants to get involved in diversity activities to add to your resume.

“I would look at maybe encouraging field experience or getting involved in volunteer work, work in a homeless shelter or some community organization where they can show they are involved in diversity”.

See the video of this article at Diversity on Paper and get more career help and employer videos at www.careertv.com where you’ll find the largest collection of career videos online.

Copyright 2008 CareerTV, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Traveling Nurse Job Opportunities

In area’s where the population often fluctuates, such as tourist towns, medical facilities often themselves understaffed and overworked. Hiring more full-time nurses is not an option since when vacationers return home the new staff members would no longer be necessary. Instead of having to constantly hire and fire, increasing turn over rate and job instability, many hospitals and other care providers have begun to rely on agencies that connect them with traveling nurses.

This healthcare job requires a lot of flexibility but many find it extremely rewarding. These individuals take assignments at various cities throughout the United states and fill in temporary nursing positions. The term of these assignments can be anywhere from 4 weeks to a year, but on average last approximately 13 to 26 weeks. Since this and other similar health care jobs require a good amount of time away from one’s hometown, they are not for everyone.

Those who enjoy the idea of  being able to work in a variety of healthcare facilities and do not mind frequently changing employers would most likely be satisfied with this type of arrangement and the flexibility it will afford them. For example a nurse may spend  two months working in a nursing home with the elderly only to have the next assignment require them work at a kid’s summer camp. Because of this those who are still unsure about what kind of healthcare setting they would enjoy working in may also benefit from spending sometime working as a travel nurse.

Since these jobs in healthcare require the nurse to constantly move it is necessary to be licensed to practice in multiple states. A good travel nurse agency will be willing to help those who are interested in this type of work with obtaining the needed licensure. Assignments are often given months in advance so that plenty of time to prepare is given, but if the need of a nurse is unexpected then as little as two weeks notice of the opening may be given. In most cases, nurses are required to have at least one year of hospital experience before being allowed to take on this kind of working arrangement, but this may vary from place to place.

Nurse who work this sort of healthcare job are also some of the best paid in the country. Usually the pay for an assignment ranges anywhere from $21 to $48 and hour, depending on the area and the individuals level of experience. On top of wages, travel nurses also often get a variety of bonuses and some assignments include free or reduced housing. There are even opportunities available for nurses to work on cruise ships.

With many reports saying that the national nursing shortage will soon reach a critical level, opportunities for this healthcare job will mostly likely increase. Many facilities may soon turn travel nurses to fill positions until they can locate more permanent employees.

SharePoint Jobs

Organizations are constantly seeking ways to improve their organizational effectiveness and improve the information-sharing processes throughout all levels of the business. With the emphasis on shared business processes and more effective content management, SharePoint jobs are in higher demand than ever.

SharePoint is an incredible tool that allows businesses to better connect and communicate with its people and streamline and improve business processes. It is the answer to information-sharing for both small and large organizations and SharePoint jobs are highly sought after positions.

When organizations share more information and data, and connect their people through the ease and sophistication of technology, they are able to make better decisions. SharePoint allows them to work together more effectively and creates information-sharing portals that create a network of intelligence sharing and collaboration.

SharePoint jobs create the opportunity for individuals to creatively design processes and programs to facilitate this information sharing most effectively. By optimizing the services available through SharePoint, you can bring clarity to an organization’s processes and help facilitate the decision-making processes.

A SharePoint job is a great way to increase your value to an organization and position yourself as an expert in the field of content and data management. Creating workflows and electronic forms through SharePoint to improve the flow of information throughout a massive organization is just one of the many jobs to help streamline the communications.

Utilizing your SharePoint expertise enables you to equip an organization’s team members with multiple sites to create and manage their content. Whether you’re in a SharePoint job to create the sites, work processes, and data flows, or to review and make decisions based on the content provided on the site, you’ll find that this is a tool your business can’t grow without.

Las Vegas Employment Landscape

As the housing market continues it’s downward spiral, the areas of employment effected increase. Last year saw the closing of several financial institutes that dealt with home loans and decrease in profit for manufactures who make building materials. Now 30 Las Vegas jobs at the area’s City Hall will be cut due to the drop in construction of new homes. 

According to Manager Doug Selby and Finance Director Mark Vincent blamed the Las Vegas job cuts on the 36 percent decrease in building permit revenue experienced over the last two years. This has lead to a budget in imbalance. At this point operating costs current exceed revenues by $5.7 million. In order to try to level the scales somewhat, an unspecified number of other Las Vegas jobs, those held by hourly employees at City Hall, will also be cut. In addition to this, the area will also be closing certain senior centers and city operated pools on Sundays.

The decided upon 30 jobs in Las Vegas that will be cut as of April 12th will mostly effect area inspectors. This will save the city approximately $4.2 million. According to Vincent, the expenses of this department will still exceed revenues by about $2 million a year. These layoffs will result in the Building Department having a staff of around 100 employees. 

Las Vegas housing inspector jobs are paid for through the fees collected on new building permits. According to recent data, the fund that pays for these positions will have fallen from roughly $19 million in 2007 to $3.5 million in fiscal 2008.

Boston Offers a Warm Welcome

Just think of Boston and you may shiver with cold. But don’t move too fast. Boston boasts a warm, inviting community of people with a strong sense of pride. Boston ranks as the largest city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Boston is a bustling capital city with a healthy economy, complemented by a wide range of cultural arts venues. Living and working in Boston are rewarded by the close proximity to the white beaches of Cape Cod, and the picturesque views of the nearby mountainscapes.

Boston’s allure draws a huge number of tourists annually – many of whom eventually end up looking at available Boston jobs to make it their home. Maybe it’s the diversity of the workforce, or maybe it’s the city’s reputation for healthy and sustained economic growth – whatever it is, Boston is a great place to visit, work and live.

Boston jobs are available in a variety of occupations. The presence of major colleges and universities, and highly-esteemed healthcare institutions, creates valuable and plentiful job opportunities for educational professionals and healthcare workers.

Boston continually seeks to identify, attract, and create new business opportunities and growth for the city. With their commitment and dedication to new economic growth, Boston jobs are bound to continue on an upward spiral.

Link In with LinkedIn

Finding job via the internet has changed the way we search and apply for jobs. Online technology makes it easier and faster to find jobs in most every industry today, but it is important to know a few tricks to apply when you search for a job using the internet.

LinkedIn is one way to quickly search and evaluate potential jobs in your area of interest. Through LinkedIn, you can automatically identify and pull job postings that meet your specific skills and experience. Uploading your profile and leveraging your experience in past and present jobs enables this site to work for you automatically!

When searching for job listings using LinkedIn, job postings are very similar to newspaper ads and internet ad postings. You can click on the link that interests you and you’ll receive a full description of the job, requirements, desired skills, and other information. Searching for a job with the company of your choice is also easy using this site.

Optimizing the use of LinkedIn will make your job search via the internet more productive. Keep your profile updated regularly and add any additional skills, job descriptions, or other information to enhance your profile. And always take advantage of the recommendations section since potential employers can learn more about you and are more likely to contact you when you have several good, high quality, professional recommendations!

When you search for a job via the internet, utilize all of the tools and technology available to you. Taking time today to create a compelling profile, and keeping it updated and current, will increase your chances of finding a rewarding and successful career in the future.

Searching For Jobs Online

The internet has made many things happen, both good and bad. Although keeping informed and in touch is now easier than even, the web has made personal privacy more difficult than ever to keep in tack. Getting a membership with any website involves having to give out some personal information, such as one’s name or general location, but searching for jobs online often requires much more. Because of this, it is important to do all that one can to safe-guard their identity.

For starters, those searching for jobs online should never sign up for websites that do not have a privacy policy posted. Although it is so easy to ignore legal information like this, it is in one’s best interest to read this policy. Don’t sign up for sites that do not list the amount of time a posted resume will remain in public view. Many companies frown down upon their workers’ resumes being passed around, due to the fact that this make it look like their employees are looking for new jobs. If a privacy statement doesn’t mention the amount of time that resumes will remain viewable then they can legally archive then for as long as they want, which can cause problems if one’s current employer stumbles upon it

For similar reason, it is important to only use sites that give their members the ability to delete the resumes they post. This also makes it easier to guarantee that the information circulating about one’s self is up to date. No one wants employers to be viewing a resume that is several years old, has typos, or is missing important work experience.

When searching for jobs online it may seem like a good idea to post a resume with as many sites as possible, but it isn’t. Since, many sites sell information to third parties it is best to stick to only one or two web pages with good privacy policies. Also, make sure that the sites chosen allow personal contact information to be hidden.

If a site does not have this option, then one can do so themselves by creating a new e-mail account to be used solely for the purpose of  search for jobs online. This way the e-mail address can be deleted later on, if the user begins to receive spam, without losing important contact information.

Another good idea when searching for jobs online is to omit references contact information on posted resumes. This is only courteous since no one should have their personal number or address posted in a public forum without their permission.

Remember, some legitimate sites will require a user’s social security number, such as USAjobs.com and the personal hiring pages of many individual companies. Nevertheless, do not give such information unless aware of the site or company’s reputation. Also, keep in mind this maybe used to conduct a criminal background check on the site’s users.

Executive Job Video

Checkout a cool company called Risesmart.

Technology Jobs in Minneapolis

For years, Minneapolis has provided numerous jobs in computer related fields due to the fact that the area has one of the largest concentration of high-technology firms in America. With over 1,300 of these businesses in Twin Cities, there has been a regular demand for individuals trained in this area.

One of the reasons such firms seem to be particularly partial to the area is the area is the fact that the local population is one of the most educated in the nation. Between tax money supported learning programs and the presences of both of the University of Minnesota and several technological institutes there is a constant supply of well trained individuals to fill Minneapolis jobs in the IT field.

Recently Robert Half Technology conducted a survey of the Minneapolis-St. Paul area's chief information officers to determine the hiring intentions of these companies for the fourth quarter of 2007 and found that a net of 8 percent plan to increase their current staff of information technology professionals. All companies polled currently have 100 or more employees and 200 different CIOs participated in the survey.

The results can be broken down to show that 10 percent of those polled planned to be creating new Minneapolis IT jobs in the latter part of this year. With 2 percent of companies planning a decrease in the number of such professionals in their staff, the net results reflect a modest gain in Minneapolis jobs. The largest portion, 87 percent, foresaw no change in their current hiring trends.

Katherine Spencer Lee, the executive director of Robert Half Technology, said that the results of the survey showed that “hiring plans appear to be more conservative.” She went on to say that the “demand for IT professionals remains strong overall, particularly for individuals in hot specialty areas such as web development and network administration.”

The fourth quarter results showed a one point decrease in recruiting intentions for the IT field in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area from the previous quarter. Although there is a slight decrease in number of jobs that companies plan to create, the field continues to steadily increase the number of Minneapolis jobs it provides.

Intership 411

There is no arguing the fact that internships assist students with little work history once they've graduated. That being said, finding time between a job and school to do the extra work can be difficult. Without effective time management one will end up letting the ball drop in one area. Since the experience isn't worth having to take advanced calculus for a second time, one should consider several things before deciding on an internship.

Taking on an internship during a difficult semester may not be the best decision. One should consider what their course load looks like when they are considering an internship. If at all possible, registering for less difficult classes is a good idea during the semester that one is planning on basically working two jobs. A semester where one is able to take mainly electives or the  physical education classes that most colleges require to graduate is the best time for one to take on an internship. 

Unless one is lucky enough to have parents who are willing to pay the bills, then one's financial situation will play a big part. In situations like this, a paid internship is the best option if one is available. Although most of these internship programs do not offer enough money to cover all of one's expenses, being paid for the work one does is often more satisfying than spending a semester with a company for no pay.

Many colleges offer stipends for working for the university newspaper or assisting the financial aid office. By working on campus one can also cut down on the expenses of commuting. Another good thing about taking an internship with the college one is attending is the fact that those in charge are usually very understanding about school related obligations.

Other programs offer college credit for the work a student does. These internships enable one to pad their resume and gather useful work experience without effecting one's ability to be considered a full-time student.

For those who not adverse to graduating a semester later, enrolling part-time is certainly a good idea if one is worried about having enough time to study. As long as one is still taking approximately six credit hours one's student loans are usually not effected and one is still able to get grants such as the Pell. 

One could also consider taking a semester off if they plan to participate in a long term internship. These programs often last around eleven weeks and give students more time to develop and show off their talents. If one is thinking about this option and does receive financial aid, then it is important to speak with the campus financial aid department. Many lenders allow a student to take six months off from school before calling in a loan. The financial aid department at one's school will have more information on this subject.