You know what they say: Image is everything.

You got the degree, the experience, and the motivation to move forward and establish your career.

You hit a home run on the resume and even dazzled prospective employers at the interview. They’re ready to hire you to represent their company.

Then they Google your name and the first picture that pops up is you doing an Ultimate Beer Funnel challenge.

Clearly, despite all of your preparation and experience, you are not ready to be an employee at XYZ, Inc. Or at least that’s what the executive who wanted to hire you thinks now.

Social media has really revolutionized the way we interact with one another and nothing is all that private anymore.

Here are some tips on how to avoid a social media-induced disaster when it comes to landing and sticking to that job you want.

1. Make sure all of your privacy settings are up and updated regularly. This is pretty simple and it can keep some photos of you from being found. It may also be wise to set your settings to where you need to approve a picture’s tag before it appears on your wall or timeline. And check those setting regularly! There have been times when a sites updates have wiped out certain settings you thought you had all along.
2. A good rule of thumb? Don’t post anything you wouldn’t want your parents to see. Think about those disapproving looks parents give when you do something a bit extreme. Now apply that to some of the things you may write online.
3. Assume you can be found even with the best of security settings. I don’t think anyone expects you to live like a saint, but if you’re on the kitchen floor and clearly hanging on for dear life, you’ve gone a bit far.
4. Don’t be afraid to direct employers to the professional networking sites. LinkedIn has become a great resource to show off your professional side. Posting links to things relevant in your field also makes you look knowledgeable beyond the classroom.
5. They notice how you type and they remember it. This goes for how you spell words and how you use those words. Vulgar language is bad. What’s worse is if you misspell said vulgar language. Remember that how you type in the social sphere says how you might use language in public, and as a representative of the company.

Just remember, the things you write online are there for the world to see. Even if you have your privacy settings on total lockdown, just remember that there is someone who can take a screen snap shot and then link your name to that.

For more information, contact Josephine’s Professional Staffing to get more tips on how to deal with social media do’s and don’ts when looking for work.

When you’re in college, your grade point average (GPA) can seem like the one and only measure of your success. But once you graduate, how important is it? Should you put it on your resume? Do employers really care what it was? Can a low GPA ruin your chances of getting hired? The answers may surprise you.

First of all, only new grads really need to worry about these issues. Once you have a few years of professional experience, your undergraduate years diminish in importance.

But when you’re starting out, what are the general rules of thumb?

• Only put your GPA on your resume if it was 3.0 or higher.
• If your total GPA was under 3.0, but the GPA in your major was higher, put THAT on your resume.
• Relevant summer jobs or internships will strengthen your resume more than just your high GPA.

(and remember, employers can ask for copies of your transcripts, so be truthful about your GPA!)

Do Employers Really Care?
The answer to that question is good news for just about everybody. A recent Harris poll conducted on behalf of CareerBuilder asked 3,147 hiring managers and HR professionals, and:

• 62% require no minimum GPA
• 31% require a 3.0 or above
• 11% require a 3.5 or above.

Bottom line: A high GPA is remarkable and should be emphasized on your resume. An average GPA isn’t necessarily bad, it’s just not noteworthy. And since your resume should summarize your most noteworthy accomplishments, leave out your average, if it’s average, and focus on your other qualifications.

The realities of the job market
There are other things that employers find equally, or more important than your grades. Here are 5 real-life skills that employers would like to see on your resume:

1. Time management. Time management is a vital skill, which you will need in your professional life to meet deadlines, tackle to-do lists and get things done without burning yourself out.
2. Relevant professional experience. Hopefully during college you worked at a job or internship, participated in a student organization or volunteered in your field. Relevant, hands-on work in your industry will be a much better indicator for your potential in a real job.
3. The ability to give and receive feedback. As an employee and co-worker, you’ll have to give and receive praise and criticism. You’ll also need to know how to give both positive and negative feedback to others, when you collaborate with colleagues.
4. Writing skills. Too many students leave college lacking solid writing ability. Which is u unfortunate, because it will matter in everything from reports to pitches to emails.
5. Presentation skills. Being able to convey ideas clearly and speak confidently in front of others will be an important part of your professional life.

If you’re still unsure about how your qualifications stack up in the real world, contact Josephine’s Professional Staffing today. We help everyone from new grads to experienced employees find the right position.

Have you ever stopped to consider that you might lose your job in the next layoff or downsizing at your company? Would it be easy to replace you with someone else who can do your job for less money?  If you answered that last question with a definite YES, then you need to think about how to increase your value to your employer. Here are ten tips:

1. Expand your company knowledge. Become the go-to guy for questions and solutions.  Be the one who knows how things work.  In other words, make yourself into an important resource for your fellow employees and even your boss.
2. Expand your personal knowledge. Take classes in anything that will improve your job skills. By rounding out your talents and expanding them, you’ll automatically become a more valuable employee.
3. Be a team player. Promote team unity.  Support your coworkers in any way possible.  In doing so you will become known as someone who can work with anyone. You’ll prove that you’re adaptable and have excellent social skills.
4. Seek out more responsibility. You don’t want to fly under the radar. You want to be on the radar and coming through loud and clear, so ask your supervisor for more responsibilities. Work late, come in early or do whatever it takes to be known as a productive, hard worker.
5. Be a positive force. Don’t be the type of coworker who is always pointing out mistakes or why things won’t work. Be the one who says it can be done, and work hard to ensure it happens.
6. Find ways to increase profits/cut costs. Everything in the business world ultimately comes down to bottom line profitability.  Watch for ways to cut costs or make systems more efficient and present solutions to your superior, complete with a plan. For example, show how to replace copy paper with a less expensive version, or how to schedule warehouse workers more effectively to avoid unnecessary overtime.
7. Be adaptable to change.  Change is inevitable, and those who can roll with it will survive.  Those who complain, cannot or will not adapt, or generally slow the process, will not.
8. Be a problem solver. Every workplace has problems. Be the one who comes up with effective solutions and can put them into action. Problem solvers have inherent value and retention appeal.
9. Mind your manners. You will be well liked and respected by everyone for simply acting respectful to your boss and coworkers.
10. Get cracking. Don’t wait.  Begin increasing your value as a team member, mentor, leader, problem-solver, cheerleader, learned man or money saver immediately!  The sooner you start the quicker your employer will see you as someone they want and need to retain for the long run.

Anytime you need great advice on the job market or help finding a new job, contact Josephine’s Professional Staffing, Inc, a leading staffing provider in Silicon Valley since 1988.

So much job search advice is based on the assumption that all interviewers are exactly the same. But how could that possibly be the case? The interviewer’s personality and interview style both play bigger roles in determining the outcome of an interview than you might think.

Preparing for an interview means more than researching the company and practicing your answers to common questions. You’ll also want to get yourself ready to face any kind of interviewer! Read on to familiarize yourself with some common interviewer archetypes and some effective strategies for dealing with each of them.

What’s going to happen in terms of job searching and employment in 2012?

In short, it’s going to be all about mobile, using social networking sites to job search, and going after a new job if you are unhappy in your current position.

Prediction #1:  You’ll need a strong online identity if you want employment success. Social networking is playing an increasingly important role in the employment process, so it’s important for job seekers to choose which networks they want to participate in and shape their online identities accordingly. 90% of recruiters check social networks before hiring a candidate, which means that your online persona should properly represent you and show that you’re the right person for the job.

Prediction #2: You’re going to want to be mobile. The explosion of mobile usage will continue to grow in 2012, causing a shift in the way people exchange information. With more and more people using smartphones, traditional means of networking like exchanging business cards are almost gone. Instead, people are connecting digitally. 77% of job seekers are already using mobile apps when searching, and this figure will rise in the coming year.

Prediction #3: If you don’t like your current job, you can start looking for another. In recent years, many people took positions that weren’t necessarily ideal, simply because they needed a job. As the economy improves and unemployment rates decrease, more people will look to change jobs that make them happier. Just be sure to make the most of your current job while looking for a new position, since it’s easier to get a job when you have a job.

Prediction #4:  Things will finally start looking up—for everyone. There is cautious optimism that the economy — and the job market — will improve in 2012. The recently released National Employment Report from ADP, a private staffing and business services firm, showed private employers added 206,000 jobs in November 2011. University of Michigan economists are predicting a brighter 2012; according to a recent study, the jobless rate should continue to drop to 8.8 percent by the end of 2012.

And some industries are already seeing growth — so much so that some can’t fill their positions fast enough.

If you’re a job seeker, here are nine occupations that are expected to grow in 2012:

1. Biomedical engineer
2. Computer software engineer
3. Customer service representative
4. Home health aide
5. Management analyst
6. Medical assistant
7. Network systems and data communications analyst
8. Registered nurse
9. Retail salesperson

If you have any questions about the job market or your job search in 2012, don’t hesitate to contact us. We predict great success for you if you do!

Despite the high unemployment rate, college grads can find jobs in this job market — after all, business is still going on. Opportunities do exist, but today’s college graduates may have to take a different approach to accommodate the drastic changes in the job market, like a longer hiring process and greater competition.

Getting a post-college job in this economy requires a new way of thinking about the job search and looking for work. Here are a half dozen ways to get yourself ready and get a job.

1. Organize Yourself If your parents are your main source of job hunt guidance, consider how much job searching conventions have changed significantly in the last decade. Unless your parents have also had to find new employment in the past few years, you’ll want to seek more current advice.
2. Sell Yourself Make sure your resume doesn’t look like a student’s.  Instead of submitting a resume where the first half of the page is taken up by education, notes on coursework, and honors, play up work experience—internships, volunteer work, and so forth. When a hiring manager makes an initial scan of your resume, you want her to see skills and experience she can use, not a list of college courses.
3. Think Broadly Don’t limit your job search into too narrow a slot. If you’re interested in a particular field, think of all the jobs related or even vaguely related to that field. Do a brainstorming session with friends and family, and search the Internet for even more ideas. This might double, triple, even quadruple your job prospects and your internship possibilities — and may even change the way you were thinking about your future career.
4. Act Globally If you can’t find a job in the United States, consider working abroad. First, it shows initiative, a willingness to learn and adaptability and desire for personal growth. It also will give you a breadth of experience and an edge that other grads won’t have. In today’s world of increasingly globalized activities, being cognizant of other cultural differences and proving that you can operate efficiently in them is a major plus. If you have language and managerial skills that go across countries, you can only help those businesses looking to expand markets in other countries, as most businesses are doing today.
5. Be Productive  If you can’t get a paying gig, take an unpaid internship or volunteer. It’s important to show employers that you know how to use time productively. You don’t want to give employers the image of a college grad hanging out at home or doing odd jobs. You should strive to appear to be progressing and challenging yourself at all times, even if it’s not in a conventional position of employment.
6. Get Help  Use your college’s career office. You may think campus resources are only for current students, but many campuses’ career offices cater specifically to grads. Ask them to connect you with alumni who work in the field you’re interested in.

Halloween isn’t just about kids and candy anymore. More employers are embracing holiday parties, including Halloween dress-up events, as a way to promote employee morale, teamwork, and interdepartmental cooperation. However, the costume you’d wear to a friend’s Halloween party or a bash at a bar may be different than what you should wear to the office.

Employers should lay down ground rules beforehand when it comes to costumes, said Michael D. Karpeles, head of the labor and employment group at Goldberg Kohn, a Chicago-based law firm.

“It’s OK to allow people to dress up, but I think that companies should let their employees know that certain types of costumes are not appropriate — if they’re especially revealing, for example,” he said.

How to Choose a Work-Appropriate Costume

Some things to consider when choosing a costume to wear to work are:

• Comfort If you’re going to be wearing it for 8+ hours, you definitely want your costume to be comfortable. Will it be too hot or too cool to wear all day? Can you sit at your desk with the costume on?
• Makeup or Mask? Experiment with makeup beforehand if you’re planning to wear it. Some costume makeup can get irritating after a few hours. If you plan to wear a mask while working, make sure you can see — and breathe!
• Effect Avoid disturbing, horror costumes or those with religious themes that might be offensive to your coworkers. And remember, sexual harassment policies are still in effect at work events.

There’s not much time left ‘til Halloween, so here are a few quick and easy costumes that you can probably create with what you already have on hand. One trip to a costume shop can complete your ensemble if necessary:

• Housewife Wear a nightgown, bathrobe and big slippers, and curlers in your hair while toting a stereotypical item like a box of bon-bons or a dustmop. You can even wear white or green make-up to simulate cold cream or a facial.
• Gypsy or Fortune Teller Wear any flowing skirt, a bright non-matching shirt, a dozen brightly covered bangle bracelets and a scarf or two. Carry a crystal ball or  a magic 8-ball.
• Chef/cook If you’ve got an apron, a mixing bowl and a wooden spoon, just add a wig or a few accessories to become your favorite TV chef.
• Biker A leather jacket, black jeans, boots and a bandana are all that’s really needed for this look. A plaid shirt with the sleeves ripped off and/or a Harley-Davidson T-shirt can add authenticity.

If your workplace is casual and allows for more creativity, you might try:

• Brain Donor: Wear a hospital gown or bathrobe, draw black circles under your eyes and wrap your head in gauze. Fill a clear jar with a small amount of water and some cauliflower. On the front of the jar or the front of your gown put a big label that says “Brain Donor.”

• Nudist on Strike: Probably the easiest costume to put together on short notice. Wear whatever you want and carry a picket sign that says, “Nudist on Strike.”

• Attack Dog Trainer: Take a stuffed dog and sew it to the arm of a long-sleeved shirt so it looks like it is biting you. Wear a name tag (“Jim’s Attack Dog School). Add fake blood for fun!

• Chick Magnet: Attach Barbie dolls or other inexpensive dolls (dressed, please!) all over yourself.

Group costumes can be a fun way to bring a department together. Try getting everyone to dress as characters from a popular TV show, like Mad Men, or movie, like Harry Potter. If your usual dress code is business casual, it might be fun to dress in dark suits and accessorize with sunglasses, a la the Blues Brothers or the Men in Black, or add badges or earpieces to be FBI or Secret Service agents.

There’s a reason movies like Horrible Bosses get made: just about everyone can relate! Most people at some point in their lives have had a difficult boss. Maybe it was a personality clash, maybe you felt like they had it out for you, or maybe they just didn’t respect you or your hard work.

Survey after survey has shown that the number one reason employees leave a company is because of a bad boss. But maybe quitting isn’t an option, or your job is great otherwise. Here are 6 ways to deal with a difficult boss.

1. Work Hard: First and foremost, continue to work hard and be on time. If you and your boss have an uneasy relationship, you don’t want to give him any ammunition against you. Furthermore, try and schedule a time to sit down with your boss and go over the specifics of what he expects from you. Leave no room for misunderstandings when it comes to your responsibilities. Once you have the list, document it, and then follow it to the letter.
2. Document Your Boss’ Behavior: Try your hardest to get along, but document everything that happens that you feel is troublesome. Keep a journal (but keep it at home!) of questionable situations that have transpired between you and your boss, complete with dates, times and full descriptions. Also keep a file with any supporting documentation, memos, emails, etc. Why? When you’re ready to take action, or if your boss tries to fire you, you will have documented, detailed proof of her mistreatment of you to present to HR or a lawyer, if necessary.
3. Document Your Work: Do you often have to stay late at work without collecting overtime? Have you taken the lead on a project that wasn’t in your job description? Made a sale that brought in a sizable check to the company? Make sure to write down all such achievements, including any positive overall effect your work had on the company. Why? If your boss tries to terminate you, you will be able to show that you’re a valuable and competent employee. This will help you make your case if your boss attempts to fire you for being “incompetent”, “not doing your job”, or a host of other reasons, when you know it’s simply personal.
4. Hold Your Tongue: If your boss says something that upsets you, don’t respond in anger – even if she was completely rude or out of line. Your boss may be trying to trap you into saying something she can terminate you for, or use it as documentation that you don’t work well with the team. Furthermore, if the matter is brought before a higher-up, it will be obvious who is the problem. Also, be careful with whom you share your issues within the office. It’s best to keep these matters to yourself.
5. Only Confront with Evidence: If and when you’re finally ready to say something to your boss, be nonconfrontational and try your best not to make it personal. Use specific examples of situations you’ve documented to bolster your position and ask for tangible changes that will help you feel more respected and appreciated. Don’t go to his manager until you’ve tried talking to your boss and had no success; only go up the chain of command as a last resort. If you do, talk about the specific issues you have (not your boss’ personality), come with evidence and try to stay as positive as possible.
6. Always Have a Plan B: Most people are nervous about confronting their bosses because they fear blowback or getting fired. Before you talk to your boss, have a plan B in case things don’t work out: the best alternative would probably be a job offer from another employer. By not having a back-up plan, you have given your boss leverage over you because he’ll know you have nowhere else to go. Having a plan B empowers you with the ability to walk away at any time should the negotiation not go right.

As the saying goes, you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression, and your resume is usually the first impression you give a potential employer. So make sure you’re not making these common mistakes on yours.

1. Attempting One Size Fits All
Employers want you to write a resume specifically for them. They expect you to clearly show how and why you fit the position in a specific organization. An effective resume leaves no doubt as to the job seeker’s career objective, while a one-size-fits-all resume gives the impression that the job seeker has no specific career goals. If you have more than one career objective, you need more than one resume.

2. Highlighting Duties Instead of Accomplishments
Your resume shouldn’t just be a listing of your past job duties. You need to include quantifiable statements so that employers understand what you’ve truly accomplished. For example, instead of saying:

• Attended group meetings and recorded minutes
• Worked with children in a day-care setting
• Updated departmental files

Say:
• Used laptop to record weekly meeting minutes and compiled them in a Microsoft Word-based file for organization’s future reference
• Developed three daily activities for preschool-age children and prepared them for a 10-minute holiday program performance
• Reorganized 10 years worth of files, to make them accessible to department members.

3. Neglecting to Sell Yourself
Job seekers need to remember that a job search is a sales campaign. Your resume is marketing material so make it effective by showing how you can solve problems, save money or increase profits.

4. Going Old School
These days, you need to remember that resumes are screened by both humans and computers. If your resume lacks the keywords that the screeners are looking for, you run the risk of it being tossed aside. The average resume screen takes 15 seconds or less and will look for the same words found in the job description. A keyword-focused resume will put you front and center.

5. Coming Across as Careless or Lazy
Make sure your resume doesn’t contain typos or grammatical errors. If it does, employers will assume you can’t write or don’t care. Speaking of writing, make sure your language is strong. Instead of using wimpy, passive phrases like “responsible for providing IT support,” use action verbs: “Resolved user questions as part of an IT help desk serving 4,000 students and staff.”

About 2 million people are employed in government jobs, making the federal government America’s largest employer. And you don’t have to live in Washington, D.C. to be a government employee. Only 10% of that 2 million are located in Washington, while the rest work throughout the United States and overseas. Government employees are hired in just about every career field and in a wide variety of occupations.

While government salaries aren’t always comparable to private sector on the lower levels, the benefits and pension plans are excellent. So is the job stability.

Finding a government job can take time: the period from initial application to job offer can be four months to a year. But if you’re willing to invest the time, a government job can offer long-term rewards. Here’s how to compete for one:

Know Where to Look

All federal agencies are required to list all openings publicly. The best place to start looking for a government job is on the USAJobs web site, where you can search for jobs in various locations, build a resume online and sign up to receive job postings via email.

However, not all federal agencies use that site, so if you know you want to work at a specific government agency or department, look at that agency’s web site for further career information.

Network

To find out about new government positions on the federal and local level, join professional networking groups. Just like in the private sector, there are professional associations for government workers in just about every discipline, and most of them collect job openings in the relevant field.

No matter how many years since you’ve graduated, you should also check with your alma mater’s career services department, since many colleges and universities maintain good relationships with certain government departments and agencies in an ongoing partnership.

If you have specialized technical or professional skills, you may be able to speed up your search by finding recruiters who have contracts to fill government jobs.

Know the Scoring System

You only have to file one application for a government job, but that application has to do two things: get you past the lower-level screeners or computers that are making sure you meet minimum requirements and impress the hiring managers who will eventually be evaluating your application.

Make sure your resume includes as many of the exact keywords as possible from the requirements in the job listing itself. Most applications for federal jobs are rated on a scale from 1 to 100, and more matches will get you a higher score and increase your chances of making it to the next level. You will also get points for military service, disabled status and volunteer work related to the position, if you use the right keywords to describe it.

To impress hiring managers, don’t just list responsibilities: cite and quantify results you achieved in past positions. Don’t worry too much about taking up too much space. Resumes for federal jobs typically average three to five pages.

Ace the Interview

Government interviews are quite different from what you’re probably used to when applying for a corporate job. It’s likely to be a panel interview with two or more questioners interviewing you at the same time. Also, the interview will likely be focused much more on what you’ve done in the past than anything you hope or plan to do in the future.

Interview questions will focus on your ability to meet the requirements mentioned in the job posting. The government wants proof of your abilities, so create a list of relevant anecdotes and practice discussing them in a clear and confident way. Their theory is that the best predictor of the future is past performance.